Ellie Bowen – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Sun, 21 Jun 2020 02:38:15 +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 Ellie Bowen – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 A ‘more fiery’ Cory Booker https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/12/a-more-fiery-cory-booker/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/12/a-more-fiery-cory-booker/#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2019 07:12:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152593 The Daily interviewed Booker’s former football teammates and senior class co-presidents to form a more nuanced picture of his formative college years at Stanford and examined his former Daily columns.

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“He and eventually all the other folks who were first responders were able to talk that person away from the edge of the building and from jumping.”

“I recall that incident for a number of reasons,” Associate Dean of Students Alejandro Martinez continued. “But mostly because it was a pretty powerful one.”

The first individual Martinez referred to was Cory Booker B.A ’91, M.A. ’92, New Jersey senator and 2020 presidential hopeful. Martinez worked as one of his supervisors at The Bridge Peer Counseling Center (The Bridge) while Booker was a student at Stanford.

While he did not have day-to-day interactions with Booker, Booker’s role in helping to talk down a distressed student from suicide marked a moment Martinez said he “will never forget.”

In addition to affiliates of The Bridge, The Daily interviewed Booker’s former football teammates and senior class co-presidents, as well as examined his former Daily columns in order to form a more nuanced picture of his formative college years at Stanford.

Booker did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘The backbone of my college career’: Booker at The Bridge

Each school year, The Bridge houses around four trained students as live-in counselors who take turns working night shifts for the 24/7 peer counseling service. Martinez described it as a strenuous job that some students took on in order to “prioritize their experience” around supporting others. Living at The Bridge headquarters in Roger’s House from 1989 to 1990, Booker made such a choice.

“It’s not the dorm life,” Martinez said. “People have to give that up and all those experiences. It is a pretty generous giving on the part of the students to make that commitment.”

When Booker answered a call from a student considering suicide, he immediately reached out to Stanford Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the police before himself going to the student’s location, according to Martinez.

When Martinez arrived at the scene, Booker was standing on the roof of the building, attempting to talk the student away from the edge. He and other first responders were eventually successful.

Booker has talked about this experience on his campaign trail. He has also drawn attention for other choices, including his choice to spend eight years living in a low-income housing project in inner-city Newark.

Some have questioned his genuineness. Martinez said some reporters have even come to The Bridge building trying to verify the account of Booker’s actions that night. To them, Martinez has one thing to say: It happened.

“There was no fantasy story here — it was an actual event,” Martinez said.

Martinez refrained from commenting on Booker’s politics, but vouched for his integrity, at least in his work for The Bridge.

“He was really an engaging person — high energy,” Martinez said. “Friendly. And very committed to the mission, the purpose of the Bridge.”

Booker’s work with The Bridge was extensive, as documented by another Bridge counselor last year. In 1990, he and another student, Jackie Chang ’91, created specialized programs at The Bridge for black and Asian students. Booker led counseling services for black students, with a staff of seven, and described his efforts to diversify The Bridge.

“The Bridge has been viewed as a primarily white organization,” he told The Daily in 1990.

“The Bridge has been the backbone of my college career,” he later told The Daily in a June 14, 1992 profile of him and two other Rhodes Scholars. “It gave me an opportunity to find out things about Stanford that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen.”

‘Carpe Diem’: Booker as senior class president

If Booker clinches the White House in the 2020 presidential election, it will be his second presidency. In the centennial 1990 senior class presidency race, his “Carpe Diem” slate, in which he was joined by David Asch ’91, Elizabeth Lambird Youngblood ’91 and Jacquelyn Yau ’91, beat out six other slates.

As their slate began to form in their junior year, Lambird Youngblood said Booker was suggested as a strong candidate.

“Somebody kept saying, ‘Oh, you should find this guy Cory Booker,’” she recalled.

