GSG elects new president, continues projects
Janielle Cuala hopes to continue the graduate student spaces project as president.
Janielle Cuala hopes to continue the graduate student spaces project as president.
Graduate Student Government director of elections & recruitment Janielle Cuala was elected as GSG’s 2025-26 president in a vote among members of the senate and executive board, GSG’s Instagram account wrote in a post Thursday. The Health Sciences Campus’ director of social programming Angela Albanese was elected as the next senior vice president.
Cuala said she wanted to become president to advocate for graduate students and help them feel “safe” at USC.
“As a grad student life’s already hard,” Cuala said. “People think that because I’m a grad student I can’t have a student life as an undergrad would have. I don’t think that’s the case.”
This year, Cuala, alongside president Shahd Bawarith, updated the election rules to increase transparency and allow executive board members — which includes VPs and directors — to vote rather than just senators.
In previous elections, candidates would present five-minute speeches before senators voted, which Cuala said didn’t give senators enough time to prepare their votes. This election saw a 48-hour period where voters could review election materials before a 24-hour voting period began.
Cuala said she hopes to expand the voting process to include all graduate students — similar to the format of Undergraduate Student Government elections. GSG senators are chosen by their schools by a variety of methods that range from elections to applications, which Cuala said she hopes to streamline.
The vice presidents of advocacy, administration and programming are approved by the senate after the incoming and outgoing president and senior vice presidents interview candidates and make a recommendation. Cuala said she will allow executive board members to review VP candidate profiles and sit in on the interviews as long as they are not running for one of the seats.
Cuala said another one of her priorities as president is to continue and expand the graduate student spaces project, which has been a major part of Bawarith’s term thus far.
When she began as a graduate student during the coronavirus pandemic, Bawarith said all of her classes were online which created an “isolating” experience where she was unable to socialize, which is why she thinks the spaces are important.
“[The experience] really affected my mental health and well being, and my view of USC as a university,” Bawarith said. “When things started picking back up, I decided that I was going to help as many people as possible not feel that way, and try to make USC a more welcoming environment for all students, but especially grad students like myself, who just moved to [Los Angeles] and had a difficult time.”
Cuala said in her first year as a graduate student there were no dedicated spaces for them to hang out and socialize. Now, the University Park Campus has the Graduate Student Lounge in the Student Union and HSC has the Norris Medical Library Wellness and Reflection Room.
Cuala said she hopes to expand this effort to other places graduate students work, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where she herself works. Cuala said she doesn’t know many of the graduate students that work alongside her at the hospital, which is an experience she wants to change across campuses.
Bawarith said her main goal for this semester is to find “completion” with the graduate spaces project by creating a plan to transition it to Cuala’s administration and the rest of the new executive board. She said Nespresso machines will be placed in graduate student spaces next month alongside reusable cups and other coffee-making products.
Cuala also pointed to team building as a priority. Since the coronavirus pandemic, GSG has held senate meetings virtually, limiting interaction between members, Cuala said.
“Because we do everything virtually now, we’re not really team building,” Cuala said. “I actually don’t know anyone from the other branches unless I go to an event or whatnot, and so I think team building within GSG [is important].”
One of Bawarith’s goals for GSG was to make the three branches — advocacy, administration and programming — more interconnected, which she said has become their “strong suit.”
“When the branches were very separate and everyone was doing their own job, it felt less of a community effort and more of this is your title, this is your role, this is what you need to be doing,” Bawarith said. “[Now] it feels more like a group project where everyone is willing to pick up the slack and help each other out. It’s definitely a better way of throwing stronger events and more impactful events for this grad student population.”
Inspired by Bawarith’s efforts, as well as her own as director of elections & recruitment, Cuala said she wants to continue to integrate GSG’s branches. In her current role, Cuala met with senators individually to assess what could be improved and help fix problems, which she said she will bring to her administration through one-on-one meetings with directors to make everyone feel “at home” and heard.
Bawarith has also focused on increasing collaboration with USG during her term, including projects like L.A. wildfire relief, providing free sexually transmitted infection testing for students and a webinar with Chief Campus Health Officer Dr. Sarah Van Orman going over health insurance rights.
Natasha Wasim, the vice president of advocacy, said many of her branch’s projects deal with changing University systems and increasing transparency between USC and the student body.
“I’m always in favor of changing systems and not blaming students, because it’s not the students fault [that] they don’t have things,” Wasim said.
Wasim introduced a resolution, which GSG passed, to ask the University to promote campaigns for food-waste education and expand its organic waste composting. Wasim said she wants to create a workshop for students to learn about food waste and supply them with a kit to help them implement the practices.
Wasim said her branch is also working on providing fire-relief materials such as masks and gift cards, a sensory kit for neurodivergent students and a peace-building toolkit for students to talk to people with different backgrounds or beliefs.
Jody Liu, the vice president of administration, said her branch’s main priority for this semester is the Graduate Research Symposium in April, where students can present their research and interact with other graduate students.
Liu said the administration branch is also focused on improving the community at HSC, which she said can feel “disconnected,” through events like HSC Friendsgiving as well as promoting and compiling programs that are available for online students.
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