The Nexus compiled profiles of the 2024-25 Associated Students elected officials to reflect on their past year in office. As they look back on their campaign platforms, we asked our elected officials to tell us about their successes and shortfalls throughout their terms in office. The term in reviews for the other executives can be viewed at dailynexus.com and/or in our May 22, 2025, print edition.
Monica Mekhlouf, the 2024-25 Associated Students External Vice President for Statewide Affairs, looked back on her time in office advocating for student needs and lobbying to University administration.
Mekhlouf worked on food services and the Disability Cultural Center throughout her term. Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus
The External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) is a member of the University of California Student Association (UCSA) executive board alongside other EVPs across all University of California (UC) campuses and acts as a statewide student advocate.
“I feel very proud, and I think I’m honored to have been a part of the [External Vice Presidents (EVP)] that have served this campus, and also proud to have worked very closely with our next EVP. I hope that the student body feels well reflected by me and my work. And whatever I could have done better, I’m just hoping reaches Leiya [Kadah] and she can continue that path of improvement,” Mekhlouf said.
This year, Mekhlouf’s office has begun to implement a program similar to EBT specifically for undocumented students who don’t qualify for CalFresh.
“Currently, most of our work has been more successful reaching undocumented students,” Mekhlouf said. ”We’ve had some challenge[s] replicating that same kind of programming for international students because of things like funding restrictions that relate to the way, legally, everything is processed for international students.”
In light of recent revocations of international student visas under the Trump administration, Mekhlouf’s office has lobbied to UC President Michael V. Drake to help students acquire lawyers and to advocate on their behalf. Mekhlouf noted seeing student visas revoked for “something as simple as” traffic tickets, but was unable to provide further detail due to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) restrictions.
“With these visa revocations, although are partially a federal initiative that has unfortunately been dampening campus activity, I think it’s also a UC front of we need our president in this following year to be a lot more firm and, to be firm in upholding California’s values and the UC’s values in the face of all of these federal takedowns,” Mekhlouf said.
One of Mekhlouf’s main projects in office was the Disability Cultural Center, a collaboration with Commission On Disibility Equity (C.O.D.E.). As of now, they have been able to secure the Associated Students (A.S.) Food Bank’s storage room on the third floor of the University Center as their temporary space.
“This was something that was a little bit up in the air because we felt that the original location offered to us was slightly inaccessible. But we’ve made a lot of efforts alongside the people working to renovate the space and as well as our campus safety team, to create systems that can protect students in case of emergencies,” Mekhlouf said.
They said A.S. Executive Director Marisela Marquez’s temporary hiatus from the association due to medical issues and the University discussions with contractors contributed to delays.
Mekhlouf noted their Labor Director worked with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299 to organize a large-scale May Day event as part of their initiative to platform local labor needs.
“We hosted many workshops throughout the year where unions would come in, give a little bit more information about their presence on campus, their current projects, their state of bargaining with the University. This year was a huge bargaining year for us, especially because we are facing huge turnover,” Mekhlouf said.
Mekhlouf said they hope with the heavy amount of turnover this year — including Marquez, Chancellor Henry T. Yang, Drake, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Margaret Klawunn and Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life & Belonging Katya Armistead — that new administrators will be as “permissive” as the incumbents.
“For the most part, our admin is a lot more permissive than the administration at other campuses. I will say that I’m concerned, although I do have my criticisms of our current administration and our ability to handle affairs and inform students when things are happening, like something like a [time, place manner] change, or something like visas being revoked,” Mekhlouf said.
Mekhlouf expressed “complete faith” in her successor, fourth-year psychological & brain sciences major Leiya Kadah, who ran in the election unopposed. Mekhlouf plans to integrate Kadah into the office by having sit-down meetings with other EVPSA staff members.
“Honestly, I think she’s handled everything I’ve thrown to her so far very smoothly. She’s a delegation leader at Hill day. She attended our lobby conference. She’s gone to many, many workshops alongside me,” Mekhlouf said.
A version of this article appeared on p. 9 of the May 22, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
