USC's student senate passed numerous pieces of legislation, including bills to comply with DEI restrictions, construct a pathway along the Blossom Street Bridge, and create an app for the Garnet Bites program.
On Feb. 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter addressing discrimination related to race, color and national origin in both K-12 and higher education.
Speaker of the Student Senate Maura Hamilton said the letter categorizes collegiate DEI initiatives as discriminatory against other races and orders higher education institutions to disband these programs within 14 days.
"While we do not engage in any discriminatory processes as the Senate, keeping the name 'inclusion and equity' in our student government codes, we just want to make sure that we're acting safely," Hamilton said. "We want to make sure that we're abiding by all the rules and the guidelines that are set up for the university as a whole. Per that letter, what would be smartest and safest for Student Senate would be to change that name to something else".
Hamilton said during a meeting on the Feb. 17, the university made her aware of this issue, requiring review and consideration of possible options. Student senate voted on multiple bills to address the situation. All of them passed.
One piece of legislation was a bill to change the Student Government codes. The Department of Inclusion and Equity was changed to The Department of Liberties and Representation.
Another passed piece of legislation was a bill to amend the Student Government codes pertaining to freshman council committees. The bill changed the Inclusion and Equity Committee to the Liberties and Representation Committee.
The bill also changes the language of the Student Government codes, "Assisting the student body president in the formulation of Student Government policies, initiatives, and projects pertaining to multiculturalism, diversity, and the inclusion of all student groups and demographics;" to "Assisting the student body president in the formulation of Student Government policies, initiatives, and projects pertaining to rights, liberties, and representation of all students."
Health and Safety Committee Chairman Aidan Gruner said the bill aims to modify a committee name on the freshman council to make it more appropriate and in line with the Dear Colleague Letter from the Department of Education.
Another piece of legislation was a bill to change the Student Government codes to adapt a student senate committee.
"This piece of legislation was essentially regarding the actual committee within senate and its wordage. Essentially what we were talking about here within the language was concluding the part where it talks about its responsibilities in terms of promoting individuality among students and human rights under the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution and Civil Rights Act," Gruner said.
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by Senators Landen Pollock and Jeffrey Lyons, was a recommendation to construct a pathway alongside the Blossom Street Bridge.
According to the recommendation, the university should establish a pedestrian walkway alongside the Blossom Street Bridge to provide a safer and more accessible route for students crossing the railroad tracks. The recommendation also says the addition would address safety risks and reduce commute times for both on-campus and off-campus students.
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Marian Winters, was a recommendation to create an app for the Garnet Bites program.
Garnet Bites, a collaborative initiative involving the Office of the Provost, the Department of Information Technology, Gamecock CommUnity Shop, the Office of Sustainability, Student Life and Carolina Food Co., aims to reduce food waste while providing free meals to students, faculty and staff. The web-based platform notifies users when food is available for pickup after catered events on campus.
According to the recommendation, the University of South Carolina should create an app for the Garnet Bites program to make it easier for students, faculty and staff to access leftover food on campus. Other universities have used similar apps successfully, and a previous attempt to use text message alerts failed at USC because messages were marked as spam.
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Pollock, was a recommendation to improve USC's current general physics courses.
According to the recommendation, the university should conduct a thorough review of the general physics curriculum due to high failure rates on exams. Since students from multiple majors are required to take these courses, and other institutions have had more success in teaching similar material, the university should also monitor course outcomes until the failure rate improves.
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by Senators Emma Cumby and Marian Winters, was a bill to start Supplemental Instruction (SI) for all Honors sections of supported courses.
According to the recommendation, Honors sections of supported entry-level courses should have guaranteed access to Supplemental Instruction (SI) Peer Leaders, just like non-Honors sections.
Another passed piece of legislation, also introduced by Senator Pollock, was a recommendation to increase USC student artwork across campus.
According to the recommendation, students should have the opportunity to submit artwork for display in various locations across campus to enhance university pride and engagement. This initiative would allow students to showcase their talents, gain valuable experience and contribute to the vibrancy of campus spaces, with departments overseeing the selection and funding of materials.
Other passed legislation included a bill to realign the goals of the Health and Safety Committee, as well as recommendations to increase the number of AEDs on campus, form an AED Coordination Committee within the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, require U101 classes to include presentations from student organizations in their curriculum, and promote the Teaching with AI Course. Student Senate also approved a measure to add a featured organization section on Garnet Gate and granted the Finance Committee the authority to allocate funds to various student organizations.