President Donald Trump’s executive orders attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have already had a chilling effect at universities nationwide. Falling in line with Trump’s orders, the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP) has begun preemptively enforcing regulations at the UC-level in the face of potential federal consequences.

UC Santa Cruz’s student-run organizing spaces are some of the recent targets.

UCSC’s Student Organization Advising and Resources (SOAR) front desk sent out an email on behalf of the Division of Student Affairs and Success (DSAS) on May 20, informing registered student organizations that they must begin including the “You Belong Here” statement across all of their platforms. 

Websites, flyers, printed materials and social media posts, based on the DSAS directive, should now include language stating that “this program is open to all and designed to be inclusive, accessible, and welcoming.”

Recently, many ethnic organizations were also asked by DSAS to change their organization statements to be more “inclusive.” Similar to mission statements, organization statements describe an organization’s purpose and are displayed on the SOMeCA website.

Although on the surface the request to create more inclusion in student organizations seems innocuous, the directive has already caused concern in many of the spaces it was sent to.


“If you’re asking us to change our focus, then who’s going to focus on those communities that we were serving?” said Shaniya Woods, founder of The Cook Out (TCO) and a signer for the Black Student Union (BSU) — two of the organizations that campus administration has asked to make changes. “Who’s gonna address their needs, who’s gonna care about what they’re going through, who’s gonna pick up that slack?

According to Marie Pasi, the BSU internal outreach coordinator and TCO’s media coordinator, DSAS administrators suggested BSU change part of their statement from “serves as a unifying body for all Black organizations on campus, as well as the Black student body,” to say they were “welcoming all who are committed to uplifting and engaging with the Black experience.” 

“Calling it the ‘Black experience’ makes Black people look like a monolith. We say numerous times, ‘Black people are not a monolith, we are different as hell,’” Pasi said. “To put that as the suggested rewrite undermined everything that BSU stands for and is very disrespectful to the ABC community.”

Proposition 209: Old Laws to Justify New Changes 

UCOP released an FAQ sheet in March answering questions related to Trump’s DEI executive orders. Within it, UCOP directly mentions their past and present commitment to Proposition 209 from the California Constitution, which prohibits the university from discrimination or preference based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. 

In response to the question of whether the UC can continue to support affinity-based registered student organizations, UCOP said:

“UC can support affinity-based student organizations and pre-professional societies as long as

registered student organizations comply with the rules and regulations for forming a student organization and remain open to all registered students.”

City on a Hill Press asked assistant vice chancellor of communication and marketing Scott Hernandez-Jason questions pertaining to organizations that have been asked to change their organization statements to comply with Proposition 209. 

One question inquired why only certain groups were targeted for major organization statement changes, as opposed to others that were only asked to make smaller changes, like adding inclusive language. He did not directly answer any of our questions. 

“Since 1996, all California public universities, including UC Santa Cruz, have needed to comply with Proposition 209,” he said to City on a Hill Press over email. “While Proposition 209 is not new, UC Santa Cruz is working to make sure our language, in our organizations and programming across the campus, reflects our compliance with this state law.”

Top-Down Communication

Despite student organizations at UCSC being led by students, administrators chose to take a non-standard approach to inform the four ethnic organizations of the changes needed to comply with Proposition 209. 

Based on multiple accounts City on a Hill Press gathered in our reporting, the order of compliance began at UCOP, and was sent down to administrators at UCSC. It made its way to Sayo Fujioka, the SOMeCA director, then went to Katherine Canales-Molina, the associate director of SOMeCA and past advisor of the BSU.

When City on a Hill Press asked for confirmation of this chain of communication, we were redirected by DSAS Communication to Scott Hernandez-Jason. We did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

Canales-Molina sent an email to a group of four authorized representatives, or “signers,” from organizations that were affected: the Asian Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APISA), the BSU, TCO and engaging education’s retention program UMOJA. They all met on May 23 to discuss the administration’s directive and how they would respond.

DSAS wrote up their own suggestions on how the organizations could change their statements to be more in line with Proposition 209, yet no DSAS administrators attended the meeting. Canales-Molina relayed DSAS’s suggestions to the four organizations on May 23.

“The information related to these changes did not go directly to [the students] but came through meetings with their advisors to discuss the changes that were proposed,” said Canales-Molina in an email to City on a Hill Press.

Marie Pasi, who was present at the meeting, is a signer for both the BSU and TCO. 

