Austin Dunn, Morgan Monahan win 2017 USG election


Austin Dunn and Morgan Monahan won the 2017 Undergraduate Student Government election, beating out the other two tickets after a contentious race.

The unofficial results, along with the official voter turnout and vote numbers, were announced at Tuesday’s USG Senate Meeting. Dunn, who will serve as USG president, and Monahan, who will serve as vice president, ran against Rachel Udabe and Rebecca Harbeck and Daniel Million and Timothy Vorhoff.

The Austin-Morgan ticket garnered a total of 2,339 votes, while the Rachel-Rebecca ticket received 1,562 votes and the Million-Vorhoff ticket received 1,510 votes.

Dunn said that he was “grateful” and “shocked” at the results of the election.

“I think no matter what the outcome of this election was, I knew that I was beyond blessed to be in the opportunity that I was and to have all of the support that I did,” Dunn said. “What was going through my head when I was waiting for those results was looking around this room and thinking about how many incredible people were in the room that have supported me and how lucky I was to have that. Morgan and I are so excited to take this opportunity and just run with it and make this campus everything that it should be and more.”

Dunn served as USG’s vice president this year along with President Edwin Saucedo. Udabe and Harbeck were not previously affiliated with USG, while Million served as a senator this year before resigning last week.

Dunn is a junior majoring in political science and pursuing a master’s in public diplomacy and Monahan is a junior majoring in business administration. Dunn previously served as the director of university affairs for USG and was the vice president of the Pre-Law Society. Dunn is also a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, and Monahan is a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.

Dunn and Monahan ran on a platform of increased campus security, including sexual assault prevention and active shooter training; improved outreach toward transfer students, spring admits and first-generation students; and partnerships with the Los Angeles Metro. They also plan to move USC in a more environmentally friendly direction by installing solar panels, reducing styrofoam use and increasing recycling and composting on campus.

Saucedo said that the new administration will have to address the needs of all students, not just those who supported them during the race. However, he expressed confidence in Dunn and Monahan’s abilities to unite the campus.

“I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with Austin the past two years, and to really see him grow and develop as a leader,” Saucedo said. “I’m more confident now than ever that he is going to lead our student government in the best direction. The first thing that his administration has to address is how [to] reach out to those people who … might have disagreed with [Dunn’s] opinions and really engage them and bring them to the table to make sure that he’s serving as a president for all students.”

This year’s race saw a series of clashes between tickets, as Austin-Morgan were sanctioned by the Elections Commission and the Judicial Council for creating a Facebook group 32 hours before the start of the official campaign period. Though Dunn and Monahan were prevented from posting about their campaign on social media for 48 hours and then had $1,000 revoked from their campaign reimbursement, the other two tickets appealed the decision to the Student Judicial Affairs and Community Services, where the case is still being decided. The Million-Vorhoff and Rachel-Rebecca tickets aimed to have the Austin-Morgan ticket disqualified.

Million told the Daily Trojan that despite the results of the election, he remains optimistic about the increased awareness of campus issues. 

Similarly, Udabe said that she is looking forward to seeing what the new administration and the future Senate can accomplish in the coming year. She added that the campaign experience has helped her grow personally as well as professionally.

“Running for USG was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Udabe said. “I learned so much about our school, fellow students and myself. I am thankful to my team for helping me fight the good fight to the end and giving students hope that their voices would be heard by their student government.”

In addition, senate results were announced on Tuesday. The final list of senators for the upcoming school year includes Preston Fregia, Christine Bradshaw, Tyler Matheson, Debbie Lee, Buck Andrews, Noah Silver, Isabella Smith, Blake Ackerman, Katie Han, Katie Bolton, Joey Hall and Natalie Antounian.