Earlier this academic year, registered student organizations (RSOs) had difficulty getting recognized by the university, due to a stricter review from Campus Activities than in previous years.
Without recognition, RSOs can’t request funding, reserve spaces or access benefits like email accounts or the credit union. If juniors Heydy Vasquez and Elija Barnes are elected president and vice president of Undergraduate Student Government (USG), they promise to streamline this process, ensuring no student organization faces this obstacle again.
“We understand, being part of RSOs ourselves, the integral part they play to our student community,” Barnes said. “It would be a disservice to come into these top positions without acknowledging the challenges that RSOs have had to go through in just this past year alone.”
If elected, Vasquez and Barnes promise to increase RSO support on day one. Specifically, they hope to raise the maximum funding capacity to $10,000 per organization, up from $8,000.
Additionally, they seek to eliminate restrictions on the number of events RSOs can use USG funding for, which is currently capped at four. Vasquez said that she and Barnes specifically wanted to focus on RSO support as USG can enact new policies in this area.
“When we first came to terms that we wanted to get in this race, we really looked at what USG controls, and one of those is RSO funding,” Vasquez said. “It’s crucial for us when we’re campaigning and when we’re structuring our platform that we are specifically looking into what USG controls and how that affects our students.”
In addition to RSO support, the other top priorities of the Vasquez/Barnes campaign are health and wellness and representation. If elected, they plan to use USG funds to subsidize STI testing, making it free for one month out of the year. They also plan to better promote existing USC Health resources, such as free contraceptives for students with the Student Health Insurance Plan, as well as mental health resources and the Survivor Support Community.
“We want to make sure that students know what resources are available to them, even if they aren’t paying insurance,” Vasquez said. “Students, many times when they’re put into unfortunate events, or just really put into unfortunate times, that’s when they become familiar with the resources that we have available on campus, and I think that they should just be familiarized with those resources from the start.”
As for representation, one particular project Vasquez and Barnes would support is actually an initiative spearheaded by Vasquez herself. Vasquez, a Buddhist, has been integral in establishing the Buddhist prayer room in the University Religious Center, opening on February 21. The room will only display deities present in all sects of the religion and is meant to give Buddhist students visibility and a place to pray on campus. Vasquez says she was inspired to create this space as, currently, Buddhist students must travel to other parts of Los Angeles for worship.
In addition to their commitments to RSOs, health and wellness and representation, the campaign’s other priorities include sustainability, increasing academic resources and improved allocation of USG funds. Their full platform can be found here.
In addition to their roles as senator and speaker of the senate on USG, respectively, both Vasquez and Barnes are involved in various campus activities. Vasquez, a legal studies student, is the secretary of the Legal Studies Student Association, an L.A. City Youth Council Member, columnist for the Daily Trojan, journalist for Annenberg Media’s Dímelo and member of Latino Students in Law and Society of Women in Law.
Barnes, a mechanical engineering student, is president of the Cowlings & Ilium Residential College and treasurer for the USC chapter of the NAACP. Vasquez and Barnes have a collective four years of USG experience, which they believe prepares them for the role of president and vice president.
As for what sets their campaign apart, both candidates highlighted their realistic goal-setting and ability to follow through on their campaign platform, claiming that at least half of their platform can be enacted soon after getting elected.
“A lot of people come into [USG] promising so many things, but when it really comes down to it, every single year, there’s this falling short of that goal,” Barnes said. “We both understand that we’re not selling the dream with our platform, but ultimately, we want to make sure that within our term, and also afterwards, we can look back and say we actually did what we promised.”
The voting period for USG elections will take place from February 18-21. The full list of candidates, platforms, questionnaires and finance plans can be found here.