USG holds first meeting of the semester

The Undergraduate Student Government held its first senate meeting of the semester Tuesday night, where speaker of the senate Alvaro Flores shared this semester’s mission: increasing senate visibility by holding weekly tabling events on Trousdale Parkway, streamlining resources to be more accessible for students and successfully implementing additional projects. 

Senator Maria Barun announced her work continuing former senator Diego Andrades’ project of trying to integrate the USC ID card to the Apple Wallet. 

“Apple is all good on their side and is ready to help us integrate,” Barun said. “We’re currently working with USCard services… and I would like to say that this can be implemented by the end of the semester.”

Senators Yoav Gillath, Divya Jakatdar and Michelle Lu have also been working on bringing halal and kosher options to USC. The University officially endorsed the Jewish advisory committee’s recommendations for bringing kosher foods to the dining hall Tuesday.

“There are a lot of people with dietary restrictions that have a very difficult time finding healthy and affordable food on campus,” Jakatdar said. “Mental and physical well-being is difficult to secure without proper and available food.”

Senators Sanjana Sambhwani and Navya Singh are also working on opening a 24-hour dining option on campus.

“Personally, this idea originated from last year as someone who studied very late in libraries,” Singh said. “Insomnia Cookies didn’t open in the Village until later through the spring semester, so that idea stayed in the back of my head.” 

USG also plans to be more outward facing, and wants to help other students pitch their own projects.

“Ask not what USC can do for you, but what you can do for USC,” Flores said. “I really would encourage the student body to come to us with all kinds of project proposals because we’re here to help you.” 

During the meeting, advocacy liaison Taylor Clanton, a senior majoring in public policy, asked about USG’s plans in regards to students who say that USG is not doing anything. 

“When someone’s drowning, I’m going be ready to go out and help,” Gillath said. “I think that’s what our senate is going to try to do, to try and be very action oriented, and we’re going to try and actually get out there and help people.” 

Following up, USG legislative aide for external affairs Bradley Furgerson, a senior majoring in neuroscience and East Asian languages and cultures, asked about what efforts USG will be making to bring in students that don’t fall under the USG umbrella, as most senate meeting attendees are members of USG. 

“There’s a reason why students aren’t reaching out to us and that means that we’re unapproachable and inaccessible,” president Hannah Woodworth said. “So we’re going to do qualitative interviews… we want to find and track measurable data as to why this is happening.” 

Jakatdar also said that they plan to approach professors to ask if they can give a short speech about what USG is in their classes. 

Prior to this discussion, vice president Nivea Krishnan started the meeting with the organization’s first land acknowledgment.

Three elections commissioner candidates, David Mkrtchian, a senior majoring in economics; Jane Lee, a senior majoring in journalism; and Candice Lee, a sophomore majoring in philosophy, politics and law and data science, were unanimously approved.

“My mission as an elections commissioner is to create a welcoming environment where all students of USC can feel a safe place to make their voices heard,” Jane said. “I hope to be a part of an inclusive and diverse body of members with the goal of helping all USC students.”

The senate unanimously approved Courtney Azari, a senior majoring in political science, as the chief justice of the judicial council,  and Rianna Rios, a senior majoring in public policy, as the senior executive aide. 

Flores gave a recap on what USG covered during their summer meetings in the inter-semester meeting reporting, which included appointing the programming committees, introducing and approving the budget and amending their constitution and bylaws.

A previous version of this article stated that Courtney Azari is a junior. Azari is a senior. The Daily Trojan regrets this error.