On Tuesday night, the Undergraduate Student Government senate heard presentations from  senator Patrick Nguyen, senator Jackalyn Karamanougian, external affairs committee chair Karen Borglund and accessibility committee chair Izzy Del Gaudio.

During his presentation, Nguyen said he completed a project to provide transparency on financial aid call wait times that is set to begin this fall. Nguyen said he found out the Financial Aid Office was understaffed after conversations with the office. 

Nguyen said the Financial Aid Office is also working on implementing an artificial intelligence chatbot that would answer questions on the Financial Aid website to reduce calls and wait times. 

“We got to work with the engineers and [information technology] services to implement a solution,” Nguyen said. “They actually tested the solution last October of changing the messaging when you call the financial office to ‘Your average wait time is going to be under X amount of minutes.’”

Nguyen said he met with the Office of Basic Needs Director Devon Hernandez and coordinator Natalie Sin to create the clothing donation drive with Tommy’s Closet and the Sustainability Hub that occurred last week. 

Nguyen also recapped the first-generation leadership summit he and his senate aides spearheaded Feb. 21. They invited six alumni to talk to about 40 students about what it means to be a first-generation student and a leader on campus. 

“I created the first-gen leadership summit as an opportunity to have first-gen students meet the people that have already graduated and gone through the challenges of what it means to be [a] first-gen student on campus,” Nguyen said. 

Nguyen also said he completed a revamped USG project tracker and a revamped senate Instagram account. 

Karamanougian also recapped her three largest USG projects, including Leavey Library accessibility seating, Tutor Campus Center and Seeds mobile ordering wait times, and Office of Student Accessibility Services, Kortschak Center for Learning and Creativity, and USG and Graduate Student Government workshops that foster an inclusive and supportive academic environment.

Karamanougian said she completed the Leavey Library priority seating project she has been working on for two years as of two weeks ago. The project established priority seating for students with mobility needs in Leavey Library and ensured ethical access to study spaces.

“It is really nice to have such a big project come full circle in only two years,” Karamanougian said.

Karamanougian is currently working on a project that implements a “real-time wait time display” on the TCC mobile-ordering system. She said USC Hospitality is interested in pursuing this project.

Borglund also provided a report on her committee’s completed spring projects such as the South Central mural at Dulce project, Beyond the System panel discussion with four formerly incarcerated individuals, Los Angeles wildfire panel discussion with firefighters and her project in progress, a field day with Alliance Richard Merkin Middle School. 

“I’ve loved being the [external affairs] committee chair and, again, my [general members] were amazing,” Borglund said.

Del Gaudio said the accessibility committee has worked on a variety of projects, including the creation of a USG accessibility logo. The new logo is the USG torch with an infinity symbol with the disability flag colors wrapped around it.

Del Gaudio said that they rescheduled an accessible yoga class taught by a neurodivergent yoga teacher originally during Wellness Week to April 15. She also introduced the current Panhellenic Council and USG accessibility committee project that looks at new ways for the Panhellenic sorority rush process to be more inclusive.