PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT
Hey Gauchos!
Back in May 2010 when I first assumed the Office of the President for the Associated Students, I knew that a challenging year lay ahead. The economic instability in the state and of the nation reflected on our own campus with rising tuition, staff and worker layoffs, and overflowing classrooms. But despite these many obstacles, I witnessed students stand up with a deep fire and conviction to defend their education and promote a lifestyle that truly embodied the principles of scholarship, leadership, and citizenship. In my term as A.S. President, I had the privilege of working alongside some of the most outstanding student leaders UCSB has to offer to make 2010-2011 a year of great progress and whose impact would be felt for years to come.
With almost no time wasted, students at all levels of the association worked tirelessly throughout the summer to lay the foundation for the campaigns and programs that would define the nature of our work for the remainder of the year. During July and August dozens of UCSB students traveled to attend the UC Students Association and US Student Association Congresses where we got to network with people from across the state and nation to determine which higher education issues we would focus our organizing efforts on for the upcoming year. Among those issues was the need to continue building students’ political power in the best way we know how, voter registration.
Fall quarter marked the beginning of our annual campus-based voter registration campaign. By bringing together the Division of Student Affairs with a number of student organizations and volunteers, we led all of the UC campuses as well as many large public universities throughout the country in the number of students we were able to register.
Still, we faced ongoing challenges from the financial climate of the state. At their November UC San Francisco meeting the Board of Regents voted in approval of an eight percent fee increase, the tenth increase to undergraduate students’ tuition in the past eight years.
Despite this blow to our morale, UCSB students were still able to cultivate spaces for learning and empowerment. In late November the A.S. Student Commission on Racial Equality (SCORE) hosted the 22nd annual Student of Color Conference where we were able to bring over 1,000 students from universities throughout California to build cross-cultural solidarity and promote a college environment that is committed to acceptance and social activism.
In a similar mark of accomplishment, the AS Environmental Affairs Board brought the 8th Annual California Higher Education Sustainability Conference to our campus, placing a focus on energy efficiency, zero waste, and student-led sustainability programs. During fall quarter we are also able welcome to Associated Students the Human Rights Coalition, whose purpose became all the more significant when natural disasters and human suffering plagued Haiti. Some of my personal highlights for the quarter included welcoming the incoming class of 2014 at Convocation, meeting students at hall council meetings and speaking at a number of panels and leadership retreats.
In winter quarter we initiated the Presidential Leadership Fellows program where we invited eight first and second year students to learn about Associated Students, the UCSB administration and the major issues affecting the student body and through mentorship and by working in the Office of the President. To improve cohesiveness and communication within Associated Student, we introduced the Board, Committee, and Commission (BCC) Chair Council, giving the many branches and entities of the association a better opportunity to network and collaborate. When several reports of UCSB students struggling with hunger began to surface, the A.S. Student-Initiated Recruitment and Retention Committee, the Office of Student Life, the Alumni Association and a number of other campus departments mobilized into action. This was the beginning of a five month campaign involving food drives and fundraising that would lead to establishment of UCSB’s first student-run Food Bank in the spring. At a statewide level I had the privilege of serving on the UC Student Body Presidents Council. Although this body had been largely inactive in previous years, we were able to push some major reforms at the UC Office of the President including the creation of a student representative position on the UC Regents Committee on Investments and securing a commitment from UC President Mark Yudoff to support institutional aid for undocumented AB 540 students. At the February UC Student Lobby Conference in Sacramento, UCSB received the Campus Leadership Award for our work in carrying out voter registration and legislative campaigns.
During the spring quarter the AS Food Bank officially opened its doors. Since its induction, it has provided hundreds of UCSB students with much needed food items and toiletries and it has been one of my proudest accomplishments while in office. Traditionally, spring quarter has been the most active time of the year. Associated Students had the honor of funding large events such as the worker appreciation dinner, Chillavista, the Isla Vista Pride Festival, and a variety of culture weeks and student-initiated outreach programs all of which sought to foster an appreciation for diversity and promote a sense of community throughout our campus.
Years from now as I look back on my college experience I will continue to be proud to have been a part of this outstanding organization because of all that has, and all that it will accomplish for its students. I challenge future generations of student leaders and activist to leave this campus community in a better place than it was when they inherited it. I’d like to thank the students who spend countless all-nighters in the office strategizing for campaigns when they could be studying for finals. I’d like to the incredible AS staff without whom, none of our work would move forward. And finally, I’d like to thank the students who believed in me enough to elect me as their AS President.
La lucha sigue,
Paul Monge-Rodriguez
AS President 2010-2011