The Student Association Senate tabled a resolution to allocate $1,400 in supplemental funding for the Northern View Community apartments Sunday night.

Debate arose over how much money to allocate for the apartment complex. Sen. RaShunda Thomas motioned to increase the funding to $2,500, a move that was supported by Sen. Matthew Venaas.

“I believe this would be in the best interest of this organization,” Venaas said, noting that the hall councils of the residence halls receive $4,000 a year for programming.

“In addition, even if hall councils run out of money, they can budget RHA and use their programming budget to get additional funding. Northern View cannot do that as [RHA president] Sarah Roman outlined,” Venaas said.

Roman said that because Northern View Community was built by an outside contractor, Housing and Dining cannot supplement the apartment with additional funding.

Sen. Patrick Echols, a member of the finance committee, said the SA needs to look out for the needs of other organizations.

“Other organizations need that supplemental funding as well. We’re trying to be fair to everybody,” Echols said.

Thomas’ motion to increase funding was later amended by Venaas, who designated $600 of the $1,100 increase to family programming, while the remaining $500 will be used for other programming at the apartment complex.

Sen. Patrick Frierson disagreed with the motion, calling it biased against the other residents who live at Northern View Community.

“I also know people who stay in Northern View, and I haven’t seen any families,” Frierson said.

In response to Frierson’s comment, Sen. Felicia Muse said that Northern View Community gave priority housing to students with families. Speaker Robert Batey said that there are about 200 to 250 students living at the apartment complex, but neither the SA nor the RHA have any statistics regarding how many of those students have children.

Sen. Cameron Harmon initially motioned to table the resolution until the RHA can address the responsibilities and the representation of the Northern View Community in the RHA constitution. Currently, the apartment complex is not mentioned in the RHA constitution.

However, Batey said the Senate can only table an issue to the next meeting or a committee.

The RHA had originally requested $5,000, but that amount was reduced by the SA finance committee. Among the reductions was $200 for a Super Bowl party, $600 for a spring carnival and $1,000 for 150 cookbooks.

In addition to tabling the resolution, the SA Senate also appointed freshman undecided major Jordan Lubbers as a senator and recognized the NIU Triathlon Team.

Huskie Tracks update

The expansion of the Huskie Tracks system received a boost last Tuesday when three hall councils approved $844 for the installation of GPS monitors.

The hall councils of Grant North, Grant South and Lincoln have approved funding for GPS monitors in their residence halls. Stevenson North was set to approve the funding, but the council tabled the issue due to low attendance.

Shaun Crisler, SA student trustee, said Stevenson North will most likely approve the funding.

“Part of the reason I think funding has happened is because of RHA,” Crisler said, stating that several RHA members have given a lot of feedback to Crisler and other SA executives.

Crisler said some of the ideas expressed by RHA members might be included in future projects.

He also spoke of the possibility of including an application on the monitors to show how many students are on a particular bus.

RHA has played an important role in the expansion of the Huskie Tracks system.

Roman said the RHA General Assembly approved the expansion Nov. 4, allocating $4,000 from the RHA’s budget to the project.

Roman said the $844 is coming from the residence halls’ hall improvement fund.

The approvals are a victory for the executive branch of the SA, which has made the expansion a goal for the 2007-2008 school year.

As for installation, Crisler said a tentative deadline has been set for January.

“We want students to be able to use them right when they come back,” Crisler said.