WillIam Kim: Candidate for Vice President, External Affairs

My name is William Kim, and I am currently enrolled as a second-year dental student at UCSF School of Dentistry.  I am interested in becoming the upcoming year’s Vice President of External Affairs.

I have been granted an opportunity to become involved with the external affairs branch of the ASUC by serving as the Regents’ Liaison for this year.  This position allowed me to keep in close touch with the Regents Office via bi-weekly conference calls with other Regents’ Liaisons in other UC campuses. 

I have come to the conclusion that UCSF is much more different from other UC campuses when it comes to dealing with external affairs:  we are uniquely composed of professional students and only professional students.   We do not have any undergraduate students, who may have completely different needs regarding their health insurance policies, various health outreach programs, cultural programs and many more alike. 

Unlike other UC campuses, where the majority of the members are undergraduate students who have similar needs and ideas, at UCSF, the professional disciplines are very distinctly divided and different from one another, causing us to have more diversified points of view on many matters, depending on our specialized health disciplines.

I believe it is crucial for the other UC campuses, the Regents Office as well as the President’s Office to know exactly what UCSF students need and where we come from.  It is important to have our voices be heard in the grander spectrum of the UC system.  I plan to expand my function as a past Regents Liaison to become next year’s Vice President of External Affairs and get more involved with the financial assistances and the fee adjustments for our students.  I would be extremely honored to be able to take part in this endeavor.