Policy Work
The Student Advocate’s Office aims to transform the processes at UC Berkeley to be truly equitable for students. We take problematic trends we see in our casework and mobilize groups to create transformative change for students across campus. Alongside casework, policy work is a cornerstone of our office’s services. Below is just a sample of the policy projects our respective divisions have been working on in the past year.
Academic
Conduct
Financial Aid
Grievance
The Grief Absence Policy, a long-term project initiated in 2018, was revised multiple times based on feedback from university administration and faculty before being approved by the Academic Senate. The policy, now greenlit for implementation, aims to ensure that students experiencing grief are granted at least seven days of academic leave without penalty. SAO is currently conducting research by reaching out to peer institutions like UC Davis and UCLA that have implemented similar bereavement policies, gathering best practices to guide UC Berkeley’s approach. This research will be compiled over the summer, with the goal of initiating the policy’s implementation in the upcoming academic year.
The SAO Exposure project with GBO and NSS will aim to partner with NSS and more specifically, the GBO team, in order to revise content related to students’ rights and information regarding our office in their bCourses module. Furthermore, this project aims to communicate with GBO and NSS regarding potential avenues for SAO outreach during GBO week.
This ongoing project, originally started in Spring 2022, aims to expand our office’s standing relationships with campus officials, including department heads, college deans, and faculty. Our division has been steadily meeting with contacts in the hopes of building a sustainable, direct line of communication for policy proposals, case questions or client meetings. Caseworkers will be responsible for maintaining relationships with faculty and staff, specifically at least one department head/advisor/dean.
The team continued publishing monthly newsletters aimed at raising awareness about the extension request forms and the inclusion of Student Accommodation Office (SAO) statements in course syllabi. These newsletters, distributed to undergraduate chairs and advising departments, provided data-driven insights into student experiences, particularly highlighting trends in academic accommodations. In their outreach, the team contacted faculty members across 22 departments, including Computer Science, Economics, and Political Science, meeting with 20 of them to discuss SAO integration. As a result, 14 faculty members decided to incorporate SAO in their syllabi, 6 already had it included, and 1 faculty member agreed to post the information on Ed Stem instead of the syllabus.
Looking at SAO case trends from Fall 2021 and Spring 2022, students at UC Berkeley who need DSP accommodations often run into time-sensitive issues that necessitate prompt action from DSP. This project aims to expand upon the existing CS 161 Extension Request Form to streamline any assignment extension requests for extenuating circumstances, including DSP-related exam concerns. We hope to implement this revised form in classes that are prerequisite classes for upper division classes, have a high volume of students, or have been the subject of many DSP-related cases in the past. The target classes include several in the College of Engineering, as well as CS 170, Math 1A-B, Biology 1A-B, and Chemistry 1A-B.
The REPAIR Taskforce will be focused on spearheading all efforts to urge the timely implementation of REPAIR within the CSC as well as produce a model for a restorative pathway for academic misconduct violations.
- ResHall RCD Research + Observation: Oversee the research and observation of members in ResHall’s RCD and report back model to team.
- Faculty Needs Assessment → Letter to CSC: Work with Academic’s Department Head Outreach to survey faculty interest in restorative pathways for academic misconduct; garner support and present to CSC.
- Restorative Pathway for Academic Misconduct Model: Create a comprehensive model for a REPAIR-adjacent process for academic misconduct, informed by research into ResHall’s RCD model as well as faculty needs assessment.
REPAIR monitored the Center for Student Conduct’s new restorative pathway for academic misconduct cases, focusing on students who were found “Not Responsible” but still faced grade penalties. They developed an email template to assist these students by urging professors to reconsider grades before the situation escalates to a formal grade appeal. The team discovered that discrepancies between professors’ grades and the Student Conduct Center’s findings often arise because academic grading and conduct investigations are treated as separate processes within the Academic Senate. Additionally, REPAIR researched the Residential Conduct process, particularly the Restorative Community Dialogues, and plans to participate in the upcoming revamp in summer 2024 to ensure student perspectives are considered.
This policy project seeks to develop a better understanding of appeals within conduct processes at UC Berkeley. Conduct caseworkers have often run into issues when attempting to advise clients with their appeal letters. Information published online is minimal and appeals are often unique to the case they relate to. This project would result in another resource guide that outlined the appeal process both within the Center for Student Conduct and the Residential Conduct Process. This project is also interested in developing a guide for clients who undergo a sanctions-only hearing. These processes are similarly unique and require greater research in order for our division to better support our client.
The team developed three new guides for students navigating the conduct process, including an Informal Resolution Meeting Guide and a Formal Hearing Guide, designed to help students prepare for these critical meetings. They meticulously updated two existing guides to align with the current Student Code of Conduct and introduced additional sections to better equip students for their interactions with the conduct system. The newly created Residential Hall Conduct Caseworker Guide was developed after thorough research and collaboration with the Residential Hall Conduct Director, Luly, to ensure accuracy and usefulness. This guide includes detailed information on Residential Hall Sanctions, the restorative circle process, and a comprehensive FAQ section to support caseworkers in assisting students through the Residential Hall Conduct process.
Winter Break Housing (WBH) is a yearly program that SAO’s Financial Aid division has historically led. WBH houses students in need of emergency housing during the four week winter break. Dorms close down during Winter Break, so SAO works to house students who do not have housing options outside of the dorms. This program is made possible through close collaboration with UCB Residence Affairs, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office, and the Basic Needs Center. However, WBH does not address general student concerns related to housing. 20-30% of Berkeley’s 40k+ students have difficulty finding housing every semester—WBH supports housing to 20-30 students for four weeks. Note UCLA: they guarantee up to “four years of housing” (the first of all UCs, starting fall 2022) for incoming freshmen, and their winter break program is intended to be a social “stay-through”, in contrast to Berkeley’s housing priority for freshmen and Winter Break emergency housing.
