Student Senate members Wednesday narrowly voted to ban the use of Student Government funds for donations to third parties.

The ban was part of a bylaw change that was approved 18-8-0, one vote more than was required to pass the change.

Under the bylaw change, no Student Government funds will be be able to be used for donations to any person, activity, organization, or academic department.

The vote on the legislation came two weeks after the senate defeated a motion that would have allocated $100 toward a Student Government advertisement in the Miss Black EIU pageant program. Several senate members claimed the allocation was comparable to a donation, and if they approved the motion, others would start to solicit the senate for money.

Senate member Jessica Catto said that if the senate made donations to third parties, it would take away from the credibility of Student Government.

Fellow senate member Marty Ruhaak agreed.

When you make donations, you segregate the students from Student Government. When you pick and choose (who to donate to), you indirectly endorse the groups you give money to.”

However, not all senate members believed the resolution would help to solve the problem.

Senate member Dwight Nelson said the bill would just make the process more complicated.

“All this bill does is add to the word play,” Nelson said, noting that if an allocation would be technically legal if it was simply relabeled from a “donation” to a “contribution.”

The bylaw change also called for the speaker of the senate and the student body president to prepare the senate’s annual budget, then submit it to the senate for approval.

Adam Weyhaupt, speaker of the student senate, previously said that although the budget was prepared in this way before, the system was not mentioned in the senate bylaws.

In other business, the senate unanimously approved a resolution recommending that a standardized question appear on every faculty evaluation form.

If approved, each department would ask students if they agree with the statement “My instructor, overall, is the most effective I have encountered in my educational experience at Eastern Illinois University.”

The question, worked out by resolution sponsor Catto, Weyhaupt and Faculty Senate member Reed Benedict, replaces another question recommended by the Student Senate last month. The Faculty Senate was concerned about the wording of the old question, and also considered it incompatible with the faculty recommendation format, Weyhaupt said.

The recommendation will now go before the Faculty Senate during its meeting Tuesday, Weyhaupt said.