The Government of the Student Body approved funding for College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Week, Smile Ninja and the homecoming pep rally at Sept. 24’s GSB Senate meeting.

CALS Week is a weeklong celebration — usually during the first week of October — that recognizes the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with activities and guest speakers. CALS week this year will take place from Sept. 29 to Oct. 3.

The Senate voted to allocate nearly $2,000 of Senate events account funds to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Student Council for CALS Week. The council requested the money to help fund a concert during the celebrations.

The money will be used to make electrical improvements to the Hansen Agriculture Student Learning Center where the concert will be. As it stands, the building does not have the capacity for electrical output needed for the concert.

Due to building rules, the organization that asks for building improvements is responsible for funding the improvements that will need to be made. Since Matthew Kerns, the CALS Student Council president and senior in animal science, said CALS Week is funded primarily through sponsorship that already came in, the council did not budget for the extra $2,000.

Some GSB Senators considered the electrical improvements to be a university responsibility, not something that should be funded using GSB money. Other senators agreed, but they said using the $2,000 needed to make improvements would benefit students and student organizations in the future.

Kerns said that the work for the electrical improvements is already underway to be ready for CALS Week. However, the issue was whether GSB would fund it or the council would go into a deficit to fund the work.

The Senate voted to allocate the $2,000.

Another student group that received funding was Sninja, or Smile Ninja.

Sninja, which existed unofficially for the last two or three years according to members, officially became a student organization this year.

The group works to spread smiles around campus and create an atmosphere of positivity. Actions include leaving change at a vending machine for a student to find and use for a free soda or candy bar and passing notes with messages such as “you have beautiful eyes. Pass it on to someone else who has beautiful eyes,” members said.

The group requested $301 or advertising throughout the year to spread the word about the club and recruit members. The money would be used for ads in local newspapers, magazines, Facebook and a mass email to the student body. Their request for $301 was granted by GSB.

The Homecoming Central Committee received $11,652.46 for the large stage used at the Homecoming Pep Rally.