Syrabi Rahman & Diane Kim
(Amara Grover / Daily Trojan)
Syrabi Nur Rahman and Diane Kim are sophomores running for president and vice president of Undergraduate Student Government. They hope to establish a partnership to provide students with LinkedIn Premium, hold bi-monthly Town Halls where on-campus groups can voice concerns and improve the quality of menstrual products offered on campus.
Both Rahman and Kim have served in USG for two years.
Rahman served as executive aide to the president and vice president last year; this year, she is USG’s parliamentary secretary.
Rahman and Kim proposed an initiative named “Chosen Trojans” in their platform. Their plan is to create a series of events for transfer and spring-admit students, aimed at fostering a sense of community through their chosen family, especially for those students whose families may not be able to attend family events. They said they plan to continue the process of a live platform tracker to communicate the progress of the campaign promises.
“[Being an aide] allowed me to have a really in-depth understanding of what the role entailed,” Rahman said. “It was a behind-the-scenes look at what the president and the vice president does on a daily basis.”
Kim started her career in USG as a senate aide, where she said she helped establish and found a first-generation dinner and alumni connection night. Kim is now the chair of the wellness committee, where she hosts large-scale events that promote the wellness of the USC community.
Rahman and Kim said listening to the student body fuels their campaign. They said many of their platform’s points came directly from conversations with roommates, coworkers and best friends.
The candidates said they intend to utilize town halls to connect with varied communities and be proactive in reaching out to see how they can provide support to students through USG.
— Kishneet Kaur
Jad Kilani & Jeremiah Boisrond
(Ruofei Zhu / Daily Trojan)
Presidential and vice presidential candidates Jad Kilani and Jeremiah Boisrond, running as “J&J,” are looking to LEAD: listen first, engage broadly, advocate transparently and deliver results.
With a platform centered around affordability, community engagement and transparency, the duo aims to “bridge the gap between students and administrators” and “be the administration that continues to foster community,” said Boisrond, a junior majoring in legal studies.
Kilani, a current USG senator, and Boisrond, the speaker of the senate, both serve on the affordability and basic needs committee. This work has informed their platform, in which one of the core points centers around affordability for students through things like laundry costs.
Kilani, a sophomore majoring in political science, said he also plans to ensure that the Trojan Food Pantry is sufficiently funded and expanded so it can support more students. Advocating to provide students with access to LinkedIn Premium is another part of the candidates’ plan, which Boisrond said is an effort to remove barriers to entry in the job market.
“We’re all here at USC for our career endeavors,” Boisrond said. “Let’s level out the playing field and support our students in the basic needs of finding job opportunities post grad.”
Kilani and Boisrond said they hope to help recognized student organizations receive adequate funding to host events, improve student dining experiences by publishing nutrition facts at the Tutor Campus Center, bring fresh food vending machines to campus and address food quality issues at the dining halls following bugs found in students’ meals.
“Trojans unite all from different perspectives and diasporas of the world. Being [first generation] myself I understand the importance of finding community on campus,” Boisrond said. “The role is being able to see the different communities come together, and … be proactive and go to different communities and see their needs and their concerns.”
— Sairaksha Thirunavukkarasu
Ava Schmidt & Preston Morley
(Amara Grover / Daily Trojan)
Presidential and vice presidential write-in candidates Ava Schmidt and Preston Morley may have only been in the race for a short time, but they are ready to “give back.” Their campaign is dedicated to transparency between the Undergraduate Student Government and the student body, Morley said.
Schmidt, a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, and Morley, a junior majoring in economics, are both transfer students, a background that they said informed their platform.
Alongside initiatives toward addressing homelessness near campus by creating a USG task force and transparent reporting as well as expanding student safety by improving the USC LiveSafe app with escort requests and implementing more safety features, the duo aim to enhance the new student experience.
“There’s still a lot of work that I think USG can do … to make transfer transitions [and] freshman transitions easier,” Schmidt said. “We really just want to give back and thank USC for being the comfort that we didn’t find at our other schools.”
Neither candidate has held positions in USG but believe they have plenty of experience from previous school involvement.
Schmidt was president of the Honors Society at Southern Methodist University and is currently the California ambassador for SOS Children’s Villages, a nonprofit geared toward finding stable homes for vulnerable children around the world. Morley has experience fundraising for villages in Africa and regularly participated in community service at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Schmidt and Morley’s platform also includes improving the food quality in campus dining halls, expanding meal swipes and extending Fryft hours during peak times like gamedays.
Although the pair experienced difficulty getting their name on the ballot, Schmidt and Morley are far from discouraged.
“Sometimes, it feels like catch-up, but that’s part of the deal,” Morley said. “That’s part of the game. It brings another challenge.”
— Sophia Kang
Ben Huang & Wynn Hammond
(Abigail Giroux / Daily Trojan)
Ben Huang and Wynn Hammond centered three goals in their campaign: capability, access and results. They said they plan to ensure the Undergraduate Student Government is using its resources to their full capacity, while implementing a continuity framework within a platform “entirely built off feasibility.”
Huang and Hammond said understanding the student perspective was very important to them in an interview with the Daily Trojan. Hammond said they hope to encourage a collaborative culture within USG, “incorporating all clubs and organisations and making sure people feel included at USG meetings.”
The process of becoming a recognized student organization is Huang and Hammond’s primary focus, which they said involves a complicated application with time and funding delays.
“People want to be able to enjoy themselves and have the opportunity to be themselves here at USC,” said Hammond, a sophomore majoring in human security and geospatial intelligence. “We want to overhaul [the RSO process] to make it easier to start a community at USC.”
Ultimately, Huang and Hammond said their leadership is guided by their professional experience. As active members of the ROTC, both candidates will pursue careers as active-duty naval officers following graduation, a role that Huang said “requires an incredible amount of moral character and leadership.”
Hammond also serves as risk chair for his fraternity, “a position where he balances ‘organization-wide responsibilities with individual members’ needs,’” according to the candidates’ platform.
The candidates want to remove the available meal periods at Tutor Campus Center, which currently limits how many swipes students who are on a University meal plan can use in a day, as well as pursue partnerships like the one USC has with ChatGPT to provide students with Notion Plus and Canva Pro.
“Collaboration is at the heart of what we do,” said Huang, a sophomore majoring in international relations. “I think it just comes down to having conversations like the one we’re having right now.”
— Sofia Musakhanova
