DeKALB | The Student Association Senate allocated $100,000 to the Campus Recreation Center to update and purchase equipment during its final meeting of the academic year Sunday night.

The money is coming from the Student Association’s General Reserve Fund, said Austin Quick, speaker of the Senate. The SA had about $500,000 in the reserve fund.

Quick said NIU isn’t in a place financially to help the Rec Center, so the Senate should.

“We need to make the university more marketable,” Quick said. “One way to do that is to upgrade the Rec’s facilities.”

Quick said he believed this the first time the Senate has allocated money to the Rec Center with the sole purpose to purchase new equipment.

According to the bill, the Senate must approve all purchases by the Rec Center before they are bought. Quick said they were running out of time to get an exact list of what equipment the Rec would buy.

“That’s why we will approve anything they want to buy,” Quick said. 

Quick said he talked with Rec Center Director Sandi Carlisle briefly to see what the center needs. He said Carlisle told him the treadmills can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000.

The Senate also a approved a resolution to support an Illinois House bill that would implement a three year pilot program to make medical marijuana available to individuals with one of 39 debilitating diseases. Sen. Nik Champion wrote the bill and spoke to the Senate about his father’s struggle with multiple sclerosis.

Champion said his father takes methadone for the illness but that the medicine causes him to lose his appetite.

“As to why students should care about this issue, I’m a student,” Champion said. “I’m sure there are other students out there with similar stories.”

Champion said Illinois’ program is a lot more restrictive than California’s program because in order to get a card you have to have one of the debilitating diseases outlined in the bill.

Sen. Mike Theodore said the Senate should consider supporting more bills that are in the Illinois General Assembly.

“I think it sets a really good precedent of being the voice of a student body,” Theodore said.

Sen. Brian Troutman voiced his concern for the resolution because he had not read the text of the Illinois bill.

“You know the expression ‘never sign anything you don’t read’ and I’d go with ‘don’t vote on anything you haven’t read,’ so that would be my only hesitation,” Troutman said.

The Senate also recognized new 13 student organizations. Awards were handed out to the current executive board including President Erik Calmeyer, Jaemin Robertson, current vice president and incoming student trustee, Treasurer Jeremy Sanchez and Student Trustee Robert Sorsby. Theodore won the distinguished senator award.