UC Santa Cruz’s spring 2024 undergraduate Student Union Assembly (SUA) elections are in full swing.
After a week-long delay, the ballots are officially open for voters from May 20 until May 31. UCSC students can access ballots virtually through the campus elections website.
This year’s candidates are running under a slate entitled “Students 4 Rooted Resistance” (S4R2). The slate is running unopposed.
“The unity [of a slate] allows us to pool our resources, knowledge, and expertise, thereby maximizing our impact within the SUA and beyond,” said S4R2 in a collective statement sent to City On a Hill Press.
CHP caught up with each of the candidates to get the answers you need: why they chose to run, what challenges they identify in the student body, and what their goals are if elected.
Some responses have been edited for brevity.
Role: President
Candidate: Airielle Silva (incumbent)
What has motivated you to run for your position?
“Throughout this academic year, I have had the privilege of serving as the current SUA President alongside other fulfilling roles, such as being one of the Black Student Union Co-Chairs, BLM Garden Co-Steward, etc… I am re-running for this position because the SUA needs to sustain the momentum we’ve built. My own strength has only come from all of the Student Body’s interconnectedness in the struggle to attend UCSC. I hope to continue the rich legacy of student activism and amplify the power of students this next academic year.”
What do you identify as some of the main challenges students are facing at UCSC?
“This year alone we have seen how intertwined the challenges of being a student at UCSC are. If we aren’t receiving high quality and accessible food, how are we expected to perform well academically? How are we supposed to be in community with one another when there isn’t safe transportation from one end of campus to another? All these questions and more burden us all everyday. However, something unique about students’ experience this year is that our mistreatment is being hyper-observed; our issues are alike to the rest of the UC’s. There is no way to ignore our struggles anymore.”
Role: Vice President of Internal Affairs
Candidate: Nareh Hamo
What do you identify as some of the main challenges students are facing at UCSC?
“Housing, transportation, worker vulnerabilities, and clear communication with the university are some of the many challenges that I have witnessed. In fact, our institutions actively involve themselves with the intention for students to suffer. A list to name a few: Our chancellors continue to label peaceful protests as unlawful and discriminatory, [make] changes to graduation requirements, housing processes, and transportation methods without any actual consideration for student input, [and] consistently overadmit, leading to an institution with an infrastructural design that cannot and will not ever be able to support our actual population.
Every time I have had a conversation with admin on campus, I am told that there is only so much that they can do because it is out of their control. I’m sure many students have had similar experiences of misinformation and misdirection, and it’s time that we demand our university to take our concerns seriously.”
What are your primary goals for your term if elected as an SUA officer?
“I want to make clear to students that student representative positions like mine were designed to keep students busy with other minor tasks so that the university can safeguard its control over the actual decision-making process. Instead of letting students have a decisive voice, we are only given opportunities to suggest and recommend what happens to us — which is equivalent to suppressing student voices.”
“I hope that in my time in this position, I am able to dissect this obstacle and work in collaboration with various organizations to get our demands not just on the table, but on the agenda. Especially being in charge of internal affairs, my goal is to have internal operations run as swiftly and smoothly as possible through implementation of framework and effective forms of communication, so our students’ aspirations can be centralized within the SUA’s agenda.”
Role: Vice President of External Affairs (VPEA):
Candidate: Andres Martinez-Sabino(incumbent)
What do you identify as some of the main challenges students are facing at UCSC?
“The main challenge for students is the pace of change on this campus regarding issues pertaining to housing, TAPS, dining services, and basic needs. We, as students, feel as if almost all decisions worsen the quality of UCSC.”
What are your primary goals for your term if elected as an SUA officer?
“My primary goal for my term will be to create more advocacy pathways for students to feel empowered to make their voices heard beyond our campus. This could involve planning trips to the UC Board of Regents Meeting, doing more lobbying events at the local, state, or federal level, or organizing on-campus events addressing current campus issues. Additionally, I aim to plan all EVP events with student organizations and communities interested in learning how the EVP office work can better support students.”