“That day DSAS wanted to hear whether we were ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ for changing our organization statements, because they came up with some rewrites,” she said. “Every single one of us that was in that meeting [said] no, we did not want to change the organizations’ statements, especially not without consulting our core members as well.”

In response to the unanimous decision, all parties decided that their organizations should take more time to discuss the changes with their members prior to any final decision. 

“They said we still need to change our [organization] statement because it’s policy, so we have to adhere to that,” Pasi said. “We’ll change it if you want us to, but we’re not going to adhere to what your suggestions were, because they were terrible,” she continued. “You’re taking away from legacies of political organizing … and it just shows that you have no idea what it is that we do.”

The Reaction

All four organizations ended up changing their statements to be compliant with Proposition 209’s regulations; however they did not use DSAS’s suggested re-writes. 

“We did revise our org description, just to make sure it was in our own words and on our own terms,” Shaniya Woods said. “Even if we are under the flag of the institution, whether that’s UCOP or any other org, we are going to stay committed to serving the people that we started serving … students have always served students, and that shouldn’t be neglected.”

APISA chair Alyssa Vang was also critical of the suggested re-writes DSAS presented to the  organization. According to her, DSAS suggested they rewrite their description that previously stated “APISA serves the AAPI population” and change it to “APISA promotes AAPI culture.”

“I honestly felt offended because APISA does more than just promote AAPI culture. We actively serve our community in their needs and immerse ourselves in student advocacy. Their suggested rewrites did not represent APISA because it undermined the work of previous leaders … to push for a community that truly serves students,” she wrote in an email to City on a Hill Press.

UMOJA was asked to alter their old organization statement to be more “inclusive” as well. While most of their statement remained unchanged, at the end of their statement, they added, “UMOJA also welcomes all individuals who are dedicated to engaging, advocating for, and retaining ABC communities in higher education.” 

Khalia Fitzhugh-Crenshaw, the UMOJA lead retention coordinator, criticized the need to even change their statement at all.

“I think there’s nothing exclusive about the first statement … I feel like by even changing it, it’s almost admitting that we did something wrong, which I think we did nothing wrong,” she said. “Why are we trying to make it so that this space needs to cater more toward the non-Black community when it is a Black org? No one will cater to us if we don’t cater to ourselves, but we’re still expected to cater to everybody else with more privilege than us, because it’s ‘too much’ if Black people just want to focus on a Black issue.” 

An Air of Uncertainty

In response to the events that have unfolded, APISA, BSU, UMOJA and TCO collaborated to write a joint letter to the administration. They sent it to campus administration on May 30. 

“A few other organizations including APISA have worked together to write a letter to the Dean of Students on our disappointment that they would let others rewrite our statements without first discussing with students who wrote those very descriptions,” Alyssa Vang wrote to City on a Hill Press via email.

On June 5th, they received an email response from Garrett Naiman, the dean of students. City on a Hill Press obtained this email response.

Within it, Naiman stated that he “understood there would be impact” when they asked the organizations to change their statements’ language. He apologized for this impact and recognized that making those asks “could feel like” they were asking the organizations to “erase or dilute” their identities and the purposes of their organizations.

“Because of time constraints of this situation, I worked through your advisors instead of going directly to you, causing additional impact to you all. I will work as hard as I can in the future to problem solve around these kinds of issues with you all directly,” Naiman stated. “However, I am sure there will be times where I am forced to work through your advisors again out of a need for expeditiousness. But I will make every effort to connect with you directly as often as I can.”

He also confirmed in the email that the changes they asked the organizations to make were because UCSC was under “a lot of pressure  to make sure they are in compliance with Proposition 209 and other laws/ policies right now.”

According to Vang, right now the university is only asking them to change the language of their organization statements on the SOMeCA website and to include the “We Belong Here” statement in their communications and emails. However, she anticipates the university will begin scanning other organization documents, such as their constitutions, and mission statements in summer and fall of 2025.

Despite the uncertain future of ethnic organizations, Marie Pasi believes students should not – and will not — stop fighting to maintain proper affinity spaces on this campus.

“There is power in intelligence and in knowing what is happening,” Pasi said. “The greatest support is for people to see this and understand that you can fight back, you don’t have to sit there and let things slide … This institution was never designed for you, and so you must do whatever it takes — by any means necessary — to achieve the goals that you want.”