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University of California student activists will focus their efforts this year on encouraging divestment from fossil fuels and prisons and increased investment in education.
Members of the UC Student Association, which advocates on behalf of the UC student body, voted at their annual congress on Sunday to launch campaigns on these issues for the upcoming academic year.
To help solve the issue of access to education, UCSA students plan to advocate for legislation that increases access to education for students from minority backgrounds. Such legislation includes SCA-5, which would legalize affirmative action, or the consideration of race in university admissions, said John Joanino, UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council president and member of UCSA.
UCSA students also plan to lobby state legislators, UC Board of Regents, campus chancellors and other administrators to eliminate their investments in fossil fuel companies, said Maryssa Hall, USAC external vice president and member of the UCSA Board of Directors.
The students plan to advocate for an oil severance tax — a charge on companies that drill oil in California — with the revenue going toward school funding instead, Joanino said.
UCSA will also focus on the school-to-prison pipeline, or the idea that students from racial minorities or disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to be incarcerated and at an early age, Hall said.
Hall added that she thinks addressing this pipeline and funneling money from prisons to schools would increase diversity at universities and access to education for many individuals, Hall said.
The organization’s board of directors also elected Kareem Aref, a third-year UC Riverside student, to be this year’s new UCSA president.
Compiled by Kristen Taketa, Bruin senior staff.
Correction: Kareem Aref is a third-year student at UC Riverside.