The Student Association Senate approved the printing of the budget guide Sunday night. The guide is a 130-page booklet that helps SA-recognized organizations formulate their budgets.

Sen R.J. Gravel opposed the idea, reminding the senate of the importance of conservation.

“I’d just like to remind everyone of the waste of paper,” he said. “I’d suggest putting it in disk format or on the Web site.”

However, most members of the senate remained unswayed.

“I recycle as much as possible,” Sen. Frank Woodin said. “I have it in front of me, flip back and forth from page 50 to 100, and it’s just much easier that way.”

Another item approved at the meeting was the SA support for the creation of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender resource center.

“I definitely feel this is important,” Woodin said.

The Trio Association, an association concerned with minority, low-income and first-generation students came before the senate and asked for allocation.

Darren Walker, a representative of the association, explained the need for money.

“Trio is a front-runner for student support services,” he said. “We make sure they have an academically successful time at Northern.”

The organization asked for money to fund non-academic trips to conferences and for other cultural advancements.

“We take an end of the year excursion to Washington, D.C.,” Walker said.

The Deaf Pride Association and the Chinese Student Association also came before the senate and asked for allocation.

The bills to allocate money to the three organizations all were sent to the finance committee.

Alpha Omicron Epsilon, a women’s engineering, science and mathematics based sorority and the NIU actuarial club came up for recognition at the meeting and both were approved.

The recognition of the NIU gymnastics club has been tabled, due to the lack of representation from the club.

The SA also has approved the allocation for purchasing a new server for their computing needs.

SA Treasurer Shaun Crisler expressed the need for the server.

“If you’ve noticed our Web site is a little slow, it has a lot to do with our inability to have a reliable server,” he said.

The SA has sent the bill to allocate $3,500 to construct a new Web site to the financial committee for further review.