The Undergraduate Student Government senate heard presentations Tuesday night about incorporating artificial intelligence across campus, increasing hours in study spaces and implementing an open-door policy in the USG office. 

During open forum, the USG senate also heard from a recent graduate, who identified themself as JJ, who asked USG to join a student coalition across the nine universities that received  President Donald Trump’s “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” USG senators did not respond during the meeting.

In president Mikaela Bautista’s presentation, she talked about the progress of the platform that she and vice president Emma Fallon ran on, which included meetings with University administrators to discuss their initiative to expand students’ access to ChatGPT Plus. She also said that she is working on an AI open forum, set to take place in mid-November. The open forum will take place separately from the University’s AI Summit, which will be held on November 11. 

“We really want to get an accurate student pulse of how they feel about AI at the University level, as well as postgrad,” Bautista said. 

In his presentation, speaker of the senate Jeremiah Boisrond said USG hired 16 new senate aides. He also described progress on expanding housing resources with the Gould School of Law’s Housing Law and Policy Clinic, providing more legal resources to the student body, and the possibility of extending campus entrance and Trojan Grounds hours. 

Boisrond said USG will begin conversations with USC Transportation about extending the Watt Way and Exposition Boulevard gate’s hours until 10 p.m. The University shortened entrance hours from a 24 hours model to a 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. window, starting Aug. 1.

In his presentation, senator Moy Valdez said he has completed his project to create an open-door policy for USG, which would allow students to visit USG offices at any given time. The new policy is intended to “promote productive interaction between students and USG officers,” according to the 2025-26 USG office manual. 

He said he has met with University administrators and is  collaborating with Gould’s Immigrant Legal Assistance Center to support efforts to create a center for undocumented students. He said he is also exploring pathways to expand basic need support for students. 

Senator Karim Debian said he met with University Advancement to advance his project to create a scholarship for students studying Middle Eastern studies, languages and culture.

The senate also unanimously passed senate bill 145-08, which would recognize California’s special election day as a USG holiday, canceling USG’s senate meeting and office hours on Nov. 4. Boisrond said the day off would help promote voter engagement and voter turnout among students.