Brendan O’Byrne – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:11:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Brendan O’Byrne – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Kardinal Kink attempts to become new student group https://stanforddaily.com/2014/03/12/kardinal-kink-attempts-to-become-new-student-group/ https://stanforddaily.com/2014/03/12/kardinal-kink-attempts-to-become-new-student-group/#respond Wed, 12 Mar 2014 15:35:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1083269 Kardinal Kink meets in an unmarked room in Kimball Hall. The group, which recently had its petition to become recognized as a student group by the University rejected by Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), serves as a support and advocacy group for the kink community at Stanford and draws anywhere from eight to 30 attendees at their meetings.

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Kardinal Kink meets in an unmarked room in Kimball Hall. The group, which recently had its petition to become recognized as a student group by the University rejected by Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), serves as a support and advocacy group for the kink community at Stanford and draws anywhere from eight to 30 attendees at their meetings.

“Part of the reason we come to this environment is for the affirmation that there are other people who experience the quote-unquote “weird” things we do,” said Foreman ’13, one of the members who was comfortable talking to a reporter using a pseudonym. “Identifying as ‘kink’ tends to over-sexualize you, which isn’t always the case.”

Kink is a broad term encompassing any non-traditional sexual activity. Bondage, sadism and masochism, fetishism—the range of kinky activities is as diverse as the people who enjoy them. What unites the members of Kardinal Kink, however, is the desire to break the silence and engage in meaningful discussion about these issues on Stanford campus.

The group has faced obstacles to attaining those objectives. SAL’s rejection of their petition to become a voluntary student organization (VSO) prompted one member of the group to tell Salon.com that the University was discriminating against them “for the same reasons LGBT-type groups were getting rejected a few decades ago.”

Nanci Howe, the director of Student Activities and Leadership, declined to give an interview to The Daily for this story. The members of Kardinal Kink were equally hesitant to speak about the process, declining to give details regarding the delay. Several of them did express reservations about comparing themselves to the LGBT community, which they said had historically experienced harsher forms of discrimination than the kink community.

Despite this setback, members of Kardinal Kink have worked with the Sexual Health and Peer Resource Center (SHPRC) to host several events on kink-related topics, including a well-attended event on polyamorous relationships. The group also regularly brings in experts from the community to educate members about kink-related topics, including rope tying, erotic hypnosis and dominant/submissive relationships.

Members of the group are quick to stress that these meetings are not overtly sexual, and that no sex or nudity occurs during any presentations or during group meetings. The group seeks to inform, teach, support and unite members of the kink community, not to provide a space for sexual activity.

Becoming a member of Kardinal Kink is not as easy as signing up on their website. One member of the group, a sophomore who goes by the pseudonym Nothing, said that often times new members of the group come in with unrealistic expectations of what the kink community is.

“Often when it comes to Kink, you just interact with things online,” she said. “The result is you never really hear about kink in a serious, realistic conversation.”

When a person wishes to join the group, they must first meet face-to-face with at least one member of Kardinal Kink and confirm they understand the basic rules of the group.

“You need more than a basic understanding of the meaning of ‘no,’” Foreman said, stressing the importance of active consent in the kink community. “The emphasis here tends to be on ‘yes means yes.’”

Lily Zheng ’17 is one of the few members willing to cast off anonymity, and would have become the official president of the organization had they received University approval. The freshman said that she relishes her role as a public face of the Stanford kink community.

“A really good thing about being out is that by defying perceptions, I get to change those perceptions,” she said. “If I don’t treat it as something different or scary or exotic, then people are more willing to talk about it.”

Zheng acknowledged that being open about her kinkiness may prevent her from running for office or hurt her in applying for some jobs. She framed those drawbacks, however, as a worthwhile sacrifice, saying that she asked herself “Do I want to get into a position to change society—which means not being out—or do I want to do a more grassroots [style] of organizing?”

Zheng said that she has been able to reach new audiences of Stanford students through the latter option.

“You can talk to a lot of different people and advocate for kink—conversations you usually aren’t able to have without outing yourself,” she said.

The fate of the group is still unknown, pending a new application and review by SAL. Harvard approved Harvard Munch, a similar student group centered on kink-related education and discussion, in November of 2012. Columbia, Yale, MIT, Tufts and University of Chicago have also approved similar groups. If they gain official approval, Kardinal Kink will be able to formally host external speakers, recruit new members openly, flyer and receive funding from student fees.

Regardless of the outcome of their petition, however, the group has already made waves and provided a space for kink-minded individuals to meet, talk and educate themselves. Doing so without University approval fits in with the group’s larger mission to change perceptions, according to members.

“You can’t change the social norms if you are busy abiding by them,” Zheng said.

 

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne ‘at’ stanford ‘dot’ edu.

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Concussions cut short promising career for Oliver https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/02/concussions-cut-short-promising-career-for-oliver/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/10/02/concussions-cut-short-promising-career-for-oliver/#respond Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:59:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1078980 Oliver’s decision to medically retire comes at a time when the full damage done by concussions is just beginning to be fully understood, and her decision may become a more common one among student athletes across the nation.

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Emily Oliver’s first on-field action for the Stanford women’s soccer team came as a freshman in 2010 when—after entering at halftime—the young goalkeeper held off the Georgia Bulldogs to ensure a 2-1 overtime victory for the Cardinal.

Emily Oliver (#19 - GK)
Goalkeeper Emily Oliver medically retired last month after a record-setting career in three years with the Cardinal. (SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily)

It didn’t take long for Oliver to establish herself as one of the most dominant female collegiate soccer players in the country. During the 2011 season, Oliver led the nation with a 0.23 goals-against average, earned 12 shutouts and was named the Defensive MVP of the 2011 College Cup, leading Stanford to its first national title since the tournament began in 1982. She was truly at the top of her game and the top of her position.

Less than two years later, on Aug. 31, 2013, Oliver’s soccer career would come to a premature and abrupt end. She suffered her fourth concussion in a regular-season game against Portland and—like an increasing number of collegiate athletes—Oliver chose her health over her sport. On Sept. 20, Oliver announced she was medically retiring from the women’s soccer team.

***

At the start of the 2011 season, it seemed as if Stanford women’s soccer was cursed. Following phenomenal regular seasons and national title game appearances in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, the team had lost both championship games by a single goal apiece.

That year, the Cardinal played like a team that had smelled victory and then thirsted for more. The squad started the season with a 4-0 win over Penn State and never slowed down as it went undefeated and ultimately vanquished Duke 1-0 in the national championship game.

The goalkeeper for that 2011 team was Emily Oliver, a young sophomore from Flossmoor, Ill. Oliver’s future looked nothing but promising. Though at 5-foot-7 Oliver was short for a goalkeeper, her play reflected a firm, unshakeable desire to win.

“I think we’ve had a lot of talented goalkeepers, but I don’t know if we’ve had any as competitive as Emily,” said Paul Ratcliffe, the 10-year head coach of Stanford women’s soccer. “She came in here and said, ‘I want to help the team win a national championship.’”

Oliver first started playing goalkeeper as a child because she was one of the only 8-year-old girls who was not afraid of the ball. She would maintain that fearlessness throughout her career, and her aggressive style of play made her a force to be reckoned with on the pitch. However, that same boldness also eventually led to health problems for the talented goalkeeper. After suffering a single concussion in high school, Oliver suffered three more at Stanford—including a particularly nasty one in the spring of 2012.

Concussions vary widely in severity, but a bad one can have life-altering consequences. After her third concussion, Oliver suffered from an acute sensitivity to light and an inability to focus—it was as if she was living her life in a fog.

“For a couple of months, I’d stay inside all day,” Oliver said. “In my room. In a dark room. Listening to music, listening to an audiobook or something, and… that was my day. I didn’t go to class, I didn’t go to practice, I was in there all day, in a dark room, because that was the place where I physically felt the best.”

Oliver had previously identified herself primarily as a student and an athlete, and suddenly those two things had been torn from her life.

“When I got that third one, I couldn’t even go to practice because it was too bright out for me. I didn’t go to class… it isolated me from my friends,” she said. “That was what I was doing to take care of myself at the time, but socially, emotionally, that was very difficult for me to be doing.”

***

Oliver’s decision to medically retire comes at a time when the full damage done by concussions is just beginning to be fully understood, and her decision may become a more common one among student athletes across the nation.

Two Arizona linebackers announced their retirements in early September of this year after doctors advised them to stop playing football following multiple concussions. Football is a sport where the specter of concussions looms large—the NFL recently settled a $765 million dollar lawsuit in late August with thousands of players, money that will go toward concussion-related medical bills and research regarding concussions.

Examples of the consequences of concussions abound here on the Farm too. Star guard Toni Kokenis, a member of two Final Four teams for Stanford women’s basketball, decided this summer to sit out her senior year after suffering from several concussions. Chris Owusu, a former Stanford wide receiver who posted top-five 40-meter dash, vertical jump and long jump numbers at the 2012 NFL combine, went undrafted after concerns about his three concussions left NFL teams worried. Eventually signed and later released by the San Francisco 49ers, Owusu has only recorded a single reception in the NFL.

But all of the precedent and research in the world didn’t make Oliver’s decision to medically retire any easier. While she was lucky that her fourth concussion was not as severe as her third, it was still enough to make her reconsider her future. The goalkeeper that had always played without fear suddenly had something to think twice about.

“It was three weeks of thinking about it after that fourth concussion, in terms of what I wanted to do, did I think I could came back,” Oliver said. “It had always been in the back of the mind after the third one. ‘What happens if I get hit again? Will I have to go through all those months of everything?’”

Oliver worried that if she began to play with hesitation—to shy away from the contact and tone down the aggression that made her the dominant player that she was—she would end up hurting her team. If she couldn’t play her game, she decided, then she shouldn’t play at all.

“It was difficult to say the first time,” Oliver said, choking up while describing telling first her coach, and then her teammates, that she wouldn’t be able to play soccer again. “[Coach Ratcliffe] understood the decision and was extremely supportive. When I told the team and all the girls, they were all the same way. Everybody that I’ve talked to has been very supportive and has helped make the entire situation bearable.”

“I think it shows great maturity that she was able to do that,” Ratcliffe said, praising Oliver for her decision. “I think most people would keep playing and severely damage their future. Emily is a very smart young lady, and she talked to the doctors and decided it was not worth her future health.”

In the 15 years that Ratcliffe has coached women’s soccer, he has seen the game grow progressively more physical. That leads to more severe injuries for players—sometimes eliminating possibilities for future careers at the professional level.

“It’s difficult to hear those words, because I know that chapter is done in her life,” Ratcliffe said. “Emily is one that could quite easily have gone on to play professionally.”

***

Oliver will remain a captain on the women’s soccer team during her senior year, attending home games and playing a limited role in practices.

“I help strike balls during goalkeeper training, and I get to be on the sidelines for games,” she said. “It’s been nice to feel like I’m part of the program and the team and not lose that family support system.”

Without a future in soccer, the question of what comes next looms large for Oliver. I joke that she’s just like any other senior now, worrying about post-graduation life and jobs and struggling with the realization that a chapter of her life will soon end.

The difference is, somewhere inside Emily Oliver, there’s still that fearless 8-year-old girl, standing in the goal, ready for whatever life will kick at her.

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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For Johnny Marino, an unheralded passing on the Farm https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/06/for-johnny-moreno-an-unheralded-passing-at-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/05/06/for-johnny-moreno-an-unheralded-passing-at-stanford/#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 06:10:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1076994 Marino became a driver for Peninsula Sanitary Services Inc. (PSSI) at the age of 19.

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On March 9th, 2012, 21-year-old Johnny Marino was struck by a frontloading garbage truck on the corner of Mayfield Avenue and Santa Ynez Street. The accident, which occurred between La Maison Française and Phi Kappa Psi, just a few blocks from President John Hennessy’s house, would later prove fatal for Marino, who passed away several weeks later.

Courtesy of Thomas Ott
Courtesy of Thomas Ott

Death at Stanford is generally big news. Most students know the names of Sam Wopat, Cady Hine, Akash Dube or Elizabeth Gao— the University is a small community, and such loss reaches far and deep. For Johnny Marino, however, there was no such recognition.

***

Marino became a driver for Peninsula Sanitary Services Inc. (PSSI) at the age of 19. According to his childhood friend and coworker Andrew Pellegrini, Marino was headed in a bad direction during his freshman year of high school. Before too long, his dad sent him off to a family friend’s house in Coalinga, Calif.

“His dad said, ‘I’m not gonna let this happen,’ so he sent him off to the cattle ranch,” Pellegrini remembered.

Pellegrini, also a driver at PSSI, recalled that Marino returned with more than just a cowboy twang.

“He came back a great person,” Pellegrini said. “He came back a cowboy with really great morals and a really great work ethic. They don’t make people with work ethic like that anymore.”

Thomas Ott, fleet manager and safety officer at PSSI, called Marino “a throwback.”

“He was a true cowboy,” Ott said.

One night, Marino and Pellegrini went to the Old Pro bar in Palo Alto with some friends. Putting his newfound cowboy skills to the test, Marino decided to take a ride on the bar’s mechanical bull.

“We went with [Johnny] and, I mean, he’s actually ridden bulls before, so they couldn’t throw him off of it,” Pelligrini remembered, laughing. “He ended up getting a T-shirt and his picture on the wall, all that stuff.”

On the morning of March 9th, 2012, Marino took a route he’d driven before, emptying dumpsters on Mayfield Ave. According to Ott, some dumpsters have wheels on them, to make it easier to roll them out of their resting places.

That morning, Marino failed to follow proper safety procedures. PSSI training teaches drivers to always position the truck downhill from the dumpster, allowing the truck to stop the dumpster if it starts to roll. Marino’s truck, however, was parked uphill from this particular dumpster.

Soon after, Marino somehow lost control of the bin. As it rolled down the street, he jumped out of his truck to grab the dumpster– but left his truck in neutral. The truck rolled down the hill and into a house on Mayfield, but only after crushing Marino against the dumpster.

“The bin started to roll, and I guarantee you the first thing he thought was ‘I don’t want that bin to hit that person’s car,’” Pellegrini said. “That’s the type of person he was. He didn’t want to damage someone else’s property.”

Ott agreed, reflecting that Marino’s pride in his work likely meant he reacted without considering his own safety.

After the accident, Marino was rushed to hospital, where friends and family would visit him every day for several weeks as he recovered.

“It was common knowledge that it was touch-and-go, and we didn’t have a lot of hope,” Ott, who visited Marino every day and sometimes several times a day, said. “Then it took a turn for the better, and we had a lot of hope.”

“The last time I saw Johnny alive, I left the hospital thinking this kid is gonna make it,” Ott recalled. “He shook my hand and looked me in the eyes. I walked out thinking, ‘He’s gonna survive this.’”

Later that day, Marino went into respiratory arrest. He was eventually revived, but it was too late. Brain scans revealed little to no activity. He passed away several days later.

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Custodians at Stanford Hospital express grievances with managers https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/12/1075856/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/03/12/1075856/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2013 06:57:35 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1075856 In an auditorium in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge at Stanford Hospital, 13 custodians from the Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital and Clinics sit in a semicircle to talk. Some of them are new employees, hired just weeks ago. Others have been working at Stanford for 21, 27 or even 37 years. Whether they’re veterans or rookies, however, they all agree: There’s never been a worse time to be a custodian at the hospital.

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In an auditorium in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge at Stanford Hospital, 13 custodians from the Stanford School of Medicine and Stanford Hospital and Clinics sit in a semicircle to talk. Some of them are new employees, hired just weeks ago. Others have been working at Stanford for 21, 27 or even 37 years. Whether they’re veterans or rookies, however, they all agree: There’s never been a worse time to be a custodian at the hospital.

Their complaints are varied. Managerial abuses, increased workload and a hostile work environment top a long list of grievances. But regardless of the specific issue, they all focus on a particular set of managers: those who don’t work for Stanford.

After Stanford hired the outside contractor Sodexo to manage their custodians in at least four buildings in the School of Medicine in 2007, those custodians say the jobs they had enjoyed for decades took a drastic turn for the worse.

Workloads increased in 2008 due to a rough economy, and they increased again when the custodians’ contract was renegotiated in 2011. When several custodians brought up that a doubled workload may merit a pay increase, they were shut down.

“They told us, ‘You guys are making too much money here,’” said one custodian with more than 20 years of experience at Stanford, who makes $23,000 a year. “They said, ‘We need to give you more work to be even with other companies. We’re going to give you more work.’”

In addition to workload increases, several custodians detailed specific instances when they felt their Sodexo managers mistreated them.

In one instance, a custodian requested two days of grievance time after his mother passed away. After two days passed, he asked for another two days to take care of burial preparations, having encountered struggles in locating a priest to conduct the burial ceremony.

