The sole candidate for the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president pledged to allocate advocacy funding to students and protect retention programs during a Thursday debate. 

The USA Elections Board and the Daily Bruin co-hosted a series of debates between candidates in the upcoming USAC election. Sherry Zhou, the current external vice president’s internal head of staff, is running unopposed for the position.

[Related: LIVE – USAC 2025 debates: Night 2] 

Zhou, a third-year communication and political science student, said she will allocate funding from the Bruin Advocacy Grant to groups currently taking political action, such as by organizing lobbying trips and speaking to representatives. She also hopes to use the money to help fund basic needs for students, Zhou added. 

Zhou said she wants to advocate on behalf of retention programs for underrepresented students. She added that programs currently facing budget cuts are intended to serve UC’s most marginalized students.

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Zhou also said some of her main platforms include expanding affordable housing, making higher education less expensive, increasing pathways for transfer and non-traditional students and decreasing food insecurity on campus. 

“There are so many issues that we all face as students, but I think that as EVP, it is incredibly important to put forward and to center students who are marginalized and to center those access and retention programs who help those that struggle most at UCLA,” Zhou said. 

Students can vote in the election on MyUCLA from 8 a.m. May 9 until noon May 16.