The Illinois Student Senate moved through a lengthy agenda Wednesday night that contained the proposal of nine resolutions, including a program that will assist students who have difficulty purchasing textbooks.

The senate was also able to meet quorum requirements after failing to do so the previous week, which resulted in an inability to convene for its weekly meeting. This was mostly responsible for Wednesday’s extensive agenda.

Brad Tran, president of ISS, said he was not worried about not meeting quorum.

“I know our senate is comprised of individuals who are extremely dedicated to the organization,” Tran said.

He added that the senate was able to get through a meeting comprised of items from two agendas.

“It was a very productive meeting that ran smoothly,” he said.

Carey Ash, vice president-internal, proposed a resolution that would establish a program to assist students with the increasing costs of textbooks by using some of the senate’s yearly budget. Jeffrey Schroeder, ISS treasurer, said the senate currently has about $41,000 remaining in their budget. The senate is appropriated $39,000 each year and Schroeder said it began this term with $62,794 due to a surplus from the previous senate.

The program, currently called iTap, would dedicate no less than 35 percent, or about $20,000, of the senate’s budget toward purchasing “the most needed and most costly textbooks as determined by the ISS Committee on Academic Affairs,” and put them on reserve at University Libraries for students’ use.

Ash said the program originated as a result of rising costs of textbooks and criticism that the senate has not done anything with a tangible effect on students.

“The students need our help,” Ash said. “There’s a problem. The cost of textbooks has skyrocketed, and especially as both our University is facing economic hard times and as our nation is in economic downturn, it’s time for us to step up to the bat and help the students that we serve.”

Nolan Drea, internal vice president-elect and current chairman of the ISS Committee on Appropriations, voiced concern over the significant amount of the senate’s budget that the program will consume.

“I think it’s a really good program and I think giving back to students is what we need to do, but I just don’t want to limit ourselves,” Drea said. “I don’t want to limit a third of our budget to one thing.”

Drea said he wants work toward having every senate committee host an event each semester when he takes office as vice president-internal next term.

“Obviously that’s going to cost some money and that’s probably going to add up after a while,” he said.

Some members of the body expressed concern for the difficult regulations to reduce the percentage of the ISS budget used toward the program, which is currently set at a four-fifths vote.

Ash said he felt it was important to make it more difficult to lower the amount of funds dedicated to the program.

“I believe that it should be more difficult to take back from the students than it is to give,” he said.

The iTap resolution will be up for action next week.

Senator Brian Larson also proposed several resolutions for information on the topic of sustainability. One resolution urges the University to go forward with the wind turbine project while another proposes improving the bike infrastructure system on campus.