The Student Association voted in favor of allocating $195,097 to Students’ Legal Assistance at Wednesday’s finance committee meeting, which included money to increase the salaries of director Donald Henderson and assistant director Linda Dersch.

Henderson spoke on behalf of the organization.

Currently, the organization employs three law clerks who work 10 hours per week, Henderson said. He asked for funds that would allow the law clerks to work 15 hours per week.

He said they thought about hiring a third lawyer, but it would be more effective if the organization employed a full-time paralegal instead of a third lawyer.

Currently, Henderson and Dersch are the two lawyers for Students’ Legal Assistance. He said in most law offices, there is one lawyer and three or four secretaries to do paperwork. He said it was not feasible to have three lawyers and one secretary.

Henderson said they would like to have someone in the office at all times to enhance their capacity to provide legal assistance to students.

He asked the SA to raise their budget proposal from $9,500 to $14,250. He said if they did not use the money to employ someone, it then would go back into the SA’s general reserve. The SA voted in favor of the increase.

Senate speaker Andrew Nelms said the organization was a worthwhile and valuable resource for students.

The SA voted in favor of increasing Henderson’s salary by 3.8 percent, to come out to $66,793 and raising Dersch’s salary by $2,000, to come out to $56,075. In total, the SA voted to allocate $195,097 to Students’ Legal Assistance for the Fiscal Year 2004.

The SA also voted in favor of allocating $3,196 to EBONY Women and $1,000 in supplemental funding to the Chinese Student Scholars for their Chinese New Year event as well.

The SA voted to zero fund the Muslim Student Association because the organization is religious in nature and thus violates the SA’s requirements for funding.