El Centro volunteer denied reinstatement, University clashes with student advocacy

The El Centro expansion committee was recently met with a hindrance when longtime UC Santa Barbara affiliate, Marisela Marquez, was denied official volunteer status to continue her position as co-chair of the El Centro expansion committee.

According to Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, a UCSB Chicana/o Studies Department chair and professor, Marquez, in one way or another, has been a member of the UCSB community for 40 years. She arrived on campus in 1985 as a graduate student and earned her PhD in political science. Following this, she taught in a few different states before returning back to Santa Barbara. 

She was away from Santa Barbara for three years total before returning as a lecturer in political science, Chicano/a studies and sociology. Marquez was also the executive director of the UCSB Associated Students (A.S.) for 18 years. Additionally, she worked in the UCSB Academic Senate and worked extensively on the academic personnel manual — the rule book for faculty at UCSB.

Marquez was also involved in the UC Student Association, was one of the chief negotiators in the 1994 hunger strike and was at the center of the building of the A.S. Bike Shop. According to Armbruster-Sandoval, Marquez was there from start to finish and “was really critical in bringing that project home.” 

Marquez was never employed by El Centro, but rather students and former Chancellor Henry Yang selected three people to co-chair the expansion committee; Armbruster-Sandoval, Marquez and Victor Rios — another UCSB professor in the Department of Sociology. 

Marquez retired in Summer of 2025, but intended to continue working as co-chair of the expansion committee. With the help of Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) Director Aaron Jones, Marquez completed the paperwork and was granted volunteer status for the full year.

Marquez said that because Rios left the committee and Armbruster-Sandoval “was in the middle of a lot of things,” she wanted to be able to support Armbruster-Sandoval, the community and the students by continuing on the committee as a volunteer.

Jones said that the initial volunteer paperwork, before the July 31 change, was “almost a simple waiver of liability” that included guidelines like committing to honor the tenets and principles of the university and a start and stop date.

Before the current school year started, the UC system and UCSB adopted a system-wide policy regarding volunteers. This change required Marquez to reapply, and she was subsequently denied the volunteer status.

Jones speculates that this may have been the result of a UC system-wide policy change relating to negotiations with labor unions representing university staff. 

“I’m told it’s as a result of something that happened at another campus [that] made the University look at a volunteer aspect of working and supporting the University,” Jones said. “This is speculation, it may also have to do with negotiations between the university and the labor unions because one of the things that came out in the new policy is that volunteers are not supposed to be able to do work that a career staff person would be doing.”

According to El Congreso Co-Chairs, Damien Pereida, a second-year Chicana and Chicano studies major, and Jasmina Patchell, a fourth-year English major, as well as Jones there were two guidelines Marquez did not comply with.

As seen on UCSB’s Human Resources website, volunteers on campus cannot “perform services that are the same as those performed by any employee of the University.” Additionally, former employees are not permitted to “perform services in connection with or related to their former regular duties or duties of other university employees,” as a volunteer.

Jones highlighted that these new policy shifts created a question about Marquez’s involvement on campus. There has been back and forth between the administration and El Congreso surrounding this question of interpretation.

Pereida and Patchell described feeling “targeted” due to these recent developments. Pereida brought up Jack Rivas, a former UCSB Letters & Science advisor who was recently ousted as a EOP volunteer.

“He’s been a volunteer for about more than 5 years now. And he’s been on campus as a worker for like 30 years. He graduated from here, his kids graduated from here,” Pereida said. “I think it’s crazy that it’s only Jack and Marisela that we’ve heard that have been dropped. I’m not sure if there’s more, but it does feel targeted. These are two people of color, they are two people helping in spaces which students really need and spaces the administration might not agree with. To us, it just feels really targeting.” 

Patchell agrees with Pereida and said that the outlined guidelines barring Marquez “feel very much subjective.”

“Especially because not only are these two people very involved with the community, but these are two people who have been very outspoken about admin’s shortcomings. They have held admin accountable, they have called them out when they’re not doing what they’re supposed to do and so, yeah, it kind of feels like a convenient way to institutionally push them out. Even though the regulations are there, but again, they feel very subjective,” Patchell said.

Jones mentioned that Rivas was fulfilling needs for the department in lieu of staff shortages. He also revealed that Rivas was one of UCSB’s first EOP undergraduate students, so he has had a “long history” with the department.

Patchell magnified that the third co-chair of El Centro, Rios, dropped the responsibility a few years ago and since then no one has stepped up to the role. Therefore, the students are confused on who Marquez is displacing — Pereida claimed that “they’re displacing her.”

Pereida and Patchell mentioned that they have been experiencing friction with Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Miller for the last few months. Over the summer, Miller wanted to “sunset” the expansion committee for El Centro as a whole and just keep the building committee for the project.

“The expansion committee and the building committee have very different functions:  the building committee is dealing with the more institutional side of it, the nitty-gritty paperwork bureaucratic stuff that is not quite as fun, while the expansion committee is more boots on the ground, getting student input, hearing what the people want and outreach into the community, fundraising, that sort of thing,” Patchell said.