She and Asch remembered him as a natural co-president and a student committed to service. Asch had known Booker as a tight end, having watched him from the stands of football games. When he met Booker in person, Asch said he was struck by his commitment to The Bridge.

“He was very devoted,” Asch said. “If you’re working at The Bridge, you’re all in.”

Asch described him as “every bit as impressive as what you read about.”

When Lambird Youngblood went to meet Booker at the Bridge, they “hit it off.” Well-regarded for his role there and his athletic ability, she said, Booker made a strong co-presidential candidate.

“He was super affable and industrious and charming and well-liked by a wide swath of people,” she said. “Athletes loved him, and he also just had already begun a whole history of service.”

In addition to The Bridge, Booker also worked for the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, a clinic providing legal services. In his senior year, he was awarded the Dean’s Service Award for community service.

The co-presidents remembered serving their tenure by organizing events for their class — including pub nights — putting together a class gift and compiling a time capsule. They also spoke at Class Day, an event before commencement.

“Cory, the minute he stood up to speak, I mean the crowd already went wild,” Lambird Youngblood said. “It was like he was already rock star at that point — people were on their feet clapping and cheering. It was pretty funny to be in his presence because I was just a random student.”

As a public figure now, Asch said, Booker seems to him “passionate” and “genuine.”

“I would echo those sentiments as far back as you know when we were 20- and 21-year-old kids getting out of school,” he added.  

For Lambird Youngblood, Booker now seems “a little bit more hardened, a little bit more streetwise.” In more recent press, she said, she sees “a more fiery side” of Booker.

“When I knew him he didn’t seem to have an aggressive side. And he didn’t seem to be quick to anger,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot more of that, lately, over the last couple of years in press clipping. That’s not a side that I ever saw.”

“We never needed to be,” Lambird Youngblood added. “It was like, ‘Okay, what are we going to do?’ We did some, what do you call it? It’s not a pub crawl. But where you go from bar to bar to bar in the city, and we had to plan that. It’s not like there was a lot of debate.”

‘What’s that?’: Booker the Rhodes Scholar

Lambird Youngblood said she pushed him to apply for the Rhodes scholarship, the highly selective annual scholarship that sends a mere 32 Americans to study at Oxford.

“I told him one time, ‘Cory, you should apply for this Rhodes scholarship thing,’” Lambird Youngblood said. “He goes, ‘What’s that?’”

“I said, ‘Look, you’re African-American, athlete, student leader with The Bridge behind you,’” she said. “‘Like, you’ve got the package’ — and he was also doing his senior thesis on MLK.”

In a 1992 article “On the Rhodes to Success” profiling Booker and two other Stanford Rhodes scholar winners, Booker connected his success to football.

“Football enabled me to get a Rhodes scholarship,” he told The Daily. “It gave me the discipline.”

He also expressed excitement at the prospect of international travel and broadening his horizon.

“I really have a very Americana perspective,” he said.

Booker, who earned a J.D. from Yale in 1997, said he hoped to go to law school.

“I’m no genius,” he said. “I’ll never claim to be a genius. The most important thing I can do with my education is to apply it. I’ll never be a Nobel laureate physicist. I just want to take my degree and help people.”

‘A tough-nose tight end’: Booker the football player

Former football teammates remember Booker, an All-American recruited athlete, as a committed and an ambitious teammate.

“He was trying to win a spot, to play a lot more,” remembered Dave Garnett ’93, another former member of the football team. “And he did play quite a bit actually. But he was a tough-nose tight end.”

Garnett described him as “very smart — as most guys are there — but he was probably even a little bit smarter than most because of his other ambition.”

When Booker won a Rhodes Scholarship, he said, it was an exciting moment for the team.

“It was pretty exciting to know someone who was going down that path,” he said.

Garnett recalled that Booker was “very conscious” around salient issues of the time, including those surrounding race.

“Whenever I hear about him, I think about his smile,” Garnett added. “Even on the football field his demeanor was always the one that was positive.”

