The Associated Students approved several finance awards for student organizations as well as the Code on the A.S. Annual Recognition Banquet at their meeting Friday.

A.S. awarded the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) $1,900 for their Annual Filipino Culture Night, though they requested $3,350.

The National Center on Deafness was awarded $3,000 for their Sign n’ Run festival and The Social Work Society did not receive any amount of their requested budget of $17,500 for their National Association of Social Workers’ Lobby Days event.

A.S. also approved the constitution for a new club, Student Environmental Research via Engineering (SERVE), which will try to “raise awareness of current environmental issues and promote research opportunities that can lead to a more sustainable future.”

According to their proposal, each team can comprise students from different disciplines and students from the engineering department can lead research topics.

The senators also briefly discussed the significance of the gay marriage cases heard at the Supreme Court this week.

Senator Karen Medina, representing the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication, said that it is important for the senators to pay attention to national politics and to remember that issues other than marriage may be equally important to Queer Americans.

“Although it is an important issue, things got overshadowed, such as the Monsanto Protection Act,” Medina said. “We should continue to be politically aware. Hopefully the gay marriage issue gets resolved so we can move on to other issues such as LGBT homelessness and suicide.”