USG discusses Ukrainian student support

Senators Arie Abija and Diego Andrades introduced a senate resolution in support of Ukrainian students at Tuesday’s Undergraduate Student Government meeting, asking that USC and USG stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian student community to provide them with tangible and coordinated support and resources.

In the resolution, Abija and Andrades ask for support and accommodations, including extending virtual accommodations, extending the Pass/No Pass deadline through May 20, and increasing the Pass/No Pass threshold to 32 units. 

They also call for USC Financial Services to waive late fees and extend payment deadlines, the Engemann Student Health Center to provide expedited mental health services and for the University to release another public statement in support of the Ukrainian student community. 

“We knew that something tangible needed to happen,” Abija said. “So, we started looking at the comments of Instagram posts and reached out to those students to just ask what they needed.” 

USG also approved a funding proposal for the ROTC Aviation Career Opportunity and a senate resolution to make election day a non-instructional day. 

At the start of the meeting, chief financial officer Adenike Makinde gave funding updates, stating that the Green Engagement Fund is being used for three groups — Trojan Charge, The Great South Central Sale and USC Gardening Club — for their end-of-the-year projects. The social innovation fund will also be used in collaboration with Tilt, a project incubator program that will provide space to encourage youth to start their projects, and Leda Health to provide resources and healing circles for sexual assault survivors. 

Speaker of the senate Tommy Nguyen also shared his projects including the incorporations of the Middle Eastern North African Student Association and Military Associated Student Association, and creating resolutions for VoteSC, Support for Ukraine, OT100, Commuter Hub and Faculty Salary Raises to Cost of Living. 

Nguyen said there was an excess of $30,526 in executive and legislative funding, which the branches are slowly spending through funding proposals such as SuitUp SC, a project to provide free business attire for 50 students that demonstrate financial need, and Art Therapy, an event to create a community for sexual assault survivors.

“We’re looking forward to zeroing out that budget for this year,” Nguyen said. “I’m very excited about funding projects.”

VoteSC introduced a senate resolution at last week’s meeting to have Election Day be a non-instructional day for federal elections. The organization believes that the implementation of the holiday will allow USC to become a voter-friendly campus that encourages voter turnout and civic engagement among the student body.

“Voting should be a celebration, not a chore,” VoteSC vice president Hannah Franco said.

VoteSC is working in partnership with Unruh Associates, Trojan Democrats and Political Student Assembly. They look to also begin working in collaboration with cultural student assemblies and USC GOP.

The resolution was unanimously approved. 

Senator Brian Stowe introduced a new funding proposal at last week’s meeting, asking for $7,500 for the ROTC Aviation Career Opportunity to fund five $1,500 scholarships to provide five to seven flight hours for students to be competitive candidates to become pilots, allowing them to move into the second bracket when applying. 

To qualify, students must be cadets demonstrating a strong desire to fly, have zero flying hours, demonstrate financial need and have an aptitude to fly. Selected students will receive this funding as credit at Pacific Skies Aviation to complete instruction with a certified instructor. 

“It’s extremely important that people have the opportunity to at least build some flight time before and when they’re in the Air Force ROTC program,” Stowe said. “There’s a lack of accessibility to it, so if we can do anything that we can to enhance the accessibility to that, I think it’s an extremely good opportunity that we need to take.”

The funding proposal was approved unanimously. 

“I’m very happy that it was approved, very happy for the support that we got from the other senators,” Stowe said. “It will be a one-time opportunity, [but] ideally, there’ll be a future partnership between the University and the Air Force ROTC program to fund opportunities like this every year.”

Andrades also introduced a $3,500 funding proposal out of the legislative fund to pilot a program to provide 3,500 fentanyl test strips and distribute them in collaboration with Trojan Awareness Combating Overdose, a registered student organization and 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to preventing drug overdose-related deaths. 

“There is a need for drug safety measures in our community,” Andrades said. “Since TACO was founded, there haven’t been [overdose-related] deaths. While TACO might not be the direct cause of this decrease … there have been a lot of students using their resources.”  

This funding proposal and the resolution to support Ukrainian students will be voted on at the next senate meeting.