Student Association senators unaninmously recommended students vote “yes” for the Illinois Student Association in a referendum coming this Thursday.

Without discussion, the senate voted on a recommendation saying the “ISA works to ensure that the student interest is considered as higher education policy is made and (it) involves students at all levels of the policy process.”

The recommendation was made at the tail-end of a five-hour senate meeting Sunday where six student budgets were approved.

The longest budget debate during the meeting was about giving the Office of Campus Recreation, which offers outdoor trips and runs the rec center, an extra $6,919 to the $92,201 already recommended by the SA Finance Committee.

Senators argued for about an hour whether the SA could afford giving the extra money for trips to the Grand Canyon and kayaking trips.

Without the money, those trips might have to be cancelled or students would have to pay more money to go on the trips, OCR officials said.

But many SA senators were not willing to give the extra support.

“We just cannot afford these types of increases. The money is not there,” said Sen. Keith Smith, who also is a finance committee member.

Sen. Richard Parkman agreed.

“Students want programming but they want it for free. It does not work that way,” Parkman said. “I thought we were supposed to fight extra student fees.”

But other senators wanted to give extra money for recreation because students have shown they use the rec center and go on the outdoor trips.

In the end, the senate gave $4,919 of the extra $6,919 requested by the OCR to go along with its regular budget.

In other financial business, the senate approved the following budgets:

Students’ Legal Assistance: requested, $115,775; approved, $110,361.72

Irish Student Union: requested, $411.30; approved, $101.60

SISTERS: requested, $296.60; approved, $203.00

BROTHERS: requested, $2,722.10; approved, $924.90

SA: requested, $86,011.24; approved, $85,367.04