Rahman, Kim elected as USG president, vice president
Students cast 4,260 votes in the election, which accounts for 21.6% of eligible voters.
By JACKSON MILLS
Syrabi Nur Rahman and Diane Kim were elected as the 2026–27 Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president, chief justice Ryan Tung announced Tuesday night. Their ticket earned 1,851 votes in the first round of ranked-choice voting.
Tung said that undergraduate students cast 4,260 votes this year. This accounted for 21.6% of the undergraduate student body, an almost four percentage point increase from last year’s election. Voting took place from Feb. 17 to Feb. 22.
The Rahman-Kim platform focused on providing students with LinkedIn Premium, holding bimonthly town halls where on-campus groups can voice concerns and improving the quality of menstrual products offered on campus.
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“My heart is really big with gratitude because of the community that showed up today,” Rahman said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “We’re already seeing a trend of people being more and more involved within USG, and that’s something that I’m really looking forward to continuing and furthering.”
Rahman said that as president, she was excited to work with the various programming assemblies within USG and work directly with students on community initiatives.
“That’s [what] Diane and I are really passionate about, whether [it] be tabling, or [volunteering],” Rahman said. “It’s community based, because we believe in the USC community, and we believe in their ability to show up and show out for each other.”
The Rahman-Kim ticket was ahead throughout all four rounds of ranked-choice voting and won in the fifth round. Ben Huang and Wynn Hammond came in second, with 1,357 votes in the third round. (Adrian Jao / Daily Trojan)
Rahman is currently the parliamentary secretary for USG, and Kim is the chair of the committee on wellness affairs.
On Feb. 18, the USG judicial council found Rahman and Kim guilty of three election code violations. The judicial council ordered the ticket to suspend all campaign activities for the entirety of Feb. 19.
The election, for the third year in a row, utilized a ranked-choice voting system. The ticket with the least votes was eliminated after each round and their votes were given to each voter’s next highest choice.
Rahman and Kim were ahead throughout all four rounds and won in the fifth. Ben Huang and Wynn Hammond came in second, with 1,357 votes in the third round.
Jad Kilani and Jeremiah Boisrond came in third, and Ava Schmidt and Preston Morley — write-in candidates — came in fourth place. Sixty-eight votes went to non-eligible write-in candidates.
The undergraduate student body also elected Noa Foruzanfar, Kaylee Idrogo, Jasmine Liu, Sonali Gupta, Raquel Bell, Madison Troup, Leilani Akwue, Kevin Hoang, Zehran Muqtadir, Sudeepta Murthy, Piper Kujawa and Amy He as its 2026–27 senators. Four are returning senators: Foruzanfar, Hoang, Muqtadir and Murthy.
There will be 10 women senators next year, eight more than the two currently serving.
Two judicial complaints were filed against prospective senators prior to the election. Manas Sood, another candidate who was not elected, filed a complaint against Amy He, accusing her of offering students rewards in exchange for votes. She was found not guilty.
The president and vice president-elect, pose with current and former Undergraduate Student Government presidents and vice presidents. The election used a ranked-choice voting system for the third. (Adrian Jao / Daily Trojan)
USG associate justice, responsible for election administration, Julian Gajewski filed a complaint against Noa Foruzanfar, accusing her of voting for herself on another student’s phone. Foruzanfar was found not guilty by the judicial council due to the lack of an identifiable witness and the alleged student retracting their vote.
Before announcing the senate results, Tung said he was pleased to see 21 candidates run in this year’s election, as opposed to the 13 who ran last year.
During the standard USG senate meeting, president Mikaela Bautista delivered a presentation highlighting USG’s accomplishments during the 2025–26 year. She said she and vice president Emma Fallon are meeting with Geoffrey Garrett, chair of the President’s Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee and dean of the Marshall School of Business, to further discuss artificial intelligence inside curriculums, and said that the work “doesn’t stop” at ChatGPT Edu.
Senate resolution 145-21, a bill to request the Academic Achievement Award to be instated again, was passed unanimously. It was introduced by senator Zehran Muqtadir. The AAA, which the University sunset in August, allowed students with a 3.75 GPA and multiple degree objectives to enroll in up to 21 units without any tuition increase.
Last week, USG passed a bill requesting USC to add a unit rollover program in place of the AAA. The program would allow students to collect up to 4 unused units per semester.
Patrick Done, the sustainability and campus infrastructure committee chair, presented during the meeting and said the USG shuttle program to and from Los Angeles International Airport during winter break was a success and was utilized by hundreds of students during winter break.
Done said USG currently pays $14 per student for the program, and he hopes USG will continue working to reduce the cost in the future.
