STEFAN DE LA GUARDIA: How much did it mean for you to win?
HANNAH WOODWORTH: It meant a lot. The campaign was a lot and a flurry of emotions, so I’m really excited that it ended with the news that we wanted to hear it. Now we can get to work.
DE LA GUARDIA: What are you guys going to do that maybe different from elected governing bodies of the past at USC?
WOODWORTH: A big reason why Nivea and I decided to run was to promote greater USG transparency, and I know that’s something that candidates say every single year on the campaign trail. We want to go meet with different RSOs to gauge the needs and concerns of specific USC student communities. We have a lot of plans and we’re really excited that now the campaign is over so we can really focus on all of our priorities.
DE LA GUARDIA: Did you take any inspiration from student governing bodies from other institutions or other universities?
WOODWORTH: One of my closest friends from high school is actually the student body president at Cornell, and she is one of the big inspirations for why I decided to run. She has been a big guiding force in sort of helping me to find my values and goals in this position and also try and figure out what’s feasible because their student government — it’s called our student assembly — mirrors ours in a lot of ways.
DE LA GUARDIA: First order of business on a micro level. What is it?
WOODWORTH: What is it? I think the first priority should always be listening to students and we have not done enough listening in USG in years past. We need to seek it out. USG needs to be the proactive body that goes to students, goes to underrepresented, marginalized student communities and says, “How can we help you?” instead of relying on these student groups to come to us? So first order of business, talking to these organizations and saying, “What do you want to see?” So we could put it at the top of our agenda and that’s what we’re going to do.
DE LA GUARDIA: What is your ultimate hope in terms of the impact you two will have on the student body and for the future?
WOODWORTH: We want to create a culture in which people who are both in USG are excited about being in USG and want to spend their time in the office and want to commit themselves to this work because it has a purpose. So both internally but also externally, we want students to know what USG is and understand our power. Our student government actually has one of the largest budgets of any student government in the country. We have a $2.5 million budget. We have so much power there, but why is it that our greater USC community doesn’t know this and doesn’t know how they can benefit from this funding? That would be my goal is to create a USG that our entire community knows is productive and helpful to making their USC experience better.