The Student Association allocated $1,100 in supplemental funding to itself by a unanimous vote Sunday night.

Speaker Robert Batey said the funding was necessary to increase the students’ knowledge about SA activities.

“This money would go directly to promotional items,” Batey said, adding that the SA had run of out promotional items last semester.

Batey noted that a lot of student organizations and services on campus are connected to the SA in some way.

“Coming to us is a gateway for all of them,” Batey said. “If we make sure they are aware of what we do, I believe we can do a better job for the students.”

Promotional items include T-shirts, which were distributed to nearly all of the SA senators at the meeting. Batey said that $501 from the $1,100 would pay for the shirts.

The senate also made preparations for upcoming SA executive elections on March 26 and 27. The senate approved Sarah Roman as the SA Election Commissioner; Roman held the same position last semester. Senators Jaclyn Curtis, Patrick Frierson, Patrick Raji, Robert Sorsby and Matt Venaas were approved as members of the Board of Elections. Frierson was then appointed as chair of the board.

According to the SA bylaws regarding election policy, the Board of Elections has the power to issue sanctions to executive candidates and their supporters, as well as the ability to disqualify a candidate. In addition, none of the members of the board nor the commissioner can endorse a candidate.

The SA Senate meeting was also marked by the State of the Student Government Address by SA President Jarvis Purnell. In his speech, Purnell addressed the difficulty of approving the budgets of all student organizations, a process that will be undertaken later in the year.

“There will have to be some tough decisions made,” Purnell said. “Generally, the requests from organizations exceed the amount we have to allocate.”

Student organizations and services have requested a total of $2.3 million, guaranteeing the SA cannot adequately fund every organization, the Northern Star reported Feb. 8.

Junior economics major Nazim Jamal was appointed as an SA senator, junior biology major Natasha Thomas was appointed director of organizational development and former SA senator Tiffany Smith was appointed director of public affairs.