Abby Grossman (right) and Abby Waidelich (left) sit down for a one-on-one interview with The Lantern in the Lantern TV studio.
Third-year students Abby Grossman and Abby Waidelich attend class, are involved in student organizations and enjoy hanging out with friends in their free time just like many other students at Ohio State. But soon, there will be one major difference between them and the rest of the student body. On Wednesday, Grossman and Waidelich will be inaugurated as the next Undergraduate Student Government president and vice president, respectively.
“First and foremost is getting ourselves transitioned and getting into meetings with administrators that we can build relationships with,” Grossman, a third-year in math education, said.
Grossman and Waidelich said current USG president Celia Wright and current vice president Leah Lacure have helped them during this transitional process.
“We have set up a lot of meetings to introduce (Grossman and Waidelich) to many of our university partners and they have been received really well by those we have met with so far and we have many more meetings to come,” Wright, a fourth-year in public health, said. “I will be going through that with them, updating them on our policy and making sure we are aware of where they can find the most potential in advocacy starting from where we began and also showing them the best advocacy for things that are important to them.”
Grossman said several conversations between her and Waidelich late in their sophomore year about their frustrations and passions toward USG was all it took for the duo to decide they wanted to run together.
“We have a business relationship and a friendship and believe we really work well together to achieve things,” Grossman said.
The two women ran their campaign with a platform that focused on increasing student safety and making OSU more affordable.
Grossman and Waidelich proposed a four-point safety plan during their campaign. One point of the plan is requiring a first-year safety course for all students to complete in order to be preventative rather than reactionary in safety measures. Another point is working with local businesses on High Street to light up the back of their businesses on Pearl Alley.
In addition to their platform, the pair plans to continue increasing awareness of sexual assault both on- and off-campus.
“This past year we initiated the ‘It’s On Us’ Campaign from The White House and carried it on to Ohio State, and it’s going to be a continual effort through our entire administration…for students to be able to realize what their role is as a student and bystander and what resources they have if they fall victim to sexual assault, ” Waidelich, a third-year in biological engineering, said.
Outside of USG, Grossman serves as the director of formal recruitment for Alpha Phi sorority, Rho chapter. Waidelich is an intern at Big Ten Network and a member of Kappa Delta sorority, Sigma Kappa chapter.
Grossman and Waidelich were elected on March 12 and are the second all-female presidential elects in OSU history. There were 11,472 votes cast, resulting in the second-highest voter turnout in OSU history and the most votes since 1972, according to the official USG election results.
Grossman said she looks forward to engaging with the student body.
“We are all ears, we want to make change at this university but most importantly we want to make the change that students want to see,” she said.
