Rini Jordan ticket wins USG election
Rini Sampath and Jordan Fowler were announced as the winners of the Undergraduate Student Government presidential election Tuesday night.
The announcement, made by the USG Election and Recruitment Committee at the weekly Senate meeting, revealed a landslide victory.
The Rini-Jordan ticket won with 3,906 votes, 64.83 percent of total votes. Providence Ilisevich and Ehren Elder garnered 1,978 votes, 32.83 percent of total votes.
Sampath and Fowler expressed gratitude for their victory and the fact that they are first all-female ticket to win the USG presidential election.
“It was a family-friendship affair,” Sampath said. “It was just this feeling that this couldn’t have happened without the support of everyone in that room, and everyone on campus as well.
She went on to relate how their win would prove to be an influential aspect for future female candidates.
“This is a victory for the entire university, for many communities too; and given that the nature of the campaign was historic, we’re so excited for our nation as well,” Sampath said. “If this inspires a woman to run every year from now on it will be a dream come true to us.”
Fowler expressed her gratitude to all of the individuals who partook in their campaign.
“We weren’t doing this to break a record or to make this a national campaign. But it ended up being that,” Fowler said. “It was totally a group effort. ‘Thank you’ is what comes off the top of my mind, but that is literally not enough. I don’t know what will be enough to say ‘thank you’ because of the immense gratitude I feel for individuals.”
She went on to describe the roles that different groups played in their victory. The ticket had 48 official endorsements from campus organizations.
“It’s so easy to group the support all together,” Fowler said. “[But] all those people that did the little things were the ones that made all the difference in the world, and we thank you.”
Both Sampath and Fowler said they plan to begin implementing their campaign promises immediately, and that executive officer applications will go live tomorrow so they can begin building their team.
“My biggest focus isn’t waiting until the summer to get started on these ideas,” Fowler said. “I went to 40 organizations and talked to them individually about their goals and desires for the university. Let’s start now. We’re already in meetings. We have a semester left to go, and even though we’re supposed to be transitioning, there are people really excited for these ideas. Let’s start.”
Ilisevich said she has faith Sampath and Fowler will be effective leaders.
“I think Rini and Jordan will do a great job, and I’m looking forward to see what USG continues to do,” Ilisevich said. “But most importantly, I’m hoping to see the student body getting more engaged in these issues and making a change.”
Elder also said he feels Sampath and Fowler will creative positive change at USC.
“I want to congratulate Rini and Jordan; they ran an absolutely incredible campaign and they’re going to do a truly incredible job next year. I think the school is in really good hands with them. I’m excited to keep working in making this university better and moving forward.”
Ilisevich said that she will continue to work to curb sexual violence on campus — one of her leading campaign points. Elder mentioned that his future campus involvement still remains unclear, and he hasn’t decided whether he will engage in USG or return to Interfraternity Council work.
“I certainly I won’t be bored for my senior year,” he said.
The senatorial results were also announced at the meeting. These included the winners of the Greek ballot; Chris Wong (1,293 votes), Darian Nourian (1,224 votes) and Sanjay Mahboobani (1,210 votes); winners of the residential ballot, Sabrina Enriquez (1,440 votes), Alec White (1,269 votes), Aaron Rifkind (1,230 votes), Dan Li (1,228), Eric Dubbury (1,095 votes) and Giuseppe Robalino (1,070); and the winners of the commuter ballot, Cassandra Aguayo (276 votes), Jacob Ellenhorn (194 votes) and Bulk Lao (177 votes).
The total number of votes for this election was 6,027, falling short of the previous year and USG’s goal of 7,000.
Results were announced by Jennifer Glaeser, director of election and recruitment, David Moreno, director of communications and Christine Hennes, senior director of communications.
Hennes explained her excitement toward students showing interest in the future of their student government.
“It’s extremely important to have this culture of voting and being student advocates, because at the end of the day we all want the best student experience possible,” Hennes said. “Everybody getting really excited about their future student leaders is something that needs to continue past election season. Hopefully more people will get involved in the future.”
“The election was kind of abrupt for me because I didn’t know what USG was or when the elections were going to be,” Soomin Shim, a freshman studying business administration, said. “And then I saw the pictures around campus and then I knew that they were active. Voting is important everywhere, but I really didn’t hear what the candidates thought and what they were proposing. And that prevented me from voting and I think more information would’ve helped more students to vote.”
The room erupted when the elections results were announced. “I think it was pretty competitive,” said Sebastian Kim, a freshman studying business administration. “I think it’s definitely important to have students’ voices heard and to promote the idea of getting involved around campus.”