USG approves funding reallocations


people sit below a TV screen
Among the organizations facing funding cuts was the Transfer Student Assembly, which lost $2,000 — almost one-fifth of its fiscal year 2023 budget of $15,000. TSA co-director Sophia Tabares said this has a larger impact than cuts to other organizations that have larger budget allocations. (Anik Panja | Daily Trojan)

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed reallocations within the programming and funding department at Tuesday night’s senate meeting. 

Chief programming officer Jillian Fallon said the Budget Allocation Committee reallocates funding by determining how each assembly and committee were spending their budgets throughout the year, and assessing whether they were on track to spend that budget.

“We went line by line for every single assembly and committee and that was how we came to the decision,” Fallon said. “The projected spending for the semester was [too high and] not on par with the plans that were projected from the previous year, which is why we’ve made the decision to reallocate.”

Among the organizations facing funding cuts was the Transfer Student Assembly, which lost $2,000 — almost one-fifth of its fiscal year 2023 budget of $15,000. TSA co-director Sophia Tabares said this has a larger impact than cuts to other organizations that have larger budget allocations.

“A lot of [transfer] students don’t understand what resources there are because there is no real orientation for transfer students,” said Eric Abnoosian, assistant director of TSA. “If you guys do take this money away from us, we’re not able to have events to help show transfer students the resources that they have on campus.”

In addition to the TSA’s cuts, $42,000 from the Philanthropy Fund (53% of its FY23 budget), $4,05,500 from the Political Student Assembly (18% of its budget), $6,000 from the Service Student Assembly (60% of its budget), $6,000 from the Special Events Committee (15% of its budget) and $2,000 from the Student Assembly for Accessibility (18% of its budget) will be reallocated.

As of Tuesday’s meeting, $10,000 is to be reallocated to the Joint Assembly for Military-Associated Students (a 200% increase from FY23), $10,000 to the Middle Eastern and North African Student Assembly (a 200% increase), $7,000 to the Performing and Visual Arts Fund (an 8% increase), $7,000 the Professional and Academic Research Funds (an 8% increase) and $28,000 the Social & Recreation and Startup Funds (a 32% increase).

The Senate approved the budget reallocation in a roll vote of 10-2. The Senate also unanimously approved a bill to initiate a trial period for the First Generation Student Assembly. 

Following the votes, vice president Nivea Krishnan gave a recap of the Senate’s administrative roundtable held Feb. 10. USC Hospitality is in partnership with Homeboy Industries, a hallmark organization that works with former gang members to integrate them back into society, by providing employment opportunities. USC Hospitality is also working to donate extra food from the dining halls, Krishnan said.

Krishnan has been working on a project that would increase discussions regarding civil discourse on campus. For example, Krishnan said that the recent Supreme Court cases about race-conscious admissions directly impact the University.

“I think there’s this assumption that our peers are too smart,” Krishnan said. “They understand all the nuances of some really complex policy conversations, … but that makes kids afraid to have conversations [since they’re] afraid of getting canceled or seeing some investment may be a little bit not completely accurate. [Instead], they should have room to kind of talk about things and try to get to be more informed.”

Chief diversity officer Zaid Diaz-Arias said he has been working to prepare for Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. USG partnered with Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services to increase engagement for students. USG approved $200 of legislative funding to raffle 10 $20 gift cards as an incentive for students to attend RSVP events. 

USG is also partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to raise $2,000 at USC and $15,000 nationally for suicide prevention by hosting a campus Hope Walk which will be held April 4. 

Diaz-Arias currently sits on the Campus Violence Prevention Collective, a coalition of USC student leaders and administrators initially formed by RSVP to engage in conversations regarding gender- and power-based harm, campus-wide initiatives and prevention efforts on campus. 

“It’s a space [where] we can talk about different campus issues and the culture surrounding campus,” Diaz-Arias said. 

Senator Divya Jakatdar presented project updates such as the LiveSafe app, a public safety app in collaboration with RSVP and the Department of Public Safety to add features to and clarify centralized resources for reporting sexual violence. 

Other projects that Jakatdar has been working on include providing undocumented students resources to obtain red cards, which they would be able to present to government officials if questioned, and creating medical supplies vending machines for students to have access to medical supplies at a discounted rate, which is planned to be available at the end of Spring 2023.