His second request was denied, leading the custodian to go over the head of his Sodexo manager and give a death certificate to Stanford Hospital’s human resources department. This angered the Sodexo manager, who—according to the custodian—told him he was going to “investigate” him and his mother.

“There are no feelings,” he said. “They don’t care.”

A different custodian told a story about his mother, who was going into surgery at Stanford Hospital. He requested the day off five days before the surgery, but it wasn’t until the day before the surgery that a Sodexo manager declined the request.

“He said, ‘The doctor is going to take care of your mom, not you,’” the custodian remembered.

Early next morning, he went to human resources, where he was told the only way to get the day off was to get a note from the operating surgeon. Even after this, his Sodexo manager asked him to bring in all the medical records for his mother, from when she first entered the hospital.

Other custodians spoke about harassment at their jobs, especially while they eat lunch and are on their breaks. This practice only started after Sodexo took over managing operations.

“[Before Sodexo], if you do your area and you are responsible, nobody say nothing to you,” said one custodian. “Nobody bothers you. Nobody was looking to give you more work.”

One custodian said he delivered a signed letter to the president of Stanford Hospital & Clinics, listing many of these same grievances with Sodexo. The next day, Sodexo managers called the custodians into a meeting, five at a time.

“They said, ‘If you are happy working with Stanford, sign here,’” said a custodian who was in one of the meetings. “We didn’t know what we were signing.”

According to the custodians, no one from Stanford was in that meeting. Indeed, the custodians repeated throughout interviews that they enjoyed working for Stanford—it was the outside contractor Stanford had hired that bothered them.

“We are happy working for Stanford, but not the Sodexo people,” said the same custodian.

In addition to full-time custodians, several part-time custodians, who often work the same amount with half the benefits, also clean the Stanford Hospital.

“We are scheduled to work 40 hours a week, even though we are part time,” said one part-time worker. “We are OK with the job, but we are not OK because we don’t have the same benefits. We get half of the PTO [paid time off], half of the vacation…Healthcare is the same, but we don’t get weekends off. Full-time people get every other weekend [off].”

 

Many of the claims quoted in this article can be verified through hospital records, copies of Stanford Hospital’s human resources policy and interviews with Stanford Hospital administrators and Sodexo managers. A March 5 email to Stanford Hospital spokesman James Larkin requested interviews with hospital administrators, detailing many of the issues. Larkin replied on March 11, however, that he was “not sure that we will be able to accommodate your interview requests.”

 

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Op-Ed: A final note on student freedom https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/op-ed-leading-the-daily/ https://stanforddaily.com/2013/02/01/op-ed-leading-the-daily/#comments Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:42:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1074564 The traditional lines of defense for student freedoms are eroding.

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After working over 40 hours a week for a year, the outgoing editors of The Daily get a chance to speak frankly to their readers. I’m going to tell you things I learned after working here full time, interviewing countless students, administrators and members of this community.

I disagree with this campus’s definition of activism. Events are held with the same attendees, focusing on issues that most of Stanford can’t begin to relate to or affect. I think discussion of radical issues is important and useful, but it must be coupled with coalition building and direct action. Student leaders should motivate action, broaden their base and appeal to the undecided. An activist’s most important job is to avoid the danger of echo chambers.

I recognize there is no Vietnam War now – the issues are hazier, the solutions unclear. But the issues exist, both internationally and locally here at Stanford, and we’re ignoring them.

Instead of divestment from Israel, why don’t we start by demanding Stanford make its financial investments as transparent as a public university, so we can see where our money is being spent? This would be better and more popular than focusing on Israel and Palestine, an intractable conflict that we have no control over and that polarizes our student body.

Instead of protesting the ROTC, which only a handful of students attend, why don’t we take interest in the hundreds of layoffs of minimum-wage workers at this university? Or take a look at why East Palo Alto has seen two murders so far in 2013, while across the highway, Palo Alto rarely gets more than two in an entire year?

Or we can focus our energy closer to home. In five years, without a major student movement, the Row will no longer have a house-based dining structure. Administrators have called it “cost-inefficient,” a bureaucratic kiss of death, and serious plans for a dining hall on the Row have already been floated at meetings. It’s only a matter of time now.

We don’t need to look to the future for the issues, however – an indefensible revocation of Chi Theta Chi’s lease and a bad-faith negotiation on the part of University administrators, Suites losing its decades-long tradition of student-run dining, a food truck that donates its profits to charity being forced to leave by a letter from the police, $5.5 million worth of unwanted ID scanners on the Row, a larger police presence concerned with alcohol and a bulky and growing bureaucracy dedicated to making sure Stanford’s image remains carefully manicured. These are all things worth taking action over.

The traditional lines of defense for student freedoms are eroding. The Daily is increasingly handcuffed by an unresponsive, better-funded and obstructionist administration that doesn’t respect the value of an independent student press, and we hold no legal recourses similar to those available at public institutions. The activists rarely seek to mobilize about issues that affect students here, the alumni care but don’t have the time to learn every detail and our student government is plagued by internal inefficiency and lack of student respect.

And at the same time there are parts of this University – namely Housing and Dining, under Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) – that are dedicated to removing student freedom and squeezing more profit from your beds and your meals. Those who actively oppose it – most of whom are not reporters, co-op residents or leftists, but rather just students who enjoy being treated like adults – are tiring, and we are losing.

I tell you all of this because soon, you will hear something that will make you angry. Perhaps you’ll read it in our pages or hear about it from a friend. It will remind you of how students are being infantilized more and more, treated like boarders rather than residents, fed on assembly lines because it is more efficient and faced with more arbitrary restrictions placed on our residences. And you will have a choice to make.

If you choose to ignore it, to say that Stanford is good enough and doesn’t need to be perfect, that people complaining are just whining – if you rationalize rather than react, then it will continue to happen.

But whether or not you identify as an activist, if you believe what I’ve said here and you think it’s important, you must take action. Email administrators about issues you care about, write op-eds in The Daily’s pages, visit administrators’ offices and ask your friends to do the same. Disrupt something. Inconvenience someone. I want you to take a stand on an issue – any issue – and don’t budge until you are satisfied. I want you to believe that this University is governed with your consent, that there are those in this administration who still care what students have to say. You can make a difference in your four years here.

We’ve been getting our asses kicked for the past few years, and we will probably end up on the losing side of this fight. We’re outgunned and outmatched. But if parts of Stanford want to systematically revoke the power of student voices and implement bureaucracy where student-led initiative once stood, we should make it miserable for them and give them hell every step of the way.

It’s been fun editing here. Thanks for reading.

Brendan O’Byrne
Executive editor, The Stanford Daily

For Editor in Chief Billy Gallagher’s farewell note, read here.

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Culture of silence surrounds sexual assault https://stanforddaily.com/2012/12/05/culture-of-silence-surrounds-sexual-assault/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/12/05/culture-of-silence-surrounds-sexual-assault/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:51:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1073601 "Nobody wants to talk about sexual assault and nobody wants to hear it exists."

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Culture of silence surrounds sexual assault
(ALISA ROYER/The Stanford Daily)

Survivors say ARP helps trials, but stigma still prevents open campus discussion 

Trigger warning: This article deals with sexual assault. Names have been changed to protect the identities of survivors of sexual assault.

Christina ’13 was raped in the middle of the Main Quad at Stanford, in the early morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day her sophomore year.

He was an acquaintance; a “friend” from her freshman dorm she didn’t really know. They were both drunk at a party, and he had volunteered to walk her home.

“I was very, very drunk so I was unable to do anything when it was happening,” Christina remembered. She admits she has blocked much of the incident out but remembers small details – the bikers who rode by them, giving congratulatory hoots moments before he pressed himself on top of her. The taste of alcohol on his breath. The “practiced” feel of it, as he unzipped his pants and hiked up her skirt in quick, effortless motions.

That night, when she arrived back to her house, Christina ran into a friend of hers in the bathroom.

“You’re up late. What’s up?” her friend asked.

“Something happened that I didn’t want to happen,” was all Christina could say. Her friend gave her an understanding look, assuming it was simply a drunken hookup.

“Honey, it happens all the time. Just drink some water and go to bed.”

***

The next morning she woke up at 9 a.m., in a state of shock.

“When I woke up in the morning and I remember, it was the most disgusting feeling, having his semen all over my legs and thinking, ‘I didn’t consent to any of this.’”

She called the Vaden Health Center’s 24/7 emergency hotline, which took several hours to respond because of the holiday. When she asked to file a police report, she was told her she had to contact the police directly. There was nothing else the Center could do for her.

“Vaden was fucking awful. They took hours to call me back, and it’s pretty time-sensitive…I just remember being curled up in a ball next to my bed, waiting for the cops to call me,” she said.

The police arrived around 11 p.m. that night to pick her up and drive her to the closest medical facility that administers rape kits, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, where a doctor found vaginal tears and semen.

“I thought I had a good case because I literally reported it the day of,” she said.

After being called in for interviews by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) over several weeks, SUDPS called her in one last time to tell her the district attorney was dropping the case for lack of evidence.

“They had a female cop tell me, which I thought was nice, but she had clearly never undergone any sensitivity training for sexual assault… The way she told me was essentially, ‘We don’t think you were raped.’ It was so fucking hurtful. You’re trying to recollect and become whole again and you hear that from a woman… I just remember crying right there.”

According to women’s health advocates, this is often the reality of pursuing rape cases in the judicial system.

“It’s not that they don’t believe the survivor,” said Kelly Ramirez, chief development officer of the YWCA Silicon Valley. “It’s just that the legal requirements are not there.”

Ramirez said the situation is unfortunate for everyone involved: police officers, detectives and especially the victim.

This judicial paralysis becomes even worse when compared to the size of the problem: A staggering one-in-five women will be raped during their college careers, according to a 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Justice. Between 80 percent and 90 percent of these rapes are committed by an acquaintance and fewer than 5 percent are reported to police or campus authorities.

Ramirez noted reporting can be difficult, especially when the victim and accused have mutual friends.

“They say to you – I can’t believe he did that. Maybe you really asked for it. You could have just dealt with this quietly; you didn’t have to actually report it. Think about his future!’”

“The reason it got so difficult was because I notified everyone,” Christina said, describing how going through the process with Judicial Affairs and having to recount her story again and again was excruciating. “I felt I was suffering for doing the right thing.”

***

Christina’s case was one of the first to use the Alternative Review Process(ARP) for sexual assault – in fact, Stanford lowered the burden of proof from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to “preponderance of evidence” during her case, meaning the panel would find the accused responsible if it was “more likely than not” a crime had occurred. Her attacker would later use this as grounds for an eventually unsuccessful appeal.

“When they changed to preponderance of evidence, I just remember weeping… I was so happy. It’s pretty much just a survivor and one witness [to convict],” she said. “As soon as they proved I was drunk via witness, they were able to stop the case right there.”

The review panel found her attacker guilty of rape, and also heard testimony from another female student who had been sexually harassed verbally by the same student. He was given a two-year suspension, after which he’d be allowed to return to Stanford.

“I appealed saying he should be expelled, but everyone knows Stanford doesn’t expel people, because that looks bad on them,” Christina said. “Why would anybody want to have this guy on campus, when there are so many vulnerable, vulnerable girls?”

According to Stanford’s Office of Judicial Affairs, nine of the 13 cases brought before a review panel since April 2009 have resulted in a finding of responsibility, and none of the students found responsible have been expelled.

After Christina’s rape, being at Stanford became difficult. She began to skip classes, and her grades began to suffer.

“Everywhere at Stanford were reminders that [it] happened. I’m a HumBio major so all my classes are in The Quad, even having to pass the place I was raped everyday, I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t do it,” Christina said. “It was a hard year.”

Despite the inherent difficulty in reporting and retelling the story of her attack, Christina said getting her attacker off campus was crucial for her mental health.

***

While Christina and other survivors have some complaints about University resources, they agree overall that with Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), the Office of Sexual Assault & Relationship Abuse Education & Response (SARA) and the ARP, the resources are there for rape survivors who seek them. The bigger problem lies in prevention.

“It’s not talked about enough,” Christina said. “And it keeps happening.”

Sarah, ’15, was assaulted by a serial rapist two months before starting her freshman year at Stanford. She echoed Christina concerns over the lack of discussion about the issue.

“There’s a lot of resources out there, and I‘ve tried a lot of them; I’ve reached out a lot. It’s more I feel the community around me [isn’t] very open to hearing about it, or talking about it, or being comforting,” she said. “It’s a forbidden topic for the entirety of Stanford.”

From New Student Orientation (NSO) through her freshman year, she had the feeling that Stanford was the place to come and be happy – if you can’t be happy here, you simply don’t fit in.

“I don’t know how to change the mindset or overall feeling of a place,” Sarah said. “It bothers me to no end that it is like this, but I don’t know how to fix it.”

The ARP has reformed Stanford’s judicial system, making it easier for survivors to obtain findings of responsibility against their attackers. But according to Sarah and Christina, Stanford remains a difficult place to discuss these issues.

“It leads to feelings that people have in this community that nobody wants to talk about sexual assault and nobody wants to hear it exists,” Sarah said. “That’s not a good feeling for somebody who’s been sexually assaulted to feel.”

Julia Enthoven contributed to this report.

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Ira Glass on storytelling, humor https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/05/ira-glass-speaks-on-storytelling-humor/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/11/05/ira-glass-speaks-on-storytelling-humor/#respond Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:44:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1072587 Glass played various clips from different broadcast shows throughout the two-hour presentation and drew a sharp line of contrast between “mainstream” media outlets and his work at TAL.

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“Radio is your most visual medium,” radio host Ira Glass told a full CEMEX Auditorium on Sunday afternoon. He paused for several moments as the audience remained quiet.

“That’s not actually true, but if you say it in a certain tone of voice…”

Ira Glass on storytelling, humor
(IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily)

Glass is the host of “This American Life (TAL),” a critically acclaimed weekly public radio show with around 1.7 million listeners. The show uses the power of storytelling to focus listeners on the emotional moments that traditional reporting often overlooks.

Glass played various clips from different broadcast shows throughout the two-hour presentation and drew a sharp line of contrast between “mainstream” media outlets and his work at TAL.

“Mainstream broadcast journalism uses everything in its power, at all times, to convince you that what it is saying is really, really important,” Glass said, noting that TAL prefers to use the “fundamental force” of narrative rather than dramatic soundtracks and heavy-handed tone.

“When someone tells a story about themselves in a way that it’s possible to imagine being them…it just touches you. It’s a real thing, a profound thing, and its something you can give people,” he said.

While Glass said he respects the work of traditional journalists, as the presentation went on it became clear his criticisms were both incisive and encompassing.

Glass said the failure of traditional journalism to incorporate the funny with the serious was a “failure of craft,” and described how the gravitas and above-it-all nature of network news had a “weird nervousness to it.”

TAL’s shift from this style comes mainly in the narrative presentation of the show. Instead of following a traditional script of a radio program, interviewing two sides and providing a brief moment of analysis, Glass tries to make the listener feel a sense of satisfaction that only comes from hearing a great story.

“What’s that made of? What produces that? What creates that feeling?” asked Glass.

And while TAL isn’t the only program that seeks to tell stories, its success comes from its stories’ ability to consistently move and impact the emotions of listeners.

Glass described one segment, of a shark-bite victim who endured a punctured bowel with no medication, which caused several intense, physical reactions from listeners.

Listeners wrote emails, describing hearing the segment and immediately beginning to shake and in some cases black out, with one even crashing her car. Glass singled out one listener who described a similar reaction and later told him, “On the way back home I tried to listen to it again…”

“That is narrative control,” said Glass to laughter from the audience. “I’m making her physically sick, and she’s saying, ‘I need to get back [to the story].’”

Keeping true to TAL’s style, Glass mixed the serious with the funny in his presentation. Moments before playing the clip in which the shark-attack victim described feeling like she was on fire, Glass was busy making a balloon animal for an audience member. One thing Glass wanted to impart to the student members of the audience was the importance of amusing yourself in your work.

“The more you amuse yourself, the better your work will be,” he said.

Glass also teased a possible spinoff of “This American Life,” based on an episode he has already produced called “This Week.” In an interview after the presentation, Glass stressed he wasn’t sure he would actually go forward with the idea, but he is currently exploring the idea of a weekly show, in the style of TAL, that takes on current news events.

Interestingly, though he said no comparison would be perfect, Glass used John Stewart’s style of incisive news analysis as a possible model for the new show.

During the presentation, Glass told the audience of how when he was a 19-year-old intern at NPR, he would always put one thing into a segment that was just for him.

Later, an audience member asked him if he’d put one thing into Sunday’s presentation. With a smile, Glass said everything was for him now. He does the same thing he did as an NPR intern, except instead of one nugget per story, he gets an hourlong radio show.

“If it’s not touching me, then there’s no point in doing it.”

