USC’s student senate passed several pieces of legislation on Nov. 5, including recommendations to explore a relationship with Coursicle and expand Student Advocacy's definition of immediate family.
Coursicle
The senate also passed a recommendation to explore a relationship with Coursicle to address student registration difficulties. The legislation is sponsored by the Academics Committee.
Students often have difficulties during course registration, where they find themselves designing their schedules through trial and error because of the way it is set up, the recommendation said.
According to the recommendation, Coursicle is a free public application that scrapes course data to help students plan ahead and have better ideas for schedules before they register. Coursicle’s features include allowing students to watch classes for open spots, share schedules and see peer reviews for courses, the recommendation said.
Chairperson Lenyx Coviak, who heads the Academics Committee, said Coursicle could be a potential replacement for Schedule Planner university wide. Schedule Planner was a registration feature that had a contract with USC but was not renewed, the recommendation said.
“A lot of students have actually been using this app to kind of meet that need because it has a lot of those same schedule comparison features but for free,” Coviak said.
Coursicle also has features such as chats between students in the same degree field or course and assignment tracking connections with Blackboard and Canvas, according to the recommendation.
Immediate family for excused absence requests
The senate also passed a recommendation to expand Student Advocacy’s definition of immediate family for excused absence requests. The legislation is also sponsored by the Academics Committee.
According to the recommendation, USC’s definition of immediate family for Student Advocacy excused absence request only includes parents, spouses, children, siblings, spouses of siblings, grandparents, grandchildren or legal guardians.
The definition can be narrow in that it may not reflect the non-traditional family situations of students living with aunts or uncles, foster siblings or the family of friends who took them in, the recommendation said.
Expanding the definition would alleviate the burden on students who may have a death in the family, the recommendation said.
“So, your professor could locate you and say, 'I don’t think your aunt’s close enough to you to have an excused absence,'" Coviak said. “Even though that’s a death of your family member, you could not get an excused absence, and this is happening for students.”
The recommendation would expand Student Advocacy’s definition to also represent non-custodial family members, Coviak said.
Darla Moore mural
The senate passed a recommendation to paint a mural in the Darla Moore School of Business tunnel. The legislation is sponsored by Sens. Brooke Walker, Iangel Tolaka, Ash Jacobson, Matthew Frye, Ahmed Iftikhar, Cole VonCannon, Grayson Sams and Speaker Pro-Tempore Daniel Violette.
According to the recommendation, the current tunnel at Darla Moore that runs under Assembly Street is gray and devoid of color. This makes it unappealing for students to look at while walking to class. The addition of a mural to the tunnel would promote school spirit and help students feel more at home, the recommendation said.
Walker said the mural will have five sections that highlight different aspects of the university: origins and founding, growth and tradition, student life and spirit, innovation and discovery, and diversity and community.
USC facilities are on board with the mural and will be paying for it from their $28 million budget, Walker said. The designer, Sam Powell, has already begun working on the mural, Walker said.
“Sam Powell notified me that she will have her draft of the design ready for revision to be sent on Dec. 1 this year,” Walker said.
Both graduate and undergraduate students at the McMaster School of Art and Design will have the opportunity to paint the mural, according to the recommendation.
Walker said she hopes for work on the mural to begin during the spring semester, but the start date is ultimately up to USC facilities.
Additional developments and legislation
Sen. Kaleigh Erler was removed from the 117th student senate on Oct. 29 for violating attendance policies.
Speaker Pro Tempore Violette said Erler had a total of four unexcused absences: two from the judiciary committee and two from the student life committee. The senate is required by the codes to vote on removal after the fourth absence.
Erler was removed in a roll call vote that resulted in a tie of 22 ayes to 22 nays and three abstentions. Speaker of the Senate Maura Hamilton voted to break the tie in favor of removal.
The finance committee also approved the allocation of $6,058 to various student organizations.
Senate will meet again on Nov. 12 at 5:30 p.m.