Following a semester of activism, Undergraduate Student Government hopes to continue advocacy

The year 2015 was undeniably noteworthy for our student government. With the most packed senate meetings in USC history, we saw our campus peak with engagement and enthusiasm for hot-button topics. With exciting programming such as an inspiring talk from the beloved Laverne Cox to the tunes of Miguel at our fall Conquest concert, our campus came alive to, quite literally, the sound of music. We advocated on pressing issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion, college affordability/administrative financial transparency, mental health and sexual assault prevention. We funded student trips such as the SoCal VoCals’ journey to sing at the White House to President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama and helped numerous organizations reach their maximum potential through financial support.

With our 120-person cabinet of highly motivated members and greater body of delegates, we passionately spoke up on issues that mattered to our student community. Our advocacy work did not go without results: We saw an increase in the number of counselors at the health center, mental health will now be incorporated in orientation sessions, the University announced a task force and increased funding was dedicated to diversity. For a full list of our accomplishments, we hope you will explore our end-of-the-year report, which we will release at the end of this semester.

Along the way, we noticed a change on our campus, and we hope you did, too. Regardless of what opinion students held on particular issues, the unprecedented campus engagement is a victory in and of itself. We noticed our community join us in our work in ways student government has never seen before. With an astoundingly high number of delegates joining our USG committees, eager underclassmen offering their ideas for change and advocates joining us from faculty and alumni, it is evident the work of our student government was truly a team effort.

In this new year, we have so much more in store for you. When we were both elected, we vowed real results and that is what our team has continued to deliver on. From continuing to advocate for a fall break (which we plan to present again to the Faculty Senate in the coming months), leading the charge for a tuition freeze, meeting with ITS to make Wi-Fi improvements, making advances on the interface for a campus-wide mobile application, advocating for certification programs, creating a campus network of community organizations, advocating for an undocumented student resource center, increasing the options of affordable food on campus and ensuring faculty receive mental health training and renovating TroGro, we have a lot we look forward to pushing forward. We hope you will join us in providing feedback and extending your vision for what you would like to see happen on our campus by e-mailing us at [email protected] or dropping by our office in TCC 224.

Student government can and has made a difference at USC; we thank you for your continued support in making our community the best that it can be. Here’s to a great 2016!

Rini Sampath

Undergraduate Student Government President

Jordan Fowler

Undergraduate Student Government Vice President