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Early action admission deadline extended https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/29/early-action-admission-deadline-extended/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/29/early-action-admission-deadline-extended/#respond Tue, 30 Oct 2012 06:26:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1072396 The new deadline is 11:59 PM on Monday, Nov. 5

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Stanford Undergraduate Admission extended the deadline for early action applications to 11:59 PM on Monday, Nov. 5 for students affected by Hurricane Sandy, following the lead of many East Coast schools.

At the time of publication several universities – notably Harvard and Princeton – have not extended the deadline but have said they will be “flexible” and encouraged students who can’t meet the deadline to attach brief explanations or notes to their applications.

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Storey sprinkler displaces residents, damages rooms https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/09/storey-sprinkler-displaces-residents-damages-rooms/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/09/storey-sprinkler-displaces-residents-damages-rooms/#comments Tue, 09 Oct 2012 07:36:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071619 A sprinkler went off in Storey House shortly before 1 a.m. Monday morning, flooding several rooms and displacing all 52 residents for the night. Nine students will be temporarily relocated until their rooms are repaired.

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A sprinkler went off in Storey House shortly before 1 a.m. Monday morning, flooding several rooms and displacing all 52 residents for the night. Nine students will be temporarily relocated until their rooms are repaired.

Storey sprinkler displaces residents, damages rooms
Stanford Daily File Photo

Firefighters arrived at the scene and prohibited residents from returning to their rooms, even to pick up possessions, because of potential electrical problems caused by the flooding. A fire watch was implemented until the sprinkler system could be fully emptied. After an electrician visited the house, several residents on the first floor were able to pick up possessions but not sleep inside the house.

“We didn’t know what we were being evacuated for,” Storey Resident Assistant Elena Higuchi ’13 said. “Initially, we thought a fire was going on but a lot of the residents who witnessed that original flooding were the ones who told us what had happened.”

A cleanup crew from Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) worked on the house overnight, reopening it slightly after 8:30 a.m. that same morning.

The sprinkler went off in a single room on the third floor and water, which one resident described as dirty and murky, seeped down into two rooms below the original room and into adjacent third floor rooms.

Most residents were able to find alternate sleeping arrangements for the night. Storey’s staff was also in contact with Stanford Housing to provide rooms and bedding to residents who required it. Muwekma-tah-Ruk, the Native American themed house directly across the street from Storey, opened its lounge areas for any residents who needed housing for the night.

By 3 a.m., all residents had either found housing or had received information from staff members about alternate housing locations. About a dozen staff members and residents braved the cold for several hours at the benches outside of Storey while the Palo Alto Fire Department worked inside the house. Most students stayed in friends’ rooms, with two staying in the Lasuen guest rooms and others sleeping on mattresses and linens set up in the Bob House lounge. Storey House kitchen reopened in time for breakfast Monday morning.

The nine students who will not be able to return to their rooms for several days are being housed in Lasuen and in a cottage in Suites, according to Higuchi.

Stanford Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE), which manages Student Housing, wrote in an email to The Daily that students who were temporarily relocated have been provided with Cardinal Dollars.

The six rooms affected by water damage are being dehumidified before their residents can return. Four of these rooms will require repair beyond dehumidification. Some pieces of wall at floor level had to be removed due to water damage, and some rooms will require ceiling repairs. There are also reports of significant water damage to personal property in the affected rooms.

Marianne LeVine and Alice Phillips contributed to this report.

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Sprinkler triggered in Storey, residents unhoused for one night https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/08/storey-residents-temporarily-homeless-after-sprinkler-goes-off/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/10/08/storey-residents-temporarily-homeless-after-sprinkler-goes-off/#comments Mon, 08 Oct 2012 09:50:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1071576 The fire alarm was triggered before 1:00 a.m. last night at Storey House.

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The fire alarm was triggered before 1:00 a.m. Sunday night at Storey House. The sprinkler went off in a single room on the third floor and water, which one resident described as dirty and murky, seeped down into two rooms below the original room and into an adjacent third floor room.

Residents were unable to access their rooms for one night; most found other sleeping arrangements for the rest of Sunday night and Monday morning. Stanford Housing coordinated with Storey’s staff to make arrangements for unhoused residents. By 3:00 a.m., all residents either had found housing or had received information from staff members about alternate housing locations.

Firefighters on the scene predicted the house would be open on Monday after the water has been cleared, but were unable specify a time. The house was opened to residents at 8:36 a.m.

The four rooms affected by water damage are being dehumidified before those residents can return. Some pieces of wall at floor-level had to be removed due to water damage. There are also reports of significant water damage to personal property in the affected rooms.

 

This story will be updated throughout the day.

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Chief prosecutor stresses importance of ICC https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/05/chief-prosecutor-stresses-importance-of-icc/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/05/chief-prosecutor-stresses-importance-of-icc/#comments Thu, 05 Jul 2012 09:29:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068408 "Law is the power we have to protect the weak and oppressed against the strong,” Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the United Nations, told a crowded Hewlett Auditorium.

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“Law is the power we have to protect the weak and oppressed against the strong,” Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the United Nations, told a crowded Hewlett Auditorium on Wednesday, June 27.

As chief prosecutor for the ICC, Bensouda serves in a division of the United Nations that prosecutes international criminals for offenses such as genocide, mass rape and crimes against humanity. She is only the second chief prosecutor in the court’s history and the first woman to hold the position.

The ICC seeks to provide “one standard for all states, parties and the people under its protection,” Bensouda said.

“Wars and conflicts are no longer the opposition of two states or two armies,” she said. “We are no longer confined to our town or regional or national borders.”

Originally from Gambia, Bensouda studied and practiced law in her home country, and was elected deputy prosecutor of the ICC in 2004. She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people for 2012.

The United States has had a “schizophrenic” relationship with the ICC, according to Helen Stacey, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. Stacey introduced Bensouda and asked several questions after her presentation.

Former President Bill Clinton signed the treaty establishing the ICC as he was leaving office, but the decision was quickly reversed when George W. Bush withdrew in 2002. Barack Obama has pursued “engagement” with the ICC, but the United States has yet to join as a member state. Membership is a contentious issue, as the ICC has jurisdictional authority to investigate and prosecute citizens or residents of member nations for international crimes.

While taking strong stances on issues such as criminal prosecutions and international justice, Bensouda tactfully replied to questions about the United States’ involvement.

“As an officer of the court, I do not question why any government or any state would not join the ICC,” Bensouda said. “I think that even without the United States joining the ICC, I think the ICC has already come to be one of the relevant players in the world in settling these international conflicts and bringing accountability for these crimes.”

Bensouda’s reluctance to enter the political debate surrounding member states is part of a wider mission to remain apolitical, which Bensouda said is critical to the ICC’s integrity.

“The ICC is a powerful new tool to prevent crime, deter crimes and promote national proceedings,” Bensouda said, “but it will only be successful if we never yield to political considerations.”

The issue is complicated, however, because the ICC has no enforcement power and relies on the armies and police forces of member countries to take actions on warrants.

Bensouda praised the now-famous “Kony 2012” video several times for the contribution it made to raising awareness about the crimes of Joseph Kony. The ICC issued a warrant for Kony’s arrest in 2005, but Bensouda said it was not until Invisible Children’s video came out that people began to know who he was and what crimes he had committed.

Stacey pointed out the inaccuracies in the video, and Bensouda readily acknowledged it was not perfect but said she felt the positive impact outweighed the negative.

Several audience members asked about atrocities the ICC wasn’t currently investigating in China, Syria and Mexico. While Bensouda acknowledged the massacre and atrocities in Syria, she said the ICC has no authority to investigate non-member countries such as Syria and China unless asked to do so by the United Nations Security Council.

Unlike those two countries, Mexico is a full member of the ICC and thus subject to investigation. In November 2011, the ICC was asked by Mexican human rights activists to investigate then-President Felipe Calderon for his actions in the war against drug cartels. Bensouda’s predecessor and former boss said the ICC would not hear the complaint.

When asked by an audience member whether crimes were being investigated in Mexico, Bensouda said the court is monitoring the situation but no current investigation is underway.

“We have not started actively engaging, but we also are receiving information,” she said. “We have been receiving a lot of information from everywhere about Mexico.”

“I think that’s code for ‘watch this space,’” Stacey added.

The presentation was the keynote address for the Stanford Summer Human Rights Program’s lecture series.

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Wednesday, July 4: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/04/wednesday-july-4-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/04/wednesday-july-4-the-daily-brief/#respond Wed, 04 Jul 2012 20:16:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068479 Happy July 4th everybody. Have fun, stay safe.

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Scientists may have found the Higgs-Boson, and Joey Chestnut won his sixth straight Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. From NPR, a story of 44 U.S. troops in Kandahar who are celebrating their first July 4 as U.S. citizens.

Happy July 4th everybody. Have fun, stay safe.

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Tuesday, July 3: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/03/tuesday-july-3-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/03/tuesday-july-3-the-daily-brief/#respond Wed, 04 Jul 2012 01:23:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068376 Starbucks in Tresidder | According to several sources, Starbucks will open in Tresidder Union when construction is finished in the space, located between the main dining area and the Student Store. The Office of Student Affairs and Residential Dining and Enterprises have declined to confirm or comment. Nneka Ogwumike continues success in WNBA | The recent […]

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Starbucks in Tresidder | According to several sources, Starbucks will open in Tresidder Union when construction is finished in the space, located between the main dining area and the Student Store. The Office of Student Affairs and Residential Dining and Enterprises have declined to confirm or comment.

Nneka Ogwumike continues success in WNBA | The recent Stanford graduate is performing well in the WNBA, having already won Player of the Week and Rookie of the Month awards.

In the News | Human Rights Watch has released a scathing report of 27 torture centers in Syria, detailing acts of systematic torture that have occurred under Bashar al-Assad. Read the full report here.

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Monday, July 2: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/02/monday-july-2-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/07/02/monday-july-2-the-daily-brief/#respond Mon, 02 Jul 2012 20:34:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068369 Most popular major, Shayne Skov and death in Mexico.

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Computer Science most popular major | Computer science is the most popular major at Stanford, with over 220 students declaring during the 2011-2012 school year. Over 90% of students take at least one Computer Science class during their time here.

Shayne Skov reinstated | As reported on Friday, Stanford linebacker Shayne Skov has been reinstated and suspended for one game following a DUI earlier this year.

Ike: I’ll stay open if you guys eat late | Two reporters for Newsroom by the Bay, a weeklong high school journalism camp hosted at Stanford, interviewed Ike Shehadeh, the owner of Ike’s Place. In the interview, Ike said he would love to stay open until midnight every day but the demand is simply not there.

In the News | Armando Montano, a 22-year-old intern for the Associated Press, was found dead in Mexico City on Saturday. The death is under investigation and no motive has been reported. Montano had recently covered the shooting of three policemen in Mexico City’s international airport.

 

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Wednesday, June 27: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/27/wednesday-june-27-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/27/wednesday-june-27-the-daily-brief/#respond Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:00:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068349 The happenings of Wednesday, June 27.

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Stanford wins the Director’s Cup | Stanford has won its 18th straight Director’s Cup. The award is presented to the best overall athletic program in the nation.

Colorado Springs wildfires rage | 32,000 people have been evacuated ahead of several wildfires in northwest Colorado Springs, which have destroyed more than 200 homes and threaten thousands of other residences and commercial buildings.

Kiley Neushul wins national honors | Freshman water polo player Kiley Neushul won the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches’ player of the year award.

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Tuesday, June 26: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/26/tuesday-june-26-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/26/tuesday-june-26-the-daily-brief/#respond Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:00:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068342 The happenings of Tuesday, June 26.

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Move in day | Students staying at Stanford over the summer moved into their dorms yesterday, and many had their first day of work or class. Rules prohibit high school students from entering dorms where Stanford students are living, and also ban all hard alcohol in dorms.

Woods grants | The Woods Institute for the Environment announced Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) grant recipients for 2012, giving over $800,000 to five different teams.

Murder on the Farm | The Great Plains Examiner published a lengthy article exploring the murder of Arlis Perry, whose body was found naked on the floor of Stanford’s Memorial Church in 1974. The case remains unsolved, and rumors of ritualistic killing and satanic rituals have surrounded the murder for decades.

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Monday, June 25: The Daily Brief https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/25/monday-june-25-the-daily-brief/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/06/25/monday-june-25-the-daily-brief/#respond Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:00:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1068335 Headlines from Monday, June 25.

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Olympic Qualifying | Stanford men’s diving will be sending 2 athletes to London for the 2012 Olympics, while recent graduate Chris Derrick ’12 just missed qualifying for the U.S. Track and Field team.

 

i-Brain | Stanford scientists are working on an “iBrain”, a device that would “hack” into the brain and allow a person to communicate using only brain waves. The Guardian reports Stephen Hawking may try the device at a conference next month in Cambridge.

 

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Freshman Akash Dube dies after battle with leukemia https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/freshman-dies-from-leukemia/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/05/16/freshman-dies-from-leukemia/#respond Wed, 16 May 2012 09:25:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1066543 Akash Dube, a freshman from Dubai, died Friday, May 11, due to complications from Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). The Arroyo resident spent most of winter and spring quarter in Stanford Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston, Texas.

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Akash Dube, a 19-year-old freshman from Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, died Friday, May 11, due to complications from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Arroyo resident spent most of winter and spring quarter in Stanford Hospital and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

“He was a really strong, really enthusiastic, extremely resilient kid,” said Lena Potts ’12, Dube’s resident assistant in Arroyo. “He was a huge member of this community, even though he was only here for a few months.”

Dozens of friends posted on Dube’s Facebook page following news of his passing, expressing their gratitude for being able to get to know him.

“I have always been so amazed by the way you care for other people and the way you take such genuine interest in the lives and feelings of others,” wrote Austin Block ’15. “It’s so easy to see why we all love you.”

“You were never here for only one quarter, Akash. You’ve been here ever since the fall, as a part of the Arroyo family, and will always be in our hearts,” said Janhavi Vartak ’15.

Even after his leukemia returned, Potts said Dube remained upbeat.

“He was still strong. He was the same little Akash; he was still strong and hopeful,” she said. “He always really believed [in himself]. That was one of the best things about him.”

“When I saw Akash in the hospital he was not only smiling and optimistic, but his primary concern was to make sure that I was entertained and not hungry,” said Adam Goldberg ’15, a fellow Arroyo resident. “If you’re battling cancer, and you’re preoccupied with the comfort of your guests, it really just speaks to how amazing of a person you are.”

Diagnosed his senior year of high school, Dube organized the Terry Fox Charity Run in Chennai, India, in 2009. Dube went to schools in Chennai and urged students to run, in addition to sharing his own experience with cancer. The race, which takes place in locations all over the world, helps raise funds for cancer research.

The Arroyo lounge now hosts a memorial to Dube, and a whiteboard features written memories from Arroyo residents and friends of Dube surrounding photos of the freshman.

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Op-Ed: Stanford’s silence on suicide is wrong https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/27/stanfords-silence-on-suicide-is-wrong/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/27/stanfords-silence-on-suicide-is-wrong/#comments Fri, 27 Apr 2012 07:30:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064941 The University’s failure to foster a campus dialogue about mental health or mental illness is appalling.

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Last week, a Yale freshman named Zach Brunt killed himself in a physics lab on campus. The next day, a candlelight vigil was held in front of his residence. Yale’s Dean of Students sent a campus-wide email addressing the death within 24 hours, and alerted students to available mental health resources.

Last Saturday, a Harvard senior named Wendy Chang hanged herself in her room. That same day, a vigil was held inside her residence. That same day, the Dean of Harvard College sent a campus-wide email alerting students to the tragedy.

A month ago, Stanford sophomore Samantha Wopat killed herself in her campus residence. The silence from Stanford was deafening.

I recognize that suicide is a difficult thing to discuss, especially on a college campus. It affects us all in different ways, and privacy restrictions at times restrain University action.

However, nothing can excuse a weeklong silence about a student’s death, broken only by a short op-ed in our pages. Additionally, no administrator has addressed campus about suicide. The University’s failure to foster a campus dialogue about mental health or mental illness is appalling.

Should we not speak openly about suicide and mental illness? Is acknowledging your students aren’t always healthy a bad thing? Does Stanford truly believe that an event like this, which impacts so many students on so many levels, shouldn’t be addressed directly and honestly?

What Harvard and Yale appear to recognize – and what for some reason Stanford seems incapable of realizing – is that students will talk about suicide. Stanford’s job is to make that conversation safe, open and informed by campus resources and mental health professionals. Their job is to make sure we know that they are there for us if we need them. Following a suicide of a fellow student, we needed them. They weren’t there.