In the past couple of years, housing has been an educational barrier for some and a large worry for many. The GSI strike last semester highlighted the logistical and financial difficulty involved with securing housing in Berkeley—a UAW report found that the average graduate student worker is “extremely rent-burdened”, spending more than 52% of their income on rent (UAW 2022). Casework within the financial aid department has shown that the scarcity and cost of housing have impacted non-resident students, working students, and students coming from lower income families. On the flip side, housing development efforts made by UCB have been fervently opposed by Berkeley community members and other organizations (People’s Park, Walnut). The goal of this project is to highlight where Berkeley housing stands in comparison to other state schools. We will do comparative research and compare housing climate amongst similar California universities, ask professors, admin, and students about campus housing, and make a policy brief about the state of UCB housing at the end of the semester.
The team collaborated with the Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) office to enhance student understanding of the SHIP waiver process by integrating information into CalCentral and bCourses modules. They conducted extensive research on SHIP coverage and waiver processes across other UC campuses, identifying common challenges and areas needing clarification to better inform students. This project has reestablished SAO’s partnership with the SHIP office, resulting in regular monthly meetings that have opened discussions on issues like the termination of MediCal coverage for students enrolling at Berkeley. The team is also exploring advocacy efforts with the Basic Needs Center (BNC) to ensure MediCal covers insurance costs for low-income students, with plans to continue this project into the next academic year.
The team updated the Financial Aid Division caseworker handbook, known as the Communal Manifesto, incorporating new post-COVID policies, case-specific email templates, and detailed timelines. These updates, which include new sections on resources like SHIP, Emergency Housing, and the Berkeley Undergraduate Dream Aid Act, aim to enhance the training and effectiveness of caseworkers. The team also created new infographics on topics such as loan types and residency processes, designed to make complex information more accessible to both caseworkers and clients. This summer, the team will focus on formatting these updates into the handbook and ensuring the resources are also available on the SAO website, thereby improving both internal training and client services.
SAO is drafting a proposal for a Student Parent Support Fee, which would impose a $10 semesterly fee on undergraduate and graduate students to provide additional financial resources for student parents. The fee would support initiatives such as increasing funding for the Bear Pantry in Albany, the Student Parent Center emergency grant, and new childcare grants, aiming to alleviate the financial burdens faced by student parents at UC Berkeley. The proposal is informed by similar programs at UC Davis and UC Santa Barbara, which have proven successful in enhancing affordability for student parents. The SAO policy team has engaged with various stakeholders, including the Student Parent Center, NAVCAL, and the Graduate Assembly Student Parent Project Director, to refine the proposal before launching a referendum campaign in the 2025 ASUC elections.
This policy project hopes to give presentations on our office and what we do to student organizations on and off campus. Last year we created flyers to about 20 Greek Houses. This semester we hope to expand to co-ops as well as on-campus housing. We hope to create a student survivor rights focused presentation with Bears that Care to present to Greek Life, co-ops, and other student-led organizations. In order to do so, this policy project will meet with on-campus bodies to navigate what accommodations survivors can access as students. These accommodations include academic accommodations, housing accommodations, work accommodations, and more. We hope to publish a google form on our website where these organizations can schedule a presentation, and we (SAO) will have an established team to give these presentations.
The Interim DSP Accommodations Process Project aimed to streamline the process for students seeking temporary accommodations, particularly during the critical interim period before formal approval by a DSP specialist. The team produced a comprehensive external guide for students that includes step-by-step instructions on applying for accommodations, along with a ‘Dos and Don’ts’ guide for submitting documentation. This guide was promoted through a Q&A Story on the SAO Instagram, and further efforts are being made to advertise it within DSP and residential halls. The team also developed a training guide for SAO caseworkers, focusing on managing DSP-related cases, and is working on an Informal Letter of Accommodations Template to assist caseworkers in advocating for students during this interim period.
The team conducted a thorough review of syllabi from various colleges and departments to assess their accessibility, focusing on identifying common pitfalls and successes. Using a standardized review questionnaire, they analyzed the findings and created edited accessibility recommendations based on both their review and guidelines from the Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning. The team collaborated closely with representatives from the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP) and the Disability Access Compliance (DAC) office to ensure their recommendations would enhance syllabi inclusivity without compromising course objectives. These findings and recommendations will be presented to the Academic Senate’s Courses of Instruction (COCI) committee, with the aim of achieving unanimous support from faculty and student members.
The Anti-Racism Audit was divided into two teams: Research and Community Dialogues. The Research team focused on analyzing internal case processes related to discrimination, identifying areas where the SAO could improve its support for students of color with grievances against the university. Meanwhile, the Community Dialogues team engaged in outreach to organizations such as the Black Recruitment and Retention Center and the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law. These efforts culminated in a roundtable and open forum on April 26th, designed to amplify BIPOC student voices in advocacy spaces and discuss actionable steps to combat racism on campus.
This semester, the team expanded their translation project by adding Korean and French to the list of languages, completing key resources like the intake form and financial aid resources in four languages. They also worked on translating dismissal processes into two languages and embedded these multilingual resources on the SAO website for easier access. The team is now exploring ways to integrate the translated intake form into their internal systems, aiming to enhance casework services for students requiring support in languages other than English. The goal is to ensure that non-English-speaking students have equal access to SAO services, making the process more inclusive and accommodating for all students.
Policy Suggestion Form
Contact
Do you have a suggestion for a policy project SAO should work on? Fill out the form below if so! Your answers can be submitted anonymously.
If you have questions, comments, or concerns about SAO’s policy, please feel free to contact the External Chief of Staff at saochief@asuc.org.
Last Updated: March 13, 2023