Empowering Voices: Inside the unique advocacy of Undergraduate Student Government

Located on the second floor of the Union, a collage of student memories lines the wall outside the University Senate Chamber. Credit | Tatyana Woodall

By: Tatyana Woodall

When Roaya Higazi, a fourth-year in city and regional planning, first joined Undergraduate Student Government, she wasn’t planning on staying long.

“I ended up leaving the organization during my sophomore year,” she says. “Just because I just felt as a student of color and also a Black Muslim woman, I just had a really hard time adjusting.”

But passionate about finding ways to commit to service and social justice on campus, the detour eventually led her back to doing some diversity and inclusion work for the organization.

Comprised of four branches; executive, legislative, judicial, and shared governance, USG is made up of multiple committees, panels, and directors. All of them, student-run. 

After beating out two other candidate-teams in early March on a campaign bent on uplifting marginalized students, Higazi and Caleb Hineman, a fourth-year in natural resource management, were named president and vice president, respectively.

Inside their administration, making sure students not only have the ability to advocate for themselves - but feel empowered while doing it, is a priority.

“That’s something that a lot of students underestimate, and they don’t realize how important collective student power and collective student voices really are.” Higazi says. 

The sign over the door to the assembly room, university policy-makers gather here. Credit | Jacob Chang

Members can be anyone from first-years to fourth-years and beyond, but an essential part of that inclusion means making sure that student government is as ideologically diverse inside, as it is for those affected by their decisions on the outside.

Hineman, who works closely with the General Assembly, says although his journey into service was relatively smooth, he understands that not everyone has had the same luxury. 

“I know plenty of committee representatives who are entry level members who did not have that experience,” he says. “I think we kind of wanted to come together and help to make changes so that wasn’t always the narrative, especially for marginalized students.” 

But after a summer filled with racial injustice and the stress of being unable to hold in-person meetings, compared to previous administrations, the challenges Higazi and Hineman face are uniquely difficult. 

“Number one, you can have all of these policy ideas and initiatives all you want, and you can write all of these long documents and they can be really well thought out,” Hineman says. “But of course we’re in a pandemic, and the ripple effects that came with it, that's going to take a lot more precedence than any other projects that you might have.“

A notable success for the administration, this semester University Senate voted to provide students with a pass/no pass grading option for general education and elective classes. 

While it’s important to her to use the position as a tool for empowerment, Higazi says she just wants students to benefit from her relationship with administrators - who more often than not, have never had to interact with marginalized students the way they do now. 

“They've never been in a position where they were forced to listen to us where, forced to address a Black woman student body president, like they’ve never had to do that,” Higazi says.  “Now they have to also address the issues that come with Black students and be prepared to center it.” 

In November, the administration will reach a halfway point for the term, but when it comes to the kind of legacy Higazi hopes to leave behind, she imagines that the new support will be everlasting. 

Hineman, Chang, and Higazi pose for the camera during a campaign shoot. Credit | David Dai

“It’s very interesting because sometimes it's like we’re in our own world,” she says. “We’re seeing a lot of things that a lot of other people don’t see or are not aware of, and we really have to show up for each other in those spaces.”

On the flipside, when Hineman thinks about the future, he says his jaw drops when he thinks about how much has changed. 

“Thinking back to when I first met Roaya back when we were Morrill Scholars,” Hineman says. “I think we’ve both been able to see each other change in different ways, especially in these roles, and I think a lot of that comes from the many different things that are thrown at us.”

Jacob Chang, a third-year psychology and political science major and senior director of operations for the administration, says the job is a delicate balance between policy, and pushing forward for the things they believe are right. 

“USG is a really transformational organization,” he says. “It's students serving students.”   

An international student himself, Chang loves to make connections with people of different backgrounds and demographics, but says it’s more important to be a listener, not a fixer.

Charging the leader of USG with being the “pulse of the student body,” his experience has made him sure that the current administration’s approach to service will lead to long-term change. 

“We’re here for the students, and advocate for the student body,” Chang says. “But without Roaya and Caleb, I don’t think I could be who I am today.”