USG candidates hold forum

USC’s Program Board, Undergraduate Student Government Elections and six other campus organizations hosted an open diversity forum between the USG candidates and students on Monday night.

The third annual USG candidate diversity forum, held in the Rosen Family Screening Theatre, gave students a chance to ask questions on race, sexuality, gender and class.

The USG presidential and vice-presidential candidates present at the forum were Andrew Menard and Rini Sampath, James White and Brigid Kelly, Logan Heley and AJ Pinto. Write-in candidate Jasper                     Abu-Jabar, whose vice-presidential running mate, Harrison James could not make the event, was also present.

Representatives from the Women’s Student Assembly, the International Students’ Assembly, the Latina/o Student Assembly, the Black Student Assembly and the Queer and Ally Student Assembly were also in attendance at the forum.

Jonathan Wang, assistant director of Asian Pacific American Student Services, was the moderator, and Kaya Masler, co-executive director of the WSA hosted the event.

The forum began with a brief introduction of the USG presidential and vice presidential candidates, along with Providence Ilisevich, a Greek senator candidate, and Aziz Akbari, a residential senator candidate, both of whom were not on the panel.

When asked to explain whether USC is a diverse campus for all, the candidates had varying opinions. All of the candidates, however, agreed and acknowledged a need for USC to be more welcoming and accepting of everyone who steps foot on campus.

“USC is a diverse place in a sense,” James White said. He added, however, “I do not feel that [USC] is a place that promotes and appreciates diversity.”

Many of the answers from candidates seemed to go back to the same central issues of inclusion, fairness and student involvement.

All of the candidates advocated for students to be more involved in the administrative choices on campus. They also wanted to reach out and represent different types of students.

Shyann Murphy, a member of the executive board of WSA, was one of two students who asked a question during the Q&A of the forum open to the general audience.

Murphy said she attended Monday night’s forum to get a better sense of the candidates’ positions.

“I think it was nice to see the true colors of the candidates [when they] answer questions that they were not prepared to answer,” Murphy said.

Gloria Kim, executive director of APASA, said a lot of the issues the candidates addressed had not been addressed on the campaign and that it was a great space for the conversation to get started.

Alison Chang, assistant director of the APASA, was not as impressed with the forum. She did, however, mention that she was pleased to finally hear the candidates talk about some diversity issues.

“To be honest, I don’t think a lot of our questions were answered, but it was good to at least hear them talk about it for once,” she said.