It was a night of standing ovations and goodbyes. The Undergraduate Student Government inaugurated the 2024-2025 senate — the 144th USG senate — and said goodbye to the 143rd senate. In its final meeting of the year, the outgoing senate heard executive officer presentations, approved revised constitutional amendments and appointed stipended officers for the upcoming year.

In a 12-minute meeting, the new senators, president and vice president were sworn in by chief justice pro tempore Susanna Andryan. They swore to uphold the USG bylaws, constitution and code of ethics as well as represent the student body and serve with pride. Incoming incumbent senator Brandon Tavakoli, reelected for a second term, was not in attendance and was not sworn in.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

Earlier in the night, the outgoing senate appointed over 40 officers for the 2024-25 year. This included committee chairs, communication department officers and programming department officers. 

Among the appointees are outgoing senators Klarissa Palacios and Julianna Melendez. The pair will serve as chair of the Committee on Affordability and Basic Needs and senior executive aide, respectively. Melendez said the move to the executive aide position is exciting for the mentorship opportunities it provides.

“What I loved particularly about senior executive aide is that there’s a component of mentorship,” Melendez said before the vote on her appointment. “Yes, I love project management. I found that’s something I felt that I succeeded in within my time here in university. But additionally, [the] senior executive aide is ideally supposed to act as a mentor to the other executive aides, and any cabinet members that are seeking advice.”

The senate also heard from outgoing executive cabinet officers. Among them were chief of staff David Martinez, chief financial officer Khalil Daniels and vice president Michelle Lu. Lu said USG is incomparable.

“Being at USC has been an amazing experience, but being in this role has been a greater reward,” Lu said. “I came to USC as a shy, timid and afraid individual and joining USG has been one of the most fruitful experiences of my time here.”

CFO Daniels, along with outgoing president Divya Jakatdar, gave an end-of-year budget report. At the end of the year, USG had achieved a 77% utilization rate of its $2.54 million budget. Among the groups with the lowest utilization rate of their budget were the communications department and judicial branch, with 58% and 54% utilization rates, respectively.

Daniels said the communications department had been unable to use its full budget because of the high cost of camera equipment. The judicial department, which administers elections, had not used its full budget due to the decision by a presidential and vice presidential ticket to drop from the race, which meant less funds had to be allocated to provide campaign materials. 

The funding department also reached 100% utilization of funds with 161 events funded through the four funding boards.

The senate passed revised constitutional amendments after the set of amendments was rejected by the executive cabinet. The revised amendments removed provisions restricting the appointment of Norman Topping Student Aid Fund Governing Board members, requiring executive cabinet consultation with advocacy liaisons and allowing the senate to hold closed sessions.

The bill was also amended during the meeting to pass a vote of confidence by the Judicial Council. Justices will be appointed for a two-year term down from the current lifetime term and up from the one-year term originally proposed. Justices had feared one-year terms would make them susceptible to influence by the senate. 

The senate tabled a resolution supporting making sustainability training mandatory. Environmental Student Assembly co-director Valerie Kuo and advocacy liaison Jon-Marc Burgess presented the bill on behalf of the programming organization. Their proposal would require students to complete the training once and said the training provides students with the resources they need to live sustainably on campus.

“I would just like to see more of those survey results and see feasibility for the fall,” said senator Diana Carpio, who will be serving as speaker of the senate in the 144th term. “If we’re able to flesh it out better, I’d be open to looking at this again and especially for [the] incoming Senate, I think this is better-suited.”

Existing data from the training shows 64% of students strongly agreed they had a greater understanding of sustainability on campus and 93% agreed or strongly agreed they would recommend the course to others. The outgoing senators asked ESA to collect more data on whether those who completed the course would recommend making the training mandatory.