This post was updated April 10 at 1:26 p.m.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council appointed Meagan Harmon as the new transfer student representative during its March 12 meeting.

The council voted unanimously in its final meeting of the winter quarter to appoint Harmon to fill the office left vacant following the February departure of former Transfer Student Representative Thyra Cobbs. Harmon, a fourth-year African American studies and English transfer student, previously served as the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for Cobbs’ former office.

Harmon said her experience in the office has prepared her well for her new position on the council.

“Being in the office before, I’m already very familiar with the staff on board. I’m familiar with the tasks that were assigned. I’m familiar with USAC,” Harmon said. “It doesn’t really feel like too much of a change.”

Cobbs’ February exit initiated a replacement process that began with President Naomi Hammonds releasing an application to the student body, said Megan Law, the internal vice president and chair of the USAC Appointments Review Committee. Law said the committee chose five applicants out of an initial pool of over 15 to advance to an interview.

The committee then returned its recommendations to Hammonds, who chose to present Harmon to the council for appointment as transfer student representative. Hammonds did not respond to requests for comment.

General Representative Jonathan Valenzuela Mejia, who also sits on the Appointments Review Committee, said the council selected Harmon for her previous work in the Office of the Transfer Student Representative.

“We felt that she had the best connection directly to TSR (the Office of the Transfer Student Representative),” Valenzuela Mejia said. “We felt that she had the motivation, and we felt that she had the necessary articulation to step into a role mid-year.”

Harmon, who transferred from Santa Monica College in 2022, said she plans to tackle some of the challenges transfer students face as a result of their limited time at UCLA, such as limited accessibility to opportunities including research and studying abroad. She said she is collaborating with the Transfer Student Center to share more opportunities for studying abroad, along with providing other resources to transfer students.

Harmon added that transfer students will also be able to book appointments with her to discuss any concerns they have so that they may be brought to USAC.

With USAC elections in May and her upcoming graduation in June, Harmon noted that her time in office as transfer student representative will be short. While she said her short tenure may limit some of the work her office can do, she remains optimistic about her goals for the office.

“The short time frame does limit me a little bit,” Harmon said. “But I do think that with what I have in mind for the office, all of it is definitely possible.”