New to this spring’s ASUCI elections is the Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (AVP of DEI) position, which falls within the ASUCI Executive Cabinet. Second-year political science and drama student Neha Mahesh is the sole candidate running to be the first to fill that role.
The office was added to the new 2026-2027 Constitution. According to article vii section B of the ASUCI Constitution, the purpose of the AVP of DEI is to serve as the main point of contact for ASUCI when it comes to DEI related issues, lead communication with multicultural Registered Campus Organizations (RCO), UCI cultural centers and the SOAR Center and to gather student views on ASUCI’s advocacy regarding DEI.
Mahesh is running unopposed, after Alijah Cox, who was the other AVP of DEI candidate, dropped out of the race due to a violation of the Elections Code.
To Mahesh, being AVP of DEI means listening to the concerns marginalized students have and translating them into policy changes. To do this efficiently, she plans to create a group of commissioners that represents the racial makeup of UCI’s student body.
The purpose of the commissioners, according to Mahesh, will be to help bring the voice of students to her. Her job will be to take the issues brought forward to her and present them to UCI administrators, something her current role as Campus Safety Coordinator does not allow for.
“I realized [that] there’s a lot that I want to do that requires more visibility and more communication with admin that I don’t have at my level,” Mahesh told New University.
During her time as safety commissioner, she heard from a Mesa Court student resident who requested a maintenance request regarding a rat infestation at their apartment. The student, who was immunocompromised, had to wait a week before the issue was addressed.
As AVP of DEI, Mahesh wants to push for a change in the way campus housing responds to emergencies, so that students who are immunocompromised — those with health conditions that make them more vulnerable — are not exposed to health risks. She plans for these students to have guaranteed access to emergency housing should an emergency arise.
According to Mahesh — who spoke to UCI Housing, who told her that the Residential Life Department handles emergency housing — work orders are taken care of by campus housing in the order they were received, and the criteria for which emergencies warrant access to emergency housing is unclear.
“Right now, it’s kind of arbitrary. Someone just decides whether something’s an emergency or not and whether that student deserves to have access to emergency housing. So I want clear guidelines as to what constitutes an emergency,” Mahesh said.
Another of Mahesh’s goals is to create an East Asian resource center that would focus on delivering the resources East Asian students need, as brought forth by the commissioner who represents them.
UCI does not have one, “which is crazy because we have such a high population of East Asians,” Mahesh said.
In the fall of 2025, 1,157 UCI freshmen identified as Asian or Asian American.
Mahesh said she is glad to have the opportunity to be a candidate for an elected office. If elected as the first in that office, she would be the first to define what expectations are placed on the AVP of DEI.
“When you look at [AVP of] DEI, no one really knows what deliverables or tangible things are going to come out of that,” she said. “So I guess, based on my agenda and my goals, that’s going to create a guideline of what a DEI AVP should be producing and creating.”
Nicole Nowak, this year’s ASUCI Election Commissioner, said they hope that the position will help students feel represented on campus
“I hope that students feel more connected to ASUCI because of that role,” Nowak told New University. “I hope that people look at this role and they see representation and visibility … that, this is a guaranteed person that’s going to work with them on any kind of issues on campus.”
Ultimately, her goal is to make sure students know that their voices are being heard and talk to RCO leaders about their needs and visions for UCI.
“When I was a kid, people would be [say that] life isn’t fair. And I was like ok, we should be making it fair. We shouldn’t just be sitting there complacently,” Mahesh said “I think we have to work to break down those barriers. And that’s the work I want to do.”
Mariam Farag is an Assistant News Editor. She can be reached at msfarag@uci.edu.