Pillars of Intolerance: The Student Government Crisis at UC San Diego

The recent UC San Diego student government elections have left many students uneasy, not because of voter turnout or procedural flaws, but because of who won, and why.

All winning candidates came from a single slate: PILLARS. While their campaigns focused on improving basic needs and student services, a deeper dive into their affiliations and rhetoric reveals a shared commitment to the Students for Justice Palestine group (SJP) along with their ignorant anti-Israel bigotry and support of terrorist groups who murder Jews. 

Before delving into the candidates, it’s important to understand who their unofficial patrons are. 

In the 2023-2024 school year, the student government was hijacked by the conflict in the Middle East. SJP stormed a student government meeting just weeks after Hamas’s massacre of Jews on Oct. 7, 2023, filling the meeting chambers donned in keffiyehs, many of them with their faces covered. The group used threatening behavior and textbook antisemitic tropes (such as ‘the Jews control the banks and the media’) to bully senators into signing a statement filled with historical inaccuracies and deflection of rightful accusations, written by SJP. Considering that the vote was public, some senators felt as though they would face social consequences on campus if they did not align with the group’s demands. 

This began a trend of ignoring student-centered issues to focus on Israel and Palestine and has contributed to senators not taking their jobs seriously (internal sources have noted that senate attendance is at an all-time low), a trend that will not end until senators stop campaigning on issues like BDS. This shift in focus has created a hostile and polarized environment that discourages constructive participation among senators who feel their efforts to address student needs are being overshadowed by polarizing ideological agendas.

Following the election, I spoke with PILLARS elect “Student P” about their views, and it was as if they had memorized SJP’s toolkit. They first offered their public support of the SJP-backed pro-Palestine Boycott, Divest, Sanction movement (BDS), which openly discriminates against Jews and Israelis and has ties to terrorist organizations. On campus, policies like these have manifested as cultural boycotts, removing funding from Israeli and even Jewish student organizations. 

While Student P says that they aim to ensure that students are “getting the proper funding that they want,” it seems like it would be difficult to reconcile both statements, especially considering that implementing any BDS policies would immediately target funding to clubs vital to Jewish life on campus.

When asked what they believed Hamas’s involvement in the war is, Student P rationalized the massacre of Jews: “This war didn’t start on October 7th… It has been going on for hundreds of years.” Although they later denounced Hamas, their statement rings hollow given that the local SJP has openly expressed support for the terror organization. 

When asked to explain their accusation of apartheid against Israel, they vaguely referenced South African history, comparing Israeli societal advancements to colonial slavery. Not only is this false, but it draws on antisemitic tropes of the ‘wealthy and powerful Jew’ and denies Jewish indigeneity to the land of Israel. Just as problematic, they later expressed Holocaust Inversion by comparing the current war in Gaza to the Holocaust, insinuating that Israelis should be treated like Nazis. 

And that’s just from the one member willing to share their views. PILLARS presidential candidate, William Simpson, was seen at an event for the annual “Justice in Palestine Week,” after the election, but was not seen at any of the events during the following week’s “Peace in Israel Week.” His support of free expression appears to be conditional: only stand by students whose causes are popular on campus.

No other PILLARS members or the manager of this year’s election responded to my interview requests. Although Student P denied any affiliation with SJP, they and seven others from the slate commented messages of gratitude on Instagram for SJP’s endorsement of their candidacy.

So, how did PILLARS win? It is clear that bigoted, dangerous organizations such as SJP, a student organization that has been disallowed from carrying out official organizational activity on the UC San Diego campus since their Cease and Desist order from the University in May of 2024, have had their hand to play in the election. 

Opposing presidential candidate and former senator Ivan Ramirez of the slate “Tritons Together” attributes this success not to the qualification of the candidates, but to the slate’s ability to identify and leverage the popularity of members from various student organizations on campus, including Surf Club and Laundry Loads of Love, as well as their strategic methods of gaining votership without spending above their monetary limit.

He says that since the voting group is so small–this year only 20.92% of the student body voted–those who are being voted in do not reflect the concerns of the entire campus, but rather the voting body that slates were able to successfully garner. These concerns, Ivan says, are far disconnected from what the campus community actually wants. 

What happened in this year’s student government election is not just a political shift — it’s a wake-up call. The UC San Diego student body has handed the reins to a slate whose priorities are shaped not by a commitment to improving student life, but by allegiance to a divisive political movement far removed from the day-to-day challenges students face on campus. The consequences of this are not theoretical. They are dangerous.

The rise of slates like PILLARS signals a worrying trend where performative activism replaces genuine representation, where ideological litmus tests threaten the inclusion of entire communities, and where student government becomes a platform for international posturing instead of local progress. These senators will likely use their automatic majority to promote and shield anti-Israel activism—the kind that has increasingly led to violence on our campus and campuses nationwide. If this continues, our student government could become a battleground for movements that prioritize ideology over student safety and meaningful progress.

If we, the students of UC San Diego, care about the issues that directly impact our daily lives—like housing, food security, academic resources, and campus safety—then we need to engage, not just react. That means showing up to student government meetings, joining organizations that reflect our values, running for office, or even just asking our representatives where they stand before we vote.

Because if we stay silent or disengaged, we leave our student government in the hands of those who prioritize political agendas over real solutions—and we can’t afford to let that happen.