Meet UC Davis’ Candice Phan, 2026-27 UC Student Association President

The fourth-year aims to prioritize cross-campus organizing and political education

By KHADEEJAH KHAN — campus@theaggie.org

When the UC was facing an 8% budget cut in 2025, Candice Phan, who was then a second-year student at UC Davis, took it upon herself to advocate for students impacted by the proposal.

“I just couldn't imagine services being cut, office hours being cut,” Phan, now a fourth-year sociology — organizational studies major, said. “I got to go to Sacramento to give public comment [and] to advocate against the cut in front of the Assembly Education Finance Committee.”

That spring was her first time delivering public comment and working with the UC Student Association (UCSA) at the systemwide level. Phan hasn’t looked back since.

For the 2026-27 school year, Phan will be serving as UCSA President. UCSA represents over 230,000 undergraduate students across the UC system and engages in advocacy at the systemwide, state and campus-wide levels. They also hold annual conferences, including the Student Lobby Conference and Students of Color Conference. 

“There's so many students in the system who want to get involved or they're seeing something wrong on their campus, but they just don't know what to do about it,” Phan said. “But then when they find UCSA, they're just so shocked that there's a body that can advocate and amplify their voices.”

During the 2025-26 school year, Phan served as UCSA’s government relations chair, where she led UC legislative affairs and student lobby days in Sacramento, in addition to organizing and lobbying for bills. She succeeds Aditi Hariharan, a UC Davis alumna who served in the role for two years.

One of the bills Phan worked on last school year was California AB 713, or the Opportunity for All Act. The bill would have prevented the UC from disqualifying students from on-campus jobs if they lacked federal work authorization. 

While the bill was ultimately vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom citing federal concerns in September 2026, Phan is grateful for how students and faculty came out to support the bill.

“The coalition building and power behind that bill was just so beautiful, and I hope to replicate that energy in every other project that UCSA does,” Phan said. “That was a real coalition of students, of faculty, of community organizations, of unions. And that's what made the bill so strong.”

While Phan has an extensive legislative background in UCSA, she hopes to prioritize cross-campus organizing in her work this year. Through the association’s Campus Action Committee, she wants UCSA to prioritize providing political education issues affecting students across campuses.

“I'm really hoping that our organizing directors can develop and maintain strong, meaningful relationships with community organizations on campus, the student leaders of these communities,” Phan said. “My hope is that by prioritizing mass education and collective organizing, we’re able to build a student base that is ready to go when it's time to push a bill forward or push some type of university policy change forward.”

Inspired by campus activism during the Occupy movement, Phan recalls how students, staff and faculty led political education workshops about the UC system to hold their campuses accountable. Phan aspires to follow in the footsteps of past student movements through working alongside faculty and unions in addition to students. 

“I really want to build a united front among students, faculty and staff because we're stronger if we work together,” Phan said. “We oftentimes have similar demands and are asking similar questions to the university.”

For those interested in working with UCSA this school year, Phan encourages students to get involved through their campus’ External Affairs Vice President Office, apply for UCSA’s policy fellowship and attend UCSA’s conferences.

“We have this privilege of being a bridge to these people in power and the institution,” Phan said. “We want to make sure that your story is incorporated in our advocacy.”

Written by: Khadeejah Khan — campus@theaggie.org