Junior political science and history major Reena Alsakaji is running for ASUC student advocate. Alsakaji currently serves as the grievance director at the Student Advocate\u2019s Office, or SAO. She is currently running unopposed as an independent candidate.<\/p>\n
The SAO addresses issues such as accommodations through the Disabled Students\u2019 Program and Title IX processes. Alsakaji joined the office in her sophomore year as a grievance caseworker.<\/p>\n
She believes her experience balancing a substantial and diverse caseload and understanding student issues in her role as grievance director \u201cgrounded\u201d her in student experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel compelled to run for the student advocate position, largely because I want to carry those experiences of student-centered casework \u2026 and then translate it into meaningful policy initiatives,\u201d Alsakaji said.<\/p>\n
Promoting student wellbeing is the focus of Alsakaji\u2019s campaign. She believes the student advocate\u2019s main goal is to uplift student voices and translate grievance case trends into \u201cmeaningful policy\u201d that contributes to a more equitable campus.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Alsakaji aims to place a Student Parent Support Fund fee onto next year\u2019s ASUC ballot, and secure funding for the Grief Absence Policy. Following her time on the Chancellor\u2019s Advisory Council on Disability and Accessibility Planning, she also seeks to push for mandatory DSP training and reduced Ph.D. processing times.<\/p>\n
Her platform centers on four additional areas: enhancing casework and sustainable office practices; diversity, equity and inclusion; protecting free speech and creating restorative systems.<\/p>\n
Alsakaji\u2019s other planned initiatives include working to further explore alternative programs to the closed Restorative Justice Center, expanding SAO involvement in the University Committee on Academic Freedom, and enhancing outreach toward students on-campus to raise awareness of the resources they\u2019re entitled to through partnerships and newsletters.<\/p>\n
Alsakaji views her most significant potential obstacles in office to come from the current political landscape: namely, federal funding cuts and suppression of free speech.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to be very intentional about the policies that we put forward, and be somewhat realistic about what we\u2019re able to accomplish but also be strategic,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In her time at SAO, she has spent extensive time on policy projects that originated from case trends, addressing issues such as Ph.D. transparency, anti-racism, campus housing advocacy and restorative justice.<\/p>\n
Alsakaji also emphasized her value of student-centered casework and voices, having integrated a feedback form into her campaign launch to gain access to students\u2019 opinions on her platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to solely dedicate myself to creating a better university and demanding a large amount of structural change,\u201d Alsakaji said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Junior political science and history major Reena Alsakaji is running for ASUC student advocate. Alsakaji currently serves as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26927,40188,143,145,144,114359,114357,114358,3006,114360],"class_list":{"0":"post-259257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-asuc","9":"tag-disabled-students-program","10":"tag-oakland","11":"tag-oakland-headlines","12":"tag-oakland-news","13":"tag-restorative-justice-center","14":"tag-student-advocates-office","15":"tag-student-parent-support-fund-chancellors-advisory-council-on-disability-and-accessibility-planning","16":"tag-title-ix","17":"tag-university-committee-on-academic-freedom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}