Jordan Richardson has always been all-in for the University of South Carolina. He grew up attending football in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. He was so determined to end up at USC, it was the only college he applied to.
Now the sophomore mass communications student is taking his passion for USC to Student Government, serving as the 2025-26 student body vice president.
Last year, Richardson served on Freshman Council and as the communications director for then Vice President Courtney Tkacs. He had worked to help get Tkacs and former Student Government President Patton Byars elected. This year, he ran on the ticket with Tkacs as her vice presidential candidate.
What are some of the biggest goals you want to accomplish this year?
The vice president is in charge of planning events, the communication side of Student Government and outreach. Right now, we have 4,772 followers on our Instagram. My goal by the end of my term is 10,000 followers, just because I feel like our Instagram is a big platform for how we reach the student body and communicate, and I want to grow it as much as we possibly can and we have amazing potential. Instagram accounts like Gamecock Entertainment and University Students that have tens of thousands of followers, and I think we're the next organization that can do that. So that's my goal for this year.
Also we have an amazing programming team that's gonna work to plan these events. The vice president has been responsible for those staple events, like Stigma Free Week, Safety Week and Safety Walks. But we really want to branch out to different events, not just the same ones that vice presidents do every year. So I'm working with our team now, brainstorming ideas of what we can do.
What do you want to do to make sure students feel represented, and that students feel like they're in the know of what's going on on campus, that students feel like the Student Government is representing them?
So a big thing I want to do as a vice president is I want to make sure students feel that they know me personally, like I'm approachable. If they have issues, my office — I pretty much live here — is always open, if anybody wants to come talk to me at any time, like, I'm just walking to class. I don't want it to be like I'm the VP and nobody knows who I am. I want to get to know the student body. I think that connects us on a different level, so I can better represent them.
What do you want Student Government to look like in the future?
I think what we have in Student Government is truly something special. We have an amazing community, and we do a lot of work. I feel like a lot of students aren't really aware of it. We started this hashtag called #BecauseofSG, so students are aware of the hard work that we're putting in and the impact that we're having on campus. I really want the connection between Student Government and the student body to be more united. I want us to be more transparent with what's going on behind the scenes. I'm really hoping to connect us and make sure that we're working for them in anything that they need.
Banner image: Courtney Tkacs, left, and Jordan Richardson are the 2025-26 Student Government president and vice president.