The Student Association Senate approved $2,000 in supplemental funding for programming at Northern View Community Sunday.

There was debate over how much money to approve. The SA finance committee had reduced the Residence Hall Association’s original request of $5,000 to $1,400, but Senator Jason Looney motioned to add $600 to the $1,400.

The vote for the amendment ended in a tie, prompting Speaker Robert Batey to give the tie-breaking vote for the additional $600. Batey stated to the senate that his neutrality as speaker on this issue was compromised.

“As speaker, I’m going to make this completely unbiased as I possibly I can,” Batey said to the senate. “I am currently dating the president of the Residence Hall Association, Sarah Roman, so I’m going to make everyone available to that before I make this vote.”

Roman described the apartment complex’s progress as phases consisting of “crawl, walk, run.”

“Right now, they’re in the walk stage, where they have programs planned out where they would like to put on,” Roman said. “The only thing Northern View Community council needs right now to get into that run stage and really get going and make a difference in that community is the support of the Student Association.”

SA treasurer Ricky Garcia disapproved of the measure, saying that while Northern View Community has been struggling, money alone will not solve the issue.

“As far as acknowledging the problems, we can’t just throw money at the situation,” Garcia said, adding that many other student organizations are struggling financially. Garcia also mentioned that the amount of supplemental funding that has been approved and requested has totaled 58 percent of the year’s budget.

In addition, Garcia said that, when broken down per person, residents in the Northern View Community will receive more money in programming than students living in the residence halls.

Allocating the funds

Last year, the RHA had received $1,500 from the SA for programming for the estimated 6,000 students living in the residence halls. Roman said that about 145 students live at the apartment complex, along with 37 children, 14 parents and five staff members.

“That left about a quarter per person for actual programming for this year,” Garcia said, calculating that, even with the finance committee’s recommendation of $1,400, residents of Northern View receive $7 per person.

However, Sen. Cameron Harmon, a former RHA executive, said that Housing and Dining normally funds the RHA, and that the hall council of every residence hall gets $4,000.

“Northern View has to get the budget from the SA,” Harmon said. “We can afford it.”

At a previous senate meeting, Roman said that Housing and Dining cannot supplement Northern View Community with additional funding because it was built by an outside contractor.

Delta Upsilon back on campus

In other business, the SA senate recognized the Greek fraternity Delta Upsilon.

Freshman chemistry major Adam Todd said the fraternity already has 16 members, and that a chapter had previously existed at NIU.

According to a July 23, 2002 Northern Star article, the chapter was dismissed by the University and Programming Activities Board in July 2000. On May 8, 2000, four NIU students connected with Delta Upsilon were arrested for drug possession, leading to the organization’s dismissal from the university.

The senate also recognized student organizations Invisible Children and the NIU Horror Club.