This post was updated May 16 at 11:05 p.m.

Undergraduate students elected a new Undergraduate Students Association Council and renewed funding for the Bruin U-Pass in the 2025 USAC election.

USA Elections Board Chair Sujana Sridhar announced the results Friday evening outside Kerckhoff Hall. 

Out of 31,848 eligible voters, 8,980 ballots were cast – a turnout of 28.2% – Sridhar announced. The turnout was over 68% greater than in last year’s election and was the highest turnout in a USAC election since 2020.

The turnout was enough to meet the threshold required to pass the three referendums on the ballot, including the renewal of funding for the Bruin U-Pass for a nearly doubled quarterly fee beginning in 2026. Referendums that adjust student fees require a majority of voters to approve the measure and 20% of eligible voters to vote in the referendum, according to the USA Election Code.

USAC General Representative Diego Emilio Bollo won the council’s presidency with 60.2% of the vote in the final round of the ranked-choice tabulation for the office. Syed Tamim Ahmad, the council’s current international student representative, earned 39.8% of the vote in the final round of the tabulation. 

Bollo, a third-year labor studies and political science student, said he intends to defend and strengthen diversity at UCLA, “address the militarization on campus” and prioritize basic needs. He also said he intends to represent all undergraduate students and hold the university accountable.

Sherry Zhou won the council’s external vice presidency after running uncontested. The third-year communication and political science student said she wants to hold “external stakeholders” accountable to meeting student needs, especially in the run-up to the 2026 midterm elections.

“I have so much faith in the EVP office and in the existing student organizations who have been doing that work,” Zhou said “I’m very, very excited to get started and speak to these orgs and see what they are working on and continue to uplift them.”

Internal Vice President-elect Tommy Contreras, a third-year political science and public affairs student, won his election with 61% of the vote. Contreras, a current general representative on the council, said that with many critical issues currently going on both at a national and university level, it is important for students to elect leaders who will work to address those issues. 

Brett Berndt, who was elected as one of the council’s general representatives, said he is excited to hit the ground running. Berndt, a third-year political science student, added that he wants to emphasize transfer students during his time on the council. 

“I really want to focus a lot on our transfer community and improving the access to these higher-up positions, whether that’s in USAC or ASUCLA, and ensure that these opportunities are available and accessible for our newly admitted transfers,” he said. “What I’ll be doing immediately is waiting to open my apps until after the transfer deadline.”

Talia Davood, a second-year political science student, and Jayha Buhs-Jackson, a first-year African American studies and public affairs student, will be the council’s other general representatives.

Hannah Yip, a third-year computational and systems biology student who was elected Student Wellness commissioner, said she hopes to address accessibility issues and increase student awareness of resources.

Michael Griffin, a representative for the 2025 Universal Access Transit Pass Renewal Referendum, said he was happy to have overcome the 20% voter turnout threshold required to pass referendums. The Bruin U-Pass renewal referendum passed with 96.9% of the votes cast.

The third-year biology student added that he and other representatives will compile resources for future campaign members in preparation for the next referendum on the U-Pass, which he said is scheduled for 2030.

“We have plans in place right now to try to make a campaign vault for future Bruins in 2030 to be able to run another successful campaign,” he said. “It’s not easy. It takes a lot of hard work.”

View the full list of results below.

USAC election winners:

President: Diego Emilio Bollo

Internal vice president: Tommy Contreras

External vice president: Sherry Zhou

General representative 1: Talia Davood

General representative 2: Jayha Buhs-Jackson

General representative 3: Brett Berndt

Academic Affairs commissioner: Cristopher Espino

Campus Events commissioner: Daniel Leal

Cultural Affairs commissioner: Divine Trewick

Community Service commissioner: Edison Chua

Facilities commissioner: Joy Huang

Financial Supports commissioner: Nico Morrone

Student Wellness commissioner: Hannah Yip

Transfer student representative: Hyerim Yoon

International student representative: Keya Tanna

Referendums:

Amendment to the Good Clothes Good People Basic Needs Referendum: Passed

Resources First Referendum: Passed

Universal Access Transit Pass Renewal Referendum: Passed