While the rest of the university was on summer break, USC’s Student Government remained hard at work to enact changes for the upcoming 2024-25 school year.
Student Body President Patton Byars and Student Body Treasurer Jacob Vaught discussed some of their accomplishments over the summer including improvements to parking, infrastructure on campus and simplifying funding requests for student organizations.
Some of the biggest changes students will see pertain to parking infrastructure, including the launch of the ParkUSC app. The ParkUSC app can currently show available spots in the lots at Greek Village and the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. There are plans to add more parking lots and garages in the fall.
A separate parking system is also being developed for Bull Street Garage, which will show open parking spots to help students know where they can park.
In an attempt to improve students' well-being during the school year, Byars said he is advocating for mental health days to be added to the academic calendar starting either this spring semester or in the fall of 2025.
“I'm excited to hopefully see this come to fruition, and (it) might not necessarily be this next two weeks, but it's coming soon,” Byars said.
Another improvement that will soon be available to students is the launch and development of a syllabi database. The database would allow students to see information about classes they want to take before they register so they can have as much information as possible before they sign up for a class.
“I want to make sure that students aren't stressed about what they're signing up for… So I want to make sure that students have a little bit more transparency when they are picking classes,” Byars said.
Student Government also plans to continue some of its programs from last year, including the football game day Uber discount, portable chargers at Williams-Brice Stadium and student outreach.
USC Student Government raised $5,000 to put toward providing an Uber discount for students during home football games. They were matched by USC Parking, USCPD and Student Affairs for a total of $20,000. This means that USC students will be able to have discounted Ubers for each home game day this fall.
Legislative aide to the Student Body President Aden Lloyd said Byars wants to continue expanding student outreach to improve the student experience.
“We talk all the time about how great USC's first-year experience is, one of the top-ranked in the country, but he really wants to emphasize building the four-year experience, making it, you know, the dream of a lifetime going to USC,” Lloyd said.
Student Body Treasurer Jacob Vaught has also been preparing for the new school year by ensuring the financial side of Student Government is prepared.
The amount of money that Student Government can allocate to student organizations has nearly doubled from last year. Previously, the total amount for the academic year was $186,000 and now it's $340,000.
This budget will be divided in half for both the fall and spring semesters, and organizations cannot request more than $10,000 for the entire year.
Vaught said he aims to simplify the process for student clubs and organizations to request money from Student Government.
One of the most significant steps that would be eliminated would be organization leaders only having to go in front of the finance committee if the committee had serious questions about their funding requests instead of automatically having to appear in front of the committee if the request is over $1,000.
Vaught said this simplification would help speed up the process.
“We're trying to reduce the burden on the people within the system because that can be a big bottleneck," Vaught said. "If you have a committee with four people on it, you know, it starts to slow things down."
Byars, Vaught and Lloyd all stressed that Student Government will continue to advocate for students.
“We really are just trying to push for a more positive, better student experience, which sounds typical – you know, Student Government – but it really is about facilitating that four-year experience,” Lloyd said.