A Conversation with #RealResults

By Lauren Brose ‘15

“We were blasting Beyoncé at midnight as we were putting up posters on Trousdale. The sprinklers were going on and nobody cared and it just showed the amount of love, fun and excitement that is behind all of this. Win or lose, it was literally the best night of my life.”      —Jordan Fowler

Rini Sampath and Jordan Fowler are the first all-female running ticket in USC and Pac-12 history. Despite a discouraging remark from a  fellow peer–– who expressed her concerns of having two female student leaders––Rini and Jordan have received an overwhelming amount of support from both men and women, Greek and non-Greek students alike. They’re also the most endorsed ticket in USC history, currently standing tall with 48. I had a chance to meet with them after their debate and discuss platform points, USG background, and how these two accomplished women came to become partners in crime this USG election.

Rini

Our current Vice President of USG, Rini is a junior who is currently studying International Relations. She was born in India, lived in a total of 15 cities growing up, and currently resides in Irvine, California. She is one of the first women to serve in the executive office at USC.

Jordan

Jordan Fowler is a sophomore who studies cinematic arts with a minor in web technology andapplications. She’s from the Bay area, was crowned Miss Teenage California in2013 and went to an all girls high school, which she notes “is really important to me in terms of female leadership. I really didn’t think that there was this idea of feminism and women empowerment because I went to school with all girls and it was never a question that a girl couldn’t do anything.”

How do you two think you did on your debate?

Rini: It was a really cool opportunity to be in the same room as students in the University who are expressing their concerns and thoughts about their individual communities. The debate was formatted in a certain way so that different cultural assemblies on campus ask candidates different questions and I had a chance to really touch upon a lot of work I had done in the past as well as how we are planning on meeting the demands of the many constituents that we have.

Jordan: Something that was also really exciting to me about the debate was that in my role as university affairs it is my job to advocate for students in the areas of hospitality, housing and transportation. They are all really broad and we really want to improve the student experience for students on that level–– but I see my role as Vice President as being able to target some of these smaller communities so hearing these ideas being passed around but in terms of questions and in terms of answers made me really excited  for the possibility of taking these ideas head on or to be able to stand next to other student leaders as they take on these roles themselves.

How did you two meet?

Rini: Jordan and I have known each other since day 1 at USG. She was my delegate when I was the assistant director. When I was promoted to co-director she was promoted to assistant director and when I was elected to VP, she was my director. I was in a horrible bike accident around this time last year and she came to me as I was campaigning on campus. Here I am talking to students and encouraging them to vote—with a black eye— and Jordan had brought me cookies and balloons just to let me know she was thinking of me. I think that speaks volumes for our friendship.

Jordan: I am only a sophomore right now and was new to USC and USG last year and Rini was literally one of the first people I met. During the election we don’t have to be tense all the time; it isn’t strictly business. We’re having a good time with it, and I think that is reflected so much on our team.

Can you tell me more about your past accomplishments within USG?

Rini: To touch upon some work that I’ve done, I’ve actually been bringing in “Lean In” circles to campus. We host a couple of events. I started the Trojans Respect Consent campaign, which is a sexual assault prevention campaign in conjunction with the Greek Task Force. Another thing I’ve been working on this year is reform for spring admits. Jordan and I actually collaborated on this and we proposed fall housing for spring admits. The one thing that we are always proud to share is our work with students with disabilities and providing better accessibility on campus. We met a student by the name of Zack and he told us that everything from the Coliseum to regular buildings on campus is really not suitable for him. When we come into these rooms and we have these chairs, students without disabilities can easily slide into the desk. He can’t do that and he has a wheelchair and has to come in and start this entire process. So we’ve been working on providing everything from specialized desks in classrooms to renovating the Coliseum by working with Pat Haden.

Jordan: As director of university affairs, we focus on those hospitality, housing and transportation. Some of the big projects include the Uber + Campus Cruiser partnership that was the result of my team and I talking about how we can supplement the cruiser program last August in the beginning of the school year. That was a big project that was able to come to fruition in a semester, which is incredible, so this is the first step in making this program even better. Another project I worked on is the shuttle to LAX, which was just recently approved a few weeks ago. USC is providing free shuttles leaving campus to LAX for students the weekend before spring break. I am currently working out the times of the shuttle, where the shuttle will pick students up— this project is real and actually happening. Another big project we have approved is re-branding Morten Fig. We received feedback from students indicated Morten Fig’s prices were a little out of the student budget and that it was hard to get in and out in an hour. So we worked with hospitality and we are currently renovating the patio. We are going to call it “The Fig,” there’s a special Happy Hour menu and you are guaranteed to get in and out within an hour.

