This article was published after other executive check-ins due to a delayed response for interview.

The 2025-26 Associated Students External Vice President for Statewide Affairs Leiya Kadah has spent her fall quarter advocating for undocumented students and divestment from companies on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions list, as well as navigating changes under the current federal administration.

Kadah spent her fall quarter advocating for undocumented students as well as navigating changes under the current federal administration. Sherine John / Daily Nexus

The External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) represents University of California (UC) Santa Barbara students at the state and federal level by advocating for them to the UC Board of Regents and UC Student Association (UCSA).

Kadah, a fifth-year psychological & brain sciences major, has focused on advocating for undocumented students given the increase in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) presence in and around Santa Barbara. She has especially focused on the implementation of Senate Bill (SB) 98 in the UC constitution.

SB 98, which became law in September 2025, requires California schools and requests the UC to alert their communities of I.C.E. presence. Kadah and her office are advocating for the UC Regents to adopt the bill into the UC constitution. In the meantime, Kadah said UCSB Chancellor Dennis Assanis has been open to following along with SB 98. 

“I do think [the UC] can be, and we have been, a force to be reckoned with often throughout very tumultuous times like these in our country,” Kadah said. “I do think more could be coming from a lot of our administrators, not here on campus, just kind of UC-wide.”

Kadah also highlighted the work she did to host “Protect Your Peers” week at UCSB in collaboration with the A.S. President and Student Advocate General, which provided legal and educational resources to help the local undocumented and international community protect themselves from federal enforcement. 

During her summer check-in, Kadah discussed various UCSA campaigns she would work to implement at UCSB, such as “Fund the UC,” “Racial Justice Now,” “UCweVote” and “ACQUIRE.”

Kadah and her office helped implement the “UCweVote” campaign, which is meant to increase the legislative power of the UC by organizing non-partisan student voter registration, hosting various events around campus to get students to vote during the November California special election. The Nexus was unable to obtain specific numbers on voter turnout or registration. 

Kadah has also worked closely with the UCSB Basic Needs liaison to implement UCSA’s “ACQUIRE” campaign, which aims to provide various basic need resources for students. Kadah and her office plan to have a table for “ACQUIRE” at the upcoming Students of Color Conference at UCSB from Jan. 23-25. 

According to Kadah, the UCSA campaign “Fund The UC” was a major focus of EVPSA offices across different UC campuses. She felt the campaign was successful in getting the state to reduce budget cuts to the UC from 8% to 3%, which were eventually dismissed altogether.  

“It was the lobbying and the work that students did to reduce the federal budget cut from 8% to 3%,” Kadah said. “But the UC has billions in reserves and essentially, even  that 3% budget cut actually came to no real budget cut to the UC.”

Kadah said that the Students Enacting Environmental Defense campaign and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act were on the UC Regents’ last meeting agenda before being struck down at the last minute. According to Kadah, this choice is emblematic of the larger disregard UC Regents have shown towards her office and the general lack of desire to stand against current Trump administration policies.

“This administration [has] now set as an example where you can just disregard anybody’s rights. The things that they, whether it’s in [our] roles as students, as just citizens and people who pay to be here at this school, they’ve just completely started disregarding any of our rights to these things,” Kadah said. “This climate is just becoming a lot more restrictive, [and] to my knowledge, UCSA … and I were the only ones that were able to meet with our new president.” 

Kadah pointed to the fact that the UC Regents have reduced their meetings from three to two days and shifted their meeting to a closed session after a public comment on divestment. She further highlighted UC Berkeley’s sharing of student and faculty information with the federal administration. 

In June 2024, the A.S. Senate passed a bill prohibiting the use of its funds for purchasing from companies on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) list. The bill describes BDS as a nonviolent global movement targeting “companies complicit in upholding Israel’s apartheid regime, occupation, and ongoing genocide of Palestinians.” 

However, a year later, former UC President Michael V. Drake banned student governments from divesting from certain companies based on their association with particular countries, leaving the A.S. bill in limbo. This general mood in the UC system has made her efforts towards divestment difficult, but Kadah said she feels that Assanis has been open to “hearing out the wants of the students.”

Another major objective of Kadah’s office was to increase student involvement with campus labor unions such as the local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) chapter. Kadah’s office held events with AFSCME during fall quarter and connected AFSCME interns with members of her legislative division. 

“I think students in general just need to voice their support and stand behind our workers, especially those in AFSCME who haven’t been able to get contracts for years. And really just show that we need to strike with them,” Kadah said. “We need to show this campus and others how important these workers are because they unfortunately just see them as disposable.”

According to Kadah’s platform points, she planned to continue the work of the previous EVPSA on the Disability Cultural Center, but has faced challenges this last quarter. Mainly, the UCen third floor is the center’s suggested location. However, the location comes with accessibility issues as it lacks access ramps. Kadah said she is working more broadly to make the UCSB campus more accessible.

This quarter, Kadah will continue attending UC Regents meetings. She is also getting the word out about UCSA’s Student Lobby Conference (SLC) in March, where students will travel to Sacramento and UC Davis to develop lobbying skills, learn about issues affecting California higher education and engage elected officials on those issues. Applications for SLC close Feb. 1.