At Yale’s campus vigil, the head of Zach’s residence hall told students that Zach’s death should remind them, “We don’t live in a perfect world.” That’s an important message. Those are the words of a leader who wants his students to know it is normal to struggle and feel overwhelmed in the face of immeasurable tragedy, even if they happen to also attend a “dream school.”

I fear Stanford’s unwillingness or inability to convey a similar message will only contribute to the silence that too often surrounds mental health problems and mental illness on this campus. Why did it take them a week to reach out to us? Why was there no meaningful, campus-wide response? Why did our peer institutions handle this in such a drastically different way?

Tragedies such as these often raise hard, unanswerable questions. The lack of university response shouldn’t raise more. I know Stanford works hard to make this an exceptional university to attend. But sometimes, acknowledging this is not a perfect world can be an important step toward improving it.

Brendan O’Byrne ’14

Deputy Editor, The Stanford Daily

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Senator scrutinizes claims by Judicial Affairs co-chair https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/26/senator-scrutinizes-claims-by-judicial-affairs-co-chair/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/26/senator-scrutinizes-claims-by-judicial-affairs-co-chair/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:00:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1064697 Michele Dauber, Stanford law professor and co-chair of the Judicial Affairs Committee, made misleading statements to an assembly of student representatives last Wednesday regarding the new Alternative Review Process (ARP) for sexual assault cases on campus. ASSU Senator Ben Laufer ‘12 said at the Senate’s Tuesday meeting, at which Dauber was not present, that he felt she “misled to the point where she even actually might have lied to us.” Laufer later apologized for saying Dauber may have lied.

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Michele Dauber, Stanford law professor and co-chair of the Judicial Affairs Committee, made misleading statements to an assembly of student representatives last Wednesday regarding the new Alternative Review Process (ARP) for sexual assault cases on campus. ASSU Senator Ben Laufer ‘12 said at the Senate’s Tuesday meeting, at which Dauber was not present, that he felt she “misled to the point where she even actually might have lied to us.” Laufer later apologized for saying Dauber may have lied.

The misleading statement came when Dauber was discussing how sexual assault cases handled by Judicial Affairs are civil cases, which she incorrectly said never require unanimous agreement among jurors.

“There is no such thing as a unanimous requirement in any civil case anywhere, ever,” Dauber told the assembly last week. “We just don’t have unanimous requirements in civil cases.”

According to a Department of Justice Statistics Special Report on civil justice in state courts from 2004, 27 states require unanimous convictions in civil cases. Only 11 require a three-fourths majority and all others, except for Montana, require a higher percentage of agreement (Montana only requires two-thirds agreement).

Dauber responded in an email to The Daily that the 2004 report is accurate, but warned of intricacies in the legal process, as different courts have different rules across states. No such nuance or qualification was included in her original statement at the meeting.

In addition, Dauber said that by “we,” she was referring to the State of California, which she felt was clear given Stanford’s location. Laufer, Senator Alon Elhanan ‘14 and Stanford Daily Senate reporter Julia Enthoven ‘15 all stated that no such clarification was conveyed during that part of the meeting. All three stated that they were under the impression Dauber was speaking generally about the United States.

The ARP represents a change in the Judicial Affairs Committee’s procedure regarding trials of students who are accused of sexual assault, sexual violence, relationship violence and stalking.

Under the new ARP, three of the four “reviewers” would be required to agree in order to decide a student’s case, which is consistent with current University policy. The Senate and Graduate Student Council (GSC) are currently deliberating whether to approve the pilot program ARP.

Dauber commented on The Daily website, accusing the publication of publishing false accusations against faculty members after The Daily included Laufer’s quote in a Wednesday article (“Senate debates use of leftover funds,” April 25). Dauber wrote in the comments that the information she gave the Senate and Graduate Student Council was “entirely correct.”

A 2004 report from the American Bar Association states that, “In civil cases, jury decisions should be unanimous wherever feasible. A less-than-unanimous decision should be accepted only after jurors have deliberated for a reasonable period of time and if concurred in by at least five-sixths of the jurors.”

The report qualifies that a lesser number of jurors is acceptable if agreed upon by both parties.

Laufer, Elhanan and Enthoven all said that the overall message of Dauber’s comments was that nowhere in the United States are civil cases required to be decided by unanimous vote.

It is unclear whether the ARP seeks to conform to Federal or California guidelines or employs a hybrid of the two. The recommendation to lower the standard of proof to preponderance of evidence came from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, yet federal guidelines for civil jury cases require unanimous agreement.

In California a simple three-fourths majority is required, though juries on California civil cases consist of 12 jurors, while Judicial Affairs currently uses four jurors. No state currently uses four jurors for civil court cases.

 

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Zimbroff-Wagstaff win ASSU Executive with 87 percent of vote https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/14/zimbroff-wagstaff-win-assu-executive-with-87-percent-of-vote/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/14/zimbroff-wagstaff-win-assu-executive-with-87-percent-of-vote/#respond Sun, 15 Apr 2012 00:53:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1063426 Robbie Zimbroff ’12 and William Wagstaff ’12, two co-term students, won the race for ASSU Executive with 87% of the vote, announced elections commissioner Adam Adler ’13 on Saturday evening.

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Robbie Zimbroff ’12 and William Wagstaff ’12, two co-term students, won the race for ASSU Executive with 87 percent of the vote, announced elections commissioner Adam Adler ’13 at a Saturday evening elections results party at the CoHo.

Zimbroff will serve as the President and Wagstaff as Vice President for the 2012-2013 school year.

Zimbroff-Wagstaff win ASSU Executive with 87 percent of vote
Robbie Zimbroff and William Wagstaff celebrate winning the ASSU Executive race. (MADELINE SIDES/The Stanford Daily)

Zimbroff-Wagstaff beat out incumbent Vice President Stewart MacGregor-Dennis ’13 and Druthi Ghanta ’14, along with Open Source Candidates, the annual Chaparral humor magazine joke slate.

After the Open Source Candidates slate was eliminated from the race with only 289 votes, MacGregor-Dennis & Druthi fell with only 466 votes. Zimbroff-Wagstaff won with 2,998 votes, earning 87 percent of the total vote for Executive.

“Hopefully this wasn’t about two people, it was about a lot more people who have shared ideas and want to continue to build on a shared vision for the coming year,” Zimbroff said after the results were announced.

The win for Zimbroff-Wagstaff came just days after a firestorm of controversy hit the MacGregor-Dennis & Druthi campaign. On Wednesday, a number of campus publications, including The Daily, as well as several students on Facebook broke the story that MacGregor-Dennis had been paying, among other things, for a social media manager to improve his Internet presence, leading to fake Twitter and Facebook followers.

MacGregor-Dennis, Ghanta and current ASSU Exec Michael Cruz ’12 responded to the controversy through a variety of mediums. MacGregor-Dennis never addressed charges that he had paid someone to scrape student email address from Mygroups.

“This was one of the most brutal and painful experiences of my life and I am hugely grateful for everyone who sent me personal messages of support and everyone who spoke out when things crossed the line,” MacGregor-Dennis said after the results were announced. “But mostly what I care about is Stanford being a better place. I wish the absolute best of luck to Robbie and Will and I will be doing whatever I can to support them.”

MacGregor-Dennis said he hopes to still make an impact on Stanford with his remaining year at the University, citing his pride in his “ability to bounce back.”

“This was an incredibly hard time for me personally,” he added. “I think I will learn a huge amount from the experience.”

Zimbroff and Wagstaff benefitted from numerous, wide-ranging campus endorsements, including SOCC, FLIP, QueerCo, JSA, The Stanford Review and The Editorial Board of The Stanford Daily.

The election saw a decrease in voter turnout, possibly attributed to student apathy regarding the ASSU, or the lack of a hot-button issue, such as last year’s ROTC referendum. Adler said this was also due to the MacGregor-Dennis controversy and subsequent emails.

“We’ve known we’ve been up to that challenge since we got into this,” Zimbroff said in response to the news that voter turnout was the lowest in at least five years. Zimbroff added that his goal will be to see a significant increase in voter turnout by this time next year

“I think it’s sad,” Zimbroff said about the anonymous, campus-wide email attacking MacGregor-Dennis and the events leading up to the election. “You wouldn’t want this to happen to you or any of your friends.”

“It got too big for what the ASSU is,” Wagstaff added about the controversy. Both newly elected candidates said they personally reached out to MacGregor-Dennis before results were announced.

“All we can do at this point is serve the student body as faithfully as we can,” Zimbroff said of the shadow looming over the election.

As for plans now that they have been elected, Wagstaff said the pair will take a quick respite following the hectic campaign.

“Get some sleep. Do some homework,” he said of his plans for the coming week.

 

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Anonymous emails spark controversy in ASSU elections https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/13/anonymous-emails-spark-controversy-in-assu-elections/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/13/anonymous-emails-spark-controversy-in-assu-elections/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:04:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1063351 Campus has erupted over the past 36 hours in a firestorm of commentary on the actions and subsequent criticisms-turned-attacks on ASSU Vice President and Executive candidate Stewart MacGregor-Dennis ‘13.

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Campus has erupted over the past 36 hours in a firestorm of commentary on the actions and subsequent criticisms-turned-attacks on ASSU Vice President and Executive candidate Stewart MacGregor-Dennis ‘13.

Following news Wednesday that MacGregor-Dennis spent over $2,000 on various online services, including scraping student email addresses from MyGroups and hiring a social media manager to earn him Facebook likes and Twitter followers, criticism of MacGregor-Dennis began to circulate on Facebook and over email. Students reacted in protest Thursday when the criticisms shifted to attacks against MacGregor-Dennis.

The most controversial writing regarding MacGregor-Dennis came in the form of an anonymous, widely circulated email sent late Wednesday night from a person identifying as Senator Palpatine, the name of the “Star Wars” antagonist that has been used in recent ASSU elections as a non-partisan, write-in candidate for the Undergraduate Senate.

The long, scathing email began by criticizing MacGregor-Dennis, quoting articles and opinion pieces from The Daily and Stanford Review. As the email progressed, it descended into a vitriolic attack on the personal character and mental health of MacGregor-Dennis, calling him mentally unstable and unfit to run for ASSU Executive by quoting, without attribution, an anonymous comment on The Daily website.

Another widely distributed email sent Thursday morning from an anonymous account (justice@stanford.edu) claimed to know Palpatine’s identity through means requiring access to Stanford computing reserved for student resident computer consultants (RCCs). The Daily could not confirm this claim.

According to an RCC, an administrator sent an email to the campus RCC list asking Justice to step forward, and administrators later reported to RCCs that Justice has come forward.

Campus administrators expressed disappointment regarding the email attacks, which likely violate the Fundamental Standard.

“I’m writing to the student community regarding the recent distribution of unsolicited bulk emails and campus blogs regarding current ASSU election candidates,” said Nanci Howe, director of Student Activities and Leadership, in an email to The Daily. “Hurtful claims that may not be true diminish all of us and suppress open, respectful and honest dialogue. As a responsible and caring community, we embrace vigorous debate while respecting our individual members. The recent communications are contrary to these values.”

Howe confirmed that the University has opened an investigation of the anonymous emails.

Criticism of MacGregor-Dennis took several forms in addition to the campus-wide emails.

MemeChu, the Stanford meme group on Facebook, posted an infographic mocking MacGregor-Dennis’ Facebook cover photo and his social media following, as well as applying a “scumbag Steve” hat to the candidate. The post garnered almost 200 likes.

Ralph Nguyen ’12, one of the founders of MemeChu, did not respond for comment.

“Static,” a blog started last fall quarter that describes itself as a site for Stanford activists to meet and talk, posted a poem titled “The White Man’s Dirty Work” decrying MacGregor-Dennis’ outsourcing of work to people of color, especially women in developing countries. The final line of the poem, which was co-written by Holly Fetter ’13 and Aracely Mondragon ’13, reads “Your slave I will no longer be.”

It remains to be seen what effect the shift in campus atmosphere will have on election results. Polls close Friday at 11:59 p.m. and election results will be announced at 5 p.m. on Saturday. Voters may edit their ballots until polls close.

“They have negatively impacted the election,” said Elections Commissioner Adam Adler ’12 of the anonymous emails. “I’ve received emails from people who are basically turned off from voting because of those things.”

Adler said he believes the “integrity of the election” has not been compromised, but the student body may look less favorably on the election process due to the Palpatine email.

“People don’t like it,” he said, referring to the situation as a whole and the use of the Senator Palpatine gimmick for partisan purposes.

Robbie Zimbroff ’12 and William Wagstaff ’12, MacGregor-Dennis’ main competitors for ASSU Executive, released a video commenting upon the attacks.

“A lot of what we’ve been seeing, to us, goes beyond this scope of this election,” said Zimbroff in a video posted on Facebook early Thursday morning. “For the next few days, and for the rest of the race, we just ask people to be respectful, and to treat people like [they] want to be treated.”

MacGregor-Dennis declined to comment for this article.

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MacGregor-Dennis ‘outsources’ student email addresses https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/11/macgregor-dennis-outsources-student-email-addresses/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/11/macgregor-dennis-outsources-student-email-addresses/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:27:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1063031 ASSU Vice President and current Executive candidate Stewart MacGregor-Dennis ‘13, along with a friend whom he declined to name, has paid for over $2,000 of personal and ASSU-related services through an ODesk account, including one task that involved giving access to student names and emails to third-party contractors to aggregate the data.

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ASSU Vice President and current Executive candidate Stewart MacGregor-Dennis ‘13, along with a friend whom he declined to name, has paid for over $2,000 of personal and ASSU-related services through an ODesk account, including one task that involved giving access to student names and emails to third-party contractors to aggregate the data.

The account on ODesk has over 50 jobs posted since May 2011, including paying for Facebook “likes,” YouTube hits and Tumblr followers. MacGregor-Dennis denied ever paying for Facebook likes and YouTube hits, though he said he hired social media managers whose main responsibilities were generating likes, hits and followers.

Additionally, the account paid a third-party contractor listed by ODesk under the name “Rebecca S.”, living in the Philippines, to “scrape” first names, last names and email addresses of presidents, financial officers, additional officers and E-commerce officers of student groups from MyGroups, the ASSU’s student group software. The contractor organized the data into a spreadsheet in August 2011.

These student email addresses were all publicly available at the time, though the MyGroups system was later updated to require an SUID web login to access the information. This shift was made, according to director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL) Nanci Howe, out of consideration for students, who were receiving spam.

“It hasn’t been public in many years; we’ve directed them to the directory,” said Howe, whose department oversees MyGroups, since updated to MyGroups2. This means that only emails of students who had opted to have their emails publicly available would have shown up in this “scrape.”

The Daily has not been able to get into contact with Rebecca S., the ODesk contractor. Her job is listed as “complete.” Several financial officers for student groups reported receiving personal emails from MacGregor-Dennis over the past few months asking to meet and talk about what the ASSU can do for their organizations.

MacGregor-Dennis maintains that he has never broken University policy by paying for services through ODesk or directing contractors to student information. An email to Stanford Information Technology Services asking for clarification on the University’s policy regarding distributing publicly available student information has not yet been answered.

Other jobs on the ODesk account include a Social Media Manager who has been paid over $800, a Student Government Email Assistant who has been paid over $100 and a Tumblr blog follower who has been paid $299.38 dollars.

MacGregor-Dennis later clarified that the social marketing positions were largely related to marketing for the new eDorm and “several other business ventures” he was working on this year. His most recent ASSU Facebook updates have been “liked” by between 30 and 40 people, the majority of whom are fake Facebook accounts. They share similar “likes” in addition to MacGregor-Dennis’ campaign page, such as D9 music, a book about the antichrist and a company called MAK Financial.

“Facebook Like Generator,” “Entrepreneurship Website Content Creator” and “Get 1,000 views for my YouTube video” are other items purchased through the ODesk account.

The Tumblr blog follower’s job is listed as, “I need someone to follow other blogs on Tumblr for my blog, and then later unfollow other blogs on a different day.”

“None of it is ASSU money,” MacGregor-Dennis said, citing academic interest in social media. “All of this would be distributed among friends who are interested in the area.”

MacGregor-Dennis said he does not have a problem with students learning any this information. Students, on the other hand, have not taken kindly to MacGregor-Dennis’ strategies and what could amount to a political misstep.

“This is an area of academic research for me. I think there are huge social problems to be tackled [in the labor field], and I am happy to answer any questions about this,” MacGregor-Dennis said.

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Live Blog: The ASSU Exec Debate https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/09/live-blog-the-assu-exec-debate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/04/09/live-blog-the-assu-exec-debate/#respond Mon, 09 Apr 2012 23:30:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1062748 Tonight at 6:30 in The CoHo, the candidates for ASSU Executive will be answering questions about their platforms. In addition to full coverage for tomorrow, we’ll be live blogging the entire thing at our new ASSU blog, so check it out if you can’t attend.

