In an email sent to the Undergraduate Student Government last week and obtained by the Daily Trojan, the University wrote that it will not reinstate the National Merit Scholarship to its original amount. The email was in response to senate bill 144-26, a USG senate resolution that called for USC to reinstate the National Merit Scholarship to its original amount.

Interim Vice President for Enrollment Management Timothy Brunold wrote that nearly 75% of USC’s National Merit Presidential Scholars have no demonstrated financial need. Brunold also wrote that they have historically been more likely to come from affluent backgrounds, have been less diverse in terms of ethnicity, socioeconomic status and first-generation college representation, and have been less likely to be Pell Grant recipients. 

“[USC’s peer institutions] recognize that standardized test-based designations alone do not fully capture a student’s academic or personal excellence,” Brunold wrote. “The new structure of this scholarship allows us to continue attracting top-tier students while making strategic adjustments to better align with our long-term financial aid goals.”

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Brunold wrote that this change applies only to future incoming classes beginning with the Fall 2025 class, and no current National Merit Presidential Scholars’ awards will be reduced.

Senators Jeremiah Boisrond and Ali Bhatti, who co-wrote SB 144-26, said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the Tuesday night meeting that they wish USC was more transparent in its decision to remain firm on reducing the National Merit Scholarship amount .

“I think it’s a shame that they’re cutting scholarships because that’s not something you want to be cutting as an elite institution,” Bhatti said.

Boisrond said while he is appreciative that administrators are now transparent in their reasoning for reducing the scholarship amount, now, he wishes they were more transparent when the announcement was initially made on Dec. 23.

Given the scholarship reduction, Bhatti said he hopes to implement a financial aid advisory committee to discuss financial changes with the University.

Also at Tuesday night’s senate meeting, USG senator and president-elect Mikaela Bautista announced that her administration’s 2025-26 executive cabinet application is open.

The senate also heard a presentation from senator Seva Raman, where she provided updates on her projects, including Center for Excellence in Teaching roundtable discussions, her textbook affordability initiative and a commuter experience survey.

CET works with professors to make sure their classrooms are inclusive and their teaching is conducive to student learning. The February roundtable discussion topic was textbook affordability and March’s was inclusion in the classroom.

Raman said her textbook affordability initiative was previously a stipend project but has now shifted into advocating for affordable textbooks by contacting professors directly.

“We’ve pivoted to a more broad textbook affordability initiative,” Raman said. “It’s a form where you put the names of courses or professors that have required super expensive textbooks, and we’ll send an email that’s more constructive rather than accusatory.”

Raman said the commuter experience survey has been posted on social media, but she is still hoping for more responses.

“The last step for the start of this project, essentially, will be a meeting with USC Transportation to see how we can combat the expensive cost of commuting to USC,” Raman said.