The Undergraduate Student Government senate unanimously approved two bills at Tuesday night’s senate meeting that established Jewish and Muslim community advocacy liaisons. Senate bill 144-30, which created the Jewish community liaison, also recognized May as Jewish American Heritage Month. 

The senate also appointed the officers and directors for the 2025-26 legislative branch, communications department, funding department, judicial branch and programming department as well as the senate executive aide. After the meeting, incoming chief justice Ryan Tung swore in the 145th senate class which later approved its meeting rules. 

Senator Brandon Tavakoli, author of SB 144-30, said he made changes to the bill since its initial presentation at the April 15 senate meeting. Tavakoli said Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni will fund the stipend for any liaison nominated from the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and meet with the liaison regularly. 

“Today is not a vote on policy, it’s a vote on principle,” Tavakoli said. “It is a vote on what kind of institution we want to be.”

The senate also passed SB 144-36, which established the Muslim community liaison, with no changes. The bill amends the bylaws to create a Muslim community advocacy liaison and establishes a process for the Dean of ORSL to nominate additional liaisons.

“USG is all about representation, and I think this is a great first and now second step to try and get more communities equitably represented at USG,” said senator Jad Kilani, one of the bill’s authors.

The senate passed SB 144-38, a series of updates to the bylaws but voted down two amendments which would have included USG’s advisors from Student Life in the judicial council appeals process.

The senate also heard reports from chief of staff Sofia Coen, chief financial officer Chisom Obioha, chief diversity officer Yasmeen ElFarra and chief programming officer Hunter Black.

During her report, Obioha said USG utilized “100%” of its $2,525,184 budget this year. Black said the programming department used its full budget of roughly $1.3 million and held over 80 events.

ElFarra recapped the projects she has worked on this year including the implementation of an updated Land and Labor Acknowledgment, a diversity poll and menstrual products at the Trojan Food Pantry.

The senate heard a presentation from academic affairs chair and incoming vice president Emma Fallon about the projects the committee has worked on such as expanding study spaces, creating a list of the top 10 study spaces around campus and advocating for textbook affordability.

Tung swore in Jeremiah Boisrond, Sudeepta Murthy, Andrew Cardenas, Justin Shih, Sabeeh Mirza, Kilani, Kevin Hoang, Kian Salek, Dakota Driemeyer, Karim Debian, Zehran Muqtadir and Moy Valdez as senators for the following year. After their inauguration, they led their first senate meeting as the 145th senate.

Vice president Dane Sprague gave a speech to the senate Tuesday night before senators approved two bills, heard four officer reports, heard two presentations and heard two bylaw amendments.

“I just would like to say that it’s been the honor of my life thus far to serve as vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government,” Sprague said. “I think that we turned a tumultuous year into something that was very beneficial.”

Disclaimer: Andrew Cardenas currently serves as an assistant sports editor and Dakota Driemeyer was previously a podcast staff member at the Daily Trojan. Cardenas is not involved in coverage of the Undergraduate Student Government and Driemeyer is no longer on the staff.