The Booker he sees as a public figure now is the same one from before.

“He definitely, you know, acts like nothing is new in terms of where his political stance is where his status is, all that stuff.”

In a 1990 Daily profile, Booker connected his football successes to his faith.

“I owe all my abilities and successes to God,” Booker said. “My faith has been very important to me and has helped everything fall into place for me this year.”

“My faith kept me going and revealed my inner strengths to me when times were tough,” he added. “People say that football builds character, but I would disagree. Football reveals character, and with God’s help, football has helped me realize who I am.”

He also expressed interest in playing football professionally.

“I would definitely like to go pro — for the experience and the money,” he said at the time. “The NFL starting salary would go a long way towards Stanford Law School tuition.”

J.J. Lasley ’93, who played football with Booker and was a year below him, said that although Booker was a “smart” player who other team members looked to for answers, the fact that he didn’t make it to the NFL “did not surprise” him.

“We were on the offense together and we were both ‘football intellectuals,’” he said.  

Lasley also described the banter they shared.

“Every girl that he ever saw me with he’d be like ‘Hey, she got a sister?’” he recalled.

Lasley also noted Booker’s diverse extracurriculars, which extended beyond the football team and The Bridge. Booker also wrote columns in The Daily and contributed to Stanford’s radio station, KZSU — “You don’t see football players down underneath the radio station,” Lasley quipped.

“People look at us and think, ‘Oh, he’s an athlete and he’s black,” Lasley said. “They put you into that clique, and then they think everything that black athletes do, that’s what you do.”

Booker and Lasley, talked together about race and belonging on campus. They discussed in detail the 1991 Rodney King trials, in which four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted of charges of use of excessive force after brutally beating an unarmed King, sparked nationwide civil rights protests.

In the context of these protests and riots, Lasley described a shared struggle with being accepted by both the black community at Stanford and other groups between him and Booker.

“There was some ignorant people at Stanford, who had a silver spoon in their mouth who didn’t understand this,” Lasley said. “And they would quip at us and say, ‘Well, you guys don’t have a problem, you’re almost as white as me.’”

For Lasley and other students of color, the Rodney King trials brought issues of police brutality to the forefront, spurring conversations about institutional racism, which is something that Booker is now focusing on in his 2020 campaign.

After George Holliday released footage of King’s brutal assault by police, Lasley said he and other members of the black community hopeful that it was the “beginning of the end of this kind of stuff.”

“We, as a collective, thought, ‘Well, now it’s on film, people will finally believe us,’” Lasley said. “And what was that, 1991?”

“In actuality, it just never stopped, and in fact I think in the last two years since this new president has nothing but increased,” he added.

Lasley said he has a message for Booker.

“I would like to sit down with him again and have another conversation and say ‘God, things really didn’t change, they almost got worse,’” Lasley added.  

Booker wrote about the sense of belonging he gained from Stanford’s black community in a 1992 Daily column titled “This one ain’t a sermon.”

“I was imbued with self-esteem and self-concept, without which I would be lost in mediocrity,” Booker wrote. “But most importantly I found a home, in the truest sense of the word, a place where I can go and feel an unabashed sense of love, strength and community.”

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Cory Booker is mixed race. The Daily regrets this error.

Contact Charlie Curnin at ccurnin ‘at’ stanford.edu and Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Q&A: Allison Tielking ’20 on reforming sexual misconduct reporting mechanisms on Lyft rideshare app https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/11/qa-allison-tielking-20-on-reforming-sexual-misconduct-reporting-mechanisms-on-lyft-rideshare-app/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/11/qa-allison-tielking-20-on-reforming-sexual-misconduct-reporting-mechanisms-on-lyft-rideshare-app/#respond Thu, 11 Apr 2019 08:07:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152493 In the wake of the historic Lyft IPO — wherein the rideshare unicorn beat Uber to going public and was recently valuated at about $24 billion — many are now turning their attention from the stock market tickings to rider safety concerns for these services.

