Legislative Branch
Who We Are
The Legislative Branch of USG is the representative and decision-making body for undergraduate students, charged with staying in close contact with key administrators and students about important issues. This branch consists of Speaker of the Senate, 12 senators, 6 Standing Committees, and the advocacy liaisons. Their work is supported by the Parliamentary Secretary, Legislative Aides, and Senate Aides. Together, they represent the interests of undergraduate students and create solutions to problems that represent a middle ground between students, staff, faculty, and the community.
Our Leaders
How to Join Us
Come to a Senate meeting! We meet every Tuesday at 7pm in TCC 450.
Come to one of our six committee meetings: Academic Affairs, Accessibility, Affordability & Basic Needs, External Affairs, Sustainability & Campus Infrastructures, and Wellness Affairs
Legislative Branch Project Tracker
See 2023-24 Legislative projects and latest work!
| Committee | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senate | Transparency on USC Financial Aid Wait Time for Phone Calls | An edit to the voicemail system of the USC office of financial aid, which implements a call back system so students do not have to wait on hold for extremely long periods of time. | Finished survey to be shared with students. Drafted email to send to IT inquiring about call-back systems at the University. | In Progress | Senator Velazquez | andreav6@usc.edu | Brianna Sanchez | 9/13/23 |
| Wellness | Naloxone Access Expansion | Opioid overdose is on the rise, especially among college students. As of now, naloxone education is limited since students need to approach programs in order to learn how to administer naloxone. | Met with Student Health Team (Dr. Van Ormen, Minne Ho, Broderick Leaks) to gauge interest and they were highly supportive. | In Progress | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Wellness Committee | 8/22/23 |
| Legislative | Laundry Stipend | While current USC housing students have $25 allocated to their accounts for printing services, many have expressed they could better maximize those funds on laundry services. This project would encourage flexibility for USC housing students to use these funds for printing, laundry, or split between both. | Emails sent to Housing, ResEd, and any other stakeholders & google forms sent to advocacy liaisons to gather data from students | In Progress | Aneri Narayan & Diana Carpio | dcarpio@usc.edu, arnaraya@usc.edu | Patrick Nguyen, Yasmeen EIFarra, Lydia Constantian | 9/13/23 |
| Accessibility | Therapy Expansion | We want to make the therapy process easier, whether that involves extending the current number of free sessions from 5 to 8-10, reducing the wait time/creating more available appointments, or ideally partnering with a third party provider (ex. Lyra) for additional sessions. | research on USC therapy options | In Progress | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | kmpatel@usc.edu | 9/3/2023 | |
| Accessibility | OSAS Roundtable | In order to better devise solutions for differently abled students at USC, we want to create a forum in which students express their concerns and are able to connect with staff to make a difference. We want to provide a safe outlet for students to meet OSAS administrators, get questions answered, and advocate for pressing change. | contacted OSAS staff | In Progress | Julianna Melendez | jjmelend@usc.edu | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | 9/3/2023 |
| Accessibility | Sharps Disposal | For students with diabetes or other health conditions, they have no proper destination to dispose of needles or other sharps, causing an increased hazard to them and others. We want to implement separate sharps disposal containers into on-campus bathrooms in class buildings and residential hall communal bathrooms. | contacted HAZMAT director | In Progress | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | kmpatel@usc.edu | 9/3/2023 | |
| Academic Affairs | ofCourse Support | ofCourse is a student run organization currently building their own web registration interface that includes ability to upload past syllabuses for classes you have taken, leaving peer reviews (that are verified and align with interface guidelines), and a seat check which alerts a student to open seats in a class they would like to attend that is currently full. | Thus far ofCourse has built the bones of the interface and continues to work on the programming weekly. I have met with both the President and the Treasure to discuss their monetary needs and goals for funding. | In Progress | Kate Ariathurai | kariathu@usc.edu | Kate Ariathurai, Senator Zober, Senator Speier | 9/5/23 |
| Wellness | Welcome Back Wellness Fair | This fair, similar to Wellness Day, will be on Sep 19, 2023 and consist of wellness-based RSOs to table. Here, they will talk about their mission and what they offer for students. | Finished all TES paperwork and approvals, USC Hillel is providing chairs, tables, and tents. | In Progress | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Rudra Saigal, Emilia Bletsas, Wellness Committee | 9/5/23 |
| Wellness | Student Health Fee (SHF) Promotion | Working to create materials that demonstrate what the Student Health Fee provides and social media promotion of these resources can expose these benefits to the greater student body. | The Student Health team was able to create reusable flyers for USG events that show the benefits of the Student Health Fee. Mustafa and Brianna filmed a Q&A style video that will be posted Sep 5, 2023 that will promote Student Health tabling at the Farmer’s Market. | Completed | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Mustafa Ali Khan, Emilia Bletsas, Rudra Saigal | 9/5/23 |
