2011-2012 was a great year for the External Vice President of Statewide Affair’s office. It was a year filled with historic accomplishments.

When I was sworn in May of last year I wanted to make an immediate impact. Here’s a brief summary of what we accomplished on a month-to-month basis.

We got off to a great start in June when every student body President and External Vice President within the UC system collaborated in creating a strong letter that was sent to the state legislature. This symbolized the willingness of the universities in the UC system to collaborate, unify and move forward together.

In July 2011, I attended the Regents meeting at UCSF where we convinced the Regents to vote against a 6% trigger increase that was going to be implemented in January of 2012.

As we moved into August, we brought a whopping 70 students, the largest delegation, to the annual UCSA congress.

In September we started our annual voter registration drive and in just 2 days we registered close to 3,000 new voters.

In October we successfully got a California state assemblyman to sign a pledge promising to not cut funding to the UC system. The pledge also included promises to look into legislation seeking to increase the number of voting student regents.

In November we successfully launched a rally on campus with nearly 100 students against a $20,000 tuition proposal.

In December during dead week, we took over 20 students to the UCLA Regents meeting. Also, during finals week, we had a productive lobby visit with the Speaker of the California State Assembly.

In January, we took a bus of over 30 students to the UC Riverside Regents meeting.

In February, we attended productive meetings with UC Regent Chair Sherry Lansing.

In March, in coordination with all other UC campuses, we marched to Sacramento and successfully lobbied the State Assembly to halt plans to limit Cal Grant requirements.

In April, we traveled to Washington DC and lobbied with United States Student Association on behalf of legislation that would help eliminate student loan debt.

In May, we joined with other UC’s in lobbying the State Legislature side by side with the UC regents for the first time ever. We also finished the year with close to 7,000 registered voters—a large number for a non-election year.

It was an incredibly successful year, and it was a complete honor to serve you!

Ahmed Moustafa