The Student Senate passed a bylaw change that will ban the use of Student Government funds for donation to third parties at its meeting March 1.

The bylaw change passed by a vote of 18-8-0, only on vote more than was required to pass the change.

Because of the vote, no funds will be able to be donated to any person, activity, organization or academic department.

The vote 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 that the allocation would be comparable to a donation, and if the motion was approved, others would start to solicit the senate for money.

So, rather than standing up and saying no to each and every group they did not want to donate money to, the senate decided to cop out and say no to any possible requests that could come their way.

If the senate wanted to set a precedent for not allocating money to campus groups, that’s fine. And not hard to accomplish. Just say no.

Instead, they have denied all requests, before they could even be made. No one will even be able to approach the senate with a request, because before it could reach the senate, it would be shot down because of the new bylaw.

And, by making the new rule a bylaw, it becomes unlikely that future senates will change it. Which closes the door on small groups in the future as well.

Not every request should be filled, that would be unreasonable. But there are lots of small groups on campus that could use a little money from time to time, to ensure their survival if nothing else.

Eastern is one of the few universities in the entire nation that does not use student fees to fund student groups. Because of this, many student groups go under before anyone even realizes they exist.

The Student Government needs to take an active role in preserving student groups on campus, and if that means funding them every once in a while, then do it.

But it’s too late for that, now isn’t it.