USC’s student senate passed six pieces of legislation at its weekly meeting on Wednesday, including a recommendation for a semesterly multicultural summit. Senate also addressed a bill that will be decided by a student vote next week.
The bill, introduced by the Judiciary Committee, aims to change Article III, Section 13 of the Student Government Constitution to remove the requirement for USC's president to sign bills. According to Chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee Kiki D'Apolito, the legislation was brought to her committee by President Michael D. Amiridis.
" He didn't want to sign any bills because he wanted to give us autonomy, give us the right to self-government," D'Apolito said. "He wants to give us as much independence in a sense as a group and not be correlated with faculty, to have our own independent ideas and if we want to push this through, we can push it through."
According to Speaker of the Student Senate Maura Hamilton and D'Apolito, students who vote in the elections next week will see a question on the ballot, which will ask whether or not the bill should pass.
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by the Senate Inclusion and Equity Committee, was a recommendation for the 117th student senate to host a semesterly summit allowing student leaders of multicultural organizations to connect and network.
According to the recommendation, the 116th student senate Inclusion and Equity Committee is hosting a Multicultural Student Leaders Networking Summit to provide student leaders from multicultural organizations with an opportunity to connect and collaborate. The event aims to establish a network that will allow these organizations to work together toward shared goals on campus.
Additionally, the summit will also serve as a platform for Student Government to check in with multicultural organizations and share important updates. The recommendation calls for the 117th student senate to continue this initiative by hosting the summit on a semesterly or routinely scheduled basis.
"It gives them (multicultural organizations) a chance to make collective efforts on campus and work together to share initiatives that they would like to host together," chairwoman of the inclusion committee Laukhika Kasetty said. "It's just an opportunity for Student Government to not only check in with these organizations and give them timely updates about what is happening in Student Government , but also, it will give Student Government the chance to empower and encourage these organizations to build teamwork amongst themselves."
Kasetty said that the event for this semester will take place next Tuesday, Feb. 25 and the committee hopes to see it continue beyond the 116th student senate.
"We're just recommending that this is something that continues even when we transition," Kasetty said. "We believe that orgs would benefit from a routinely scheduled event like this."
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by Senator Isabell Miller, was a recommendation to add automated external defibrillator (AED) locations to the interactive map located on SC.EDU.
According to the recommendation, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are portable devices that treat sudden cardiac arrest. The American Heart Association advises they should be within a two-minute fast-paced walk in crowded areas like college campuses- but many students and staff are unaware of their locations. Nine SEC schools already include AED locations on their campus maps to improve access. The recommendation pushes USC to do the same, ensuring students and emergency responders can quickly find these devices.
Miller said that she is a pharmacy student who is trained on how to use an AED, however, she does not know where they are located on campus; if an emergency arose where an AED would be required, she would not be able to assist.
Some USC students are AED-certified and could assist in emergencies if they had better access to location information. To address this, the recommendation urges the university to incorporate AED locations into its interactive campus map to enhance visibility and ensure a faster response in critical situations.
"This is part of some research I've been doing for a little over a year now with the Office of Environmental Health and Safety about how we stack up with AED compared with other SEC campuses," Miller said. "There are nine SEC schools who include their AED's on the interactive map, which for us would be on sc.edu, so this legislation is just encouraging us to do that so everyone can have access."
Another passed piece of legislation, introduced by the Vice Chairman of the Finance Committee Jack Matthews, was a bill to get rid of entry restrictions for student organization events.
Section 3-5-40 Chapter 3 of the Student Government Codes rewords the funding requirement from programs being “free and open to all students” to “must not restrict entry to any student,” which Matthews said will broaden eligibility and allow more events to receive funding.
The senate adopted a recommendation, introduced by Senator William Castellow, to make fried chicken tenders available on days other than Wednesday.
The recommendation urges the university’s dining services to offer chicken tenders daily across all major dining halls, ensuring a variety of options, including classic, spicy and gluten-free, while maintaining consistency in quality and preparation.
Next week, the senate meeting will be postponed until after election results are announced and will take place in the Russell House Theater. All students are welcome to attend.