In a 13-4 vote, the AUSA Senate last week allocated $1,000 for 250 T-shirts to promote varsity athletics and $250 for a survey that would gauge student feelings about the AUSA Senate and DU athletics.

Senators voting against were Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering Senator Chris Adams, Senior Senator Laura Szynskie and On-Campus Senator Josh Johnson.

The cost of the T-shirts, estimated to be around $2,000, will be funded with $950 from the Senate and the remainder by the Division of Athletics and Recreation. The remaining $50 “will be used to create and promote a student survey to acquire student feedback and input,” the bill said.

Before casting his vote, Adams said, “I think [the $1,000] would be better served going to excess funds.”

“I agree. The $1,000 would be better spent on student groups than sports,” Johnson said.

Excess funds are created when the Senate estimates the number of students that will enroll at DU. Each student is then charged an activity fee. The Senate multiplies the acitivity fee by the number of students to figure out the amount of money the Senate will allocate to student organizations.

Adams is chair of the Diversity Committee, which allocated $1,000 for the Feb. 6 celebration of the Vietnamese celebration of the lunar New Year.

The Senate is also considering the revision of the Student Organizations Committee constitution. The student-staffed committee licenses student organizations and decides whether the organizations are eligible for funding. The revisions will focus on the rules that differentiate fundable and non-fundable organizations.

Sophomore Senator Megan Gonzalez said DU’s new mascot will debut at the Pack the House basketball event Thursday. Tom Haigh will be the mascot.