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In the wake of the historic Lyft IPO  — wherein the rideshare unicorn beat Uber to going public and was subsequently valued at about $24 billion — many are now turning their attention from the stock market tickings to rider safety concerns for these services. In January, computer science student Allison Tielking ’20 published an Op-Ed in The Daily detailing her experiences with inappropriate behavior from several different male Lyft drivers, as well as the apathetic response she received after reporting these occurrences.

In the months that followed, Tielking delivered a presentation to Lyft executives, created prototypes for changes to the app and aggregated stories from other women, posting the stories on an Instagram page titled “Take Back The Ride” in order to raise awareness. Despite the meeting and the implementation of one of her suggested changes to the app, which made the “share location” button explicit, Tielking is not satisfied and is demanding that the company speed up progress to ensure the safety of women passengers. Tielking sat down with The Daily to talk about sexual assault awareness, the impact of ethics courses for computer scientists and the barriers to speaking up.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What originally drew your attention to this issue and what has happened since then?

Allison Tielking (AT): In the summer I had three experiences and I kept trying to forget about it … But then I got this tech tour … where you go and look at different companies. Our last one was Lyft and we had a Q&A at the end, where we were talking about more recruiting questions. I kept getting more and more uncomfortable because I was like, ‘I have this story — I have something I need to talk to them about.’

So at the very end I raised my hand and asked about it. And that was the first point of me not being really acknowledged at all and I started crying. I was telling my story and people were not very reactive and then they were kind of dismissing the things that I put out there. Then I raised my hand again and got an engineer to start working with me and we collaborated over email. Eventually that ended with me calling their customer support team, and them giving me the $15 coupon — and then me just feeling really horrible that I still felt like nothing was going to change.

And then I really wanted to write the article. I didn’t know how to express myself until I took CS 181: Computers, Ethics, and Public, where we were talking about whistleblowers and famous examples of that. The entire time I was really distracted because I was like ‘I have so much inside me, I need to write this down.’ So I spent an entire two days just writing.

TSD: A lot of people have called what you did brave. What’s your response to that?

AT: Every time I do post about it, I do feel fear that maybe this isn’t important enough with the things I wrote about. I was definitely worried about being seen as just a complainer. I also worry about getting blacklisted by tech companies for being too vocal, and how that affects my future since I am a computer science major. But I don’t want to be silenced and I think it’s important to speak up. Companies that value that will be the ones I work for, so in the end it’s not really a conflict. And I think it’s really great because it’s inspired a bunch of other people to speak up and that definitely … helped me realize it was something I needed to say. With the form that went out we got 40 stories in two weeks.

TSD: You subsequently went on to work with Lyft — what has changed from that apathetic, automatic response you first described to your work with leaders at Lyft?

AT: I think it hasn’t bubbled down. The new COO’s big focus is safety, but I think it moves really slowly. We keep seeing these stories. But there are changes starting from the top. When I was talking to engineers or people who were more entry level they were very apathetic. The most reception I found was at the top.

TSD: How do you think your engineering skills played into you taking the trajectory of action you ended up taking, [such as] your ability to prototype, suggest and implement changes in the app?

AT: Being in CS helps me see the problems in more of a user experience perspective. And also being surrounded by really, really smart people — it was easy for me to bring in Liz Gray [’20], who’s a product design major, and say ‘Hey, I have these ideas for things that we could change, do you want to come present and make prototypes?’ She was amazing and did it in one night, and they were incredible. The second time I spoke up I [relayed] potential solutions and that is what got someone to listen to me. So putting it in those terms is really useful. I’ve seen a lot of stories that have come out since mine, and it’s mostly talking about bad experiences but not really giving them a clear solution, and then it gets buried in the news.

TSD: How did your CS + Ethics class motivate you to go further with this project?

