USG and GSG comprise different elections, structures

With presidential debates live-streamed on social media, campaign signs posted along Trousdale Parkway and volunteers actively canvassing for votes near Tommy Trojan, the whole University knows when Undergraduate Student Government elections are in full swing.

But every year, another, quieter election process takes place, and most students — especially undergraduates — may not be aware of it. The Graduate Student Government elections are markedly different from the USG process — for example, graduate students don’t directly elect their president or vice presidents, and senators are elected by individual academic schools or departments rather than by the graduate student body as a whole.

While the USG Senate consists of 12 members, the GSG Senate is much larger; it currently has 65 senators, each representing either a USC graduate school or a department within the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences graduate program. The number of senators per program is determined by the number of students in the respective program. This ensures that each senator represents 2 percent of the graduate population, but that no more than six senators represent any one program, according to the GSG constitution.

For comparison, USG’s 12 senators represent an approximately 1,583:1 student-to-senator ratio, while GSG’s 65 senators represent a 407:1 student-to-senator ratio, based on student population statistics available on the USC website.

“The large number of senators we have lends to student voice in GSG more because the senators directly represent student populations,” GSG Director of Elections and Recruitment Linda Ly said. “Senators should be students’ first point of contact for any issues they want to bring to GSG.”

Each academic program has its own procedures for selecting senators to represent them in the GSG Senate, and must do so by the first two weeks of the following fall semester, according to the GSG constitution.

In contrast, USG senators are representative of the entire student body rather than specific student populations. In the past, USG has had six residential, three Greek and three commuter senators, but made a change in 2016 to allow anyone to run for any of the 12 seats, allowing for a more accurate representation of student constituencies.

The senators, along with the USG president and vice president, are elected in mid-February each year after an extensive campaign process.

“Our campaign period begins toward the end of January, this year on Jan. 25,” said Daniel Zhu, USG senior director of communications. “Campaigns last for a little less than a month, and there are two debates for the presidential and vice presidential tickets, and we have a senate forum for the senate candidates to share their platform. Then we have our voting period from Feb. 13-16, so those are the days where students can vote. After the voting period, we use the weekend to count the votes and then prepare reports, and on Feb. 20 at 7 p.m., we announce the results during our Senate meeting, and then the new administration begins building up their staff.”

Voter turnout for USG elections in previous years has been abysmal and steadily decreasing; this year’s administration is making an effort to increase voter accessibility.

“We’ll have four voting booths set up this year, which is one more than last year,” Zhu said. “We have one in the USC Village Piazza, we have one by the Lyon Center, one at Leavey Library and one at the Tommy Trojan statue. We selected those points because we felt they were the most optimal places to receive high voter turnout. All voting can also be done online, so our website has a button with access to the voting portal.”

In contrast, GSG does not directly elect any of its senior officials. The two major executive positions within GSG, the president and the Health Sciences Campus director, are selected by the Senate in a simple majority vote after giving speeches that are up to seven minutes long to the Senate.

GSG President Kristopher Coombs, Jr. said this is because graduate students are less engaged with their governing body, and thus, elections would be a futile effort.

“Historically, graduate students don’t bother,” Coombs said. “Undergraduates already have a low turnout rate anyway, so it would be even less with graduate students. So we have the Senate vote on behalf of the student population, and unlike with undergraduates, senators are elected by their specific program or school.”

The executive board is also made up of three vice presidents and 20 other director positions, all of which are selected by a committee made up of outgoing and incoming executive board members who must be confirmed by the GSG Senate, according to its constitution.

“Most of the time we like to see students who have had past GSG experience on the e-board, so it’s often formed of past senators who have already been elected by students before,” Ly said. “Candidates [also] have to go through an interview process.”

The USG selection process for executive board positions is similar to that of the GSG’s, with the incoming presidential ticket selecting nominees who are then confirmed in a supermajority Senate vote.

“A lot of the appointed positions are actually just specialized positions, so most of the time, we judge based on skill alone,” Zhu said. “Any USC student can apply, and they go through an application and interview round. After the president and vice president make their selection, they are presented to the Senate and they can approve or disapprove. And this applies to all appointed positions.”

While USG election results and their executive board picks won’t be complete until later this semester, the 2018-19 GSG executive board has already been chosen. Next year’s president will be Jocelyn Yip, who currently serves as the vice president of administration, and the director of HSC will be Nivedita Kar, who is currently the HSC director of equity and equality, according to Ly. A full list of 2018-19 GSG executive board members can be found on the Daily Trojan website.

Despite not being directly elected, Coombs believes the GSG is still able to adequately represent its students, in part because they don’t need as much representation as undergraduates might.

“Right now, the model is that we communicate things to the senate, and the senate communicates to their direct constituents,” Coombs said. “A lot of graduate programs are shorter than undergraduate programs, so their engagement with the University at large is a little less important, as well as any outside commitments they may have, including their family or their job, pressures that most undergraduates don’t have. Their life is not centered around school as much as it is for undergraduate students.”

Besides their structures, USG and GSG also have different goals due to a difference in undergraduate and graduate student needs.

“Many of the initiatives are similar, like everyone cares about parking on campus, or bikes on campus — I think the difference in large part comes from funding and age,” Coombs said. “Graduate programs are by and large more expensive than undergraduate programs, so financial aid, and grant and scholarship programs [are something we focus on]. Because graduate students tend to be older, they might have kids, different health needs, things like that.”