The Daily Nexus endorses unopposed third-year psychological & brain sciences major Sydney Bivins for Student Advocate General.
Bivins is “very set” on educating students on their rights and wants to focus on casework. Sherine John / Daily Nexus
The Student Advocate General (S.A.G.) acts as a liaison between the University and the student body. The nonpartisan role is meant to provide free and confidential peer support to students, advocates to administration and educates them on university resources. The S.A.G. also works with the Office of the Student Advocate (OSA) to handle student conduct cases, academics or finances, among others.
The Nexus believes Bivins’ experience working in the S.A.G. office for two years and her empathy for various student groups qualifies her to serve in the position. Bivins has also expressed a candid desire to address the root causes of why students seek support from the S.A.G. office, including academic or personal issues.
She believes the S.A.G. office is meant to serve as a “public defender” for students.
“I think it’s really necessary for students to have that advocate and to just have a student or a group of students that they can turn to when they feel like the University isn’t doing its job,” Bivins said.
Bivins is “very set” on educating students on their rights and wants to focus on casework. She wants more transparency from the University on pressing issues that affect students’ basic needs, as well as establishing and promoting more “safety nets” for students.
Bivins initially joined the S.A.G. office in 2023, where she served as a caseworker. Since then, Bivins has worked her way up to chief of staff. She said that due to COVID-19, the S.A.G. office was “in shambles” and wasn’t very active in 2023. She highlighted her experience working with former 2023-24 S.A.G. and alum Nathan Lee, with whom she collaborated with to revamp the casework process by creating resources for caseworkers to use, such as evidence sheets and templates.
The Nexus believes that Bivins has had more than sufficient experience inside the S.A.G. office for the position. Since the previous 2024-25 S.A.G. and alum Alvin Wang stepped down after graduating winter quarter, Bivins has already taken over many of the responsibilities of the position as chief of staff.
“When the student advocate general is no longer in their position, they are not doing their duties for the rest of the academic year, the chief of staff is who picks that up,” Bivins said. “I’ve already been pretty hands on, very, very involved in the inner workings of the office.”
Bivins has a background in casework for the S.A.G. office, and she made it clear that she will be more casework-oriented than previous S.A.G.s by focusing on cases of individual students. Picking up Wang’s projects, she wants to address the “roots of the problem” as to why students come to the S.A.G. office through solutions like lowering the GPA requirements for academic probation.
A project that Bivins hopes to implement is to work with the External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) to “pressure the UC Regents” to fight against research funding cuts, such as the National Institutes of Health slashing nearly 800 research projects. She said she would do this by building a coalition of students that are affected by these cuts.
“So that would be undergraduate students, graduate students, [doctoral] students, professors, just anybody with skin in the game. We would want to build that coalition where we can protest, pressure and make our voices heard, because we have a lot of power as a collective,” Bivins said.
When asked if there was anything she would change about the S.A.G. position, Bivins said she “can’t think of anything [she] would change right now.” She explained this is because the position already has “great connections” with administration and students. The Nexus believes that Bivins didn’t demonstrate any overarching projects or initiatives outside of the coalition for the S.A.G. office.
Bivins also gave vague ideas on how she would continue work from former S.A.G.s, such as GoGaucho, an app for students that compiles events taking place on or around campus. Bivins also expressed interest in continuing Wang’s work for the academic probation requirement to be moved from a 2.0 GPA to a 1.7.
While Bivins has spent her entire college career working in the S.A.G. office, she doesn’t have much experience within other Associated Students entities. Therefore, she may be lacking in institutional knowledge compared to previous S.A.G.s.
The Nexus believes Bivins has the quality of empathy necessary to the work of this position. Bivins said she initially got involved with the S.A.G. office after turning to university resources herself, and that she’ll ensure individual students are “taken care of.”
“Nobody is really skipping into our office really excited to be there. They’re coming there because they need an advocate,” Bivins said. “Making sure that these individual students are taken care of is something that’s really close to my heart.”
With Bivin’s extensive experience in the S.A.G. office and her empathetic approach to casework, the Nexus believes that she will be sufficient in the S.A.G. role.
A version of this article appeared on p. 10 of the Apr. 24, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