| Wellness | Wellness Week | Wellness Week is a week-long event that will be held February 12th-16th in partnership with Student Health. Wellness-related RSOs and assemblies will table and/or lead workshops/sessions on topics such as mindfulness, fitness, stress management, etc. | Met with Student Health Reps. and they expressed support for the event. | In Progress | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Rudra Saigal, Emilia Bletsas, Wellness Committee | 9/5/23 |
| NASA | Tongva Land History TrojanLearn Module | This project will create a module on TrojanLearn that Freshmen will need to take during their first semester, similar to the Sexual Assault Prevention module that is necessary to be taken first semester. | Discussed project idea with NASA E-Board as well as the CDO in order to find people to reach out to. | In Progress | Zidane Zamorano | zzamoran@usc.edu | 9/12 | |
| QuASA | Queer Resources Visibility Improvement | Improve accessibility to queer resources by, firstly, establishing and promoting the Queer Advocacy Committee within QuASA to get more students involved in queer advocacy, and possibly working with the LGBTQ+ Student Center to reach a greater audience. | In Progress | Isabel Jasper, Hulbert Dang | ijasper@usc.edu | 9/18/23 | ||
| QuASA | Gender Inclusive Housing Improvement | Use student input and increase involvement to improve the university’s approach to offering gender-inclusive housing options, which would entail improving visibility of these options to students applying to housing, improvement of roommate questionnaires, and possible expansion of gender-inclusive housing. | Formulation of a survey, research conducted about current status and plans for gender-inclusive housing in administration. | In Progress | Isabel Jasper, Hulbert Dang | ijasper@usc.edu | 9/18/23 | |
| LSA | South LA x Village | This project will advocate for a community organization/restaurant like South LA Cafe to have a space in the village. The implementation of a community organization could be the first step to having a proper, accessible space for South Central residents and low-income students. | Met with Vincent Cisneros on Tuesday 9/12 and discussed prior confusion over requirements to become a vendor at the village. | In Progress | Kiana Amaya, Vincent Cisneros | vrcisner@usc.edu, kamaya@usc.edu | External Affairs Committee | 9/18/23 |
| Committee | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
| Senate | Transparency on USC Financial Aid Wait Time for Phone Calls | An edit to the voicemail system of the USC office of financial aid, which implements a call back system so students do not have to wait on hold for extremely long periods of time. | Contacted IT for information. Sent survey to GSG to distribute with their students, helping us see if this problem affects them as well. | In Progress | Senator Velazquez | andreav6@usc.edu | Brianna Sanchez | 9/22/23 |
| Legislative | Laundry Stipend | While current USC housing students have $25 allocated to their accounts for printing services, many have expressed they could better maximize those funds on laundry services. This project would encourage flexibility for USC housing students to use these funds for printing, laundry, or split between both. | Emails sent to Housing, ResEd, and any other stakeholders & google forms sent to advocacy liaisons to gather data from students | In Progress | Aneri Narayan & Diana Carpio | dcarpio@usc.edu, arnaraya@usc.edu | Patrick Nguyen, Yasmeen EIFarra, Lydia Constantian | 9/13/23 |
| Senate | Student Art on Campus | I would like to incorporate more student art across campus. As a starter project, University Religious and Spiritual Affairs would like to have a mural in their new RestSC space, and I would like to recruit student artists to help design and paint the space. For future projects, I'd like to implement a similar model to have student artists create artwork for common spaces across campus (i.e. libraries) that can be hung up/put up and taken down every few months. | Traded email correspondence with Josh Kun, who is running the initiative to curate more student art on campus - in the process of becoming a student rep on the project | In Progress | Halle Schaffer | hmschaff@usc.edu | Divya Jakatdar | 9/6/2023 |
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| Category (write Committee Name) | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
| Accessibility | Therapy Expansion | We want to make the therapy process easier, whether that involves extending the current number of free sessions from 5 to 8-10, reducing the wait time/creating more available appointments, or ideally partnering with a third party provider (ex. Lyra) for additional sessions. | research on USC therapy options | In Progress | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | kmpatel@usc.edu | Arrianah Galvin, Sea Gira | 9/3/2023 |
| Accessibility | OSAS Roundtable | In order to better devise solutions for differently abled students at USC, we want to create a forum in which students express their concerns and are able to connect with staff to make a difference. We want to provide a safe outlet for students to meet OSAS administrators, get questions answered, and advocate for pressing change. | contacted OSAS staff | In Progress | Julianna Melendez | jjmelend@usc.edu | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | 9/3/2023 |
| Accessibility | Sharps Disposal | For students with diabetes or other health conditions, they have no proper destination to dispose of needles or other sharps, causing an increased hazard to them and others. We want to implement separate sharps disposal containers into on-campus bathrooms in class buildings and residential hall communal bathrooms. | contacted HAZMAT director | In Progress | Karina Patel, AnnaOlivia Schwedt | kmpatel@usc.edu | Annette Malan, Isabel Jasper | 9/3/2023 |
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| Category (write Committee Name) | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
