The newly passed Student Government budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year includes $50,000 in funding for a new committee that will handle travel bills for student organizations.
The Special Conference and Travel Committee will handle all travel bills for registered student organizations. The committee is similar to one that has been implemented at the University of Florida.
Appropriations chair Thieldens Elneus addressed confusion about the committee at the introduction of the bill. Requests will go to the committee, then to the SG President and Treasurer and then to a budget assistant.
The $3,710,629 budget passed unanimously and includes an amendment for an $11,071 cut in Eagle News funding, which was proposed by Sen. Jared Heidt.
“For the most part this is a fantastic budget … except for Eagle News,” Heidt said. “Eighteen cents per credit hour is extremely high, and this number has not been examined in years. This money could go to organizations that seek to better themselves and everyone around us.”
At a recent SG-sponsored bowling event, a poll was conducted with 63 students. According to senators, 60 percent of those students said they would like to see EN go paperless.
SG Legislative chair Charles Duffie claims these 63 students are a representative sample of students.
“The majority of students showed they want to see a paperless Eagle News,” Duffie said. “We should listen to the students’ voice … print less and have more available online options.”
Some senators suggested EN get a website — even though EN has had a website since 2006, along with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Sen. Elneus warned senators not to cut funding without considering the students.
“You don’t know the value of something until you lose it,” Elneus said. “Not everyone at this university reads the newspaper because they’re not interested in that, but there is a demographic that does.”
Pro Tempore Jessica Scanlon read the itemized budget for EN  aloud, but several senators still expressed confusion about where EN funding goes.
When a five-minute recess was taken in the SG meeting so senators could speak to any of the three members of EN who were in attendance and ask any questions they have, 4 of the 25 senators used that time to ask questions. The amendment to cut EN funding passed 17 to 7.