The appropriations committee listened to the appeals of 26 groups Tuesday night in order to divide up the 10 percent left over from the appropriations budget of $45,000, according to Adam Compton.

Mike Alston, chair of appropriations, said the committee listened to the appeal presentations for two hours and then spent another two hours discussing the final decisions.

He said groups usually come back if they felt there were some clarifications that needed to be made in their proposal.

“If they think we didn’t give them enough money because they didn’t emphasize something, then they can come back and do that,” Alston, a junior in civil engineering, said.

According to Compton, a senator serving on the committee, the committee always saves approximately 10 percent of the original appropriations pot for the appeals process.

“So we don’t have to go back to cut any groups to find the groups that request appeals,” Compton, a junior in agricultural business management, said.

Peter Barnes, a senator serving on the committee, said very few groups actually got the full amount they requested since the committee did have a lot of money to play with.

Once the committee determines the appeal amounts, the bill goes to the Student Senate chambers, Compton said.

Alston said if senators decide to amend the bill and increase a group’s amount, they have to take the money from another group.

“Basically they would have to pull from somewhere else because we have zero dollars left,” he said.

Compton said once the bill passes through Senate, Student Body President Bobby Mills must sign the bill and pass it on to Student Body Treasurer David Foxx.

He said Foxx will then take it to the business office, which will cut the checks and return the checks back to Foxx, who will then hand the checks out to the various groups.

Alston said during the final two hours of discussion, the committee looked over the arguments each group made.

“Basically we just look at the points they make, the arguments they make, and how many people they serve overall,” he said.

Barnes, a freshman in forestry management, said the overall appeal process went pretty well and the final decisions were easy to make.

He said the appeal process probably went so smoothly because the appropriations committee worked hard this year to make sure every group was paired up with a senator.

“[So] they knew what they were getting themselves into when they came in the room,” he said.

Alston said the groups going through the appeal process were able to saw they wanted and a few of the sponsoring senators even showed up to speak with their groups.

“I feel like we pretty much hashed everything out,” he said. “We didn’t leave anything out there that needed to be discussed.”