The Student Government Finance Committee and Housing, Infrastructure and Technology Committee approved a bill to allocate $70,343 to fund a campus beautification project in the Dodson Courtyard at a joint meeting Tuesday night. The SG Initiatives and Surplus accounts will fund the endeavor, and the SG Senate will hear the bill at tonight’s meeting.The project will double as the start of the “Class Gift Campaign” where future graduating classes will choose a campus beautification project to fund. This year’s gift, if approved, will transform the currently bare area at the back of the Dodson Auditorium and is slated to be complete by April. The current budget provides for landscaping, irrigation and paving sidewalks, but does not fund additional features for the courtyard such as benches. Graduating seniors can donate to the project in exchange for a commemorative paver with their name on it. Sen. Tyler Martin, College of Business and co-author of the bill, said the money will lay the foundation for future projects. “Basically all this bill is going to do is allocate the money to get the project going,” Martin said. “The premise behind the project is that seniors will donate money to be recognized with a brick as part of this campaign.”SG President Colorado Robertson said the initial funds invested will have long-term benefits. “We want to leave something on campus that physically you can touch after you graduate,” Robertson said. “Technically, the money will go toward bricks and landscaping, but you have to look forward and see that in the bigger picture that it’s actually initiating a program — The Class Gift program.” Robertson said the layout of the plans will allow for bricks to be added as demand increases. “The bricks will be laid and then the name pavers will be laid along the inside and outside to alleviate the cost of having to dig up bricks to put the name pavers down,” Robertson said. “And then additional rows can be added for future graduating classes. There’s 17,000 pavers and bricks in this set-up.”Martin said the University approved the project more than two years ago. —Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]