Role: Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion
Candidate: Wumi Ogunlade
What has motivated you to run for your position?
“As a Nigerian immigrant and a Black woman, I’ve experienced firsthand the feeling of being an outsider within this university’s community. This sense of not truly being seen or represented fueled my desire to step up and advocate for change.
Additionally, my candidacy was fueled by my firsthand experience with this school’s bureaucratic structures as Chair of Merrill Student Government, where I witnessed how these obstacles often impede student empowerment. Witnessing the ways in which systemic barriers hinder marginalized communities from fully participating in higher education, coupled with the fatigue of navigating through administrative red tape, propelled me to take action.
My candidacy is driven by a passion for social justice and advocacy. I believe creating a more equitable and inclusive campus environment is imperative for the well-being and success of all students. This commitment to social justice advocacy isn’t just a temporary pursuit for me; it’s a lifelong dedication that I want to continue to pursue in my future endeavors.”
What are your primary goals for your term if elected as an SUA officer?
“My primary goals revolve around fostering a more inclusive and equitable campus environment at UCSC. I aim to address systemic barriers that hinder marginalized communities from fully participating in higher education by advocating for equitable access to essential resources such as housing, transportation, mental health, and financial aid.
I am committed to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and ensuring that their concerns are heard and addressed. I will work towards strengthening the relationship between administration and students, advocating for greater transparency, accountability, and collaboration.[I also want to] forge strong partnerships with student-led organizations and governing bodies to tackle campus issues collaboratively.
I intend to focus on creating more inclusive spaces for students to connect, interact, and feel a sense of belonging across the campus. This includes advocating for the creation of communal areas where students from diverse backgrounds can come together, as well as supporting existing resource centers and student workers.
My goal is to empower students and build a campus community that welcomes, nurtures, and ensures the safety and well-being of all its members.”
Role: Vice President of Academic Affairs
Candidate: Andrew Nate De Guzman
What has motivated you to run for your position?
“I believe that before we are student-leaders, student-athletes, student-workers, and student-researchers, we are students first. For many of us, it was difficult to get into higher education, but the struggle didn’t end there. Out of all of higher education, we chose to attend UCSC, yet that decision is not respected by the University. This is reflected in how many departments and majors have changed their coursework and requirements without allowing students — whom these changes directly affect — contribute to these discussions.”
What are your primary goals for your term if elected as an SUA officer?
“I aim to help students get the resources necessary to succeed at this challenging university. In particular, I want to help the DRC in their goal to provide students with academic accommodations. Another goal of mine is to ensure that student voices are considered by their major departments for changes that will happen and what improvements could happen. Looking at the rest of the slate, we all want to empower student voices on different problems around campus. My goal is to bring this shared vision into our academics.”
Role: Vice President of Student Life
Candidate: Nicolas Robles
What has motivated you to run for your position?
“The student voices I hear throughout my involvement in the different spaces I am a part of. Students from all different backgrounds and identities are telling me their struggles, myself included, when it comes to their attendance at UCSC, and it really aggravates me and sparks my motivation to fight for student rights to my utmost capacity so that everyone can focus on what they signed up for —THEIR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE! Not the transgressions imposed on us by the failures of the administration.
What are your primary goals for your term if elected as an SUA officer?
“I would like a housing lottery reform to confirm housing for disabled and undocumented students, who are the most susceptible to housing instability. I will continue my work on transportation issues and campus safety, like enhancing bus services and making the campus safer for micro mobility and pedestrians by having further discussions with our campus planning administration.
I want to help alleviate food insecurity by increasing funding for free food programs around campus. I would love to help bring racial awareness to light by spotlighting efforts from our ethnic organizations and our diversity and inclusion office. I also want to raise sexual violence awareness on campus by working with the Womxn’s Center and calling out the rampant dismissal of sexual violence cases. My primary goal is for students to live unimpeded by avoidable and unnecessary stressors imposed by the university.”