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Tonight at 6:30 in The CoHo, the candidates for ASSU Executive will be answering questions about their platforms. In addition to full coverage for tomorrow, we’ll be live blogging the entire thing at our new ASSU blog, so check it out if you can’t attend.

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ASSU Senate struggles for relevancy, lasting effect https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/14/assu-senate-struggles-for-relevancy-lasting-effect/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/14/assu-senate-struggles-for-relevancy-lasting-effect/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:04:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061421 Despite having passed over 40 pieces of legislation during its term thus far, the 13th ASSU Undergraduate Senate has struggled to make an impact this year due to bureaucratic gridlock, opposition from University officials and inconsistency in following its own legislation. The Senate’s actions have proven largely internal or ineffectual – a far cry from the representatives’ platforms touting transparency, accountability and student life issues.

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Despite having passed over 40 pieces of legislation during its term thus far, the 13th ASSU Undergraduate Senate has struggled to make an impact this year due to bureaucratic gridlock, opposition from University officials and inconsistency in following its own legislation. The Senate’s actions have proven largely internal or ineffectual – a far cry from the representatives’ platforms touting transparency, accountability and student life issues.

Transparency

On May 31, near the start of its term, the Senate unanimously passed UGS-S2011-20, a bill “to improve accountability of the Undergraduate Senate.” The bill sought to improve transparency of Senate action by requiring senators to put any individual and committee projects, accompanied by timelines, on the Senate website for all students to see. The then-fresh senators recognized student body sentiment of confusion and disconnect regarding the Senate and sought to change this pattern.

Senators have not referred to the bill in their weekly meetings since it was passed last May. No database of senator projects exists and bills passed by the Senate have no central location, but are scattered in the minutes of Senate meetings posted on the body’s website, which didn’t exist until more than halfway through the year.

In January, the Senate further limited its transparency by beginning to hold 15- to 20-minute “informal” meetings excluding reporters before each of its constitutionally mandated open meetings each week. The informal meetings began at the third meeting after a Daily article (“Senate bill fails: 5 in favor, 4 opposed,” Nov. 30) reported on a contentious moment between Senate Deputy Chair Dan Ashton ’14 and Senator Janani Ramachandran ’14. According to Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12, the informal meetings are intended to allow “personal issues” to be aired outside of the public’s view; however, the meetings serve other purposes, as well.

“Not all senators have time to be up-to-date to what’s on the agenda,” Ashton said as part of an explanation for the pre-meetings, though he directed questions about the meetings to Vazquez. While senators have maintained that they do not directly discuss bills at the meeting, they do acknowledge using the time to review agenda items.

“Disintegrating initiatives”

Of the 40 bills passed thus far, six made internal ASSU appointments, four created internal divisions within the ASSU and three were “resolutions” on behalf of the student body, each of which ultimately failed to garner response or action from the University.

The Senate launched three initiatives this year that sought to affect student life but failed to gain traction.

After several weeks of debate in October, the Senate passed two bills creating the Division of Internal Review (DIR), headed by Andrew Aguilar ’14. The DIR, strongly supported by ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ’12, was intended to promote efficiency and reform within the ASSU. Instead, it suffered months of delay due to difficulty accessing the necessary documentation for review from SSE.

The DIR did not receive Senate renewal in January following complaints that Aguilar hadn’t been communicating with the Senate properly, and the group failed to produce any reports. A form of the group now exists under a different name in the ASSU Executive branch, but has not produced any public documents.

A second initiative sought to support the Stanford football team. Senators Ben Laufer ’12 and Nate Garcia ’14 aimed to offer students a package deal to make the USC football game in Los Angeles affordable. Laufer and Garcia said after they secured funding sources, Nanci Howe, director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), halted their project. Howe told The Daily that the trip didn’t meet requirements from the Office of Risk Management, which recommended that the ASSU not promote the event in the University’s name. Howe said the Senate was aware that this was a recommendation; however, senators repeatedly referred to it as a prohibition.

“What that made it difficult to do was market effectively,” Garcia said. “Technically, we weren’t allowed to market it as an ASSU initiative.”

The senators then transitioned to a rebate program, hoping to subsidize ticket costs. The program received hundreds of submissions for the rebate; however, since the Oct. 29 game, only one refund check has been processed. Garcia blamed the hold-up on Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU, but SSE CEO Neveen Mahmoud ’11 said the Senate has only submitted three check requests so far, and only one has been picked up.

In October, the Senate set up a Vaden Advisory Board to establish a “well-informed link between Vaden Health Center and the student body.” The Senate appointed three members – two of them senators – to the advisory committee in January. When asked this week, Senator Tara Trujillo ’14 initially said the committee hadn’t held any meetings or taken any action, but Senator Lily Fu ’14 clarified that the board met with Vaden officials in February to discuss increasing student access to off-campus medical options.

“We advise and keep open lines of communication with Vaden, but do not necessarily program nor legislate on Vaden’s activities,” Fu said in an email to The Daily.

University opposition

One attempt by the Senate to address student need resulted in an empty call for action by University officials who then objected to the legislation.

The CARDINAL Act, a resolution passed in February and co-authored by five senators – including Brianna Pang ’13 and Dan DeLong ’13, now running together for ASSU Executive, and Cruz – called upon the Language Center to modify its policy regarding attendance, arguing unfairness to disabled students.

The Senate called upon the Office of Accessible Education (OAE), the University department responsible for ensuring access for disabled students, to act on behalf of disabled students regarding the issue. OAE Director Joan Bisagno had harsh words for the bill’s authors.

“The author of that bill really misstated the issue and used our office in an inappropriate way,” Bisagno said in an interview with The Daily. “To use disability as the reason to push this law through is absolutely incorrect.”

Bisagno said the Language Center’s policy does not violate any laws and that the department has been helpful in accommodating disabled students in the past.

Buffer fund debate

Two bills and months of work went into providing funding for the Stanford Concert Network (SCN) and Blackfest concert organizers from an ASSU buffer fund. The fund, which many senators didn’t know existed before SCN organizer Stephen Trusheim ’13 requested money from it, is funded from excess special fees and intended to fund groups that don’t receive enough votes for special fees. The Senate passed bills that granted $35,000 to SCN, but loaned Blackfest $40,000, a double standard that has never been explained.

In addition to these inequity concerns, Mahmoud expressed concerns after the passage of the bill about the use of this buffer fund, saying, “I don’t believe that this should be a regular use for buffer-fund money.”

Funding and advocacy

When interviewed, no senator listed any of the above bills or initiatives as the most important action resulting from their term. Instead, senators cited effective disbursement of funds to student groups and advocacy to administrators as their top accomplishments for the year.

The funding of student groups occurs almost entirely in the appropriations committee. While senators vote on funding bills as a group, no funding bill has ever made it through the appropriations committee and then failed its vote in the 13th Senate. Funding bills are typically passed unanimously and without discussion at the start of every meeting.

While senators refer to meetings with administrators as a key part of their service to the student body, this unique aspect of the role is nearly impossible to quantify. These reported meetings occur behind closed doors, meaning the student body has no way of knowing what is said or advocated on its behalf.

There are notable exceptions to the Senate’s struggles with programs this year. A one-on-one advocacy program created by DeLong has served over 30 students, he said.

Another key outcome of this year may be a new version of the ASSU governing documents, which were re-written and shortened this year, almost entirely by Cruz and Senator Alex Kindel ’14, in the hopes of simplifying internal ASSU rules and regulations. The new draft is currently in a feedback phase. Former ASSU Executives sent Cruz and the current Senate a letter advising to delay the self-imposed ratification deadline of April 14 for at least a quarter. This action would push the ratification process to the next Senate.

Prescient, if ineffective

The Senate predicted its woes and diagnosed systemic problems as far back as UGS-S2011-20 on May 31.

“Projects initiated by Senators are not always carried out within the initially determined time-frame, and sometimes disintegrate altogether,” read the legislation.

With elections for next year approaching and no current senators running for re-election to the Senate, the window for action by this year’s representatives is swiftly closing.

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne@stanford.edu.

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At a glance: The ASSU Exec candidates https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/09/at-a-glance-the-assu-exec-candidates/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/03/09/at-a-glance-the-assu-exec-candidates/#comments Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:04:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1061041 The race for ASSU Executive has begun, and a number of slates have already launched petitions on the ASSU elections site. The Daily sat down with the candidates to get a better sense of what each slate hopes to accomplish.

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The race for ASSU Executive has begun, and a number of slates have launched petitions on the ASSU elections site. The Daily sat down with the candidates to gain a better sense of what each slate hopes to accomplish if elected.

 

A New Conversation”: James Mwaura and Charles Mbatia

 

James Mwaura and Charles Mbatia, both current juniors, are running because they haven’t felt represented by their student government lately.

 

“There’s a feeling that a lot of these other slates have been in the ASSU for quite some time, and one of their main focuses is making the ASSU run more efficiently,” Mwaura said. However according to Mwaura, this focus causes the ASSU to lose sight of what they are supposed to do–provide students with a service.

 

“Our vision is very clear…we want to provide the best possible services and most unclouded dialogue,” said Mwaura.

 

Mwaura is involved in several business-oriented student groups, such as the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES), while Mbatia serves as an officer for Intramural Sports, leadership experiences the pair says complement each other well.

 

Of all the candidates, Mwaura and Mbatia stressed the importance of the ASSU representing the student voice to the administration the most.

 

“While the ASSU might be good at running itself, what they’re there for–to represent the students for the administration–they’re failing in that respect.”

 

They cited the Chi Theta Chi lease termination and rising tuition prices as areas where they would engage the University in conversation to represent student interest.

 

“A lot of times, you tend to wonder where your dollar is actually going,” said Mwaura, referring to increases in tuition, bookstore prices and late night dining prices.

 

The group brings several other new ideas as well–including end-of-quarter yard sales, improving non-techie career fairs and working with faculty to bring online lectures to humanities classes, which often lack that option.

 

 

Family Matters”: Julian Okuyiga and Ben Hoffman

 

“There’s an inherent fallacy that the ASSU Exec can revolutionize our Stanford experience by incorporating changes into all these different facets of the administration and student life,” said Ben Hoffman ‘ 13, of the Family Matters slate.

 

Hoffman, along with Julian Okuyiga ‘ 13, are unique among the field this year because they propose no major changes for the way the ASSU currently operates. They largely want to keep the status quo, except for one, huge initiative:

 

Bring back Lake Lagunita.

 

The pair doesn’t want to destroy the ASSU–they (somewhat uncaringly) say they would appoint qualified and experienced cabinet officials, and maintain the ASSU’s role as a liaison between student groups and the University. They just have a different focus.

 

“We’d put forth efforts to bring experienced people in as Cabinet officers, draw on that insight, but that won’t be our biggest problem,” Okuyiga said.

 

It may be a long shot, but both Hoffman and Okuyiga have given the problem of Lake Lag some thought. They’ve identified four main issues: the tiger salamander, water usage, restoration of a derelict dam and liability issues. The solutions aren’t fully formed yet –the slate suggested species relocation may solve the tiger salamander problem and requiring students to learn to swim like other colleges may solve the liability issues–however the pair believes that with alumni support, bringing back the Lake is an achievable goal.

 

“It would bring a whole new aspect to Stanford life in general,” Hoffman said, recalling how alumni he has talked to recall their time around Lake Lag very fondly.

 

The pair even noted that a place for Stanford students to chill, relax and unwind may improve mental health on campus. Or, as Hoffman put it, “Solving the Stanford duck syndrome–with a lake.”

 

Zimbroff-Wagstaff”: Robbie Zimbroff and William Wagstaff

 

Robbie Zimbroff ‘ 12 and William Wagstaff ‘ 12 are ASSU outsiders, but the two Ujamaa Resident Assistants and future co-terms believe this offers them a fresh opportunity to “reconnect” the ASSU with the student body.

 

While both have a track record and future plan focusing on promoting diversity on campus, their campaign isn’t so simple–the pair also wants to bring concrete changes to what they termed “student problems.”

 

“People with ASSU experience have already shown they fall into the same cycle of jargon and a big election cycle, where you promise big things, but they don’t actualize in a way that people want,” Zimbroff said.

 

Talking with each other and other students about simple problems, such as a perceived lack of late-night dining options and poor quality of Vaden Health Center, the pair said they began to discuss the things they would do if in charge. Then they thought, “Why not us?”

 

“The ASSU is disconnected [from students],” Zimbroff said. “If we re-focus on what people are talking about, that could be a really positive thing.”

 

The pair also identified a problem of scope. By narrowing the focus of the ASSU to these “student problems”, the duo hopes to improve the efficiency of the ASSU.

 

“We’re not going to be able to promise every single person every single thing that they want,” Zimbroff said. “All we want to do is to help people and take action toward those goals in concrete ways.”

 

Open Source Candidates”: Daniel Koning and Kian Ameli

 

The Stanford Chaparral decided to field a slate with a unique twist this year, taking the idea of “crowdsourcing” to its extreme–the entire slate can be defined and modified by anyone.

 

Daniel Koning ‘ 14 and Kian Ameli ‘ 13, sporting matching aviators and gloves, answered questions about their slate’s platform with poetic waxing on moonlight, and discussed the moral implications of supporting food trucks–which the pair suggested may run someone over–on campus.

 

An interesting moment came when Ameli defined his vision for the role of the ASSU vice president.

 

“It’s a subtly domineering role,” Ameli said, turning to Koning to ask, “You’re OK with that right?”

 

“You’re my anchor, and I love you for that,” responded Koning.

 

“Right,” Amelia said. “Another way to say it would be, ‘first the worst, second the best’.”

 

Despite their unconventional methods, don’t jump to label the pair a “joke-slate” –they see themselves as the “channel for democracy.”

 

“If people choose to treat us as a joke, we’ll never rise above that,” said Koning. “But remember, this is democratization. The people decide.”

 

“Well,” qualified Ameli, “whoever edits the Wiki decides.”

 

Macgregor-Dennis & Druthi”: Stewart Macgregor-Dennis and Druthi Ghanta

 

Stewart Macgregor-Dennis, current ASSU Vice-President, is widely credited with forming the new entrepreneur-themed dorm on campus. In fact, he’s a bit of a campus celebrity, earning his own meme on the Stanford meme page “MemeChu” and going around to freshmen dorms to talk with students about the ASSU.

 

While it was common knowledge Macgregor-Dennis would run for ASSU Executive, his running mate remained a question mark–until now. Druthi Ghanta ‘ 14 has never been involved in the ASSU, though Macgregor-Dennis praised her for her effectiveness.

 

“Her more service-oriented and non-profit background combines well with my slightly more entrepreneurial background,” said Macgregor-Dennis, adding that the pair had “synergy” when they met recently to discuss running together.

 

Due to being ill, Ghanta was not available to interview with The Daily before publication.

 

Though Macgregor-Dennis and Ghanta will not release their full platform until the beginning of spring quarter, Macgregor-Dennis cited several items, such as hard liquor consumption on campus and the lack of housing for international students during winter break, as examples of challenges he hopes to tackle.

 

“We don’t have to go through the lengthy process of building relationships and figuring out how the ASSU works,” Macgregor-Dennis said, commenting on his experience in the ASSU Executive.

 

“There are definitely areas where it took us a while to learn, as I think it does with all executives,” Macregor-Dennis said of his current term with ASSU President Michael Cruz ‘12. “I think [Druthi and I] will be able to start on day one.”

 

United We Stan(for)d”: Brianna Pang and Dan DeLong

 

Brianna Pang ‘ 13 and Dan DeLong ‘ 13 both served in this year’s ASSU Senate, with Pang as chair of the Appropriations Committee. Both have extensive experience working with students, in particular financial officers of different student groups.

 

The pair originally discovered their desire to be in student government while living in Toyon their sophomore year. They take partial responsibility for preventing Toyonito, the student performance center located behind Toyon, from being converted to a package center for East Campus. By bringing in University administrators, DeLong and Pang say they were able to advocate for students’ concerns that they would lose a valuable performance space.

 

“Through that experience, we realized the ASSU has a unique platform to affect change, being the intermediaries between students and administrators,” Pang said.

 

Both Pang and DeLong stress the ASSU’s role as a facilitator–instead of pursuing its own initiatives, the role of the ASSU Executive is to help student groups, they said.

 

“Why don’t we give those student groups access to administrators, the funding, the resources and the tools that are necessary for those student groups to carry out their mission?” asked DeLong.

 

Unlike several other slates, Pang and DeLong are focused on reforming the internal workings of the ASSU. Referring to complaints about problems with Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the arm of the ASSU that manages student group banking and student investments on campus, Pang and DeLong said they would guarantee student reimbursement checks within seven days.

 

“It’s an internal function of [the] ASSU, but it also affects so many students and student groups,” Pang said.

 

The pair also referenced transparency and talked about their plan to scan and make available to the entire campus all receipts of the ASSU and student groups.

