New changes coming this semester to USG elections


The 2016 election will be the first to allow Undergraduate Student Government members to vocally support any president-vice presidential ticket or senatorial candidate and candidates will no longer carry commuter, greek or residential designations.

The spring semester marks another round of USG elections. However, this year’s election, which begins on Jan. 28, will feature some notable changes.

“Prior to this election, student government members weren’t able to support or endorse candidates at all,” USG President Rini Sampath said. “This year’s student government members will be speaking out and some might even go as far as to endorse some members publicly.”

Co-Director of Elections and Recruitment Logan Dallas, who penned the revision, said the decision was popular among USG members, many of whom expressed frustration with not being able to voice their support for candidates based on their own experiences serving in student government.

“Typically a lot of people running have experience working in USG and the people they work with know them pretty well and know their qualifications,” Dallas said. “It was pretty well-supported.”

Though individual USG members will be allowed to vocally back candidates, they will still be barred from working on any candidate’s campaign. Additionally, all USG committees and assemblies, such as Program Board or the Political Student Assembly, will not be allowed to formally endorse any ticket or candidate.

With the change in designations, current Residential Sen. Aaron Rifkind said that he is confident the Senate will be able to find a balance in representation without the assigned constituencies.

“I think it’s going to shake itself out and that ultimately there will still be a decent balance among students,” Rifkind said. “It’s the first year we’ve done this, so we’re going to see how it works out.”

According to Dallas, this election season marks an unprecedented number of students who have expressed interest in running in the Senate race, particularly among the freshmen class. Whereas all 12 of last year’s Senate seats were uncontested, each seat is expected to be competitive this year.

Sampath attributed the heightened interest in student government to the popularity of last semester’s campus-wide discussions, ranging from diversity to college affordability.

“I think we had the most engaged semester this campus has seen in terms of student government and the general student body,” Sampath said. “We had the most packed Senate meetings, we had students coming to us with different initiatives and ideas — visibility was so high.”

Last semester, USG partnered with other campus organizations such as the Women’s Student Assembly and the Panhellenic Council to encourage more women to run for office. Though the number of female applicants to run in the upcoming election didn’t see a noticeable change from years past, Sampath said she is hopeful that continued efforts to encourage women to run will inspire growth in future elections.

“There are a lot of empowerment organizations for women — like the greek sororities — but we often don’t see members of these large female groups going for office whereas we may see a lot of members of these large male organizations running for office,” Sampath said. “I’m all for learning and understanding why that is the case and I wonder if we have more conversations within those type of circles maybe we can actually find the answer.”

Sampath said she hopes this election will see more representation among spring admits and transfer students, some of whom she says have reached out to her expressing interest in getting involved with student government.

Popular issues such as college affordability, diversity and mental health were among the many topics to dominate last semester’s campus conversations. Rifkind anticipates that many of these issues will continue to gain traction in the spring.

“The Campus Climate resolution was a step in the right direction, but I think students are still wanting a bit more out of the administration in terms diversity,” Rifkind said. “I still think typical issues like improving campus dining, bike rules on Trousdale and even the smaller things that Senate usually works on alongside bigger issues are still going to remain popular.”

As USG transitions to newly elected leadership later this semester, Sampath encouraged students leaders to serve as advocates for the student body.

“It’s our job to advocate for students and that means taking a stand and having an opinion on things that may not feel like the most popular or likeable idea at the moment,” Sampath said. “The only way we’re going to be able to create change is if we use our voices and the platforms that we have to speak out.”

Voting will take place between Feb. 9 and 11.