USC’s student senate passed several new pieces of legislation including recommendations to add real-time availability to the Park USC app and to add time displays to classrooms for testing equity.
Expanding Park USC app
The senate passed a recommendation to expand the Park USC app to include a real-time availability system of how many parking spaces are actually open in USC garages. This legislation was sponsored by Sens. Brook Walker and Matthew Frye.
According to the recommendation, this real-time system is already in place in the Bull Street garage on levels A and B. It allows students to make informed decisions about parking before entering the garage.
Walker said the recommendation is to ensure the USC parking app stays up to date, sends push notifications, and expands its data to all of USC’s major parking garages.
“Being a college student is already stressful enough,” Walker said. “We should not be concerned about missing class because the USC parking app has failed us.”
Universal classroom time display
The senate also passed a recommendation to add time displays to classrooms across campus so that students don’t have to rely on personal devices to check the time where they could potentially be distracted. This legislation was also sponsored by Sen. Walker.
According to the recommendation, adding time displays to classrooms would help students with neurological disorders, such as ADHD and anxiety disorders, as they can have issues with time blindness and difficulty perceiving the passage of time.
University policy prohibits students from using personal electronic devices while taking an exam, and the recommendation said that adding time displays would help ensure compliance.
This would be a low-cost initiative, as each clock would cost around $50, according to the recommendation.
Other legislation
The senate passed a bill that would organize and simplify the chapter of the Student Government codes regarding the Constitutional Council.
The senate also passed the Elections Commission Complaints and Hearings Rules of Procedure, which will be used in the upcoming Student Government elections.
Impeachment articles against Sen. Ahmed Iftikhar were received by the senate on the grounds that he failed to submit two sets of committee minutes for the finance committee on time. Once the committee minutes were finally received, one contained false information.
A recommendation to implement healthcare vending machines on campus was pushed back to be voted on at the next senate meeting.
USC’s student senate will meet again on Feb. 18 in the Russell House Theater.