The Student Government Senate unanimously voted Wednesday night to acknowledge and thank the University’s Athletic Department for its decision to donate $36 million to the University over the next five years to soften the blow of the University’s budget cuts.

“The only numbers that LSU has gone down on since the budget crisis started is number of faculty members and grant dollars generated; the reason those numbers are going down is because we can’t afford to give faculty members raises,” said Thomas Rodgers, SG director of Academic Affairs.

Rodgers said the University cannot match grant dollars, and can’t bring in as many instructors or researches as a result.

“The first thing that this money is going to be targeted at, along with research, is giving the faculty members a raise, so professors are going to be happier. We might get some new professors,” Rodgers said.

The Senate also voted to amend the resolution to record every senator as author of it.

“I’d like to thank you guys for allowing yourselves to be added to this bill because it’s going to look really great to see Senate come together and show our support for this,” said Environmental Engineer Senior Karla Frias.

The Senate’s sense of unity changed when members debated the amendments to the legislation on student senator duties within their bylaws for more than half an hour before the bill was referred back to committee.

“Five to 600 students trusted you to represent their interests — they shouldn’t have their time wasted sitting here debating,” said Rodgers, who disapproved of the time it took for senators to express their concerns for the changes.

SG President Taylor Cox also announced his plan to create a new initiative for students.

Cox said he wants to have a public meeting for students to discuss their issues with dining services to the University administration.