The Undergraduate Student Government senate passed a resolution that recognized October as Disability Awareness Month Tuesday night.

Chief justice Susanna Andryan swore in senators-elect John Breitfelder and Ali Bhatti — who were announced as the winners of USG’s special election last week —  at the start of the meeting. 

USG’s accessibility committee chair Izzy Del Gaudio and senators Jackalyn Karamanougian and Brandon Tavakoli wrote senate bill 144-09. 

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“This resolution serves not only as an institutional step forward, but as a celebration for our students with invisible and visible disabilities,” Del Gaudio said. “We want every student to know that they are valued and their presence matters, and their journey is really important to us.”

Karamanougian said the committee had found “significant gaps” in accessibility on campus, including infrastructure, websites, and access to academic and social opportunities, which prompted the creation of the bill.

“While we have policies and services in place, students with disabilities are still facing barriers,” Karamanougian said. “This resolution [is] a step forward in adjusting these gaps and to voice your commitment to accessibility by acknowledging our students regardless of their ability.”

On top of recognizing Disability Awareness Month, the bill calls for other student organizations to incorporate disability awareness and accessibility initiatives into their programming throughout the year.

Another part of the resolution “encourages” USC President Carol Folt to issue an annual, formal statement during October recognizing the contributions of Trojans with disabilities and outlining future plans to improve accessibility in the future.

It also calls on the University to display a student-created graphic commemorating Disability Awareness Month. The design is currently in an approval process and should be on display by next week, Karamanougian said.

During the meeting, senator Seva Raman presented on projects including the institution of an academic inclusion council to improve academic diversity in USG.

“There’s not that much diversity in terms of academics at USG, there’s a lot of public policy, pre-law, political science,” Raman said. “A lot of the needs of students who are in other schools don’t really get heard.”

The council will meet monthly under USG’s academic affairs committee and give students a chance to express concerns in a focused and collaborative environment, according to a presentation shown during the meeting.

Raman also said she is working on creating a Center for Excellence in Teaching advisory board that will give students a chance to work directly with USC’s CET — a resource for professors to improve their teaching through trainings and other services. The proposal is undergoing final approval to allow all students to attend the advisory board meetings.

Also going through the approval process is a textbook stipend project that will provide 15 $500 stipends, with priority given to those with financial need.

Speaker of the senate Diana Carpio said she is working on bringing back a laundry stipend project that she piloted last year during announcements.

“[The stipend’s] goal was to meet the needs of students who might need more laundry accessibility and affordability,” Carpio said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the meeting. “If USG can provide that, then that’s something that I really [want] to focus on.” 

While the project currently targets high-need students, the goal is to promote laundry accessibility for all USC students, Carpio said.

In the 2023-24 school year, 60 students received stipends of around $30 out of 364 applications, according to Carpio. This year, she wants to make the stipend last the entire year rather than following the semester-long model from last year’s project. The goal is to approximately double the award amount given per person, she said.

Carpio met with USC Housing and the Financial Aid Office to create a smoother process, in addition to getting a financial contribution from the Residential Housing Association, that increases the amount of funds that can be awarded.