 

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Stanford Memes a huge hit https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/08/stanford-memes-a-huge-hit/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/08/stanford-memes-a-huge-hit/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:15:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1057462 Stanford Memes poke fun at various stereotypes and aspects of Stanford life, often referencing popular inside jokes or Stanford-specific phenomena.

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Ralph Nguyen ’12 started the Stanford Meme Facebook page at 2 a.m. Wednesday. A few hours later, the page had one hundred “likes.“ By 5 p.m., 15 hours after it began, the page had more than 1,000 likes and most Stanford students’ Facebook pages were littered with friend’s reposting and liking the images.

 

The memes poke fun at various stereotypes and aspects of Stanford life, often referencing popular inside jokes or Stanford-specific phenomena. Originally popular primarily on Internet message boards such as Reddit and 4chan, memes have increasingly leaked into mainstream social sites, and in recent months have become more commonplace on Facebook.

 

While Nguyen has been receiving calls from friends congratulating him, he said he is more surprised by calls from potential investors.

Stanford Memes a huge hit
Andrew Bleich '14 commented on the popularity of the memes - through the above meme he created.

 

“It’s kinda like a fucked-up version of a start-up,” Nguyen said. “Kids are showing their parents, parents do the whole investment thing, and now they’re giving me calls.”

 

University meme pages mark a significant shift to a hyper-local form of this type of comedy and satire, narrowing the memes’ audience and often playing on issues much more personal or unique.

 

This is by no means a Stanford-specific phenomenon-many students at other universities have started pages in recent days and weeks. Discussions on Reddit serve as forums for the more sophisticated to complain about people misusing memes on Facebook pages.

 

The response to the Stanford meme page has been overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. Near the end of Wednesday, dozens of new memes were being posted every hour with topics ranging from head football coach David Shaw (“Has best QB in country: field goal”) to University President John Hennessy (“Raises $4.3 billion: announces 3% tuition hike same day.”) Many of the memes sport hundreds of likes and dozens of shares, the type of social engagement any corporation would drool over.

 

“I’ve used the Internet for these types of purposes for several years now and worked this summer as a viral consultant, but to take initiative and have your own stuff blow-up is really liberating,” Nguyen said.

 

Several of the memes play off of potentially offensive stereotypes, such as an always-disappointed Asian father who has trouble understanding English (“CS106B teach you C++? Why CS106A no teach you A++?”). While several complaints have been voiced on the Facebook page, so far responses have mostly been complimentary.

 

Many of the memes serve as interesting and unique insights into aspects of life at Stanford not always vocalized by students. One student suggested Nguyen make an account on the popular micro-blogging site Tumblr to gather all the pictures in the same place  (which they later did), and Nguyen has been contacted about putting all the pictures on Pinterest, a popular photo-blogging site.

 

Nguyen has reached out to several of his internet-savvy friends to help him handle the page. Shane Savitsky ’12 (a Daily staffer) and Kazuma Gunning ’12 are helping create memes and set up the Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

 

It’s been a good year for Nguyen so far. His “Shit College Freshmen Say” video garnered more than one million views on YouTube, and his comedy channel “JustCallMeMrRight” is the No. 1 viewed channel in the “Comedians” category this month.

 

While making money from this endeavor might be difficult, Nguyen has other concerns, as well. When asked whether the popularity has changed his life, Nguyen shrugged and smiled.

 

“Love life is still terrible,” he said. As one of the Stanford memes that twists Boromir’s famous quote in Lord of the Rings pointed out, “One does not simply date at Stanford.”

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Stanford Challenge raises $6.2 billion https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/08/stanford-challenge-raises-6-2-billion/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/02/08/stanford-challenge-raises-6-2-billion/#respond Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:04:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1057407 Stanford University announced the conclusion of The Stanford Challenge (TSC), its five-year fundraising initiative, Wednesday. The project, a comprehensive fundraising push that raised $6.2 billion for the University, aimed to broadly improve the Stanford educational experience and better prepare future leaders.

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Stanford University announced the conclusion of The Stanford Challenge (TSC), its five-year fundraising initiative, Wednesday. The project, a comprehensive fundraising push that raised $6.2 billion in pledges for the University, aimed to broadly improve the Stanford educational experience and better prepare future leaders.

 

TSC provided funding for 130 new faculty positions, 360 graduate fellowships, $1.5 billion worth of facility construction and improvement and over $250 million in need-based financial aid for undergraduates, according to a press release.

 

In addition, over 38 buildings were added or improved on Stanford campuses as part of the initiative — including the Huang Engineering Center, Arrillaga Dining Commons, Knight Management Center and the Stanford Center at Peking University in Beijing.

 

“The response from the extended Stanford family was tremendous,” University President John Hennessy said in a press release. “This was a community joining together for something they believe in.”

 

Martin Shell, vice president of the Office of Development at Stanford, said the idea for TSC came together not long after Hennessy and Provost John Etchemendy Ph.D. ‘82 took office.

 

Combining efforts with faculty members, administrators “identified a variety of important needs and potential new initiatives, refined them into a set of overarching principles and began to determine what it would take to fund them,” Shell said. While at first these served as wish lists, funding soon came pouring in.

 

The original goal of raising $4.3 billion was easily met by the University, much of it through large donations from alumni. Most of the money came from donations totaling over $1 million — donations typically earmarked for specific projects.

 

“Historically, you don’t see multi-million dollar, unrestricted gifts,” Shell said. “That’s pretty uncommon.”

 

While $1.5 billion was donated for facility improvement, one sixth of that amount — 253.7 million — was donated to supplement need-based financial aid.

 

The TSC press release stated that before 2006, 40 percent of Stanford students were on financial aid from the University, while now 80 percent receive aid from Stanford “and other sources.”

 

However, Rebecca Vogel, assistant vice president for the Office of Development, noted that these statistics are “comparing apples and oranges.” Only 49 percent of students currently receive need-based financial aid from Stanford, a figure 9 percent higher than before TSC.

 

Funding from TSC created many of the institutes on campus, such as the Woods Institute for the Environment, the Precourt Institute for Energy Efficiency and the Tomkat Center for Sustainable Energy. The institutes are part of the University’s recent push for interdisciplinary research.

 

The arts also received a boost from TSC, with significant gifts and funding going toward the creation of an “arts district” on campus near the Cantor Arts Center. The Bing Concert Hall, Anderson Collection at Stanford University and the McMurtry Building will be located on the northeast side of the Oval.

 

The McMurtry Building will accommodate the art and art history departments at Stanford when it opens in 2015.  Although the Bing Concert Hall has also not yet been completed, it is scheduled to open for public performances at the start of 2013.

 

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Frost Amphitheater to host spring concert https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/26/frost-amphitheater-to-host-spring-concert/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/26/frost-amphitheater-to-host-spring-concert/#respond Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1055674 Frost Amphitheater has a long history as a venue for raucous music festivals and famous artists. Jefferson Airplane played there in the late 1960s, and the prominent space has also seen Miles Davis, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead, the latter of whom played there more than a dozen times.

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Frost Amphitheater has a long history as a venue for raucous music festivals and famous artists. Jefferson Airplane played there in the late 1960s, and the prominent space has also seen Miles Davis, Joan Baez and the Grateful Dead, the latter of whom played there more than a dozen times.

 

According to an article written by Ivan Maisel ’81 in Stanford Magazine, the venue was shut down for several years during the height of the Vietnam War after several altercations broke out among concert attendees. Frost is now largely unused, plagued by a lack of modern equipment and lingering fears over safety.

 

That long drought will come to an end this May when a “Spring Fling”–the official name is not yet decided–will take place on Frost’s grassy field.

 

The concert–which has an artist suggestion list that includes MGMT, Beirut, Vampire Weekend, Black Keys and many more–has been in the works for more than a year now.

 

“There was a lot of student interest in it last spring, between op-eds in The Daily and student groups forming with the explicit intention of making this concert happen,” said Stephen Trusheim ’13, one of the members of the organizing committee for the event

 

The concert, which will take place in the late afternoon or early evening on May 19, has yet to sign a headliner. An email was sent out to many of the campus email lists with information about the event, as well as a survey asking students to choose which artists they would like to see.

 

“We have a lot of great recommendations for artists that weren’t on our list,” Trusheim said, noting that over 1,500 students had taken the survey by Wednesday evening. In addition, he noted that many of the comments have been very positive and encouraging, urging the committee to make this an annual event.

 

That may prove to be a daunting task given the budget of the concert–$150,000 at its lowest estimate–and the amount of work required to plan such an event. External sources of revenue, such as sponsorship, are going to be explored after an artist is signed.

 

Funding will largely come from the Stanford Concert Network (SCN), which has given $75,000 of its special fees money to the event. In addition, the ASSU Undergraduate Senate gave the concert committee a $35,000 grant from a rarely used buffer fund. Several University offices–notably the Office of Special Events and Planning (OSEP) and the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE)–have also given money to the event.

 

More than their funding however, Trusheim stressed the critical importance of the time and dedication many University administrators have given to the project.

 

The executive board in charge of planning the event consists of Trusheim, Director of SCN Emily Pollock ’13, Associate Director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL) Snehal Naik, Executive Director of OSEP Elaine Enos, Events Manager of OSEP Rachel Mizenko and former ASSU Executive Angelina Cardona ’11.

 

“Students bring a lot of money to the table, but we don’t have the expertise to hold a concert of this magnitude,” Trusheim said, whereas administrators have extensive experience in planning such events.

 

Trusheim went into detail regarding the arduous process of trying to book a high-profile artist. In addition to expensive fees, many bands require other financial or hospitality arrangements that can put a strain on the organizing committee.

 

Despite the difficulties, Trusheim is confident the concert will be a success for the entire campus.

 

“We’re trying as much as possible to make a spring concert that we can all be proud of and capstone our year together,” he said.

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ASSU Senate discusses buffer fund inequity https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/25/assu-senate-discusses-buffer-fund-inequity/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/25/assu-senate-discusses-buffer-fund-inequity/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:07:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1055546 The ASSU Undergraduate Senate (UGS) held a closed, informal session before an abbreviated formal meeting Tuesday evening. In the informal session, the senators discussed recent money disbursements from the ASSU student fees buffer fund.

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The ASSU Undergraduate Senate (UGS) held a closed, informal session before an abbreviated formal meeting Tuesday evening. In the informal session, the senators discussed recent money disbursements from the ASSU student fees buffer fund.

 

Senate chair Rafael Vazquez ‘12 asked The Daily to leave for the informal meeting, which was attended by senators as well as Nanci Howe, director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), Stephen Trusheim ‘13 and Cameron Henry ‘12 and Ashley Lyle ‘13. Trusheim and Henry are both responsible for independently acquiring significant funding from the ASSU buffer fund through Senate bills for a spring concert series and Blackfest, respectively.

 

Senator Dan DeLong ‘13 said that the meeting was to discuss the lack of guidelines about how the buffer fund should be used and the perceived inequity between giving the spring concert $35,000 in funding while deciding to loan Blackfest $40,000 and require repayment.

 

For each of the events, revenue will be used to help fund future concerts at Stanford, DeLong confirmed.

 

Trusheim wanted an assurance from the Senate about the $35,000 grant he received because the concert organizers are currently working on booking artists and need an exact budget.

 

The Senate assured Trusheim that the $35,000 allocation would remain, and also agreed to re-examine the $40,000 loan to Blackfest in light of the inequity.

 

The official meeting started with a brief update from ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ‘12.  Senator Ben Laufer ‘12 asked Cruz about how the governing documents commission is progressing.

 

Cruz said he did not feel comfortable sharing details of the provisional plans for the new constitution in a public forum; however, he said he hopes to have a private version available to the Senate and several other individuals in two weeks.

 

When Howe raised concerns about the ASSU elections schedule and how it may conflict with the new constitution, Cruz assured her that the constitution would go into effect after this year’s elections.

 

DeLong updated Senators on his recently launched One-on-One Advocacy Program, which he said has already fielded and resolved a few concerns.

 

The only bill passed at the meeting was to approve three representatives to the Vaden Advisory Council. Tara Trujillo ‘14, Lily Fu ‘14 and Baffour Kyerematen ‘15 were approved to the positions. Trujillo and Fu are both Senators, and Kyerematen is a mentee in the Leadership Development Program (LDP), a mentorship program organized by the UGS.

 

 

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne@stanford.edu.

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Financial recruiting event draws crowd https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/20/financial-recruiting-event-draws-crowd/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/20/financial-recruiting-event-draws-crowd/#respond Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:15:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1054956 Lee Jackson '12 led a panel Thursday evening with four other Stanford students, each with experience working for Wall Street firms such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, to provide insight into the financial industry for career hopefuls.

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Lee Jackson ’12 led a panel Thursday evening with four other Stanford students, each with experience working for Wall Street firms such as Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, to provide insight into the financial industry for career hopefuls.

Financial recruiting event draws crowd
Lee Jackson '12 led a panel Thursday evening to address questions from students hoping to break into the fields of finance and investment banking. The panel addressed interviewing tips, hiring and the recession. (IAN GARCIA-DOTY/The Stanford Daily)

 

The event, titled “Recruiting in the Financial Crisis,” was held in a packed room in the Nitery with more than 50 students in attendance.

 

After a brief discussion of the causes and effects of the financial crisis, the panel opened up to questions from the audience, hoping to inform audience members about how to apply for various internships in the financial field.

 

Several students questioned whether the low hiring and bonus rates of banking firms worry the panelists for the future.

 

“You do need banking services, despite what Occupy Wall Street says,” said Miles Penn ’12, a member of the panel who worked at Goldman Sachs in investment banking.

 

“They generally protect analysts, too,” Jackson said, as Penn agreed.

 

According to the panel, because new analysts’ salaries are typically much lower than those of executives in the company, a new analyst would be unlikely to be fired.

 

The panel offered advice about interviews and how to select the right financial firm.

 

“Everything gets noted, and everything gets evaluated,” Penn said in response to a question about which part of the interview is most important.

 

“You can walk into a first-round interview and already have a second-round interview if you network right. They’re hiring people they like,” he added.

 

Continuing to stress the importance of personality and interview skills, Penn downplayed the importance of academic skills.

 

“We wanted a mix of people from different banks, different offices and different divisions,” said Misha Nasrollahzadeh ’13, director of external marketing for Stanford Women in Business (SWIB), which sponsored the event.

 

Neither Nasrollahzadeh nor Jackson said they have seen any effects on campus from the Occupy Wall Street movement or the nationwide backlash against investment banking. Both said they have not had difficulty promoting business or financing.

 

Causes of the crisis

 

According to Jackson, the main problem of the financial crisis was debt. Caused by low interest rates and American spending culture, by 2007 the U.S. savings rate was negative, meaning people were spending more than they were making.

 

Using a metaphor of “debt” as a virus, Jackson said the country had two options to deal with the crisis. The first was to go to the government, a “doctor” who could give a specific prescription based on a unique set of problems – in this case through cash infusions and/or buyouts.

 

Alternatively, one could go to a central bank, the Federal Reserve – described by Jackson as a “pharmacist” with only the power to distribute aspirin. The Federal Reserve was only capable of loaning money, which it did generously in the crisis; however this failed to address the serious problems.

 

As any doctor would tell you, Jackson continued, occasionally they catch the same virus as their patients. The debt was transferred to the government, which happened in the United States and, in a more disastrous way, to European countries, such as Greece.

 

The Federal Reserve, however, was left largely unharmed, according to Jackson.  Central banks have begun lending money to these governments, similar to “doctors taking aspirin,” he said.

 

“That being said, I think finance is a great industry to get into,” Jackson said to laughter from the audience.

 

“It was nice to hear the panelists,” said Adrian Rosas Villegas, a graduate student in management science and engineering. “It gave me a good idea of investment banking.”

 

“I thought it was well put on, and it was the right mix of introductory lecture-style talk with questions and answers to delve more deeply into what people’s concerns are,” said Sam Paglia ’13 of the event.

 

Jackson said he plans on holding similar presentations about newsworthy issues every Sunday starting Jan. 29.

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Finances murky in ASSU https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/19/finances-murky-in-assu/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/19/finances-murky-in-assu/#respond Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:50:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1054747 Despite campaign promises and governing documents mandating transparency, student oversight of the ASSU remains lacking, as tracking ASSU financial transactions occasionally eludes even the organization’s student representatives.

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Correction: The meeting of the UGS occurred on Dec. 13, not Jan. 11 as this article previously said. In addition, the Spring concert series will take place in Spring quarter, not Fall. The Daily regrets the errors.

 

Despite campaign promises and governing documents mandating transparency, student oversight of the ASSU remains lacking, as tracking ASSU financial transactions occasionally eludes even the organization’s student representatives.

