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.
Associated Students Student Advocate General Alvin Wang reflected on his term for the 2024-25 school year, highlighting basic needs initiatives he spearheaded and casework — one of the main functions of his office.
Wang highlighted the basic needs initiatives and casework he worked on. Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus
The Student Advocate General (S.A.G.) is a nonpartisan role within Associated Students (A.S.) that provides peer support during disputes between the University and students. During his term, third-year computer science major Wang helped bring a meal swipe rollover pilot program to UC Santa Barbara and maintained a steady amount of student cases, but left some projects unfulfilled.
Wang graduated in the winter quarter and officially dropped out of his position. However, he worked in his office during the spring in an unofficial capacity without receiving honoraria or payment.
The Office of the Student Advocate (OSA) took on 42 cases this year, a decrease from the 84 cases taken on by former S.A.G. Nathan Lee. Wang said this was because OSA didn’t send out an email about its services after Deltopia, post flyers in residential halls at the beginning of the academic year and also out of “randomness and variance.”
Wang was in discussion with the University and students to help bring meal swipe reform to campus in collaboration with Housing, Dining & Auxiliary Enterprises; A.S. Food Bank and UCSB’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America.
The rollover and sharing pilot program was available to a random sample of 10% of students with a meal plan this academic year. Beginning in the fall quarter, the program allowed four meal swipes a week to roll over to the next week and two to be shared with a guest the meal plan holder brings. During the spring, 500 students took part in the program according to Wang.
The meal swipe donation program is available to all students with a dining plan, and up to three swipes a week are eligible for donation to the A.S. Food Bank. According to Wang, over 2,000 meal swipe vouchers have been issued to students.
“That’s probably the biggest win that [the] Senate has had in a really long time — that student government has had in a really long time — and it’s going to be a permanent establishment for years to come,” Wang said.
Data compiled throughout the year will inform the next steps for the official program and whether it will be permanent.
In response to roughly four artificial intelligence-related cases during the winter and spring quarter, the OSA, alongside representatives from the UCSB Office of Teaching and Learning and the Office of Student Conduct, held an AI panel on Feb. 18 to discuss AI conduct in academic situations. Wang said that unless a student admits they used AI, they cannot face repercussions beyond a warning from the University.
“What we found was universally across the board, the University cannot charge students with AI usage because AI detection algorithms are inaccurate. The most they can say is give students warnings,” Wang said. “This isn’t necessarily to tell students to be dishonest, but if students are charged with use of AI, as long as they deny any sort of allegation, there’s no official proof that the University could leverage against that student.”
During the fall, Wang and A.S. President and third-year political science and sociology double major Nayali Broadway filled out a senate proposal to have $28,850 allocated to LinkedIn Learning. The program would allow users to complete online courses relating to professional skills, such as software development or data creation which appear on their profiles upon completion, acting as a form of professional credential.
The proposed plan was to provide the program for free to all students for the rest of the school year starting in December, but the plan was delayed due to contract discussions. Wang said there are still allocated funds for the program and hope the next president’s new marketing committee can take on the project and fulfill it.
“The fact that we haven’t had it running is a bit of a shame, because I would have really hoped to use LinkedIn Learning in my time at UCSB,” Wang said. “There still does need to be someone to spearhead this project, because if there is no president or student spearheading this, it generally just falls by the wayside, and that money allocated just goes nowhere.”
The basic needs vending machine in front of the Pardall Center, a project by the S.A.G, has been bought but is not functional yet. According to Wang, the project has been passed along to the Pardall Center. How the machine will be kept supplied is in discussions, but it will be serviceable by the end of this quarter, according to fourth-year history of public policy and law major and External Vice President for Local Affairs Owen Meyers.
One of Wang’s original platform points included lowering the GPA threshold for academic probation from 2.0 to 1.7. Wang said that he didn’t look “too deeply into it” because “there wasn’t that big of a dire need for it.”
“To lower the threshold of it would potentially … affect the prestige of the University, but also not serve as a sufficient warning to students who might be falling into bad academic standing,” Wang said. “I regret not looking deeper into … conduct[ing] a more comprehensive study on students in academic probation, their symptoms and what they could do, the resources that they need to get out of academic probation, and what I could do to help them with that.”
Earlier this month, the Conduct and Ethics Committee within the OSA office determined that texts sent by former presidential candidate, Senator and third-year political science and philosophy double major Daniyal “Dan” Siddiqui over several months to Senator, fourth-year political science and economics double major and former JC member MingJun Zha constitute a violation of Policy 1, which concerns abusive conduct and bullying.
The allegation was submitted on April 18 and the decision was released on May 6. Wang is a non-voting member of the committee but was in an “advisory role” during the case. The messages used as evidence were closed to the public.
“The committee found that it’d be prudent for them to release a verdict as soon as they could, because Policy 1 is not something that revolves around Dan [Siddiqui] or the election cycle. It just so happened that the issuing of the verdict came out during elections,” Wang said.
Third-year psychological & brain sciences major Sydney Bivins will be the next S.A.G. and has worked in the OSA for two years. Wang said considering Bivins’ experience, he won’t have to “train her whatsoever” and that she has taken on several S.A.G. duties since he graduated.
“I’ve absolute full faith in her to do an excellent job as an advocate general, to mediate conflicts between students, to advocate for the student body, to uphold students rights, to be a public defender for students at UCSB and just to be an empathetic leader who has the best interest of students at heart,” Wang said.
Reflecting on his term, Wang commended the work of his office staff and said that being S.A.G. made him realize he wanted to “help people for the rest of [his] life.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 10 of the May 22, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
