External Co-President

Statement: If we are to create an inclusive environment for all students to be both academically and socially successful as the next student regent I would take time to consider the research on belongingness. My research attends to assist the position as a service to students by offering insights on students’ continued commitment to higher education (Maton, Hrabowski, Schmitt,  2000), as many sense of belonging efforts in higher education are failing the underrepresented minority(URM) because they do not consider a myriad of factors (Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Strayhorn, 2008d; Museus & Maramba, 2011;Museus et al., 2017), gender (Museus et al., 2017), and social class (Ostrove & Long, 2007) to establish belonging  between students to their university, their peers, and their professors.

The lack of belonging at post-secondary institutions like the University of California has been associated with a number of negative consequences for students including withdrawal,  poor mental and physical health, decreased motivation, impairment in development, and poor  performance on assignments (Deci & Ryan, 2000; Strayhorn, 2015).

The UC system claims to value diversity and inclusion, and support efforts to ensure representation from various backgrounds and identities in leadership positions, including the student service role. Furthermore, legacies of the UC system stemming from historical implications of exclusion on the basis of race, class, gender, and disability have created various implications that press forward the current investment to diversify the student body, faculty, and administration which governs its policies.  This statement aims to acknowledge myself as a potential Co-president moved by an urgency to mend out past through acknowledgement and a growth mindset to seek pathways for the undergraduate and graduate student body to persist in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to to establish inclusionary policies to diversify for UCSB and externally our voices, stepping in solidarity with other UC-campus students leaders.

I come with open ears, high hopes and humility to serve as a bridge between administration, faculty, and staff to ensure student voices are pronounced, and effectively represented within spaces which historically been challenged by power structures. II believe in voicing solidarity with others as an effort for the UC to better acknowledge various challenges from students’ points of view, to change the dynamics of our campus, and without bias altering student representation to clearly highlight objectives from students and investment into the broader community at large surrounding each UC campus respectively. School and  community service in the context of education grant me the vision and attributes that are relevant to the student position. A sense of compassion and empathy for others too, gained from experiences of parenting has very much given me more drive to love, care, and push past barriers to find the value in others, if only to create better schooling environments for the children to come into higher education. If advanced to this position, I would like to take an intersectional approach to strategic planning with support from members within the leadership community to make a long-lasting impact on policies and practices within the UC system.

Statement: My name is Laura Snell and I’m a third year PhD student in the Religious Studies Department. I am currently serving as the Religious Studies department representative to the GSA. I have been the Graduate Student Liaison for the Religious Studies department for the past two years, where I am responsible for advocating for graduate students within the department administration and with faculty.

This position enabled me to advocate for my colleagues in our strike last year. I have served as the Recording Secretary for the UAW 2865 (now 4811) since the Spring of 2023 and will continue to do so until the end of my term in May 2024. Before beginning my PhD program at UCSB I earned my masters degree at Yale University where I served as class representative for the Yale Divinity School Student Government from 2019-2021. This time included supporting the community in navigating the initial stages of the COVID lockdown and pandemic. Between by master’s program at my prior institution and my three years at UCSB, I have over five years of experience navigating academic institutions with the goal of improving accessibility and quality of life for my community.

In addition to my institutional service roles, I have had the privilege to collaborate with wonderful humans on both the east and west coast through community organizing on the topics of housing, police brutality, and labor over the past ten years of my life. In particular, during the COVID-19 pandemic I was a core organizer with the Cancel the Rent CT coalition which successfully advocated for rental relief, state provided legal representation in housing court, and tenant protections in Connecticut.

Prior to academia I worked as an administrator for an arts non-profit. The skillset developed from my time in the non-profit sector, my experience in navigating the hierarchical bureaucracy of academic institutions, and my commitment to community organizing have prepared me to advocate for our community as the External Co-President of the GSA. Thank you for your consideration!