Associated Student Government Senate voted to allocate an additional $750 to $1,000 in funding to Dance Marathon at its Wednesday night meeting.

The event’s change in venue from the Norris University Center Louis Room to a tent on the East Lawn last year led to higher production, DM Executive Co-chair Ryan Farrell said. Increased overhead costs and a low ASG funding allocation caused DM to face the possibility of running a budget deficit for the first time in its 36-year history, the McCormick senior said.

“We essentially cut production costs in every area but the tent this year,” Farrell said. “With more dancers the tent got larger. We cut lighting and sound costs, but you can only cut so much before the actual integrity of the event is compromised.”

Without the additional funding from the Senate project pool, DM would have had to counter its deficit by taking money from the donations to its beneficiary, Farrell said.

According to a statement from ASG’s DM group executive, who could not be present at the meeting, DM’s original annual funding request was $12,000. ASG first decided to allocate $4,500 to the group but had to reduce the total to $3,200 because of limited funding in the B-Status pool.

ASG Student Groups Vice President Bill Russell said DM is a “special case” student group. Though it is a permanent, popular group on campus with large funding needs, it is not an A-Status group because of the “75-25” rule, which stipulates that A-Status student groups are required to give 75 percent of their proceeds back to the University, the Weinberg sophomore said.

At the meeting the Senate also voted on B-Status student group funding allocations. Each Winter Quarter, B-Status groups apply for funding, and the ASG Student Groups Committee makes funding recommendations. This year a total of $31,828.92 was allocated to 42 groups.

In order for funds to be added to a group, it must first be cut from another group to avoid a deficit, Russell said. Senators did not vote to add or cut any funds.

B-Status groups will receive this funding at the beginning of Spring Quarter, Russell said. In response to ASG’s resolution to increase the Student Activities Fee earlier this quarter, NU’s Board of Trustees voted Saturday to increase the fee by about 5 percent next year, ASG President Mike McGee said. The Communication senior said he did not know if the increase would be tied to tuition as the ASG resolution had stipulated.

Senators unanimously passed a resolution recommending members of the Academic Committee speak to the administration in efforts to hire more non-Western studies faculty members. This resolution aims to facilitate the development of more academic programs that do not focus on Western society at NU, said Residential Housing Association Senator Amalia Namath, who authored the resolution.

The senators also unanimously passed a resolution to allow the Academic Committee to hold meetings with administrators to establish a policy prohibiting the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences from holding exams on the weekend, which was defined as 5 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Monday.

Senator for Full-Scale Programming Groups Austin Young, a Weinberg sophomore, spoke in favor of a resolution in which ASG would request NU require all patrons of the University Library to register in order to gain entrance, even during public hours, to ensure greater safety. This resolution was also passed unanimously.

At the end of the meeting, Speaker of the Senate Samir Pendse thanked senators for their work during the quarter.

“We had a lot to get accomplished,” the Weinberg senior said. “This quarter has been really productive.”[email protected]