Update on Election Season from the Office of External Affairs

Dear Banana Slugs,

I hope that this message finds you all well and that everyone is winding down as finals are well, finally ending. My name is Victor Velasco and I serve as the External Vice Chair under the Student Union Assembly, the campus wide undergraduate student government. I want to initiate this email by first saying how proud I am of UC Santa Cruz for its efforts to register students to vote in this election year. It has been over a month since we came out to the polls to demonstrate our electoral power as students and as a movement. Students, administration, faculty, and staff came together in solidarity to ensure that students were registered, educated on the issues that impact all Californians, and voted on November 6th.

Thanks to your participation, I am excited to announce that the Office of External Affairs was able to register over 4,000 students to vote in this election year! Working in coalition, we set a new record for the SUA and UC Santa Cruz! In addition, the University of California Student Association worked with CalPirg this year to successfully register about 51,846 students to vote, crushing our past record of 42,890 registered students in 2008. And contrary to popular belief that students wouldn't come out to vote this election year, we not only voted, but came out to the polls in higher numbers than in 2008! These are amazing victories for our movement. Students proved that if we organize ourselves, and are passionate about a cause, then we can break boundaries beyond belief.

As we enter a new year I want to challenge all of us to continue to be politically engaged in the issues that impact everyone. Just because election season is over does not mean that the action stops. Christmas break grants us the opportunity to talk to our friends, family, and community about the issues that are most important to us. Action doesn't always have to be defined as marching or protesting at a rally to create change, it can be something as simple as sitting down with your parents and talking about why it was important for Proposition 30 to pass. Social change happens through different avenues and having a direct face to face conversation with someone is one way that change begins to progress. Utilize this break to learn more about the problems that students are facing on a local, statewide, and national level. Students are currently facing so many barriers when it comes to higher education, at the same time, it's a very exciting time to be a part of the student movement. I encourage everyone to get involved this upcoming year in any capacity that you can. This upcoming quarter the Office of External Affairs, along with the Student Union Assembly, will be offering a series of different opportunities for you to become a student advocate for public education! I hope that you all have a great Christmas Break and I look forward to the things that we will accomplish in 2013!

Below are a few links if you are interested in learning more about the Student Union Assembly, SUA credit internships, and the University of California Student Association.

The Student Union Assembly:

http://www.studentunionassembly.org/

http://www.studentunionassembly.org/sua-credit-internship/

The University of California Student Association:

http://ucsa.org/