A referendum to eliminate the position of student body treasurer and replace it with a position in the student body president’s cabinet was proposed during Wednesday night's student senate meeting and will be voted on next week.
If the referendum passes, the position would be appointed by the student body president rather than elected by the student body.
The bill is sponsored by the senate finance committee. The change eliminates several steps student organizations have to go through to obtain funding from the student government, according to the committee chairman, senator Morgan McDonald.
“Hopefully, this switch will make it a shorter process and a much less confusing process for student orgs,” McDonald said.
Speaker Pro Tempore Sawyer McDuffie said "there are many improvements" that can be made to the office without moving it to a cabinet-level position.
“I just think it's important to know that the treasurer is another voice out there for students to have an advocate for them to the board members, to the members of administration, people from other schools, other stakeholders, alumni,” McDuffie said.
If the referendum passes, it will be passed along to the student body for a vote in the next general election.
During the meeting, student senator Morgiana McDevitt presented a recommendation to “encourage transparency between the university and students regarding the COVID-19 vaccine," according to the legislation.
“This bill is basically going to encourage the university to be transparent in their plans for what they know about the vaccine and what they can do with it in their capacity when they are eventually able to start distributing it to students,” McDevitt said.
The bill also recommends the university create a feature for students to self-report vaccination status on their dashboards “just like we do with COVID testing and antibody testing,” McDevitt said.
Additionally, USC’s Dining Board has submitted a plan to the Board of Trustees about improving the university’s meal plan system to make it easier and more efficient for students to use, McDuffie said.
The plan would clarify the different meal options available to students, such as meal swipes and meal plan dollars, and expand the availability of different on-campus dining facilities to more students, according to McDuffie.
“I definitely think it's a great idea to change it, to simplify it, and make it a lot simpler for students so they don't have to have a crash course on how to use their meal plan,” McDuffie said.
A recommendation to streamline the advising process for students, presented last week by senator Claire Windsor, also passed unanimously in Wednesday’s meeting.