Elections for the student senate ended Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. Hopefully the next group of elected representatives spend the Illinois Student Senate budget better than the current senate has.

ISS receives $39,000 at the beginning of each year from student fees. In years past, ISS has had large surpluses. But this year, ISS spent 146 percent more than it did at this time last year. Unfortunately, the senate is spending its money on promoting itself rather than on helping the student body.

The student government at this University is not responsible with its money. Rather than hoarding money as it has in the past, the student senate is spending it irresponsibly. At its meeting Wednesday, Jim Maskeri, student senator and senior in LAS, said, “Anything we can do to better represent our student constituents, I think we need to throw money at it.” The idea that our elected representatives are throwing money at anything is unsettling. Poor word choice aside, it is as if that’s what they’re doing anyhow.

The best ISS expenditure this year has been on the creation of the iClicker rental program, which was approved in March 2012. The senate purchased 200 iClickers for $8,000. Students may rent these iClickers for a semester for free. Although some people may say that 200 iClickers only affects 200 students, it’s refreshing to see the student senate trying to ease students’ financial burdens.

This year, ISS has spent excessive amounts of student money on self-promotion. The student senate spent about $9,000 on a public service announcement that contained a typo. At its meeting Wednesday, the student government approved a resolution that proposed spending $3,000 on a survey. The survey, which is supposed to run in conjunction with the senate’s Web page, will most likely use this money as incentives for students who participate in the survey. Spending $3,000 on prizes for a few individuals is a complete waste of funds.

Not everyone in student government wants to spend thousands of dollars on self-promotion or surveys that will likely do nothing to improve ISS’ actions. Last year, former student body President David Pileski sponsored a resolution requesting $5,000 for preliminary research on the engineering design work for outdoor refillable water bottle stations. ISS voted this down, citing how this project would be too costly. Even if the actual construction of these stations would cost extra money, these water bottle stations would benefit the student body much more than advertisements about ISS or prizes for completing a survey.

The student senate needs to help the student body. Advertisements, surveys and food won’t make the student body aware of ISS’ presence; ISS’ presence will be noticed once it starts helping the student body. If the students don’t know what the ISS is, it’s because ISS isn’t doing enough for its constituents. Keep the students in focus and pass resolutions that provide for students.