On Tuesday night, the Undergraduate Student Government senate heard presentations from sustainability and campus infrastructure committee chair Troy Nevil about USG’s airport shuttle service and from senator Heydy Vasquez about her Buddhist shrine room projects.

In his presentation, Nevil said USG’s return shuttle service from the Los Angeles International Airport to USC at the end of winter break saved students an estimated $30,000 — assuming an average price of $41 per ride, which is the estimated price for an average length trip to LAX.

Nevil said ticket sales increased this year with 1,052 of the 1,315 available seats getting claimed by students and 776 being filled from Jan. 11 to 12. Nevil attributed the increase to consistent communication with students and bus drivers and more flexible time slots. 

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“There was a lot that could have gone wrong, and in previous years it did, from there being other unprecedented traffic at LAX or construction, but in the end, we were all able to give over 750 students free transportation, which is amazing,” Nevil said.

Nevil said some students who claimed seats but did not use the service had travel delays that led to them missing the shuttle. He said the other unfilled seats were likely due to the service being free and there being no penalty for not making the bus.

Nevil said his committee will meet with USC Transportation to see if the department will take over the shuttle going from LAX to USC, similar to how the University carried on USG’s initial efforts toward the shuttle from USC to LAX.

Nevil also presented a textbook donation drive and Facilities, Planning & Management service request form projects, which he said require additional steps to be implemented.

Nevil said a resolution supporting a sustainability graduation requirement will be introduced at the Jan. 28 meeting. He said the intent of the requirement is to be implemented into other general education requirements, rather than serving as an additional category. 

“In the wake of these wildfires and a lot of other things going on in the world, we’re very aware that climate change is really real and dire,” Nevil said. “Our sort of mission with that requirement is just to ensure that when students come into USC, by the time they leave, they really have a good grasp of how sustainability pertains to either their eventual career path or what they’re currently majoring in.”

Vasquez presented her Buddhist Shrine Room project. The shrine is expected to open to USC students Feb. 21 in the University Religious Center. Vasquez said she anticipates the room to be open to the public by the end of the year. 

“Budhhist students on campus don’t have much visibility and don’t really have anywhere to pray and really just practice a religion, which really does pose a barrier,” Vasquez said. “There’s different images of Buddhism. Just because there’s a Buddhist temple by campus, it doesn’t mean that it is accessible to other students who practice different images of Buddhism.”

Vionna Huang, the advocacy liaison for the International Student Assembly, said the shrine will include only deities that appear in all divisions of Buddhism and display only dates present in all divisions to include all Buddhist students on campus. 

In an interview after the senate’s meeting, chief justice Susanna Andryan said candidates for the presidential and vice-presidential race, as well as the senatorial races, will “hopefully” be announced within the next week. The debates will take place Feb. 11 in The Forum while the voting period will take place from Feb. 18 to 21. 

Disclaimer: Heydy Vasquez is an opinion staff writer for the Daily Trojan. She is not involved in any coverage of USG meetings.