Patchell went on to name one of her biggest criticisms towards the situation being how the administrators, such as Miller, were handling the implementation of the new regulation at UCSB.

“I think just the lack of, if it truly is out of their hands and there truly is nothing that they can do to reinstate her, just the lack of trying. The lack of expressing that gratitude for all that she has done, whether it is calling them [the admin] out or not she is a pivotal figure on this campus and she has been and she will be even if she’s not a volunteer, but just like that lack of trying, like trying to find another way [for her] to be involved,” Patchell said.

Pereida and Patchell planned to go to Miller’s office hours to deliver a petition they had circulated with over 150 signatures to show the “importance” of Marquez to the community.

On Oct. 15, four El Congreso students, Pereida, Patchell, third-year history of policy law and governance major Meadows Stevens and third-year financial mathematics and statistics major Erika Cerna Martinez met with Miller and his executive assistant Maya Moore to discuss their concerns.

After the meeting concluded, Miller sent an email to Pereida accusing him of making “threats” to his office and subsequently impacting those in attendance, making them scared for their safety.

“I wanted to follow up on something that concerned me as we concluded our conversation. Although we had already committed to meeting again, you stated that ‘there will be consequences if we don’t meet again.’ When I asked for clarification, you repeated that ‘there will be consequences’,” Miller wrote. “Advocacy and accountability are important parts of our campus community. However, intimidation, whether intended or perceived, is not an appropriate way to engage with others. We all share a responsibility to communicate in ways that allow for honest disagreement while maintaining mutual respect.”

The four students in attendance refute this claim and posted a rebuttal on El Congreso’s Instagram page.

“El Congreso Co-Chair, Damien Pereida, concluded this meeting by stating: If this [demand] isn’t met, we will take the necessary actions to ensure Marisela’s continued involvement within the campus community. This, as it is written, is the exact quote used in the meeting, and all four members of El Congreso present confirm this account. It is also the message El Congreso collectively planned to deliver. Damien spoke on behalf of the whole organization, and nothing about it was improvised or personal to him,” the statement read. 

The statement continues.

“To be clear, “taking action” is standard language used in activism and organizing. It is not a threat of violence — it is a promise that we will keep advocating as we always have: through petitions, public pressure, and channels available to students … Nothing about our approach was hostile. Indeed, we had just celebrated El Centro’s renovations two weeks earlier alongside more than 200 students, and we were already working with Interim Vice Chancellor Miller on the El Centro Building Committee. We arrived with a request, not a threat.”

In addition to the email from Miller, Pereida woke up to a text message from the Promise Scholars Program Director Holly Roose condemning him for his alleged actions in the meeting. 

“You threatened the Vice Chancellor’s life and scared the entire office staff???? Wtf is wrong with you? Do you realize Mike Miller is the only reason you and I and the whole Promise Program exists?” Roose wrote in a text message to Pereida, which was screenshotted and posted on El Congresso’s Instagram.

Both Miller and Roose never explicitly denied an interview with the Daily Nexus — Roose did not respond to the Daily Nexus’ request for comment at all and after multiple requests for an interview, Miller responded with only copying and pasting the email he had sent to Pereida.

Before Miller responded to the Daily Nexus, UCSB media spokesperson Kiki Reyes reached out to the Nexus on behalf of her “colleague” and requested the Nexus send her the interview questions instead.

Roose sent an email to the UCSB Promise Scholars on Oct. 25 addressing her actions. 

“As some of you may be aware, it was reported that a fellow Scholar made a pretty big mistake- and I received multiple reports about it,” the email read. “I texted in total shock and surprise, and I could have chosen my words a little differently. I asked them to come see me- to get their side of the story and with a plan ready to go to address the situation.”

Following another request for an interview with Miller, Reyes responded with a statement saying it would not be “appropriate” to schedule an interview about this topic. She then outlined the volunteer regulations and acknowledged the importance of open dialogue with respect. 

“The University is conducting a review of the reports involving the interactions between students and members of the staff in accordance with University policy,” Reyes’s email stated.

Jones explained that he can see both sides of the issue. He understands Marquez has been a “tremendous asset” as well as that change in bureaucratic institutions can be very quick or very slow.

“The University is supposed to, at least rhetorically, function under the principles of shared governance, so everybody has a seat at the table. But in actuality, I don’t know that that necessarily happens all the time,” Jones said. “The challenge really is, and it’s also a great learning opportunity, ‘so we’re kind of at odds here, how do we find a way to move forward that is going to fit within policy, but it’s also going to satisfy the needs and desires of the student population.’ And that’s where the rubber meets the road. But I will say that this campus has a rich history of students and faculty and staff and administrators really taking the time to engage in the process of negotiation and deliberation for the betterment of the campus community. And that’s my hope.”

A version of this article appeared on p. 6 of the Oct. 29 print edition of the Daily Nexus.