After a little more than a month of studious and at times contentious debate, the Student Government Senate approved the 2010-2011 fiscal year budget March 22.

The approved budget now goes before Student Body President John Barnes for his signature or veto. Barnes is expected to approve the budget, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The budget was sent back to the Budget and Allocations Committee at the March 1 Senate meeting after some students and administrators raised concerns that certain departments weren’t being properly funded.

Before approving the budget, the Senate made a few alterations. Senators voted to add funding for the Women’s Center, increasing its programming budget to $7,000.

The B&A Committee initially zero-funded programming for the Women’s Center.

“If we’re giving [the Women’s Center] money for promotional items, maybe they should have money for an event to promote,” said Sen. Erica Richey, a member of the B&A Committee.

The senate also voted to restore the news director position for Osprey Radio, which the B&A Committee initially zero-funded. The position costs about $5,200 per year.

Since the senate was presented with a balanced budget and is constitutionally obligated to present a balanced budget to Barnes, cuts were made to the SG Executive Branch and Homecoming to offset the increases for the Women’s Center and Osprey Radio.

The senate took $3,000 from SG Executive and $10,000 from Homecoming.

Former B&A Committee Chair Kyle Nelson was noticeably absent from the proceedings. Nelson resigned from his position as B&A Committee Chair and senate March 11.

Sen. Joel Versace ended the budgetary deliberations lamenting what he called the “huge, bulky” and “inefficient” process.

“I really hope that we do something to write in the constitutional statutes where we approach the budget next year [differently] because I think a lot things need to be changed,” he said.