Q&A: Meet Drexel’s 2025 USGA President and Vice President
Sanjna Srinivasan and Lucy Nightingale
During a time of change at Drexel University, the new Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) president and vice president are ready to make their mark. Student Body President Sanjna Srinivasan, BS/MS biomedical engineering ’27, and Student Body Vice President Lucy Nightingale, law and international business ‘28, were elected at the end of the spring quarter and have been working to set up their goals over the summer, alongside staying committed to their other interests and work.
Srinivasan has been involved with the Student Life committee of USGA since her first year at Drexel and has always been interested in working with student-facing organizations, like the Indian Undergraduate Students Association (DISHA). Outside of USGA, she’s a third-year resident assistant (RA) at Kelly Hall and a student ambassador, helping guide first-year students through their time at Drexel and giving tours of campus to prospective students. As a BS/MS student, she’s also begun working on her master’s research and spends a lot of time in the lab.
Nightingale spent her spring and summer abroad in Oslo, Norway, working with the Red Cross for her co-op helping formerly incarcerated people smoothly reenter society. When she’s in Philadelphia, she’s an undergraduate law ambassador, mentors her peers through the UG Law Clerks and Chambers program and is involved in criminology research.
After working together in the Student Life committee (the others are Academic Affairs, Buildings & Properties, Civic Engagement and Student Organization), Srinivasan and Nightingale knew they had a lot of goals in common and decided to run together. The pair have spent the summer getting ready to advocate for Drexel’s undergraduate student body. Here’s what they have planned for the upcoming year.
Q: What was it like taking over as president and vice president?
A: Srinivasan: It’s been interesting to see the different leadership styles and how the scope of USGA has grown over the last few years. I think coming in right now with all the changes happening at the University offers us a unique opportunity to take advantage of the change and find avenues to influence it where we can. That’s obviously a challenge, but it’s also a really unique experience, so that’s what pushed me to run for president.
A: Nightingale: This summer has been all about meeting with as many administrators and faculty as we can. [2024–25 USGA president and vice president] Joelyne [Jacobs] and Katie [Moorcones] set the standard with getting to know everyone, so Sanjna and I wanted to follow up with that and meet everyone they had established a relationship with and reached out to others we hadn’t fully fleshed out partnerships with. That’s been mostly over Zoom because I’ve been abroad, but as soon as fall term hits, we’re going to hit the ground running with in-person meetings. We are also planning to meet with Drexel University President Antonio Merlo in the fall.
Q: What are your goals for your tenure?
A: Nightingale: We've had a lot of conversations with students, and it always boiled down to wanting more communication with the student body, so that’s been the big thing we’ve focused on in all the meetings we’ve had with administrators and faculty. We also want to not only collaborate and highlight student organizations on campus but also make sure that students know that USGA is a resource for them. We want to make sure people know what we’re up to. We, along with the five committee chairs, want to collaborate with students on campus and let them know that we want to connect them to faculty and be able to bridge that gap.
A: Srinivasan: We really hope to deliver on transparency and increasing our collaborations with our partners. We want to take advantage of the partnerships that Joelyne and Katie worked hard to build last year with the Philly Student Government Association (PSGA) to see if we can set up more cross-college, cross-university collaborations. The intention with that association was for it to be completely student-run, so there’s no admin, no faculty, just us students. It shows the passion that all of these student leaders have. We talk about what our universities are up to, and connections that all of us have and how we can take advantage of that and use it to get to know each other better.
A: Nightingale: We’re excited to learn what other universities do differently with their student government because even just knowing how they function compared to us at Drexel will be really interesting. A lot of us relate to one another and can help each other out, to show how we can improve. It’s a great opportunity and a great group.
Q: How has your involvement with USGA changed over the years?
A: Srinivasan: I joined the Student Life Committee my freshman year, and then my sophomore year I was the Student Life Committee vice chair. Last year I was the Student Life Committee Chair, and now I was able to step up into the student body president role. My time in USGA has been very student-life oriented, doing anything we can to enhance and improve that the student experience.
A: Nightingale: I wanted to be involved with the Student Life committee because I knew the mission aligned with mental health initiatives, which I’ve worked on. I've also been involved in elections and chairing that committee. It’s an internal committee filled with non-voting members, so I created all the necessary documents and forms for the election process, made sure everything is organized and ensured a fair voting process.
Q: How do you plan to navigate the upcoming changes at Drexel?
A: Srinivasan: Obviously, there's so much going on at Drexel, with Academic Transformation and other external influences on the University. The memo we’re getting is that students honestly want to know what’s going on at a higher level, and I think bridging that gap in information will be important as we build relationships with the student body.
We and our chairs can leverage the knowledge of what Drexel admin are doing to be able to give back information. Maybe you have an idea and it’s something USGA already pitched and we know exactly why it didn't work, so we’ll share that information. If there are other asks that we think might be out of our knowledge base, we will reach out to see what we can find out about it and push for it if we can. A lot of the work we do is advocating for what we hear from the student body and seeing how we can push for that change. There is a wide range of ideas that we wouldn’t have thought about, and that speaks to the importance of having a strong connection with the student body, which is something Lucy and I are trying to work on this year.
Q: How does UGSA support student involvement and ensure their ideas are acted on?
A: Srinivasan: We have a wide range of interest in all of our five committees, so we encourage more cross-committee collaboration to give students flexibility to work on what excites them the most. At the same time, we know that some initiatives take time, so we’re intentional about communicating progress and making sure students know their voices are heard. Our approach is that we’re never going to say no. We’ll always work towards giving you an answer, even if it takes a while.
Q: What advice would you share for new students who might be overwhelmed by how to get involved at Drexel and/or with USGA?
A: Nightingale: College is meant for you to figure things out and discover what brings you joy. Not only is USGA here for professional development, but also, we are a very close community, and we want to see students succeed. Even if someone doesn't want to join USGA, we could help them figure out another club or student groups that could fit their needs. We also have open Joint Session meetings on Mondays from 7–9 p.m. in the Skyview Lounge on the sixth floor of MacAlister Hall, and it’s a really great way to learn about what’s going on at Drexel and with our neighboring communities.
A: Srinivasan: Another thing I would add is to take a step back. Drexel is very “go, go, go” and it's easy to get caught up in all of that and feel like you’re doing too much or not enough. There are so many things you have to navigate at once and it’s important to emphasize it’s OK to take a step back and just focus on yourself for a bit, before you jump back into the deep end that is Drexel. It’s not always easy, but finding a community that you feel you belong in really does set you up for success. It helps you develop personal relationships and build a support system that you can rely on throughout your college career. I always encourage folks to test out the waters of USGA too and see if that community is something they enjoy.