USC's student senate passed five pieces of legislation and referred three to various committees at its weekly meeting on Wednesday.
The first piece of passed legislation was a recommendation, introduced by Senator Kailey Goodrich and Chairman of the Health and Safety committee Aidan Gruner, to incorporate safety measures for school shootings or mass threats into University 101 modules.
According to the recommendation, University 101 students, who are freshmen, require essential education on safety measures in the event of active school shootings. In the past two decades, there have been over 300 incidents of gunfire on college campuses, resulting in 94 deaths and over 200 injuries. The university already provides various resources on its website and has made efforts to reach out to students via email.
"The idea is that the university would create modules based off of what USCPD has already published online, as well as what they sent out in the email about two weeks ago- and hopefully it would also include quick emergency tips," Goodrich said. "It would be in a module version that's easy for freshmen to consume and take quizzes on, just like AlcoholEdu."
Gruner said the modules would be given to freshmen in their U101 class and it would not affect their letter grade.
"There are some potential modules that are already in place with U101, it's just that they're not mandated," he said. "In addition to adding these new resources to that pool, we'll also be mandating them to all U101 classes."
Goodrich said the recommendation was inspired by the Appalachee High School shooting.
"With the (school shooting) being in my home state of Georgia, it really hit and made me realize that if i were in that situation- I wouldn't know what to do," she said. "I assume the rest of the student body might not know and I just wanted to get it out there for people to have resources- my main priority is to keep students safe.
The legislation passed unanimously.
Another piece of legislation, sponsored by Goodrich and the academics committee, was a recommendation to bring back the schedule planner or a similar tool for Spring 2025 registration. Schedule Planner, a software previously used by students to customize their semester schedules based on advisement, included a convenient “add to shopping cart” feature, enabling quick and timely registration.
"After speaking with many students and academic advisors (I learned) they are absolutely devastated with Schedule Planner being lost. I've heard different explanations from staff on why it is gone and I don't have a concrete answer," Goodrich said.
According to the recommendation, over 38,000 students at the University of South Carolina will be registering for Spring 2025, highlighting the importance of efficient registration tools. The removal of Schedule Planner has impacted students' ability to finalize schedules ahead of their allotted registration times. The tool was widely used by both students and academic counselors, making it a valuable resource for the campus community.
"My goal with this legislation is to put one more voice in the list of people speaking out to make sure that they know the whole of student body is looking for it to come back, or at least an equivalent," Goodrich said.
The legislation passed unanimously.
The next piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Zoe Hopkins, was a recommendation to offer greater peer mentoring opportunities for students.
According to the National Mentoring Resource Center, peer mentoring benefits both mentors and mentees. 97% of those who have had a mentor found it highly valuable. While USC offers mentorship through its Academic Advising office and the Darla Moore School of Business, these programs are not widely advertised. 89% of people with mentors go on to mentor others, and mentees are five times more likely to receive a promotion in their careers.
"The academics committee was made aware of the fact that students want the opportunity to take part in peer mentorship and they didn't really know exactly what is being offered in the university," Hopkins said. "Our program, although we do have one, it's not very fleshed out- and I just feel like it could be. It's not advertised, it's only on the academic library website, you just say you're interested and get paired with whoever else is signed up to be a mentor."
Hopkins said Darla Moore has its own mentorship website called Moore Connect. Students can get connected with alumni or other students and have more authority in choosing who they want as their mentor or mentee.
"This is just my call to action because it's clearly something that matters to students because it's been brought to our attention and the academics committee; I think there's a lot of research that proves that it's important and very useful," Hopkins said. "It's about time that, in addition to Darla having its system, the rest of the school gets an opportunity to thrive."
According to the resolution, the goal is for the University of South Carolina to develop a website to promote peer mentoring, matching students with mentors based on individual needs and preferences. This initiative aims to enhance student confidence and increase mentoring engagement among both students and alumni, benefiting the broader community.
The legislation passed unanimously.
The other piece of legislation considered was a recommendation to allow the finance committee to give funds to student organizations.
Chairman of the finance committee William Wenzel said his committee reviewed $38,763.75 and allocated $38,730.77.
The legislation passed unanimously.
Additionally, Chairman Wenzel motioned to un-table a bill to increase the operating capacity of the finance committee. It was removed from the table and added to the second reading contested calendar.
Senator Jackson Matthews while speaking on the bill, said student organizations are currently required to engage in a dialogue for funding requests exceeding $1,000. He highlighted that the previous threshold was $500, which the finance committee found inadequate due to the volume of requests, leading to an increase after last year's ad hoc reform.
Despite the raise to $1,000, the committee believes it remains too low, as the finance committee said it feels overwhelmed by the number of required dialogues, which can often be burdensome and unnecessary. To address this concern, the committee has suggested raising the threshold to $3,000.
Wenzel said the bill is a matter of opportunity for the finance committee to limit the unnecessary dialogues, allow them to process everything in a more efficient way and do their due diligence towards the student organizations.
"We're getting a ton of funding requests and a lot of times, the dialogues are a routine nature, we's ask questions that I really think weren't necessary because we already felt like it was an event we could fund and feel passionate about," Wenzel said.
After a roll call vote, the legislation was adopted.
The tabled bills include a bill to amend codes regarding inauguration, a bill to update senator obligations and a recommendation to improve University Housing Webpages with centralized and accessible information for all students.
Student senate will not meet next week due to fall break. The next senate session will take place on Oct. 23 at 5:30 p.m. in the Russell House Theater. All students are welcome to attend these meetings.