 

The ASSU constitution mandates that “all records of any Association entity must be available for scrutiny by the public” and also requires that the ASSU “provide access in a timely, efficient manner.” The only exceptions to this rule, which do not apply to the following cases, are proprietary business information, banking of non-funded accounts as well as legal and personnel records for ASSU employees.

 

Over $350,000 buffer fund

 

The ASSU Senate recently drew its attention to a buffer fund with over $350,000, after several Senators became aware of the fund’s existence for the first time. When Stephen Trusheim ’13, former ASSU Elections Commissioner, went to the ASSU Undergraduate Senate to request $35,000 for a concert in the spring, he recommended the Senate look into using the buffer fund.

 

This suggestion was met with surprise and confusion by many Senators, who then requested an explanation from Neveen Mahmoud ’11, the CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU.

 

Mahmoud informed the Senate that the fund is created by a 10 percent surcharge placed on all Stanford students’ general fees to cover the cost of those who request refunds. The excess money has traditionally been used to fund student groups who did not receive special fees in a campus-wide vote.

 

Trusheim is currently an employee of the ASSU/SSE. Trusheim did not attend the meeting in which the vote occurred, despite a request from Senators that he attend. His bill was approved on Dec. 13 by an ASSU Senate that has not yet voted “no” on a funding bill this year.

 

Difficult to find the money

 

Student groups can only receive $6,000 from general fees, with a slightly higher cap for publications or groups who do community service. This stands in contrast to the $35,000 dispersed in accordance with Trusheim’s bill. Unless a group knew about the buffer fund, it would have no opportunity to request money from it.

 

Additionally, there are currently no rules or procedures for approving money from the fund. The appropriations committee did not have authority over suggestions for uses of the fund, and the money was not delegated in a traditional “funding bill,” sent out to the public Senate email list as attachments. Instead, the concert funding was passed as a regular bill, located within a Senate meeting agenda.

 

ASSU Senate finances scattered, untracked

 

In addition to the new and unregulated pool of money being given out to only a few student groups on campus, other areas of the ASSU severely lack transparency. Any student is entitled by the ASSU Constitution to request records concerning money spent by the ASSU Senate; however, this process is convoluted and oftentimes met with confusion.

 

Requests for the transactions from the SSE offices returned a series of transactions made from the ASSU Senate’s account; however student groups that received money were listed by a four-digit code used for MyGroups, the banking program for the SSE and ASSU.

 

After going through these documents and pairing each number with its student group, The Daily asked members of the ASSU appropriations committee to explain several significant oddities. Alon Elhanan ’14, in charge of communications and a member of the appropriations committee, responded by granting The Daily access to the Senate’s spending tracker, a Google document used by the Senate to record transactions.

 

Of the 39 transactions that were withdrawn from the ASSU spending account according to SSE, only 17 were included on the ASSU Senate’s spending tracker. Over $26,000 dollars withdrawn from the ASSU Senate’s account were not recorded in the spending tracker.

 

Chair of the appropriations committee Brianna Pang ’13 responded that all the spending was tracked in funding bills, which are sent out to the ASSU Senate’s email list each week. However, there exists no database for these documents, making the process of acquiring this information incredibly dense and time-consuming.

 

ASSU transparency moving forward

 

Pang acknowledged after a Senate meeting that these funding bills and spending trackers were not sufficiently updated or easy to access and promised to put all the funding bills in one place on the new ASSU Senate site. Pang and Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12 both said they hope to do so in the coming week.

 

After a total of $75,000 was allocated from the fund (an additional $40,000 was given to the NAACP for Blackfest), Pang said she was working with Andrew Aguilar, director of the Division of Internal Review (DIR), to draft rules about the usage of the fund and to get a more detailed report from Mahmoud.

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Hidalgo named chief of staff https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/18/hidalgo-named-chief-of-staff/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/18/hidalgo-named-chief-of-staff/#respond Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:08:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1054610 The ASSU Senate kicked off its meeting Tuesday with the introduction of Lina Hidalgo ‘13, the new ASSU Executive Chief of Staff nominated by ASSU President Michael Cruz ‘12 and Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13.

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The ASSU Senate kicked off its meeting Tuesday with the introduction of Lina Hidalgo ‘13, the new ASSU Executive Chief of Staff nominated by ASSU President Michael Cruz ‘12 and Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13.

 

Former ASSU Executive Chief of Staff Emma Ogiemwanye ‘12 stepped down after choosing to go abroad winter quarter this year.

 

“The different initiatives the cabinets are pursuing are geared toward bringing campus together,” said Hidalgo, who answered questions from Senators for several minutes at the meeting.

 

“The platform of the ASSU is an unbiased avenue to promote goals of student groups,” Hidalgo said, adding that she aims to continue promoting student groups on campus and follow through on several initiatives already started prior to her appointment.

 

Cruz and Macgregor-Dennis said five or six applicants applied to the position, and two final interviews were conducted to determine who would be hired. The bill appointing Hidalgo was passed unanimously, making her term as the new Chief of Staff effective immediately.

 

The Community Action Board (CAB), another group within the Executive that has experienced difficulty retaining staff, also has a new director. Cruz and Macgregor-Dennis chose Holly Fetter ‘13 to lead the CAB.

 

Stanford Showcase, an event planned by the ASSU Executive to display the diversity and unique identity of Stanford, also added a new director to its ranks. Lauren Felice ‘14, the current Chair of Student Life in the ASSU Executive, will be in charge of coordinating the event.

 

Cruz also updated the Senate on the Governing Documents Commission, a group tasked with updating the constitution and bylaws of the ASSU. Senator Alex Kindel ‘14 and Cruz said they worked for over 15 hours this weekend to finalize a draft of new governing documents and hope to show a private draft to administrators and Senators sometime in the next week. Cruz said he believes a public version will be available within the month.

 

Cruz said the new governing documents are significantly shorter than the current ones, estimating their length to be roughly 100 pages.

 

Senator Alon Elhanan ‘14 raised concerns over the documents, especially about how Senators would be able to adequately judge any changes or differences between the two versions. However, Cruz assured Elhanan that it would be a smooth process.

 

“I wouldn’t go so far as saying the content was the same, but anyone who was familiar with the ASSU will be able to recognize the documents,” Cruz said.

 

Senators also briefly discussed the Division of Internal Review (DIR). The Senate had previously grilled Andrew Aguilar ‘14, head of the DIR, for failing to gain access to financial information and failing to properly communicate with the Senate.

 

According to Macgregor-Dennis, this contentious exchange at a previous Senate meeting was dissuading Aguilar from coming in again.

 

“Andrew is wary of having communication with the Senate given past communication,” Macgregor-Dennis told the governing body.

 

Senate involvement with the DIR will continue, however, and the appropriations committee plans to review a controversial ASSU buffer fund to further explore the sustainability of the fund. Chair of the appropriations committee Brianna Pang ‘13 said she was working with Aguilar to write a report on the fund and to determine what its proper use will be in the future.

 

 

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne@stanford.edu.

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ASSU funds two concerts for spring quarter https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/12/assu-funds-two-concerts-for-spring-quarter/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/12/assu-funds-two-concerts-for-spring-quarter/#respond Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:08:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1054174 The ASSU Undergraduate Senate dipped into a $350,000 buffer fund in order to fund two upcoming concert events on campus: BlackFest and a spring concert sponsored by the Stanford Concert Executive Committee (SCEC).

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The ASSU Undergraduate Senate dipped into a $350,000 buffer fund in order to fund two upcoming concert events on campus: BlackFest and a spring concert sponsored by the Stanford Concert Executive Committee (SCEC).

 

The buffer fund results from the ASSU’s decision to cover a 10 percent refund rate by charging each student 10 percent more on the cost of student fees than will be distributed to qualifying student groups. This inflated cost prevents shortfalls when some students request refunds of their student fees. Students are able to request refunds up until the second week of the quarter.

 

Many senators expressed surprise about the existence of the fund, which they previously did not know existed. Senators did not offer an explanation as to why they were not aware of the fund before.

 

The ASSU maintains a commitment to cover a 10 percent refund rate by charging each student 10 percent more than will be distributed to qualifying student groups. Any unspent money from the ASSU general fees budget also goes to the buffer fund at the end of the year.

 

The Senate approved the concert funding measure in a special meeting during finals week before winter break, hurrying the process so that the groups could work on signing artists and continuing preparations.

 

A $40,000 loan was approved to the Stanford National Association for the Advancements of Colored People (NAACP), under the condition that 50 percent of the profits made from the event would go toward paying back the ASSU Senate first. Senator Ben Laufer ‘12 pointed out the NAACP currently has reserve funding upwards of $15,000. Senate Appropriations Chair Brianna Pang ‘13 said she finds the group’s reserves justified and should not be used given that the group’s annual operating budget is $35,000.

 

Pang, who was formerly a staff member of Stanford NAACP and served last year as the group’s frosh intern coordinator, sponsored the bill.

 

BlackFest hopes to use the money to help sign popular hip-hop artist J. Cole, who recently was nominated for Best New Artist at this year’s Grammy Awards.

 

Another bill also requested funding to hold a concert in Frost Amphitheater this year. A bill authored by Stephen Trusheim ‘13 requested $35,000 to support a concert organized by the Stanford Concert Executive Committee (SCEC), a newly formed group in conjunction with the Stanford Concert Network (SCN).

 

The bill gives Trusheim, who is a member of SCEC and also the executive chair of Student Groups and Events for the ASSU, and Emily Pollock ‘13, co-director of SCN, authority to spend the money how they see fit.

 

Senator Alon Elhanan ‘14 fought hard to tie this $35,000 grant specifically to subsidizing student costs, and was joined by Laufer in an effort to have specific language in the bill noting that this money would go toward subsidizing tickets.

 

ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ‘12 and Senator Nate Garcia ‘14 both argued that it does not matter where the money goes if it is used to support the concert. The final bill does not include any language about the money being allocated to student ticket subsidies. The bill does mention students would receive at least a 15 percent discount off of the face value of the tickets. The face value for tickets is still undetermined, making it difficult to predict how much a student ticket subsidy would cost the group or save students.

 

Many of the senators expressed frustration with Trusheim, who did not attend the meeting during finals week of autumn quarter to discuss the bill and answer questions. Senator Shawn Dye ‘14, a Stanford Concert Network (SCN) member, was also absent from the finals week meeting.

 

Trusheim and Dye must report to the Senate at least once a quarter to give an update on how the project develops and how the money is spent. Organizers of BlackFest must report at least once every two weeks.

 

The BlackFest bill states that ASSU Financial Manager Neveen Mahmoud ‘11 estimated that the $70,000 dollar withdrawal would not be a problem for the ASSU.

 

“Financially speaking, the proposal to withdraw roughly $70,000 does not seem like it will drastically negatively impact the buffer fund as is,” Mahmoud said.

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Senate discusses schedule, LDP https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/11/senate-discusses-schedule-ldp/ https://stanforddaily.com/2012/01/11/senate-discusses-schedule-ldp/#respond Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:39:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1054000 The ASSU Undergraduate Senate kicked off its first meeting of the winter quarter in the upstairs lounge of the Nitery at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night with an update from the Publications Board. The Senate passed all the spending bills suggested by the Board.

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The ASSU Undergraduate Senate kicked off its first meeting of the winter quarter in the upstairs lounge of the Nitery at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night with an update from the Publications Board. The Senate passed all the spending bills suggested by the Board.

 

Next, the ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ‘12 and Vice-President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13 updated the Senate on recent developments within the executive branch.

 

The duo informed the Senate of their selection for a new chief of staff, Lina Hidalgo ‘13, who was the chair of the Leadership Development Program (LDP) under the previous administration. The previous chief of staff, Emma Ogiemwanye ‘12, decided to go abroad this quarter.

 

The Executive also scheduled a meeting for the senators and the Community Action Board to help foster relationships. Senators have previously complained that they have not met their counterparts in the Executive branch, and both groups sought increased communication.

 

The Senate also struggled to find a new meeting time for their weekly meetings. Many senators had class in the afternoon and night, and several are Alternative Spring Break leaders. They resolved to either schedule the meetings at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, pushing the meeting back over an hour from last quarter, or meet on the weekends.

 

Several senators objected to the weekend meetings; however, Senators Samar Alqatari ‘14 and Tara Trujillo ‘14 noted that finding a time where everyone could meet was a priority. Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ‘12 will send out a Doodle to find what times work best for the senators.

 

The Senate also spent time trying to organize a private dinner — a retreat-like meeting where they can discuss the upcoming quarter. They are still planning on having a retreat later in the year, and a time has not been set for the dinner yet.

 

Dan Ashton ’14 gave updates on the Leadership Development Program (LDP), the mentoring program that pairs freshmen with ASSU senators. Ashton said that the expectation for senators is to meet with their mentee at least once a week. Senators will then give updates in their meetings and help the mentees form projects of their own design.

 

The LDP has been a contentious issue in the past, as several senators have noted they have not had any contact with their mentee, and others questioned the involvement level of the mentees. These new additions to the program, if they work, would increase the activity level of the LDP mentees.

 

The Academic Affairs Committee had several updates regarding programs they are targeting towards freshmen; however the Appropriations and Advocacy Committees are still working on finding meeting times for the new quarter.

 

 

Contact Brendan O’Byrne at bobyrne@stanford.edu.

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ASSU Division of Internal Review struggles to launch https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/assu-division-of-internal-review-struggles-to-launch/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/assu-division-of-internal-review-struggles-to-launch/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:05:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053366 The Division of Internal Review (DIR), an internal auditing program within the ASSU set up by ASSU Executive Michael Cruz '12 and DIR director Andrew Aguilar '14, has run into several problems getting off the ground.

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The Division of Internal Review (DIR), an internal auditing program within the ASSU set up by ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ’12 and DIR director Andrew Aguilar ’14, has run into several problems getting off the ground.

 

Several senators – during interviews and Senate meetings – and members of the DIR itself have expressed their frustration at the lack of progress. And according to some within Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU, the program does not promise anything new.

 

The DIR was set up Oct. 19, after first failing a vote at an ASSU Undergraduate Senate meeting the week before due to controversial confidentiality clauses. Confusion surrounded several clauses in the bill that would have allowed the DIR to keep some information, such as bank account numbers and credit card information, confidential, a violation of the ASSU Freedom of Information policy.

           

 

The ASSU Constitution reads, “All records of any Association entity must be available for scrutiny by the public with the exception of proprietary business information of Association businesses, financial records for non-funded accounts of organizations banking with the Association, Legal Counseling records and personnel records of employees. Every other Association organ must allow access to records. This access must be open to all and subject only to administrative requirements to safeguard the information and to provide access in a timely, efficient manner.”

 

DIR was supposed to have access to financial information that is normally available to all students, such as the financial information of Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs). The same constitutional passage, listed above, that prevents them from making information confidential also guarantees them, and all Stanford students, access to all financial information regarding funding accounts.

 

However the records of these “funded” accounts, which contain ASSU money, are merged together with private accounts called “2800” accounts, which are solely owned and operated by the student group and SSE. According to the ASSU constitution, the SSE must keep this financial information secure and confidential, even from the ASSU.

 

 

The ultimate responsibility for making sure this information is available lies with the ASSU Financial Officer, Neveen Mahmoud ’11, according to Cruz.

 

“The way it’s framed, DIR can’t do this work because it’s too much information,” Aguilar said.

 

“There’s no way for us to separate out funded receipts and unfunded receipts,” said Dylan Plofker ’12, director of the Capital Group (CAPS), the arm of the SSE responsible for handling student accounts.

 

Aguilar’s DIR team of 12 people, all unpaid, are waiting, unable to do their jobs and with a quickly approaching January deadline at the first day of Winter Quarter, when the DIR’s mandate expires and the Senate must decide whether to renew the program.

 

The entire process has been frustrating for Senator Ben Laufer ’12, who has asked Cruz to have Aguilar visit the Senate meeting for the past three weeks. Aguilar said he was unaware of any such requests.

 

“In theory, the DIR could be helpful and a valuable component of the ASSU, but the Senate hasn’t been updated in over a month,” Laufer said, expressing frustration at the slow pace of progress towards the DIR’s goal of auditing VSOs and the poor communication between the Executive and the Senate.

 

Plofker was originally confused by the objectives of the DIR’s auditing process. The SSE already has several students who look over every transaction and receipt, as well as a full-time accountant who is in charge of making sure receipts are processed correctly and are withdrawn from the correct accounts.

 

“If it’s for a funded account, we make sure it all matches up completely before we process and approve it,” Plofker said.

 

When asked whether the DIR would be doing anything the SSE doesn’t already do with these financial documents, Plofker responded with an unequivocal “no.”

 

“I’ve also been frustrated by the delays, but I understand why they have occurred,” said Cruz, who is working with Aguilar and Plofker, as well as Mahmoud, to try and find a solution.

