New USG leadership takes form at senate
During the meeting the new president, vice president and two senators were sworn in.
By SEAN CAMPBELL
The Undergraduate Student Government overhauled its leadership Tuesday night as a new president, vice president, speaker of the senate, affordability and basic needs committee chair, and two new senators took office at the senate meeting.
Former vice president Brianna Sánchez was sworn in as president after Bryan Fernández announced his resignation from the position Nov. 21. Sánchez said her administration will focus on “continuity and progress” toward USG’s goals during a “period of change” in a press release earlier Tuesday.
“As we transition in leadership, I want to reaffirm our team’s commitment to the USG mission, with a strong focus on advocacy, representation, and programming to support and engage the student body,” Sánchez wrote.
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Following the removal of former speaker of the senate Diana Carpio on Nov. 19, the remaining senators participated in a secret ballot vote to elect a new speaker of the senate — who immediately became vice president — and then elected the speaker of the senate.
Former senator Dane Sprague was sworn in as vice president at the senate meeting following the vote that concluded Monday. During the meeting, Sprague mentioned his work on bills allowing committees to create temporary commissions and supporting instituting a mandatory sustainability module for incoming students.
In his report to the senate, Sprague said he wants to ensure USG is able to hit the ground running and deliver on promises they have already made to the student body.
Senator Elija Barnes took over as speaker of the senate. In the Tuesday press release, Barnes said he wants to “bring unity” to the 144th USG senate and uplift the voices of the other 11 senators.
“I really want to make sure that senate has the best ability to create change in any way, shape or form … and that we are able to provide the promises and change the impactful experience for every single student here at USC,” Barnes said during the meeting.
Barnes presented his projects, including an involvement fair restructure and an end-of-year event to give back to USC staff.
With both Carpio and Sprague leaving the senate, Jad Kilani and Sydney White — the next highest placing finishers — after Tanisha Saraff was disqualified for disregarding sanctions she received for election rule violations — in the Sept.18-20 special election — were sworn in.
Kilani, a freshman majoring in political science, received 162 votes in the special election, while White, a junior majoring in cinematic arts, film and television production, earned 158. Another candidate, Aidan van Dijk, received the same number of votes as White — the fourth-place finisher — so the senate held a secret ballot vote to determine who would take the seat, according to Sánchez.
As the only freshman senator, Kilani said he wants to involve the perspectives of other freshmen in USG and focus on the transparency, collaboration and representation principles on which he ran his campaign.
“I’m just honored to have this chance to represent my peers,” Kilani said in an interview with the Daily Trojan after the meeting. “I’ll definitely be focusing on emphasizing [freshman] voices and ensuring that freshmen aren’t neglected in the decisions that [USG makes].”
White, who served as an executive aide to 2023-24 chief diversity officer Kaleb Stephens, said she is looking forward to continuing Carpio’s laundry stipend project and the revitalization of a restaurant crawl project she participated in during her freshman year.
White said because of her short time in the senate, she will try to “jump on” other senators’ projects to get things done.
During the meeting, Shrinidhi Sriram, a freshman majoring in philosophy, politics and law, was confirmed as the new AFFBN committee chair. Sriram previously served as the interim chair following former AFFBN chair Klarissa Palacios’ resignation Nov. 12 after being removed and later reinstated by a judicial appeal.
Sriram said she wants to focus on Tommy’s Closet — an event that provides 2,000 thrifted clothing pieces to USC students that cannot afford clothes, a Free Application for Federal Student Aid workshop to keep students up-to-date on changes to the platform and the establishment of work-study alternatives for international students.
The senate unanimously approved SB 144-20, which allocated $3,350 of legislative funding to a Buddhist Shrine Room at the University Religious Center. The grand opening is set for Feb. 21, senator Patrick Nguyen said while presenting the bill. He also said it was the first Buddhist space implemented on campus.
“As a Buddhist student myself, it is a big hassle for me to travel off campus to visit temples that are not accessible if you don’t have a car,” Nguyen said. “Having this space on campus would allow me to practice my religion freely without any transportation or cost, and it also creates a lot of visibility for Buddhist students on campus as well.”
SB 144-23, which allocated $1,891 of legislative funding to Wellness Week — an annual event aimed at promoting wellness resources at USC run by Student Health and USG’s wellness affairs committee along with other partnering groups — and SB 144-24, which allocated $10,000 to a shuttle from LAX to USC over winter break and $2,000 as funding for roundtable discussions, were approved unanimously. A full reallocation will occur over winter break, Sánchez said.
During their meeting, senators passed SB 144-22 to remove a shortened funding application cycle introduced due to delays to the recognized student organization applications earlier in the semester, expand the time funding applications are open to Monday and Wednesday rather than only Wednesday and remove a four-event limit per RSO.
In her report, chief financial officer Chisom Obioha said utilization of funding during the fall semester was down, likely due to the RSO delays.
Chief programming officer Hunter Black presented SB 144-21 that, if passed, would amend USG’s bylaws to incorporate the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly. Black said the assembly’s incorporation passed the programming vote of confidence last week with only one dissenting vote out of 33 and encouraged the senate to pass the bill when it comes to a vote.
“The work I’ve seen with UTSA has been very stellar this year,” Black said. “The directors … [have] been doing an amazing job, and they are extremely passionate for the work of serving the undocumented plus community and making sure that their voices are heard on campus.”
Chief diversity officer Yasmeen ElFarra reported that USG’s internal diversity poll among officers found a 4.03% increase in students of color and a 7.7% increase in LGBTQ+ students on staff in the organization compared to the 2023-24 academic year.
When asked about underrepresented groups in USG, ElFarra said freshmen and sophomores are underrepresented as officers in USG, making up 35.6% of respondents. ElFarra said she would suggest ways to improve underclassman representation to the 2025-26 CDO.
“Fresh perspective[s are] what keeps USG rolling,” ElFarra said. “Ensuring that we have a lot of lower classmen that are coming into the org really excited to pursue projects that they’re passionate about is really important.”
