USG candidates debate for student votes
Candidates differed on issues such as Greek life and student engagement.
By NICHOLAS CORRAL
Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault.
Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president candidates sparred Tuesday night in the annual USG debate. Candidates agreed on many issues, such as reforming the Department of Public Safety and connecting students with on-campus wellness resources, but drew sharp divides on USG’s relationship to Greek life.
The four tickets met in The Forum at Tutor Campus Center for a debate moderated by USG chief justice Nivea Krishnan, Annenberg Media executive editor Tess Patton and Daily Trojan editor-in-chief Anjali Patel. Over one-and-a-half hours, the president and vice president candidates provided opening statements, answered USG and USC trivia, and answered questions from moderators and audience members.
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On the stage were: Julianna Melendez and Klarissa Palacios, Dacity and Abitha Nunis, Sam Stack and Christian Shaw, and Bryan Fernandez and Brianna Sanchez.
The heaviest clashes of the night surrounded the relationship between USG and Greek life. The Melendez-Palacios and Fernandez-Sanchez tickets did not address Greek life in their platforms, but defended the organizations during the debate.
Palacios defended Greek life for providing housing and for fostering community, while Fernandez said USG needs to represent students regardless of their organizational affiliations.
“Yes, there are issues within every single organization that you may join,” Fernandez said. “But your role is to be collaborative and be proactive about the ways you choose to handle situations.”
The Stack-Shaw and Dacity-Nunis tickets drew the sharpest contrast on the topic of Greek life during the debate. Dacity called out the Greek system for what they called institutional issues related to hazing and sexual assault. They also raised the issue of the power of fraternity and sorority-affiliated voters — often called the “Greek vote.”
Dacity said efforts to diversify Greek life were irrelevant given the structural issues with Greek life.
“That doesn’t matter when the Greek life structure itself institutionally is having people get sexually assaulted, get hazed,” Dacity said.
Shaw and Stack, meanwhile, said Greek life should have “a seat at the table,” and USG should work with the University Park Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council.
The candidates also distinguished themselves with strategies to engage students. Stack and Shaw suggested creating fun initiatives — namely a pajama day — to create a positive public perception of USG for many students. Meanwhile, the Fernandez-Sanchez and Dacity-Nunis tickets described bureaucracy related to recognized student organizations as an obstacle to increasing student engagement with USG.
“We know a lot of our services feel like they only are valued by USG when it comes to elections,” Sanchez said. “We really wanted to make sure that RSOs feel valued beyond election season and that we are actually going to RSO meetings.”
On issues of student wellness, funding department transparency and free speech at senate meetings, the candidates largely agreed. The candidates expressed a need to provide funding workshops for RSOs, improve communication from the department, increase vendor lists and connect students with wellness resources.
The question about free speech came after the USG senate met online for over a month last semester amid discourse at senate meetings around Israel’s war in Gaza. All candidates said the senate was an important forum for students, but added that there was a need to counter hate and collaborate with the University administration.
“I think we need to acknowledge that there’s no place for hate, but there’s a place to express yourself,” Shaw said. “Every person should feel comfortable coming into the senate and expressing their feelings.”
As the debate came to a close, the candidates hammered on familiar points from the debate in their final statements. Stack and Shaw described their passion for the job and love of student government. Dacity and Nunis highlighted their position as outsiders.
“We’re here because we feel like nobody has fought for us. We have USG people standing in front of us who are laughing at our existence,” Dacity said.
The Melendez-Palacios ticket concluded the debate describing the need to reinforce trust in USG while the Fernandez-Sanchez ticket discussed their focus on realistic goals in their platform.
“We believe that there’s been a lack of [trust] in recent years, and we don’t think that we can be an effective administration and have effective policies and projects if you don’t actually trust us to follow through on that,” Melendez said.
Prior to the presidential debate, the 11 senate candidates participated in an hour of presentations. Candidates received four minutes to present followed by one minute for audience questions.
The candidates heavily focused on RSOs — specifically the application freeze — as well as outreach to the South Central community.
The 11 candidates will all be elected, given that there are 12 senate seats up for election. One candidate, Dane Sprague, commented on this to explain his lack of supplemental presentation materials like a slideshow. In an interview with the Daily Trojan after the debate, Krishnan said the lack of candidates was likely due to the November 2023 special election for three senate seats.
“We think what happened was people got a little discouraged,” Krishnan said. “We did reach out to all the candidates that had run in the special election, but the difference was that election was just for [the spring] semester, just to fill the gap.”
Voting for USG will occur from Feb. 20 through Feb. 23 with results to be announced Feb. 27. This election will be the first to utilize a ranked-choice voting system with multiple rounds of voting.
Only 19.5% of undergraduates voted in last year’s election, but Krishnan expressed hope for this year’s voter turnout to reach at least 25%.
Disclaimer: Some of the candidates that participated in the debates tonight have affiliations, or were previously affiliated, with the Daily Trojan. Heydy Vasquez is a columnist for Opinion. Dacity was the digital managing editor at the Daily Trojan in Spring 2023, and Klarissa Palacios previously wrote two articles for Opinion in Spring 2023. Last but not least, of course, our own editor-in-chief, Anjali Patel, was among the moderators tonight. Neither Patel nor Vasquez are involved in our coverage of the debates; Dacity and Palacios are no longer affiliated with this paper.
