UCSA to hold Latine Student Lobby Day Conference April 26 and 27

The California State Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. (Courtesy of Andre M. / Creative Commons, CC by 3.0)

The UC Student Association will be advocating for funding and equal opportunity at the California state capitol

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) will be hosting its annual Latine Student Lobby Day Conference on April 26 and 27, where students across the UC system will engage in advocacy for basic needs, equal opportunity and funding for higher education.

Representing over 230,000 undergraduates, UCSA focuses on involving students in advocacy at the systemwide, state and campus-wide levels. The association holds several annual conferences, including the Student Lobby Conference, Students of Color Conference and more.

The Latine Student Lobby Day Conference will be split into two days. The first will be spent at the UC Davis campus, providing training and panels focused on issues in higher education. On the second day, students will head to Sacramento to meet with legislative staff to lobby for bills, issues and funding requests.

Conference Chair Jonathan Franco, a fourth-year political science major at UC Berkeley, began lobbying through UCSA in his third year of college. Franco shared that lobbying has taught him about the weight of the student voice to enact change.

“I only really thought of lobbying as something that was only available to people who had been lawyers, or people [who are] a part of conglomerates like Shell and Chevron and all these oil companies that were really, really negative,” Franco said. “UCSA really demystified that by talking about the power of student voice, and it was very inspiring.”

UCSA recently wrapped up two of their largest lobby conferences, including the Student Lobby Conference and UC Hill Day in Washington, D.C. In addition to the Latine Student Lobby Day Conference, UCSA will host its Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA) Student Lobby Day on April 14 and its Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Student Lobby Day on May 5.

One of the key bills students will be lobbying for as part of this conference is SB 1255, which would provide California Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) designations to campuses that excel in providing academic resources to Latino students. This differs from the federal HSI designation and would require the Office of the Chancellor of the California State University to manage California HSIs in the state. The bill requires at least 25% of the institution’s graduating class to identify as Latino. In 2024, SB 1348 established California’s Black-Serving Institution Designation; UC Davis received the designation last year.

When planning the conference, organizers held town halls at all UC campuses to determine what issues mattered most to students. Mariana Martinez Aguilar, a third-year community and regional development major, helped facilitate the town hall at UC Davis and noted that students in attendance felt the HSI title wasn’t representative of the support they were receiving at the university.

“When I asked students attending the town hall if they felt [the] HSI title was serving them, the majority said no, and some didn't know what that was,” Martinez Aguilar said. “It just poses the question of whether it's actually serving the population or the people it's meant to serve.”

For Franco, SB 1255 is at the forefront of his advocacy for increased funding and resources following federal threats to funding minority serving institutions.

“It's super necessary to have the California Hispanic-Serving Institutions bill, because Hispanic-Serving Institutions across the nation are vastly underfunded — especially now with the cuts to the HSIs by the Trump administration,” Franco said. “It’s important to not only support our students, but also to have that designation for the good majority of California's constituency, for how many residents we have in California who identify as Latine or Hispanic.”

In addition to SB 1255, UCSA is also prioritizing AB 713, authored by Assemblymember José Luis Solache Jr. The bill would prohibit California's higher education systems from disqualifying students from employment if a student cannot provide federal work authorization.

“We want to be able to not let residency status or immigration status affect the ability for our students to get the education that they need, and level the playing field,” Franco said.

While applications have closed for the Latine Student Lobby Day, students interested in lobbying with UCSA are encouraged to get involved through ASUCD’s Lobby Corp, the legislative advocacy arm of the undergraduate student government.

As the conference date approaches, Martinez Aguilar shared her hopes of seeing actionable change through lobbying. As a first-time student lobbyist, Martinez Aguilar felt inspired to lobby as a way to advocate for her community. She’s described her excitement to meet students from all the UC schools in the process.

“Advocacy wouldn't work without community,” Martinez Aguilar said. “Especially during really challenging times right now, it's so important to have community. Collective action is the main way things go forward.”

Written by: Khadeejah Khan — campus@theaggie.org