USG confirms QuASA executives, cancels pre-debate meeting
Speaker Rudra Saigal outlined his senate goals for this term.
By MAX RUBENSTEIN
The Undergraduate Student Government senate met Tuesday night to confirm two Queer and Ally Student Assembly executives. By a unanimous vote, former assistant director Mel Persell was elected as co-executive director, and current finance director Victoria Bogomilova was elected as assistant director.
Speaker Rudra Saigal announced that he is working on the sexually transmitted infection testing expansion project as part of a wellness week this February. The project has already received $7,500 of funding from the senate and $7,500 from the Graduate Student Government to provide free STI testing services to students who are not covered by the Student Health Insurance Plan.
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Saigal went on to share that he is working with Karina Patel, the chair of the Committee on Accessibility Affairs, to expand the Disabled Access To Road Transportation initiative, a free University service that runs from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. to help students with disabilities get around campus. The senate will conduct a survey through Instagram to understand who on campus is engaging with the service.
Chief programming officer Kayla Parayno also shared their goals for the term and announced that programming groups are now required to cooperate with another group at some point during the semester.
Parayno is currently working on ensuring that different groups have a synthesized resource to consult when determining how to structure or expand their executive board.
Parayno will also collaborate with chief of staff David Martinez and chief justice Nivea Krishnan to streamline assembly election processes, as there are currently different procedures for different groups.
The senate unanimously voted to pass a motion from vice president Michelle Lu to cancel the senate meeting for Feb. 13 to avoid overlap with the upcoming USG debate, which will serve as an opportunity for senate candidates to share their platforms and presidential and vice presidential candidates to debate USG-related issues.
“We aim to increase student involvement and participation in this year’s elections,” Lu said.
The senate did not comment on the McCarthy Quad closure, however, in an interview with the Daily Trojan, chief communications officer Mustafa Ali Khan said he found out about the closure a week or two ago.
“We’re working alongside our different administrators to figure out a game plan to reorganize our programming around that and hopefully still get them going, but just on a different part of campus,” Ali Khan said.