AT: [This class] talks about your values and your personal philosophy, and how you can apply that to being an engineer. Basically just making sure you don’t let your moral code decay or lose track of it in favor of profit. I think that’s really instilled in me, like my North Star. I want to make sure I work for companies like that and that I advocate or speak up when I see something wrong. That’s the biggest thing it taught me.

TSD: What were your thoughts given Lyft’s recent IPO and the subsequent slew of headlines about the company in the news?

AT: I was definitely surprised, especially because … Uber and Lyft promised they would release data about sexual assault and harassment reports from the app. And that was a promise that they said they would do before the IPO. Lyft has mentioned nothing and is still very much brushing it under the rug. It just makes me angry. I guess I don’t want to be the only person who knows changes are coming, I don’t want it to be a one-sided email between me and their team.

I want everybody to have hope that it’s coming out and that they are working on these things. It’s better to acknowledge that there are issues and make it very easy to get help. That’s a change that we presented and I need to keep pushing them for that too. After the presentation, everyone was really receptive … and very open in bringing other people to give them feedback. I’m upset that it’s not coming out fast enough. That’s why I made this Instagram account because as people add posts, it’ll stack up and people will see how weighty the issue is.

This transcript has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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ASSU Executive candidate Kimiko Hirota ’20 apologizes for ‘anti-Semitic’ tweet https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/10/assu-executive-candidate-kimiko-hirota-20-apologizes-for-anti-semitic-tweet/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/10/assu-executive-candidate-kimiko-hirota-20-apologizes-for-anti-semitic-tweet/#respond Wed, 10 Apr 2019 08:20:25 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1152390 On the eve of the 2019 Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) student government elections, ASSU Executive candidate Kimiko Hirota ’20 publicly apologized for a screenshot of a 2018 tweet she described as “anti-Semitic,” which she had posted on a now-deleted Twitter account. The tweet was publicized by the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) on Facebook […]

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On the eve of the 2019 Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) student government elections, ASSU Executive candidate Kimiko Hirota ’20 publicly apologized for a screenshot of a 2018 tweet she described as “anti-Semitic,” which she had posted on a now-deleted Twitter account. The tweet was publicized by the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) on Facebook earlier that night.

Though SCR had knowledge of the tweets since the end of March, they published the screenshots the day before the election so they would not be “lost in the shuffle of people coming back to campus and starting classes,” according to recently-elected SCR Vice President Michael Whittaker ’20.

“Our goals were to provide the voters with relevant information before they cast their vote,” Whittaker said.

In the May 2018 tweet, which quoted from the pro-Palestinian online newspaper Electronic Intifada, Hirota wrote that “much of Israeli society has decided” that three major massacres in Gaza are “a price worth paying to maintain a Jewish state.”

Hirota published her apology in The Daily, explaining that she failed “to recognize [the tweet] as anti-Semitic.” Hirota deleted the tweet and her Twitter account before SCR posted the screenshots of her page on Facebook.

“We must point out that instead of apologizing, Kimiko deleted her Twitter account,” SCR wrote in a statement to The Daily. “She wanted to hide her hate. There’s no reason to believe that she’s had a change of heart. ”

In her op-ed, Hirota said that over the past few months she has “had the pleasure of getting to know several members of the Jewish community, including [her] running mate, Bryce Tuttle,” and as a result, has come to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I regret now that I was not more informed about the nuances of Israeli and Palestinian relations at the time,” Hirota wrote.

Hirota also emphasized that she “condemns all forms of violence and hatred.”

Tuttle, who is Jewish, wrote in a parallel Daily op-ed that he was “deeply hurt” upon seeing his running mate’s tweet for the first time on Tuesday night.

“The quoted tweet was clearly anti-Semitic,” Tuttle wrote. “There is no mistaking the hate for the Jewish people it conveys. I strongly condemn the content of the shared tweet and the anti-Semitic tropes that it invokes.”

