The Elections Commission of ASUCI along with New University hosted the Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs (AVPAA) debate at the Crystal Cove Auditorium on April 7. The event was also livestreamed on New University’s Instagram and YouTube.
The debate began with opening statements from both candidates and questions assessing their understanding of the position. The two candidates up for the position of AVPAA are second-year political science major Alexa Allaham and second-year biological sciences and chemistry major Denise Rojas.
When asked about what makes them uniquely qualified for the position, Rojas mentioned her two years of experience with ASUCI and her current position as the Academic Resources Director of Academic Affairs.
“Not only do I have direct involvement with the current office of academic affairs, where I am basically the outreach point of contact, I [also] get to speak with students one on one when we are passing out scantrons and greenbooks out on Ring Road,” Rojas said at the debate. “I get to connect with different departments regarding the resources that they offer.”
Allaham referenced her experience as the only learning assistant for a political science course that had over 200 students.
“During this time, I created my own resources [and] revision material as well as intuitively identified what were the academic obstacles that students were facing that was [posing] an obstacle to their success in this course,” Allaham said at the debate.
Early on in the debate, the candidates were asked to name and explain how they would address the most important academic issues they think current UCI students are facing. Allaham brought up “tragic academic legacy” and defined it as a course where students consistently perform poorly due to curriculum, grading or faculty.
“The way in which we can resolve this is by meeting with the academic senate and proposing several solutions, such as a curriculum intervention program, implementing more grade leniency or collaborating with faculty and staff and students through a democratic vote in order to improve this course,” Allaham said.
Taking into account the rising cost of living and tuition, Rojas discussed academic accessibility in regards to increasing student awareness on programs and resources meant to help them financially.
“Whether it be through campaigning and outreaching on resources that are available on campus and platforming those resources or having more usage of resources such as the [Open Educational Resources] (OER) program, which establishes courses that are $30 and under, and platforms them to students that are low income,” Rojas said.
One of the roles of the AVPAA is to advise administrators on Artificial Intelligence (AI) policies. Candidates were asked about the balance between AI usage and academic and artistic integrity.
“AI is definitely a double-edged sword. Specifically where students sometimes get it clouded in [is in] terms of instructors using it to write exams or writing their own slides,” Rojas said. “I believe that is unacceptable. I believe that we pay a lot as students, or FAFSA pays a lot, for that to be the norm.”
Candidate Allaham agreed with Rojas’ statements, especially regarding professors stating their stance on AI. Allaham elaborated on how students might feel the need to use AI to perform well in their courses because of the “need to succeed,” and offered a remedy to the situation.
“One of the ways to resolve this, as one of my professors has implemented, is to introduce low-stakes in-person assignments, exams, quizzes,” Allaham said. “But as I said, ensuring there are low stakes in order to balance that anxiety that the student faces when they are faced with these in-person assignments.”
The Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion forum was scheduled after the debate but the sole candidate Neha Mahesh did not show up.
Voting for the 2026-2027 ASUCI elections starts on April 13 at 9 a.m. and ends on April 17 at 5 p.m. For candidate information, students can visit the official elections website at elections.uci.edu.
Alejandra Rodriguez Zepeda is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at alejar16@uci.edu.
Edited by Geneses Navarro.