A UCLA student government official is the next president of the University of California Student Association.
Representatives for all nine undergraduate campuses unanimously elected Aidan Arasasingham, a rising fourth-year global studies student, as the next UCSA president during their board meeting Saturday.
UCSA is the University-wide student association that represents and advocates for students in the UC system. UCSA’s voting members include only external vice presidents from the nine undergraduate campuses.
Arasasingham previously served as the 2019-2020 UCSA government relations chair and is currently the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president at UCLA. He is also a board member on the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors.
Through his various roles, Arasasingham helped in the search process for the new UC president and called on UCLA to rename Janss Steps.
Arasasingham said he plans to focus on students’ issues and issues caused by the pandemic. He also plans to strengthen relationships with different communities, unions and associations nationwide, he added.
“There’s only so much we can do as UC students alone, so I’m trying to deepen our relationship with our union partners, with our community partners and with other student associations nationwide so we can have a greater collective voice in raising our concerns,” Arasasingham said.
He added he plans to use the congressional advisory board initiative that he has been working on as EVP with USAC President Naomi Riley as a guide to achieve cross-campus communications on efforts such as defunding UCPD.
The congressional advisory board initiative will allow organizations, communities and campus movements to have more communication with USAC and will increase accountability of the council, Arasasingham said.
Arasasingham also said he is also looking to make UCSA’s systemwide funding structure similar to a unionlike model, which would help UCSA increase its number of statewide organizations and better support students and staff.
Arasasingham said it is going to be a tough year, but UCSA has students who are prepared to deal with challenges that are arising from the pandemic, such as increased housing and food insecurity.
“I’m ready to go and definitely right now in this kind of crisis, we can’t wait,” Arasasingham said.
