USC undergraduate student government revealed the winners of the USG presidential race at Monday night’s senate meeting: Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch. Running on the platform of “strength in unity,” Fritz and Ritch placed student wellbeing at the forefront of their presidential campaign.
Now that they’ve been elected, what are their plans moving forward?
As opposed to some of their opponents who chose to focus on specific student wellness initiatives such as extended health center hours or free subscriptions to online mental health counseling, Fritz and Ritch are targeting the broader issues underlying the student health and wellness crisis.
Fritz and Ritch plan to approach health and wellness in two ways: increasing student health funding and shifting the student culture at USC.
“The reason that we see increased wait times, restricted operating hours, so many off-campus referrals, so many lacking resources is because there’s not enough money in the student health center,” said Fritz.
Overall, Fritz wants to make sure that students are part of the decision-making and policy-making process on campus in regards to student health funding. If granted, he plans to use these additional funds to increase the number and diversity of student health counselors in order to address the varied needs of the student body.
In response to Fritz’s request, USC Student Health said, “We look forward to meeting with the incoming student leadership to discuss our aligned goals in improving the students community’s access to services, care and prevention education. During the upcoming academic year, 23 additional mental health counselors will be added to USC Student Health.
USC Student Health further said input from the new student government administration will be invaluable as their team moves forward into the next academic year.
In addition to student health funding, Fritz wants to shift the overall student culture around mental health. He hopes to address the well-known “work hard, play hard” culture at USC by destigmatizing the act of seeking mental health support from USC and one another.
“Giving students the tools they need to be able to reach out to one another and support one another is super important… and I think that all rolls up from the culture,” said Fritz.
But how exactly does someone shift the culture of an entire student body?
Fritz plans to do this through the Presidential Culture Commission, the committee behind the cultural values poll that circulated through our inboxes earlier this year. As the ones responsible for issuing these polls and discussing the results, the Presidential Culture Commission has the power to ensure that the cultural values students advocate for are actually aligned with the values of the university, according to Fritz.
While Fritz and Ritch came out on top this election, they were not the only ones who planned to address student wellness in office. All of the USG presidential candidates included student wellness as one of their key campaign points this year.
Fritz and Ritch believe there is much room for improvement in the way USC approaches health and wellness on campus, and addressing the topic openly and deliberately is one of their top priorities.