Jewish Student Association (JSA) President Courtney Cooperman ’20 agreed with Tuttle’s assessment of the tweet’s contents as anti-Semitic.

“By equating controversial military conflict with the essence of Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, the tweet crosses the line from legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy into an offensive misrepresentation of the connection that many Jews have with Israel,” Cooperman wrote in a statement to The Daily.

However, she went on to state that JSA appreciates Hirota’s “unequivocal condemnation of the original tweet” and “direct acknowledgment of the pain this has caused for many in our community.”

Tuttle described that when he confronted her on the subject, Hirota’s “response was not only reassuring, but it also confirmed all of the reasons why [he thinks] she would make an excellent ASSU President for all members of the Stanford community.”

However, SCR implored Tuttle to “take real action” and “demand” that Hirota step down.

ASSU Executive candidates Erica Scott ’20 and Isaiah Drummond ’20, who were called on in SCR’s post to condemn the remarks made by Hirota in her tweets, emphasized providing “affirmation and information in the face of harmful speech.”

“We denounce the anti-Semitic content of the tweet that Kimiko shared,” Scott wrote in a statement to The Daily.

SCR’s post also criticized other tweets from Hirota’s deleted Twitter account that they deemed “hateful,” “anti-American” and “anti-male.” These included a tweet on July 4, 2018 that read “wtf is there to celebrate today,” a tweet deeming racism “American” and a tweet that read “men are trash.”

“Regarding my tweets on racism, it’s true — racism has always been part of American history,” Hirota wrote in a statement to The Daily. “Regarding my tweet on the Fourth of July, I was making a joke. And regarding my tweet ‘men are trash’ — this is a common popular meme on Twitter, [and] also a joke.”

Scott and Drummond added that they disagree that “calling out racism and all forms of bigotry wherever they exist makes you anti-American.” They continued, “As two Black students, we are acutely aware of the myriad ways in which racism goes unchecked.”

The voting period for the election opened at 12:00 a.m. on Wednesday and will end at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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By the people, for the people? https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/05/by-the-people-for-the-people/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/05/by-the-people-for-the-people/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2019 22:37:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1149071 Amidst the frenzy and politicking that has come to define much of Donald Trump’s presidency, whether it be the buzz surrounding the 35 day government shutdown or the latest Twitter fight, there exists the resurgence of a political “tendency” that has existed throughout history: that of populism. Populism generally refers to a political sentiment wherein […]

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Amidst the frenzy and politicking that has come to define much of Donald Trump’s presidency, whether it be the buzz surrounding the 35 day government shutdown or the latest Twitter fight, there exists the resurgence of a political “tendency” that has existed throughout history: that of populism. Populism generally refers to a political sentiment wherein ordinary people feel ignored by the establishment and the elite, but it is a difficult term to precisely define, even for the experts. The Daily interviewed a few such experts, including the political scientists and historians Francis Fukuyama, Russell Berman, Iván Jaksic and Jack Rakove, in order to unpack the ambiguities surrounding populism. The professors aimed to take a step back from the tumult of today’s politics in order to situate this trend in its broader historical context.

From Brexit in the U.K. to the election of Bolsonaro in Brazil, the rising Trumpian breed of nationalistic populism fits within the international trend. Browse the op-ed pages of The New York Times or The Washington Post and you are bound to encounter a plethora of articles comparing Trump to various historical figures notorious for their demagoguery, be they Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson or even Hitler.  

The implications of these comparisons are manifold, but equally telling are their divergences. The lack of consensus on exactly who Trump’s closest historical analogue is reveals the difficulty in drawing such parallels and the uncertainty that Trump’s actions have elicited among political commentators from across the spectrum.

Regardless of which comparison is most apt, if Trump were indeed a figure whose legislative decisions aligned with any historical precedent, predicting the outcomes and lasting impact of his presidency would be far easier.

