The Undergraduate Student Government senate met June 18 to welcome the 2024-25 advocacy liaisons, presented by Chief Diversity Officer Yasmeen ElFarra. The senate also heard presentations from senator Patrick Nguyen and senator Jeremiah Boisrond to discuss bill SB 144-2, which was passed unanimously by the senate, changing the rules of open forum discussions that happens at the beginning of each USG senate meeting. 

In the advocacy liaison presentation, ElFarra said she wants them to focus on emphasizing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion while also incorporating a “belonging aspect.” 

“I really want to center [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging] in every conversation I have with them and just making sure that with any project that they have they’re emphasizing that belonging aspect,” ElFarra said.   

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ElFarra presented the advocacy liaisons and the meeting continued with the discussion of bill SB 144-2. Before the bill’s passage, the USG senate gave students three minutes maximum to deliver their public comments. Along with extended speaking time upon motion by a senator, the bill also allows the senate to vote and limit the number of comments during open forum, as well as allowing a senator to yield their time to answer questions to the appropriate individual.

Both Nguyen and Boisrond wrote on their bill that “the current structure of the open forum sessions places an undue burden on students seeking to voice their opinions and concerns.” Nguyen and Boisrond described the current rules as “limiting” and “confining.”

Boisrond said the old rules disadvantaged students, as they take time out of their night to come to the senate and are sometimes unable to finish delivering their thoughts. 

Boisrond said his eyes opened when it came to the hearing of senator Brandon Tavakoli, where the senate narrowly voted to receive and file a complaint against him, going as far as censure and removal proceedings. Boisrond said numerous students wanted to address their student representatives but could not do so due to the three-minute rule. 

SB 144-2 states that each individual commenting is limited to three minutes, but upon a motion by a senator, the senate may extend the individual’s speaking time if deemed appropriate. 

Nguyen, who previously worked as the First Generation Student Assembly advocacy liaison, said being a senator gives him the ability to enact organizational-wide changes that address issues he saw early on while working in USG. 

“As someone who saw the issues in the beginning,” Nguyen said. “I definitely want to take USG and spin it in a different way, where I can just implement things more rapidly …  rather than having to worry about their bureaucracies.”

Nguyen said sensitivity is important when making public comments. When individuals express public comments, different parties can get angered, and he wishes there was a better way, rather than bashing other groups, to make sure students are sharing the right things at the right time. 

Although he is making open forum a better platform in comparison to previous years, Nguyen thinks there should be a way to remove biases from USG officials. Nguyen also wants USG to prioritize students over the University administration.

“We’re here to serve the students, and if administration isn’t complying with what we want, that doesn’t necessarily mean we should listen to administration,” Nguyen said. “We should still focus on the students, and if the admin says no, that just means more opportunity for us to kind of rise up against that.”

Diana Carpio, a sponsor of the bill and speaker of the senate, is hopeful the bill will allow more students to be able to speak uninhibitedly at USG. 

“Hopefully it’s just a way to get more interaction between the student body and USG, because that’s our overall vision through the Bryan [Fernández] and Brianna [Sánchez] administration,” Carpio said. “As speaker of the senate, that’s what I’d like to see as well, is people [feeling] like USG is successful.”

Boisrond hopes that the open forum trial period, which will go from Aug. 26 to Oct. 29, will allow discussion to be more engaging, fruitful and uplifting. 

“If you see a resolution on the agenda, feel free to come to the senate and share your opinions,” Nguyen said. “I definitely recommend for students to come to us while we’re kind of learning on our own to come to students.”