To empower and develop students to champion accessibility, affordability, and quality within the University of California system for current and future students in a way that centers equity for all and prepares them to impact the world.
We envision a world where more people have access to an affordable UC education in which students are empowered to study, live, work, and thrive in an inclusive academic and social environment that promotes their development, engages them in exercising their democratic rights, and prepares them to make powerful contributions now and in the future.
Leveraging the University of California system to ensure fairness and collective empowerment for all students.
Cultivating an adaptable culture of support, collaboration, and opportunity that empowers every student to succeed.
Centering the student voice in the org, university, and government to truly represent student interests.
Promoting accountable distributed power to ensure decision-making is participatory and representative across all levels.
Upholding equity in all we do, to evolve the UC system in ways that serve all students, particularly those most marginalized.
Championing participatory democracy to ensure all students have a say in shaping their education and environment.
Building Student Power Since 1968
UCSA was born out of the student movements of the 1960s, when UC students organized through the Free Speech, Civil Rights, and Anti–Vietnam War movements and were met with repression from administrators, Regents, and elected officials. In 1968, when UC student fees were imposed, students responded by building a permanent, statewide organization to resist attacks on affordable education and defend the collective power of the student voice which would later become UCSA.
In 1979, the UC Student Lobby sponsored and won legislative amendments guaranteeing students third party participant status in UC collective bargaining negotiations.
In January of 1999, UCSA and the Associated Students of Riverside won a court victory against the UC Regents and overturned UC’s policy banning student lobbying.
In 2000, UCSA’s lobbying efforts in Sacramento paid off with legislation fully funding the Cal Grant Program, providing millions in financial aid dollars for undergraduate education.
Advocated for an increase of the Cal Grant B award maximum to $2,000, additional funding for the CA DREAM Loan Program to support AB 540 students, and bolstering of the Middle Class Scholarship to refine, but not threaten, its availability.
In 2015, UCSA celebrated a major victory for the UConsent campaign to eradicate campus sexual violence. UC accepted UCSA’s demand to have mandatory consent and bystander intervention training for incoming students, and established a task force to address issues of sexual violence and assault.
In 2019, UCSA secured the $18M ongoing funding in what marked the first statewide investment in the UC Basic Needs programs, along with the first-of-its-kind rapid rehousing programs focused on homeless and housing insecure college students.
In 2021, UCSA secured $22.5 million in one-time funds to Student Academic Preparation and Educational Partnerships (SAPEP) at the UC. These programs, which used to be called Affirmative Action programs before Prop 209, focus on a range of outreach and retention services for underrepresented and underserved communities, particularly low income students. This was the first significant funding increase to the program in nearly two decades following several years of board advocacy on the issue.
In 2025, a UCSA board member wrote the initial bill language for SB 98 (Perez), also known as the Sending Alerts to Families in Education (SAFE) Act, which was ultimately passed and signed into law. This bill requires universities to alert students when immigration enforcement activity is present on campus.
The University of California Student Association (UCSA) is a coalition of students and student governments that aims to provide a collective voice for all students through advocacy and direct action. UCSA participates in the shared governance of the University of California system, and seeks to advance higher education by empowering current and future students to advocate on their own behalf for the accessibility, affordability, and quality of the University of California system.
The University of California Student Association (UCSA) is the official voice of over 230,000 undergraduate students across the UC system. For the past 50 years, it has been our mission to achieve education equity through collective power by advocating for the affordability, accessibility and quality of a higher education for the current and future UC students.
Some of the ways UCSA channels its advocacy efforts include:
As Executive Director, Salih leads our staff team and organizational strategy, keeps the UCSA office in operation, supports the Board and other student leaders, and fundraises to maximize the potential of our organization. Salih also oversees planning for UCSA’s annual statewide conferences.
Raised in Oakland, California, Salih Muhammad strives to embody the principles of service, sacrifice, and selflessness. For much of his life, he has been committed to living toward the liberation of Black people, at home and abroad.
In 2009, he continued the pursuit of knowledge at the University of California, Berkeley, where he excelled as a Black student and organizer on campus. His favorite quote is from Franz Fanon, who stated, “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.”
