With similar platforms, USG presidential and vice presidential candidates attempted to distinguish themselves from one another in Wednesday night’s debate.
Candidates Christine Ngyuen and Miles Kay, Christopher McMorran and Trinity Lee, Sara Khoshniyati and Rohit Bolla, and Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch discussed their policy plans and took questions from the audience in the debate co-sponsored by Annenberg Media.
When discussing student life, all candidates agreed in addressing the growing mental health crisis at USC. Khoshniyati announced her push for a 24/7 health center as well as implementing a protocol for mental health crises.
Nguyen also demonstrated concern for mental health as she proposed integrating additional resources and programs both on the academic and USG level to address the crisis “at all angles possible.”
One proposal that was entirely unique to all of the candidates’ response on how to increase student representation came from McMorran, whose candidacy highlights administrative accountability.
“We should include a student on the Board of Trustees to maximize student inclusion and to resolve the lack of student representation that many USC students have identified as a growing concern,” McMorran said.
He readdressed this issue later on in the debate, substantiating his proposal with the inclusion of the statistic that “21% of private universities have students on their board of trustees.” McMorran added that these universities with this representation typically have positive experiences with it.
All of the candidates unanimously urged a much larger presence of USG on campus in order to resolve the lack of awareness surrounding the organization’s role. Khoshniyati acknowledged that there is “definitely a problem with accessibility and students not knowing what student government does.”
Fritz proposed to rectify this lack of awareness by making USG more ingrained in the USC culture through better outreach. He wants to help students “find out what resources are available to them by [having USG go] out into the community”.
The debate concluded with discussion on the topic of sustainability, but with distinct ideas on how to approach the issue.
Ngyuen emphasized the importance of education in approaching this as a “systemic issue, comparable to mental health.” She also noted that “each individual down to their very core should know what sustainability looks like within their own life”.
For McMorran, one path to improving sustainability is to maximize use of public transportation so as to reduce individual carbon footprints. He stated that he has personally been pushing for public transport subsidies for over a year to mitigate this issue.
“Students would pay a flat fee of somewhere between $50 and $60 to receive a Metro ‘Upass’ which would give them unlimited rides for the entire semester,” McMorran said.
Khoshniyati also revealed her forethought on the issue, proposing an “LAX flyaway program for students who want to get to and from the airport” in a more economical manner.
Elections will take place next week from Tuesday, February 11th to Thursday, February 13th.