Students assured no jobs will be lost following creation of a petition protesting the ending of the program
By NOAH HARRIS — features@theaggie.org
The Aggie Mental Health Ambassadors (AMHA), likely most recognizable for tabling at the Silo, Memorial Union and Shields Library, are being centralized with the Student Wellness Liaison (SWL) program. Both programs will be supervised by the Health Education and Promotion (HEP) team in Student Health and Counseling Services.
The AMHA and SWL programs will remain separate and one full-time staff member will be in charge of both programs. Student Wellness Liaison had already been under HEP, but the AMHA program was run by Public Health Sciences and Student Affairs.
Initially, there was confusion among Aggie Mental Health Ambassadors, as they thought that their program was being defunded. This prompted a petition from its student workers, which has garnered over 1,000 signatures, as well as an Instagram account specifically created to save AMHA, @save.amha.
“We were recently informed by the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Pablo G. Reguerín that our program will be defunded beginning with the upcoming academic year,” the petition reads.
An open letter was also sent to Reguerín. Part of the letter states that “the decision to consolidate services into the Health Education and Promotion department will limit the accessibility of mental health resources designed for student use.”
Paul Kim, the interim associate vice chancellor at Student Health and Wellness as well as a director of Counseling Services, said that the petition wrongfully states that the program would be defunded.
On April 4, two days after the AMHA created their petition, Student Health and Counseling Services released a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to address questions.
Kyle Tseng, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major who has worked as an AMHA since spring quarter 2024, described how AMHA student workers found out about the FAQ page.
“That [FAQ] website basically stated that the program is going to be centralized with Health Education and Promotion,” Tseng said. “Unfortunately, we were never informed of that as employees and so we had to find that website out [for] ourselves.”
The Student Wellness Liaison program has a much lower profile than AMHA, but the FAQ page makes it clear that this program will be expanding.
“Student Wellness Liaisons are embedded within various community and identity-based centers and serve as a bridge between those centers and SHCS/HEP, tailoring wellness initiatives to the specific needs of their communities,” the FAQ page reads.
Aside from tabling at popular places on campus, part of the job of those working in AMHA is to float, which is when they ask students how they are doing. For Alyssa Reid, a third-year psychology major who works at AMHA, floating is extremely important and is something not mentioned on the FAQ page.
“They specifically say outreach, instead of saying that we would still be doing direct peer-to-peer outreach or doing direct like floating,” Reid said. “We reach people who are not willing to go up to mental health resources already by themselves the most by floating.”
Kim wrote in the statement that AMHA will still be visible on campus.
“As communicated to AMHA staff and student ambassadors, student mental health support efforts will continue to be funded by Student Affairs, which will include campuswide, highly-visible mental health outreach activities,” Kim said.
Emerald Hue, a third-year psychology major working at AMHA, was focused on the impact this change would have on UC Davis students.
“The jobs are not what we’re concerned about,” Hue said. “We’re concerned about how the program is going to be facilitated in the future and how that impacts the community as a whole.”
On the FAQ page, the positions of student workers were guaranteed, but not full-time staff. However, Kim’s statement confirmed that no one would be losing their job.
“No AMHA career staff or students are losing their jobs as a result of this transition and all non-graduating AMHAs and SWLs will be able to remain in their programs,” Kim said.
Supervisors for Aggie Mental Health declined The California Aggie’s request for comment.
Written by: Noah Harris — features@theaggie.org
