Former SGA presidents elaborate on misleading post from President Justice Horn

  Two former SGA presidents claim that the current President, Justice Horn, is exaggerating the accomplishments of his first three weeks in office.

  Horn highlighted those accomplishments in a Sept. 20 Instagram post that the former presidents are now disputing. Former presidents Yasmen Hassen and Ophelia Griffin insist Horn is taking credit for achievements that occurred in previous terms, before he took office in May 2025. 

  Horn’s post listed what he said were all of the achievements of his team within the first 20 days of the semester. This was in reaction to a Roo News story, which quoted students and student organization leaders who were unsure of what SGA has done this year.

  Horn declined to comment on this story. 

  Hassen, who served as president for the 2024-2025 school year, said she commented the following day to spread awareness of the misleading information within the post.

  “You start to get more and more frustrated, and then it just kind of hits a point,” said Hassen. “Why are we going after organizations that are literally trying to help SGA and being inaccurate while doing so?”

  The former president made a list of various points, debunking many of the slides in Horn’s post with dates from her term, as well as Griffin’s (2023-2024 SGA president.) Both former presidents feel that Horn is taking credit for efforts that began long before he was elected. 

  Hassen started the comment addressing the second slide. 

  “On September 30th, 2024 a statement written by my executive board was issued regarding the tragic passing of Yuxi Wu… I have had countless conversations with administration and specifically the Chancellor on what the city is doing to resolve the unsafe traffic conditions so that this never happens again… Taking credit for that ‘20 days in’ is interesting to say the least,” said Hassen. 

  Horn also credited the implementation of Roo Plaza to his administration. Horn later made a second post to further shine a light on his accomplishments, showing an endorsement from 2023 when he was serving as comptroller.  

  “One thing that I mentioned in the comment section was the Roo Plaza. That started in Ophelia’s term. It was signed and executed in her term, and it finished off in mine… so there’s a lot of collaboration that happens,” said Hassen.

  Griffin also expressed frustration in Horn’s response to Yasmen’s comments, and the continual lack of credit given to the past presidents.

  “It was just a slap in the face, honestly,” said Griffin. “Students deserve more than that. They don’t deserve the cookie cutter aspect, they deserve transparency.”

  The Student Union Foodiverse price cuts were also mentioned in the post, whereas the prices decreased in April 2025 during Hassen’s term. Horn was serving as SGA comptroller at the time.

  Horn was not sworn into office as president until May 1, 2025. 

  During her term, Hassen used RooRefresh to work directly with the administration and gather feedback on the Foodiverse. 

  “The Chancellor asked us to gather that data. That was something he said, ‘Hey, can you actually go out and use Roo Refresh as a way to gather that data and bring that back to me?’” said Hassen. “That is the relationship that we created with upper administration at that point in time with the initiatives that we had.”

 One of the biggest concerns from both Hassen and Griffin is the example Horn is setting for SGA.“You can’t really do that many things within 20 days,” said Griffin. 

  “It also sets an unrealistic standard and expectation for students and how SGA runs,” said Hassen. “Not only does that put an insane amount of pressure on them, but for every other SGA board following that.” 

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