However, the Stanford historians and political scientists with whom The Daily spoke nearly unanimously contend that Trump really cannot be compared to anyone. They also question both the longevity and solidity of the populist political tendencies we see today, even hesitating to label them as proper political “movements.”

Trump defies historical parallels

“There’s never been a successful figure in American politics who you can compare to Trump,” said Jack Rakove, professor of history, political science and, by courtesy, law.

Russell Berman, professor of German studies and comparative literature and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, agreed, saying that Trump “doesn’t map neatly onto any one person.”

Berman did point out that Trump’s relatively isolationist approach to foreign policy in an age of globalization parallels that of Obama. Comparatively, both the Clinton and Bush administrations were more willing to enter into violent conflict overseas (in Yugoslavia for the former and Iraq for the latter), whereas Obama was not — Trump, too, has worked thus far to pull troops out of overseas engagements.

Berman added that historical analogies often lack contextual completeness. A scholar of German studies, he pointed to the common comparison of Trump to Hitler as one such unsound parallel, saying that it reflects a “lack of recognition of the vitality of American institutions.”

“I can’t think of any case… where the Hitler government wanted to do something and it was stopped by courts, or where the Reichstag was able to block it,” Berman noted.

After the economic disaster of the Weimar Republic in Germany, which marked a period of unprecedented inflation, anti-democratic parties within the Reichstag were able to halt parliamentary work and invoke emergency powers in order to further their agenda. Many have argued that this ability to obstruct Parliament is part of what enabled fascism to gain a stronghold in what would soon become Nazi Germany.

Trump, contrastingly, is often stopped from capitalizing on some of his more dangerous ideas by America’s institutionalized system of checks and balances, be they the courts or Congress or the Senate.

Iván Jaksic, professor of history and director of Bing Overseas Studies in Chile, likewise emphasized the strength of America’s institutions, with the many checks and balances of government, in withstanding drastic swings in one particular political direction. The vitality of America’s political institutions, Jaksic believes, allows it to accommodate turns to the right and left without losing its liberal democratic center.

Jaksic, an expert in Latin American history, drew comparisons between the rhetoric in populist-driven, nationalistic movements in countries like Nicaragua and Chile — led by the Somozas in the late 1960s and Pinochet during the 1970s, respectively — and the rhetoric in America today. However, he again underscored that the parallels often drawn are not wholly apt due to America’s unique institutional factors and history of liberalism.

Still, Jaksic contended that the populist rhetoric and the “politics of fear” that we see in America are a little too similar to those of many nationalistic and dictatorial leaders in Latin America for comfort. Referring to such figures as Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, whose authoritarian hand has wreaked havoc on the Venezuelan economy and people, he said this particular and eerily familiar brand of leadership should not be underestimated.

In dealing with the economy and other issues in Venezuela, Maduro caters to the whims of the people, as opposed to leading based on guiding principles, something that Jaksic calls the “politics of pandering” and argues is present in all populist movements.

One example of the “politics of pandering” in the Trump administration has been the debacle with the wall on the southern border, a policy push by Trump which many believe reflected a desire to appease a portion of his base that felt threatened by immigration. This led to an unprecedented government shutdown that cost the U.S. economy $3 billion.

Francis Fukuyama, senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, discussed the political underpinnings of the government shutdown, arguing that while it played to Trump’s base, it may have ultimately made him look bad.  

“I think if he were a more clever politician… he wouldn’t have wasted all that political capital doing something like that,” Fukuyama said.

Commentators also have drawn comparisons between the two leaders’ contempt for formal and informal norms of constitutional government — though Maduro’s efforts to pack the Venezuelan Supreme Court with his political supporters and to rewrite the Constitution entirely exceed Trump’s threat of invoking emergency powers to build the wall through executive order.

“[Political pandering] is the failure of populist movements,” Jaksic told The Daily. “Like Venezuela — that’s a road to disaster. I mean, you do need some self-discipline.”