 

Two workarounds have been suggested that would allow the DIR to view only VSO accounts and not 2,800 accounts. One possible way would be for the SSE to hire someone to go through the documents and reveal only funded accounts to Aguilar.

 

“While that’s OK, if he wants to spend hours and hours on it, that shouldn’t come out of CAPS group pocket to pay for DIR to hire a banking associate,” Plofker said.

 

Another option would be to code a new level of access within the MyGroups2, the software used to track student spending. However this would also be expensive, and according to Plofker, wouldn’t be a good use of SSE resources.

 

Everyone interviewed about DIR is in agreement that they want the DIR to function properly, but no solutions have yet proven effective.

 

“I think it is a problem, and I would love to grant access to DIR if we had that access level,” said Plofker, saying more checks and safety nets are never bad.

 

“I think the people in charge of the DIR have good intentions, and I wish I could help them out more,” Laufer said.

 

 

The Senate will decide at their first meeting back after winter break whether to extend the pilot program for the DIR.

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Senate discusses $400k fund https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/senate-discusses-400k-fund/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/12/07/senate-discusses-400k-fund/#respond Wed, 07 Dec 2011 10:03:27 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1053359 The ASSU Senate meeting started off with a closed meeting between the Undergraduate Senate and the internal review panel for judicial affairs.

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The ASSU Senate meeting started off with a closed meeting between the Undergraduate Senate and the internal review panel for judicial affairs.

 

Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12 asked that reporters and people not associated with the ASSU leave the meeting, at the request of members of the panel. Vazquez told The Daily that the topic of the closed meeting was the preponderance of evidence standard for sexual assault on campus.

 

This action may have violated the ASSU Joint Bylaws, which state that there are only three reasons a legislative meeting may be closed: to “discuss the appointment, the employment, the performance, or the dismissal of an Association member or employee who is neither the President, the Vice President, nor a member of an Association legislative body,” to “discuss pending litigation” or to “discuss proprietary business practices.” No mention of personal requests from panel members is included in the ASSU constitution.

 

The Senate re-opened the meeting after an hour and received an update from Neveen Mahmoud ’11, CEO of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE), the financial arm of the ASSU. Mahmoud praised the successful opening of Ground-Up, the new coffee shop set up by the SSE.

 

Mahmoud then informed the Senate about the $400,000 buffer fund that was discussed last week, after Stephen Trusheim ’13 requested money be allocated from this fund to a concert he was helping to plan,

 

Mahmoud informed the senate that every year Stanford students are charged 10 percent higher than what is deemed necessary to fulfill special fees requirements. This 10 percent is used to account for students who choose to not pay their special fees and also to cover mistakes. Last year two student groups were incorrectly left off the special fees ballot, and the ASSU covered their expenses from this buffer fund.

 

Money from this fund was again requested, this time by organizers of BlackFest. Looking to book an artist capable of pulling in large crowds, BlackFest organizers have been in contact with Grammy-nominated J. Cole.

 

BlackFest is requesting $40,000 due to an increase in interest and cost. Renting Frost Amphitheater would cost the group $62,000, and they say they simply don’t have enough money to pursue a big-name artist.

 

This money could come in the form of a grant or a loan, to be paid back by revenue generated from ticket sales. Current internal projections put the cost of a ticket to BlackFest at $30, thus organizers are requesting funding for a big-name artist to ensure that enough tickets are sold.

 

Senators expressed a desire to talk further with Mahmoud about the origin and actual amounts of this buffer fund before making any funding decisions. However, the bills are time-sensitive, as both groups wish to start negotiations with artists before January.

 

Pending senators’ availability, Vazquez hopes to schedule an emergency meeting of the Senate over finals week to vote on these bills.

 

Senators also asked ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ’12 questions about the resignation of ASSU Chief of Staff Emma Ogiemwanye ’12. Some senators expressed confusion as to why her going abroad was not discussed during the interview process, and Cruz responded that there were no plans for her to go abroad at that time.

 

Senator Brianna Pang ’13 asked why Ogiemwanye decided to go abroad during fall quarter of this year, after she’d already accepted the job as Chief of Staff for the ASSU Executive. Cruz responded that Pang would have to ask Ogiemwanye.

 

Vazquez also briefly addressed the Senate, encouraging senators to stay involved over winter break.

 

“Any senator who is going to be online or able to meet during winter break, we’ll be hashing out more details for winter quarter, re-hash our goals and reorient ourselves into being more effective.”

 

No legislative bills were passed during this week’s meeting.

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The Saxophone Man’s second calling https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/30/the-saxophone-mans-second-calling/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/30/the-saxophone-mans-second-calling/#respond Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:02:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1052467 Beyond music, Lindener is passionate about revolutionizing democratic systems. Though hesitant to admit it, Lindener says that his research seeks to provide a way to revolutionize the architecture of democracy.

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Peter Lindener pushes a preferential voting system

Peter Lindener is not like most people at Stanford.

 

The Saxophone Man's second calling
(ELLIOT SERBIN/The Stanford Daily)

He is in his early 50s, has no formal college education, no faculty position and is perhaps best known around campus for playing his saxophone in White Plaza on sunny afternoons.

 

When asked about Lindener, faculty members The Daily interviewed for this article gave brief answers or declined to comment. There is something more to Lindener than his saxophone suggests.

 

Beyond music, Lindener is passionate about revolutionizing democratic systems. Though hesitant to admit it — he insists the type of math behind his ideas is meant to optimize the choices for ice-cream flavors and pizza toppings at parties — Lindener says that his research seeks to provide a way to revolutionize the architecture of democracy.

 

While the ideas behind his claim haven’t gained much traction, they have been published.

 

Lindener and Joey Durham, a graduate student at UC-Santa Barbara who met Lindener when Durham was a senior at Palo Alto High School, published a paper in the pro-preferential-voting-system journal Voting Matters. It’s viewable online, and Lindener always has a few copies on hand.

 

The paper, titled “Moderated Differential Pairwise Tallying: A Voter Specified Hybrid of Ranking by Pairwise Comparisons and Cardinal Utility Sums,” seeks to address Condorcet’s paradox — which states that voters’ collective preferences can be cyclic even if individuals’ are not — and solve some fundamental problems associated with voting in its current form.

 

Their research could be relevant to situations like the 2000 Presidential election, when votes for Ralph Nader in Florida were, in practical terms, votes for then-Governor George W. Bush. The ultimate policy preferences of voters who chose Nader but would have preferred then-Vice President Al Gore to be elected before Bush bore less weight in a system where voters can only up-vote a single candidate. Alternatively, some voters did not choose their preferred candidate (Nader) because they felt that a vote for him would have been “wasted.” 
Lindener and Durham sought to eliminate this idea of a “wasted” vote and design a form of ranked-voting democracy.

 

The “wasted vote” problem is generally studied in a very small subfield of economics called social choice theory, which was developed largely by Kenneth Arrow, a Stanford professor emeritus of economics and 1972 Nobel Prize laureate.

 

In an email to The Daily, Arrow wrote that he had never heard of Lindener or his paper. He initially agreed to read and comment on Lindener and Durham’s paper, but did not respond to subsequent requests for comment.

 

Lindener has contacted other professors at Stanford with the hope of getting his work reviewed and to see that a class is taught at Stanford about social choice theory.

 

Mechanical engineering professor David Beach was one of these professors. After Beach confirmed that he had met Lindener and received his paper, he added, “I think that’s already more than I should say, I’m going to decline to comment further.”

 

Lindener also contacted Todd Davies, associate director of the symbolic systems program. He too confirmed that he had spoken with Lindener via email and received his paper, but had not yet had a chance to look over it thoroughly because of his research load.

 

No professor contacted for this article nor, according to Lindener, any professor Lindener has given a copy of the paper to has affirmed or challenged his ideas. Lindener said faculty members who received his paper would most often decline to take calls or respond to emails from him.

 

Even though faculty members keep their distance, the University does not disenchant Lindener.

 

“There’s no place like Stanford in the world,” he said. Lindener added that it can get tiresome to be ignored, but “on the flipside, they let me play my horn here.”

 

Faculty members aren’t Lindener’s only target audience.

 

“I don’t need to effect governmental change,” Lindener said. “I need to let the leaders of tomorrow know what’s possible.”

 

On that front, Lindener appears to have slightly more success. Rafael Cosman ’15 first met Lindener at Stanford a few weeks ago.

 

“I was walking through White Plaza and I see this weird guy with a huge bushy white beard playing a saxophone,” Cosman said. “He tells me who he is. I tell him who I am, and pretty soon, he tells me about his interest in voting theory.”

 

Cosman was a bit overwhelmed at first by the paper, which he said was a “hefty read,” but soon became excited.

 

“I don’t think Peter [Lindener] would ever say that, but it’s a pretty awesome voting system, way better than anyone has ever implemented before,” he said.

 

It is difficult to assess the significance of Lindener’s work since so few academics will discuss it.

 

But regardless, Lindener is happy to be on the Farm. He spoke passionately about his work, but his face lit up when he discussed the “youngsters”: students who come up and talk to him, and, he hopes, perhaps one day will take his research one step further.

 

“I’m thankful [Stanford] is intellectual enough that this can go forward, and I’m trying to hold my own,” Lindener said.

 

In Lindener’s words, his work is about producing a “more prosperous world.” Whether or not anyone agrees with his math, Lindener has spent the past seven years of life working to develop a system that he believes would politically empower the most people in the most effective way.

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Senate bill fails: 5 in favor, 4 opposed https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/30/1052523/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/30/1052523/#respond Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:35:26 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1052523 The ASSU Undergraduate Senate broke down into tense, heated discussions at multiple points in Tuesday evening’s meeting. A bill to admonish several members of the ASSU may or not have passed due to an unresolved debate concerning the Senate bylaws. Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12 announced the measure’s failure before the meeting adjourned, but proponents of the bill argue that the bill passed with a majority of voting members.

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The ASSU Undergraduate Senate broke down into tense, heated discussions at multiple points in Tuesday evening’s meeting. A bill to admonish several members of the ASSU may or may not have passed due to an unresolved debate concerning the Senate bylaws. Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12 announced the measure’s failure before the meeting adjourned, but proponents of the bill argue that the bill passed with a majority of voting members.

 

A bill to admonish

 

The controversial bill of the evening, authored by Elections Commissioner Adam Adler ’12 sought to admonish ASSU Executive Michael Cruz ’12, among others, for not properly executing their duties. The only Senator who would be admonished by the bill, Alex Kindel ’14 voted in its favor.

 

The original vote count on the bill was five in favor, three opposed and five abstaining, however this did not add up to the 14 Senators currently present, and multiple irregularities were noted by several senators.

 

Stephen Trusheim ’13, who is not an ASSU senator and served last year as Elections Commissioner, pointed out several flaws in the voting procedure.

 

Vazquez quieted discussion loudly and called another vote, this time resulting in five in favor, four opposed and five abstaining. The bill’s language stated that it required “a simple majority” from the voting body to pass. Several Senators argued that the bill did not pass because the bylaws state that a majority of present Senators is required, as opposed to a majority of voting members.

 

However, the bylaws of the Undergraduate Senate state: “Unless otherwise indicated, all votes by the US (Undergraduate Senate), or a standing committee thereof, shall be by a majority of those members present and voting.”

 

In an interview after the meeting, Vazquez initially agreed that abstentions were not votes, and according to this language, the bill should have passed. Vazquez said the bill was amended to require a two-thirds majority before passage. This proved to be untrue however.

 

Vazquez later said that an “abstain” counts as a vote in the Undergraduate Senate. Random House Dictionary defines an abstention as a “withholding of a vote.”

 

Vazquez said the passage of the bill does not matter, even to Adler, and if it did he would look into the matter more fully. Adler agreed with this sentiment, saying the admonishment already had occurred by having the vote and introducing the bill. However Adler said he believes the bill did indeed pass.

 

“It’s not something I’d bring to the Constitutional Council, but I am interested in how this turns out,” Adler said.

 

Leadership Development Program

 

The Senate also discussed the involvement – or lack thereof – of Senate Associates in the Leadership Development Program (LDP).

 

A tense debate occurred an hour into the meeting when Senate Deputy Chair Dan Ashton ’14 gave an update about the LDP, a program that assigns each Senator a freshman to mentor and teach about ASSU leadership.

 

Members of the LDP have attended one full Senate meeting, however Senators Dan DeLong ’13, Janani Ramachandran ’14, Ian Chan ’14 and Ben Laufer ’12 all raised concerns about the level of involvement of the members.

 

Ashton said that attending Senate meetings was no longer mandatory because of feedback he received in surveys from last year’s program, when LDP associates had to attend meetings.

 

Ramachandran noted that as a Senate Associate, she benefited from attending meetings, which were mandatory last year.

 

“With all due respect, I’d like to counter that,” Ashton said. “I read the surveys, and you were the only one who responded that going to committee meetings was beneficial.”

 

Senators began to talk over each other following this comment, with Senator Alon Elhanan ’14 twice saying, “That was awesome,” and Senator Dan Delong asking, “Aren’t those supposed to be confidential?”

 

Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12 ended discussion on the matter and told Senators to reach out to their Senate Associates and encourage them to be more involved.

 

Other bills

 

Several other bills were passed during the meeting. Ashton authored a bill that would authorize a letter to be disseminated encouraging the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) to avoid violence when dispersing any protests on Stanford University.

 

Nanci Howe, director of Student Activities and Leadership (SAL), suggested the bill focus on how students feel the police should act with “mutual respect,” rather than focusing on what actions they want the police to avoid. The amendment was accepted by Ashton.

 

Another bill, authored by Trusheim, focused on planning a spring show in Frost Amphitheater. The bill asked for supplementary funding from the ASSU “special buffer fund,” which is currently valued at $400,000. The bill requested $35,000 for the event, which is projected to cost over $250,000.

 

Discussion over this bill will continue at future Senate meetings.

 

The Senate also passed an additional bill by Adler, which made slight clarifications to other sections of the bylaws and approved his nominations to the Elections Commission.

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ASSU launches Peer-to-Peer Advocacy https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/18/assu-peer-to-peer/ https://stanforddaily.com/2011/11/18/assu-peer-to-peer/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:50:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1051909 The ASSU has launched a new peer-to-peer advocacy program intended to connect students with members of the ASSU who can help solve problems students have with the University.

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The ASSU has launched a new peer-to-peer advocacy program intended to connect students with members of the ASSU who can help solve problems students have with the University.

 

According to its founder, Senator Dan DeLong ’13, the program fills a gap in the current responsibilities of the ASSU by providing constituent services.

 

“If you look at elected officials at a local level, a state level and even at the national level, a large part of their responsibility is to provide constituent services,” DeLong said.

 

These services can include advocating on behalf of students with administrators and trying to solve their problems.

The idea for this program came to DeLong during his senate campaign. During that process, multiple students requested help settling small financial disputes with the University, mostly related to billing and fees. DeLong was able to help them by emailing these administrators on the students’ behalf.

“I don’t think students are aware [they] can come to ASSU representatives in the Exec or the Senate to help get their Stanford-related issues resolved,” DeLong said.

 

After acquiring $70 in funding from the Undergraduate Senate’s discretionary fund, business cards with a phone number and email address were printed and handed out to senators at Tuesday’s Senate meeting.

 

“Right now the ASSU does an incredibly poor job of reaching out to students,” DeLong said, adding that he hopes that by partnering with the ASSU Executive, students will take advantage of this program.

 

The program’s aspirations are strikingly similar to those of The Stanford Ombuds, which also seeks to help students, as well as faculty and administrators, solve conflicts on campus. However DeLong says this program will not be a mediation service like The Ombuds.

 

“This is what I call a facilitation service,” DeLong said. “Students will feel more comfortable coming to a peer for help and advice than going to someone they see as another member of University staff.”

 

DeLong concedes that senators have no real experience in these issues. However, he says that members of the ASSU can learn on the job and use their network of administrative contacts to help students.

 

Like The Ombuds, this program is intended to be confidential, protecting students’ information. However the ASSU has strict policies regarding confidentiality, which could make this aspect of the program difficult to carry out.

 

One potential solution to the problem would be passing a bill labeling all information in this program, “proprietary business information” and thus removing it from the scope of the Freedom of Information Act; however, this approach was abandoned.

 

Instead, the names of the students and the representatives who received their call will be available for anyone who requests the information, but their conversations will be private.

 

The program will only initially be accessible via DeLong, ASSU Executive President Michael Cruz ’12 and Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ’13, Senate Chair Rafael Vazquez ’12, Senate Deputy Chair Dan Ashton ’14 and Senator Brianna Pang ’13 of the Advocacy committee.

 

The number of people with access may expand as more senators express interest. However DeLong said he only wants active participants to have access to the account.

 

Emails inquiring about the program can be sent to help@assu.stanford.edu, and calls or texts to 650-468-0195.

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