You both currently hold positions in USG. What are some expected changes if you two are elected?

Rini: A major reason why we really preface with all of the work we have done in the past is because I think that when you’re re choosing your student government leaders it is easy to become doubtful or whether they can actually be accountable or effective. Because Jordan and I have been in USG and have this past history of accomplishments makes us the most eligible candidates. Our slogan is “real results” because we can actually guarantee that.  

Jordan: University affairs advocate for students on this grand level and are working to enhance student life in those three big areas and appealing to students as much as possible but we can really see our roles in the future really advocating to these specific and individual communities—women being a huge one—and we’ve talked about partnering with different clubs and organizations and hosting events and speakers series’ to continue the work advocacy, and empowerment that you all have already been doing.

What makes your campaign focus different?

Rini: If you check the list of platforms, there are actually unique distinctions. Something that makes us stand out is that we have already started to work on these projects. For example, one of our platform points is creating a textbook cap.  We’ve talked about the international community on our platform as well as cultural resource centers. Our team reflects the diversity that we envision in student government as well. We are trying to make our platform list as diverse as possible and touch as many communities on campus as possible and that is because I see the role of Vice President and President as an opportunity to tap into these works and fit every individuals needs as opposed to being really grand and large scale. We want to give communities who feel like they don’t have a voice a chance to be heard out. Most importantly, we are really excited to have the chance to be two elected leaders that represent both the Greek and non-Greek side of campus and deliver on promises made.

What do you have to say about Greek Life?

Rini: I sat in the all day minute in spring, 2014, after the row had been shut down. The biggest lesson is communication. When something goes wrong, students tend to freak out because the administration is taking action without consulting them. Jordan and I don’t believe that we need to control the number of parties that are allowed to happen on the Row. We want to have students being able to speak for themselves instead of us pretending we know everything that is going on. We would much prefer facilitating the conversation. So that is why we came up with the idea of the Greek Row Bill of Rights. Basically, what it would do is to grant students on the row the opportunity to have an open forum before sanctions take place.

Can you elaborate more on your platform? 

Jordan: We aim to expand the cultural resource centers, create a mentorship program where international students can hang out with local LA natives, allocate 100 pages of free printing to every single student, and extend Doheny hours. I was in a GE 5 and the textbooks were around $300. I didn’t like that so I switched over to a different GE which didn’t have a textbook at all. Within a GE category, students shouldn’t be choosing classes based on the price of the textbook and that is where we came up with the idea of creating a textbook cap. Furthermore, there are over 900 student organizations and something I realized during my time as a peer leadership consultant for the office of activities is that getting funding for a lot of events tends to stop potential programming and speaker series’ from happening. We aim to reallocate that $2 million budget to go back to the student organizations. Another is having an awards ceremony and tying it into monetary recognition to help these organizations program and put on events that they want to have.

Real Results

Rini and Jordan have 5 years of combined USG experience, connections with university administrators such as President Nikias, and established relationships that will help them move forward with their ideas. Moreover, they both understand when to be a leader and when to be a follower depending on the situation. Through their hands-on experience, they both have a deep understanding of the leadership styles in USG.

Why should YOU Vote?

Last year, USC had a turnout of 6,258 students who voted. This historic number ironically reflects only 1/3 of the undergrad student body. To learn more about each candidates platform, click here

Voting begins Tuesday, February 10, at 12:00 a.m.  To vote online click here 

Vote in person (there’s free food!) at one of the voting booths located on campus at the following campus locations:

• Tommy Trojan
  
• Leavey Library
  
• Engineering Quad
  
• Parkside
  
• Lyon Center
  
• Finger Fountain
  

Voting is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday. The latest you can cast a vote is Thursday, February 12, at 8:00 p.m.

To learn more about Rini and Jordan, check out their website.

To learn more about other USG candidates, check out the candidate profiles.