There are two candidates for Student Body Vice President, each running alongside two of the three presidential candidates.
Jordan Richardson, second-year mass communications student
Richardson’s involvement with Student Government spans back to his time on Freshman Council, serving on the Division, Equity and Inclusion committee, Vice President of External Affairs for homecoming commission and currently assistant director of communications for the Tkacs-Richardson campaign.
“All these roles have given me such a sense of home and community at USC. I believe that every student deserves that,” Richardson said.
Richardson and his running mate, third-year public health student Courtney Tkacs, aim to improve the quality of student advising on campus. One of the ways they plan on doing so is implementing an advising committee so there is a deeper connection between advisors and students.
"We also have this thing that I'm implementing, advice for advisors, so students have the opportunity to come out at an event and talk to their advisors and give them advice on how they can better suit the advisee," Richardson said. "They need to be engaged with the students to learn from them so we can grow together as a university."
The lack of engagement on campus is also something Richardson hopes to address.
“As Student Government, it’s our job to go out to students. I think a lot of times as student leaders we expect the students to come to us, but they deserve more than that, they deserve for us to go to them,” Richardson said.
Richardson said his past leadership roles have not only set him up for the responsibilities of student body vice president, but set him apart from the other candidate.
"These leadership roles I've had in the past have set me up for this position, for community outreach, for communications for programming," Richardson said.
Emma Connelly, third-year broadcast journalism student
Connelly has been involved with Student Government for two years, serving as a member on the Student Congressional Advisory Board.
The board sends out surveys to see what changes students would like to see on campus and advocates for the three biggest issues to legislators in D.C.
“I’ve had such an incredible time with that that I wanted to find another position within Student Government where I could kind of make the same change, but on a more localized university level,” Connelly said.
She said she decided to run for Student Body Vice President to be a voice for students and represent them in a natural and honest way.
“I’m just a normal student. I’m involved in this university. I love this university, and I wanted to represent it,” Connelly said.
Connelly and her running mate, third-year finance and economics student David Henao, hope to improve campus Wi-Fi, provide free water at all sporting events and give equity to all stude nts.
“I think that giving a voice for every single student, from the most privileged to the least privileged, is really important to make sure that our campus feels like a community, rather than just everybody being a number on a page,” Connelly said.
Connelly said she and Henao want to be interactive with the student body and feel like people students can sit down and talk to.
“We just wanna be part of the student body and represent the student body, rather than feeling like politicians that are up on a pedestal,” Connelly said.
Connelly also said she hopes to encourage students to run for roles in Student Government. Her goal is to add more people to her staff and ensure that Student Government is open and accepting to all students.
“We want to open up Student Government to those that may be interested but scared to be a part of it,” Connelly said.