During the final senate meeting of the semester, the Undergraduate Student Government senate approved a resolution Tuesday night expressing support for non-tenure track faculty’s right to unionize. It also unanimously passed its budget for the next academic year. 

The resolution comes after the National Labor Relations Board allowed non-tenure track faculty to vote on whether to unionize as United Faculty-United Auto Workers. The NLRB is currently running an election for the proposed union via mail-in ballots for the potentially represented faculty — which excludes the Keck School of Medicine as well as part-time and adjunct faculty at the School of Cinematic Arts — until May 15. 

Senate resolution 145-27, which passed unanimously, calls on USC to respect the faculty’s right to unionize, as well as refrain from interfering with the election that began April 24. Senator Zehran Muqtadir, who authored the resolution, said he has heard about instances of potential pushback from USC, but did not name any specifics. 

“I think it is important that we reaffirm the unionization process, that there is a fair election that goes on,” Muqtadir said. “I support the right to unionization for all.” 

During the hearing process for the proposed union, the University opposed its creation, writing in its position statement that it considers its RTPC faculty “managerial employees” who are unable to unionize because faculty are represented in the Academic Senate.

A decision signed by Danielle Pierce, regional director of NLRB’s Region 31 office in Los Angeles, rejected the University’s argument that RTPC employees are managerial and wrote that those faculty bodies usually serve in an advisory capacity.

Senators also unanimously approved senate resolution 145-26, which calls on USC to implement a four-year housing guarantee for all students. Currently, USC only guarantees housing for freshmen and sophomores. According to speaker of the senate Jeremiah Boisrond — who authored the resolution — approximately 64% of undergraduate students live in off-campus housing. 

Boisrond also said he was previously working with Gould School of Law’s Housing Law and Policy Clinic to host housing workshops, where he was informed of the “big gap” between USC students and understanding their tenant protections. 

“[USC admits] students on a four-year understanding that they will complete their degrees in four years, so there should be this expectation that USC should be able to provide housing for their students for four years as well,” Boisrond said. 

SB 145-26 also requests that USC prioritize the development of additional upperclassmen housing and  explore pathways to ensure affordability for students. 

Senators also unanimously approved senate bill 145-28, which amends the elections code to require that any changes to the code must go through a minimum one-week grace period before the changes are introduced to the senate.

In his final report, Boisrond congratulated his fellow senators for approving 28 resolutions throughout the academic year. According to Boisrond, senators also completed over 20 projects during their terms, with 15 projects currently ongoing. 

During senator Sabeeh Mirza’s presentation, he said that due to the high demand for the free Blue Books distributed as one of his projects, an additional order of 500 has been placed, and he is currently waiting for them to be delivered. 

“I did that [Blue Book] project to say I did something, and then it turned out to actually be important because we got through 500 Blue Books in three weeks,” Mirza said. 

USG tabled SB 145-24, that would approve the fiscal year 2026-27 budget, last week, because the Joint Assembly for Military-Associated Students executive director was not able to meet with the designate and current chief financial officers. JAMS officials met this week with incoming CFO Jackson Alexander, he said during the senate meeting, and no changes to budget allocations were made. The budget was passed unanimously.  

Following the adjourning of the meeting, incoming chief justice Julian Gajewski administered the oath of office to inaugurate president- and vice president-elect Syrabi Rahman and Diane Kim. 

Gajewski also administered the oath of office to inaugurate senators Amy He, Jasmine Liu, Sudeepta Murthy, Piper Kujawa, Kevin Hoang, Leilani Akwue, Raquel Bell, Sonali Gupta, Noa Foruzanfar, Kaylee Idrogo, Muqtadir and speaker of the senate Madison Troup.