The Undergraduate Student Government engaged in a lengthy meeting Tuesday night. Prior to the meeting, students coming from a protest held on campus for Palestinian liberation — many of them masked and wearing sunglasses to conceal their identities — lined up along the fourth floor of Tutor Campus Center. 

Department of Public Safety officers and representatives from USC Student Life were also present on the fourth floor of TCC, guiding students into a neat line. 

All seats in the Forum were filled as vice president Michelle Lu gaveled the senate into session at 7:14 p.m., with many students who could not enter the room calling in via Zoom. 

During the approval of the senate agenda, senator Brandon Tavakoli moved to postpone the discussion of SB 143-15, which would have established a liaison to the advocacy department for Hillel at USC.

After approving the amended agenda, the senate moved into its open forum period. Lu reminded the crowd of the USC Student Handbook and the need for respect during discussion.

During the discussion period, only one individual rose to speak. They carried a speaker and played a recorded message calling on the USG senate and the University to protect student freedom of speech and recognize “the war crimes committed by Israel.”

The student and others at the meeting discussed fearing for their safety because of websites such as the Canary Mission that dox students who speak publicly about their support for Palestine.

The senate then moved to presentations, which included efforts to establish a Voting Working Group with the USC Center for the Political Future and University Relations to facilitate civic engagement on campus, and initiatives to increase transparency with funding trackers and summaries of USG meetings.

Following the presentations, the senate moved to discussion of SB 143-14, A Resolution in Support of Undocumented Students, which asks the University to appoint a Dreamer Resource Liaison and expresses support for creating a space on campus for undocumented students.

Heydy Vasquez, the advocacy liaison at Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success at USC, outlined the barriers undocumented students face.

“When we propose just more resources, we’re told we’re asking for a little bit too much,” said Vasquez, who is an opinion staff writer at the Daily Trojan. “I am so tired. I am tired of constantly having to wish that my people and my fellow immigrants received the proper recognition and proper support.”

After unanimously passing the bill, the senate moved into an almost hour-long discussion regarding USG’s response to the situation in Gaza. Students questioned senator Tavakoli’s decision to postpone discussion of SB 143-15. 

“Because I wholeheartedly value the input of the entire community and the input of the entire senate and I felt that I could not do that in a matter of 24 hours, I removed it from the agenda,” Tavakoli said.

Students also pointed out what they perceived to be a minimal response by the senate about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 

“Aside from this one senator, nobody has said it’s wrong,” said Zain Khan, a junior majoring in international relations and journalism. “I have been in attendance at meetings and I’ve seen what you guys can do. You can pass resolutions. It happened with Armenia.” 

During the meeting, students joining virtually sent messages to the senate, with students attending in person calling for those messages to be read aloud to the room. Senator Rudra Saigal briefly attempted to read the messages before the executive cabinet decided to disable the chat function and send the messages to the USC Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity, and Title IX.

“The chat was disabled for the safety of all students and we wanted to focus on the live conversations that we were having in this room,” said Lu in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the meeting.

As the meeting came to an end, senators expressed an appreciation for students coming to the meeting to speak as well as a commitment to working with students on the issue.  

“We are here to also have further conversations about how we can be better representatives for you all and we are having ongoing conversations with administrators to see what more tangible resources are available, because I know many students have felt marginalized in this conflict,” said USG president Divya Jakatdar.