The Undergraduate Student Government senate met virtually Tuesday night to confirm the First Generation Student Union as the First Generation Student Assembly.

The senate also heard a presentation from Committee on Sustainability and Campus Infrastructure chair Sara Stienecker about USG’s Thanksgiving break shuttle service to Los Angeles International Airport. Steinecker said 162 of 392 shuttle seats were filled on Saturday and 510 of 616 seats were filled on Sunday. She also confirmed that USG will be running a shuttle service from LAX to USC on the Saturday and Sunday before the end of winter break.

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Stienecker said USG will work to address difficulties in finding the shuttle departure location by including photos of the location in fliers for winter break shuttles. She also said USG had made use of GroupMe for students to communicate where shuttles were along their route.

Vice president Michelle Lu asked Stienecker about some students who had not been able to find a shuttle that worked with their flight. 

“With this winter break service run I’m hoping to publish the interest form and then gather that and then make the reservation instead of doing it kind of flip-flopped,” Stienecker said. “The majority of students were coming in on Sunday and Monday, but we weren’t able to put buses on Monday because we didn’t have an existing reservation.”

The senate also heard from speaker of the senate Rudra Saigal on his projects for the year. Saigal said he was working with Committee on Accessibility Affairs chair Karina Patel on a project to expand the Disabled Access to Road Transportation. The program provides golf cart transport across campus for individuals with mobility issues. 

He said USG is circulating a survey to determine how extending the hours or extending into the Fryft program area might affect students.

Saigal said he is also working with USC Student Health, the International Student Assembly and Academic Culture Assembly on a workshop about navigating healthcare for Wellness Week Feb. 12 through Feb. 16.

Additionally, USG voted unanimously to confirm FGSA as a programming assembly. The FGSA began the process to become a programming assembly in Fall 2022, but was not able to begin its trial in Spring 2023 because of budgeting issues.

“First-gen students make up a large population of universities all across the U.S. and the world in general,” said Celine De Villa, FGSA co-executive director. “I really hope that this not only boosts their confidence, but also makes them feel that they do have a community that understands them and is advocating for them.”

Upon FGSA being incorporated, the senate automatically amended the budget for Spring 2024 to allocate $8,000 to the Assembly, an increase from its budget of $5,000 as a trial assembly.

With the increased budget, FGSA hopes to host a first-generation graduation in the spring.

“We really do hope that, after we host our first ever first-gen grad, this becomes part of graduation culture and part of graduation tradition, that the First [Generation] Student Assembly no longer has to be the one hosting this, but it just becomes part of USC’s values and mission to provide to all of the graduates,” DeVilla said.

The senate also appointed Britney Zhou to serve as co-executive director of the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment, Alexis Campos to serve as co-executive director of the Transfer Student Assembly and Madeline Clara Cheng to serve as assistant director of the Performing Arts Committee.

USG will appoint an assistant director to the Latine Student Assembly at its special session Friday at 5 p.m.

USG will host a special election this week to fill senate seats being vacated by Jake Zober, Andrea Velazquez Sanchez and McKayla Dorantes. Voting among undergraduates will occur Wednesday and Thursday. 

USG will also announce the results of this week’s special election at the special session and seat the new senators.