USG officially kicks off election season

Undergraduate Student Government officially launched election season at midnight on Wednesday when USG candidates released their campaigns through the USG elections website and via social media, primarily through Facebook.

In comparison to last year’s USG election, the elections committee has worked on improving student voter turnout, as well as clearly outlining candidate platforms. This year, as part of launching their goal to focus on voter awareness and student concerns, USG has added various pre-election events and a diversity debate to supplement the presidential debate that takes place at the end of the campaign.

Christine Hennes, USG senior director of communications, discussed specific ways in which students can get involved throughout the election process.

“The week before elections, candidates can start campaigning on campus. That is when they can begin to distribute T-shirts, flyers and signs to make themselves more visible to students on campus,” Hennes said. “Then, starting on Feb. 9, we have a ‘Vote On’ event at Tommy Trojan where students can get to know more about the candidates and more about what the roles specifically are and what they are voting on.”

Hennes also noted the creation of a funding board to aid campaign finances for candidates.

Presidential tickets for the 2015-2016 election included Rini Sampath for president, current USG vice president and her partner, Jordan Fowler for vice president, current USG director of university affairs; Ehren Elder for vice president, former Interfraternity Council executive vice president of administrative affairs, and Providence Ilisevich for president, current USG Greek senator; and Devon Manny and Sharon Oh, sophomores majoring in animation and digital art.

Fowler discussed her partnership with Sampath for the election, commenting on how thrilled she was to join her in the election.

“Rini and I have worked together in the past, so it wasn’t too shocking that Rini was asking me to join her team in some regard,” Fowler said.

Sampath discussed how her platform differs from other candidates.

“I think what really sets us apart in terms of all the tickets is that our platform is based on a lot of the work that we have already been doing and that is why our slogan itself is ‘Real Results,’” Sampath said. “You’ll see that there are some overlapping platform points, but we are the ticket that’s already been doing the work on a lot of these.”

Elder and Ilisevich join the presidential campaign with specific experience in the branch of Greek life under USG.  Elder and Ilisevich have worked together for the past nine months, discussing issues they felt were important on campus.

“In this election I am just looking forward to going to as many student groups as possible. Our slogan is ‘Because Your Voice Matters’ and we really believe that,” Elder said. “Our biggest emphasis in our platform is that while the university may have a focus on alumni and prospective students, the most important thing is today’s students and the most important thing is that the issues that matter to current students are met and that their voices our heard throughout all levels of administration.”

Manny and Oh discussed the importance of teamwork to advance policy change.

“I guess I’ve always felt like I really wanted to make an impact on places you know from a very young age,” Manny said. “Getting to USC, there are so many amazing things going on, but at the same time there are a lot of things that can be changed. We both are really strong in our beliefs that we want to have a strong impact on this school and currently there is not enough being done to make this a place what it should be at this point.”