The UC Student Association’s newly elected president is pushing to strengthen grassroots organizing and build closer ties between student organizations and University administrators.

The UCSA – a student-led organization that represents UC student governments – advocates for more than 230,000 undergraduate students across the University in system and statewide issues. The group elected Candice Phan, a fourth-year student at UC Davis, on Aug. 1.

Phan joined UCSA in 2025 as a campaign coordinator and served as the organization’s government relations chair the following year. She said she researched the potential impacts of the state’s proposed 2025-26 budget on academic and basic need services, which included an 8% cut to the UC.

[Related: Proposed state budget includes $350 million increase to UC amid federal cuts]

Seeing the limitations of the legislative process and the importance of grassroots organizing motivated her to run for UCSA president, she added.

“Presidency would allow me to get my hands into our organizing tactics, our tactics tackling the UC Office of the President and the UC Regents and that side of lobbying,” Phan said. “I’m really grateful to my peers that they entrusted me to lead the association.”

Phan said a major goal of hers is bridging the gap between student governments and student organizations across the UC, most of which have historically been disconnected.

“That’s what I’m really going to be focusing on this year, and making sure that students on the ground are at the table when the UC is making these very critical decisions that impact their daily lives as students,” Phan said.

Phan met with legislators and helped send UCSA members to Sacramento to advocate for Assembly Constitutional Amendment 18, said Duke Dela Rosa, the organization’s 2026-27 government relations chair.

ACA 18, if passed by the state legislature and approved by voters, would appoint two undergraduate and two graduate students to serve two-year terms on the UC Board of Regents starting July 2027. The board currently has one voting student regent and one student regent-designate, who participates in meetings but does not vote.

[Related: ‘We are the institution’: Students push for more representation under ACA 18]

The California Legislature is currently considering the proposal, but its hearing was postponed Aug. 13.

Phan said she also hopes to increase funding for UC Immigration Legal Services, which provides free immigration-related legal services to students and their immediate family members.

[Related: USAC officers address immigration policy on campus, ways to protect students]

She has pushed UCSA to hold the University accountable for complying with Senate Bill 98, which requires educational institutions – including the UC – to notify students and faculty of any immigration enforcement activity on campus, Dela Rosa said.

[Related: UC agrees to send alerts on campus immigration enforcement activity]

Phan said she plans to advocate for greater transparency of the UC’s investments by meeting with administrators and directly questioning where University funds are going. She added that she wants to hold more educational events across UC campuses to teach students about the UC’s past divestments from apartheid in South Africa and fossil fuels.

The UC Regents voted in 1986 to divest $3.1 billion from companies doing business with South Africa’s apartheid government, following years of student protests. The University also announced in 2020 that it had fully divested from fossil fuel production, selling more than $1 billion in fossil fuel assets and investing the funds in clean energy.

[Related: ‘The crisis continues’: UCLA students urge UC Board of Regents to divest, disclose]

Calling on the UC to increase funding in campus resource centers is another priority for Phan, she said.

“I want to make sure that the UC understands how valuable and necessary those resource centers are,” she said.

Cecilia Choy, UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council’s external vice president, said Phan’s goals are in-depth and leave room for student feedback. Phan encourages other board members to reach out to students directly for feedback, Choy added.

“That’s exactly what we need in a president – someone who is very forward-facing and also not scared to talk to the administration, talk to UCOP or (UC) President (James) Milliken about the issues that are going on and getting down to the bottom of the answer,” Choy said. “I’m very happy with how she has been leading, and I think that she will continue to flourish.”

Ensuring student voices remain part of administrators’ decision-making is a priority, Phan said.

“We have our digital platform. We have relationships with other educational equity organizations, with racial justice organizations,” she said. “We will do what we need to do – coalition build, organize, build a united front between students, faculty and workers – in order to ensure that we’re holding the UC accountable.”