USG discusses withheld summer funding


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Chief of staff Diego Andrades presented the updated policy outlining office hours and eligibility requirements to maintain USG officer status. (Simon Park | Daily Trojan)

The Undergraduate Student Government held its last in-person senate meeting of the semester Tuesday night. 

At the start of the meeting, a representative from USC Racing, a student-run team that creates and races high-performance autocross cars, Jonathan Laifman, and two representatives from USC’s Formula Electric design team, Sunvriti Khanna and Trey Kee, said USG approved professional funding for the two organizations to participate in a competition against universities around the globe in Michigan in June but were notified last week that USG does not fund summer events.

“Unfortunately, automobile racing is something that you can’t get into without substantial money, believe me, I’ve tried,” said Kee, a sophomore majoring in psychology. “Going to this competition was really contingent on the funding that we received from USG.”

The funding would have helped cover hotel and transportation expenses. They were told that they would be given $4300 after requesting $4500 but never received the money, according to Kee. 

“Since they had approved the proposal, we in reliance ceased searching for new funding opportunities, notified internships, and booked rooms,” said Laifman, a senior majoring in physics. “However, now that they pulled the funding, it puts us in a difficult situation of finding new funding. We are hoping to find a way to have an exception to their “no summer” rule to be able to help cover this race as a first step toward fixing the rule such that all students can benefit from funding during summer.”

Vice president Nivea Krishnan said USG will discuss the issue during their cabinet meeting. Chief funding officer Brian Stowe will meet with both organizations Wednesday to resolve this issue. 

“Because that funding was already promised to us, a lot of us already made the payments for the hotels and transportation,” Khanna, a senior majoring in communication, said. “Now the extra expenses kind of fall on the heads of the business leads or the project managers who have to pay out of pocket because they expected the funding to come through USG and now that funding has been pulled last minute, it would be tough for us to get any sponsors at all.”

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Julianna Melendez, a freshman majoring in international relations, was confirmed as Chair of Accessibility. (Simon Park | Daily Trojan)

Senator Yoav Gillath announced that Trojans Give Back and USC Hospitality worked on a program to donate dining dollars to the USC Office of Basic Needs and compile them into meal swipes that have no expiration date. The donation period will be happening between May 4 and May 11. On the Mobile Order app, students will be prompted on whether or not they want to donate their remaining meal swipes if there are any remaining May 11. 

The senate also voted on nominations to the communications department announced at last week’s senate meeting, confirming them all unanimously. 

“We plan on really maintaining and strengthening our relationship with our media partners and RSOs and campus administrators to really cultivate strong relationships and to open transparency,” newly confirmed director of public relations Jacob Wheeler said. 

The communications department envisions a redesign for the USG website that highlights the resources offered by USG and hopes to establish a bigger presence for students, associate director of digital strategy Oscar Clavio said. 

The senate then debated and voted on the legislative department’s committee chair and parliamentary secretary nominations announced at last week’s senate meeting, confirming them all unanimously.

Tuesday’s senate meeting was the last one of the academic year to be held in person, but USG plans to hold two more senate meetings over the summer virtually to pass their 2022-23 budget.