The University of California Student Association (UCSA), comprising student government representatives across the UC system, released a statement opposing the university’s systemwide restriction on student governments’ ability to participate in boycotts targeting specific countries on July 3.
The new policy in question prevents university entities, such as student governments, from “implement[ing] boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country,” UC President Michael Drake said in a letter sent to university chancellors on the same day the statement was posted.
The statement, signed by various representatives of UC student governments including ASUCI’s External Vice President Jared Castaneda, outlines UCSA’s concern of the policy. Representatives claim that it violates the constitutional pillar of freedom of expression.
Castaneda did not immediately respond to a request for comment over email from New University.
It is the belief of the UCSA that this policy was enacted as a direct response to “specific advocacy positions.”
“What’s most concerning, however, is that this policy appears to target specific advocacy positions, as the university has not historically restricted student government resolutions addressing other domestic or international human rights concerns,” read UCSA’s statement on Instagram.
The policy went into effect a year after nation-wide pro-Palestine encampments on college campuses and student advocacy groups calling for the UC system to cut ties with any corporations linked directly or indirectly to Israel.
“Boycotts have historically been leveraged as peaceful forms of protest, and student movements have always prevailed on the right side of history,” said UCSA in the post’s caption.
Within the statement, UCSA outlined examples of historical student protests, such as UC students supporting the end of South African apartheid through direct boycotts of South African goods.
In 1985, a group of students at the University of California, Berkeley began a sit-in protest on campus that eventually became an encampment of hundreds of students. Students demanded that the university pull investments from companies doing business with or tied to the South African government.
The encampment lasted about a week before police arrived to evacuate and arrest 158 students, sparking thousands more students to protest by skipping their classes. Two months later, university Regents held a public forum for students to resolve the issue. The Regents officially voted to divest $1.3 billion the following year from corporations doing business with South Africa.
The association also acknowledged the role that the current administration may have influenced Drake’s decision while urging the university to work with student groups and find a solution that “preserve[s] student expression in all its forms.”
The enactment of this policy comes right on the heels of the Trump administration’s latest accusations of widespread antisemitism on college campuses, including four UC schools.
“We are deeply disturbed that UC would cave to this right-wing administration, although years of censorship and attempts to limit student, staff and faculty speech have proven that the Regents have been working towards suppressing student leader autonomy for years,” UCSA added in its caption.
UCI’s Office of the Chancellor declined to comment on the statement and requested that New University contact the UC Office of the President instead for comments on a systemwide policy change such as this.
“Freedom of expression extends beyond verbal statements to deliberately include meaningful agency about how student fees are used and invested,” read the statement. “Limiting their ability to make principled financial decisions erodes the integrity of student representation and curbs free speech.”
Cain Carbajal is a Features Intern for the summer 2025 quarter. He can be reached at cainac@uci.edu.
Edited by Alyssa Villagonzalo and Joshua Gonzales