Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate passed a resolution Tuesday night limiting the amount of money it can allocate to student groups.

The resolution set aside $2,000 of the Senate's funds to running the 2003 USG elections and $8,000 for an investment for its annual calendar fund raiser next year.

It is essential for Senate to run its elections and hold a fund-raiser, South Halls Sen. Mike Jozkowski said.

"We need to have money to do these things so that USG can even continue to function next year," Jozkowski added.

After a profit of $3,503 from its Thanksgiving bus sales, the Senate has about $16,200 in its budget, according to a report given Tuesday by the Senate's treasurer, Ashley King.

The Senate had allocated a total of $11,684 to funding student-run events as well as to funding internal matters such as flier campaigns and voter registration drives, King reported on Nov. 18. During that Senate meeting, she told senators to be careful with the amount of money they allocate in the future.

About $8,000 of allocated funds has gone to student-run events and about $3,000 has funded internal matters.

Last year's Senate used $5,852 for allocations, King said. The amount of money in the Senate's budget was roughly the same for each year, she added.

When first appointed Senate president, Bridget Van Osten said she would like to examine a more stringent procedure for allocating money to student groups. Since then, senators have questioned representatives of organizations seeking sponsorship on a variety of issues, including the events' educational values and how the events will benefit all Penn State students.

The Senate has yet to deny a student group seeking funding.

Although a formal resolution is not necessary, codifying the limit on Senate allocations makes it virtually impossible for the Senate to allocate too much money.

The resolution also makes it easier for student groups to understand why the Senate might not be able to fund future events, Van Osten said.

The Senate can give about $6,000 before reaching its spending limit and has allocated as much as $2,000 to individual student-run events this semester. Last year, the Senate limited budget allocations through a motion, Town Sen. Mike Gallo said.

Senators set $5,000 aside for running USG elections last year but did not end up needing all the money, Jozkowski said.

He said that setting aside $2,000 this year was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Most money set aside for USG elections is used to pay vote-counting services, East Halls Sen. Julia Graham said.

Though the $2,000 might end up being more than is required to run USG elections, it is necessary the Senate assumes all Penn State students will vote in order to guarantee fairness, Graham said.

Last year, 7,226 students from the University Park campus voted in USG elections. There are 34,829 undergraduate students enrolled at University Park.