The Student Association Finance Committee approved $15,717 for the new SA magazine, Huskie Highlights, with some senators raising questions of SA favoritism.

“The SA is so quick to give ourselves money,” said Donna Dalton, SA senator and finance committee member.

Discussion about the magazine’s budget centered on $400 for unknown expenses and $16,000 to publish five issues.

The $400 included items such as pens, paper, power strips and other unforeseen costs.

“We can’t be more specific because it’s an unknown expense,” said Brooke Robinson, the Huskie Highlights editor in chief. “I line-itemed everything I knew I’d definitely need.”

The committee reduced the amount budgeted for unknown expenses to $200.

“The fact that we gave them $200 is very alarming to me,” Dalton said. “The minute an SA program comes up, we still like to give them all the money that they asked for.”

Delia Ramirez, SA senator and finance committee member, said the committee usually requires office supplies to be itemized.

“Since this is their first publication, they don’t know what they need,” Ramirez said. “I don’t think it’s a double standard because that’s what we’re here trying to keep from happening.”

Senate Speaker Andrew Nelms, who also serves on the finance committee, said other organizations would not be guaranteed similar treatment.

“Everything is by a case-by-case scenario,” Nelms said. “Every time we look at a budget, it can vary.”

Nelms also said it might appear that the SA receives special treatment because senators have prior knowledge of SA programs.

Robinson did not have time to consider if her magazine received special treatment from the committee.

“I think we’re a little bit more unique than other organizations simply because we do come out of the Student Association and we’re not exactly an organization,” Robinson said. “We’re a service.”

The finance committee also cut the magazine from five issues down to four, reducing the original $16,000 printing budget to $12,800.

“Why fund five magazines when it took them about six or seven months to put the first one out?” Dalton asked.

Robinson explained that most of the delays were because of complications resulting from starting a new publication.

The finance committee also postponed the fiscal year 2005 budget request of E.B.O.N.Y. Women.

“They were saying that their members had to have a 2.3 GPA and be enrolled in 15 hours,” Nelms said. “Technically, by the SA rules, anybody who has a 2.0 and is enrolled at least full time, which is 12 hours, can participate in any organization.”

The committee plans to consult the group’s constitution on file with SA Vice President Andrew Becerra before making a decision. If the membership requirements in the budget request are the same as the requirements in the group’s constitution, E.B.O.N.Y. Women will not be eligible for funding.

“Under the circumstances, I would imagine that would be the only course of action,” Nelms said.

The fiscal year 2005 budget request of $7,862 for Towers magazine, a student-run literary and artistic publication, was also approved by the finance committee.