A.S. S.A.G. Suyan Wang summer update

The 2026-27 Associated Students Student Advocate General Suyan Wang spoke with the Nexus regarding the work she completed over the summer in preparation for the academic year, including a major Office of the Student Advocate website update.

Having joined the Office of the Student Advocate (OSA) as a caseworker in 2023, fourth-year sociology and history of public policy and law double major Suyan Wang is now serving her fourth year in the office. As Associated Students (A.S.) Student Advocate General (S.A.G.), Wang’s main responsibilities include advocating to administration on behalf of students, providing confidential support and educating the student body about university resources. 

This summer, Wang’s efforts were primarily focused on first planning for fall quarter and then the overall 2026-27 academic year. Around the end of the last spring quarter, which commenced Wang’s term, she finished recruiting and onboarding the OSA’s staff of 26 members. Throughout the summer, Wang held biweekly staff meetings to check in with their progress.

Wang’s planning included establishing new casework training procedures and evaluation procedures to ensure efficiency, and working alongside OSA Head of Staff and third-year feminist studies and history of public policy and law double double major Chloe Norton to update OSA’s casework archive. Additionally, Wang worked to set an agenda for the entirety of Fall Quarter 2026. Wang hopes that these efforts can ensure that caseworkers are “ready to go” and take on student casework for the fall.

Over the summer, Wang and her staff worked on 14 cases in total, which she described to be “pretty complex” in nature. While Wang personally worked on four of these cases, the remaining cases were reviewed by OSA’s Internal Chief of Staff and second-year political science major Evelyn Liao. Wang expressed that this was an increase in the quantity of cases the OSA typically handles over the summer, and that she hopes this growth will continue.

“We’ve been more active online through the past year. In addition to that, we’ve been advertising ourselves through the different offices. So students are made more aware of us, especially for summer cases,” Wang said. “I think this is the effort of last year and the goal is to kind of double that for next year.”

While the OSA takes the majority of its student casework on campus, Wang aims to expand the OSA’s presence into Isla Vista. To achieve this, Wang partnered with the A.S. Legal Resource Center to add a casework intake space in the Pardall Center. 

A major initiative that Wang worked on throughout the summer was an update to the OSA’s website, which the office collaborated with A.S. web developer Alex Herbaugh. The update includes various new features which Wang expressed she “wanted for a very long time,” one of which being a language translation feature.

“Students can now translate the website into more than 10 languages. We based this off of the most commonly used languages in California and the U.S.,” Wang said.

Additional updates include a search bar, which Wang believes makes the website easier for students to navigate. A major feature Wang came up with is the Student Conduct Deadline Calculator, which she describes as “completely original to OSA” and useful for students undergoing disputes with the University. 

In order to use this feature, students can input information about their charge letter onto the page, which will then inform students on the quantity of days remaining before they must take action.

“We have a new UCSB student conduct framework that just went into effect July 1. We understand that this is going to be hard to navigate for UCSB students. So I worked with [Herbaugh] to come up with this calculator,” Wang said.

Wang also collaborated with the A.S. Creative Media Unit on an outreach initiative to reach new students and educate them on A.S. through video content included within online orientation modules.

“I think this is the first time in A.S. history that A.S. has been introduced and integrated into the orientation module,” Wang said.

In order to keep updated with various university office policies, Wang met with representatives from UCSB Campus Housing, the Title IX Compliance and Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Office and the Office of the Ombuds to share updates on student policy. These efforts culminated in the establishment of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the OSA and the Title IX office.

“Previously, we’ve already been working with [the Title IX office] for a very long time, but we’re establishing this MOU to secure this partnership for the long run for future S.A.G. offices as well,” Wang said.

In addition to preparation for the academic year, Wang also held meetings with S.A.G.s at UC Berkeley and UC Davis in order to discuss casework, office management and UC systemwide policy updates.

Wang stated that one of her primary focuses during the academic year will be to focus on enhancing the OSA’s outreach, including through tabling weekly and maintaining a social media presence. She also plans to collaborate with other A.S. executives to host another “Protect Your Peers” initiative, which was held for the first time last year.

“Outreaching to different groups;
that’s something we’re very excited about, is to really enhance our entire outreach this whole school year,” Wang said.

A version of this article appeared on p. 6 of the October 1 print edition of the Daily Nexus.