| Academic Affairs | ofCourse Support | ofCourse is a student run organization currently building their own web registration interface that includes ability to upload past syllabuses for classes you have taken, leaving peer reviews (that are verified and align with interface guidelines), and a seat check which alerts a student to open seats in a class they would like to attend that is currently full. | Thus far ofCourse has built the bones of the interface and continues to work on the programming weekly. I have met with both the President and the Treasure to discuss their monetary needs and goals for funding. | In Progress | Kate Ariathurai | kariathu@usc.edu | Kate Ariathurai, Senator Zober, Senator Speier | 9/5/23 |
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| Category (write Committee Name) | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
| Wellness | Naloxone Access Expansion | Opioid overdose is on the rise, especially among college students. As of now, naloxone education is limited since students need to approach programs in order to learn how to administer naloxone. | Met with Student Health Team (Dr. Van Ormen, Minne Ho, Broderick Leaks) to gauge interest and they were highly supportive. | In Progress | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Wellness Committee | 9/19/23 |
| Wellness | Welcome Back Wellness Fair | This fair, similar to Wellness Day, will be on Sep 19, 2023 and consist of wellness-based RSOs to table. Here, they will talk about their mission and what they offer for students. | Had a successful event with 18 attending RSOs/USC Departments! | Completed | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Rudra Saigal, Emilia Bletsas, Wellness Committee | 9/19/23 |
| Wellness | Student Health Fee (SHF) Promotion | Working to create materials that demonstrate what the Student Health Fee provides and social media promotion of these resources can expose these benefits to the greater student body. | The Student Health team was able to create reusable flyers for USG events that show the benefits of the Student Health Fee. Mustafa and Brianna filmed a Q&A style video that was posted on Sep 5, 2023 that promoted Student Health tabling at the Farmer’s Market. | Completed | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Mustafa Ali Khan, Emilia Bletsas, Rudra Saigal | 9/6/23 |
| Wellness | Wellness Week | Wellness Week is a week-long event that will be held February 12th-16th in partnership with Student Health. Wellness-related RSOs and assemblies will table and/or lead workshops/sessions on topics such as mindfulness, fitness, stress management, etc. | Met with Student Health Reps. and they expressed support for the event. | In Progress | Brianna Sanchez | basanche@usc.edu | Rudra Saigal, Emilia Bletsas, Wellness Committee | 9/19/23 |
| Wellness | Mental Health Cards | Similar to Ideas red cards, we want to pass out portable cards with mental health resources for students to be able to carry with them, should they need them. | Met with Senator Schaffer to discuss this idea and contacted Brianna Sanchez | Not Started | Halle Schaffer, Bella Padilla | padillai@usc.edu, hmschaff@usc.edu | 9/6/23 | |
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| External Affairs | LA Local Business Day | USG would invite local LA businesses to campus to sell food/other goods. The purpose of this would be to foster relationships between USC and the Greater LA area and to increase awareness of the different types of local businesses around the school. In the fall semester, I hope to have a soft launch of the event to pave the way for similar events in the future. | Just created the project in collaboration with Trojans Shop Local, and am in the process of creating a budget for the event/finding funding. I'm also trying to see if we an engage our ALs to make sure we're engaging diverse South LA businesses. | In Progress | Halle Schaffer | hmschaff@usc.edu | External Affairs, Trojans Shop Local | 9/6/2023 |
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| Category (write Committee Name) | Project Title | Description | Last Step | Status | Project Lead(s) | Email Address | Team Members | Last Updated |
| NASA | Tongva Land History TrojanLearn Module | This project will create a module on TrojanLearn that Freshmen will need to take during their first semester, similar to the Sexual Assault Prevention module that is necessary to be taken first semester. | Discussed project idea with NASA E-Board as well as the CDO in order to find people to reach out to. | In Progress | Zidane Zamorano | zzamoran@usc.edu | 9/12 | |
| QuASA | Queer Resources Visibility Improvement | Improve accessibility to queer resources by, firstly, establishing and promoting the Queer Advocacy Committee within QuASA to get more students involved in queer advocacy, and possibly working with the LGBTQ+ Student Center to reach a greater audience. | In Progress | Isabel Jasper, Hulbert Dang | ijasper@usc.edu | 9/18/23 | ||
| QuASA | Gender Inclusive Housing Improvement | Use student input and increase involvement to improve the university’s approach to offering gender-inclusive housing options, which would entail improving visibility of these options to students applying to housing, improvement of roommate questionnaires, and possible expansion of gender-inclusive housing. | Formulation of a survey, research conducted about current status and plans for gender-inclusive housing in administration. | In Progress | Isabel Jasper, Hulbert Dang | ijasper@usc.edu | 9/18/23 | |
| LSA | South LA x Village | This project will advocate for a community organization/restaurant like South LA Cafe to have a space in the village. The implementation of a community organization could be the first step to having a proper, accessible space for South Central residents and low-income students. | Met with Vincent Cisneros on Tuesday 9/12 and discussed prior confusion over requirements to become a vendor at the village. | In Progress | Kiana Amaya, Vincent Cisneros | vrcisner@usc.edu, kamaya@usc.edu | External Affairs Committee | 9/18/23 |
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