Senate passes resolution supporting Village at USC

Undergraduate Student Government Senators approved spring budget allocations and a resolution supporting the University Park Campus Master Plan to renovate the University Village, Tuesday night at the last Senate meeting with legislative business. New USG officers will be sworn in during the final official Senate meeting next Tuesday.

The resolution expresses USG’s full support for the Master Plan and that a majority of students are in favor of the plan, which cites results from a USG poll. The resolution also aims to raise awareness for the plan among the student body. Resolutions communicate the student body’s collective opinion to administrators.

Senate · Vice President Logan Lachman and Vice President-elect Vinnie Prasad listen to discussion of the resolution about the Village at USC. - Katherine Montgomery | Daily Trojan

Of 503 respondents, 89 percent reported supporting or strongly supporting the University Park Campus Master Plan.

The resolution passed with six yeas, zero nays and two abstentions, from Greek Senator Andres Guarnizo-Ospina and Residential Senator Marissa Roy.

“I don’t think the plan protects the people who are already there and a lot of members in my constituency really like the businesses that are in the U.V. right now,” Guarnizo-Ospina said. “I don’t think their interests are being represented fairly.”

USG Vice-President-elect Vinnie Prasad, also a residential senator, sponsored the resolution, which was authored by members of the USG Community Affairs Committee.

“The benefit for the university is this will show, when they go to meetings now and have to talk to [Los Angeles] council and several groups, that the students are behind them on this because I know that has come into question in the past,” Prasad said after the resolution was introduced last week.

Before considering the resolution, the Senate unanimously passed USG’s spring funding allocations. Elton Kwok, USG treasurer, said there were no surprises in the budgeting process for the spring and that the allocation process did not change significantly from the fall.

“There is not really anything out of the ordinary from the fall,” Kwok said. “It was pretty easy to allocate money because people had well-planned events.”

Kwok said more funds, which originate from student fees, were available because more students enrolled for the spring semester.

“We did see an increase in the number of students [who enrolled] in the spring,” Kwok said.

The Senate also unanimously approved the executive officers for the incoming administration. The appointments include Kameron Burk as chief of staff, Kelly Hann as senior director of communications, Jenn Guan as treasurer, Juan Espinoza as executive director of program board and Wing Lee as financial director of program board.

“We were really looking to create the best team and the best group to work together,” USG President-elect Mikey Geragos said. “Looking at certain positions and seeing how we could get better and picking people who would take that next step was important.”

The new executive officers for USG and Program Board were selected by respective advisory boards, both of which included Geragos and Prasad. The incoming officers are currently working to hire committee directors and assistant directors.

“We have an amazing pool of talent in terms of who’s applied and it’s making our lives extremely difficult,” Geragos said. “But that’s a good problem to have.”