After concluding rather decisively that Trump could not be accurately compared, the scholars were each asked to explore concepts in 21st century populism in an attempt to unpack the term’s ambiguity and to shed light on the current political moment.

‘Politics of anger’

Populism is an intrinsically nebulous term, one that Rakove believes is an example of the problem of the “inflation of political language,” wherein a political term comes to mean almost anything and, as a result, substantively nothing at all. Other professors agree that it’s not only a hard term to define, but also a difficult one to apply.

“It’s an ambiguous term about movements that are themselves ideologically ambiguous,” Berman said.

Despite the vagueness of the term, Berman did not deem it accurate to describe the era of Trump as a historical movement in line with the populist movements of the past. Instead, he characterized Trump’s rise as evidence of a “neo-populist potential” within America today, which he does not think will come to full fruition, as he thinks it will be unable to gain a stronghold due to America’s two-party system.

In Europe, this is not the case. The pluri-party capacity of the European system has allowed for populist movements to blossom in many countries there, as evidenced by Italy’s “Five Star Movement,” France’s “Rassemblement National,” Greece’s “Syriza,” or Spain’s “Podemos,” for example. This phenomenon, which Berman ties to anti-globalization sentiment, encompasses all sides of the political spectrum.

“We’ve only been saved from that kind of European outcome by our two-party system,” Berman said. “[It’s] so hard for a third party to get traction here.”

According to Berman, another significant feature of this phenomenon is a harsh anti-elite and anti-establishment mentality, which aligns ideologically with prior populist movements. While we definitely see these attitudes in America, these alone do not make for a definitive movement, which is why Berman characterizes today as harboring a “neo-populist potential,” as opposed to the much stronger breed of populism we see in some European countries.

Jaksic thinks that this anti-elite sentiment is a large part of what allowed Trump to mobilize previously disengaged voters, such as blue collar workers, and win the election in 2016. However, he predicts that as a result of how Trump’s policies have unfolded, the very populace that Trump mobilized in 2016 may be the mass that kicks him out of office in 2020.  

In particular, Jaksic thinks that the economic effects of the trade war with China and the Trump administration’s extreme hardlining on immigration policy will harm the coalition that voted for him in the first place. Both policies, Jaksic believes, will lead to general economic hardship in the U.S., hardship which will inevitably weigh heaviest on the middle-class, blue-collar workers who constituted a plurality of Trump’s base in 2016. Additionally, voters from rural areas who rely on export industries for their incomes are particularly hard hit by the president’s actions on trade.

“It’s like a backlash,” Jaksic said. “[The 2020 winner] will — broadly — probably be somebody young. Probably a woman. And probably either Latino or African American.”

Berman thinks we will see the effects of this sooner than 2020.

“In the second half of Trump’s term, with a democratic Congress, it would not surprise me if he were to pivot to the left,” Berman said. “Because in that he could still speak to his base.”

Although not explicitly, Berman’s hypothesis connects to Jaksic’s idea of Trump’s “politics of pandering.” However, Berman emphasized that this is more so based upon the “political ambiguity inherent in populism,” which allows a populist-type leader to promote whichever policies his constituency asks him to promote. In this way, Berman sees the “populist potential” in the U.S. as capable of transcending left and right party lines.

In a broader sense, Berman sees this draw towards populist-esque policies and toxic political polemic in America as a symptom of broader concerns with inequality and skepticism toward globalization.

While globalization and free trade have certainly generated lots of wealth for the U.S., they have done so in a disparate fashion, and many scholars agree that inequality has grown as a result.

The risks of a globalized economy were starkly revealed in the aftermath of the housing crisis of 2008, whose disastrous effects bled to virtually every corner of the globe and revealed the not-so-rosy side of globalized economics. Berman argued that these economic forces likely contributed to the desire for a more nationally-focused economy that we see today.

To Berman, the effects of both the pullback from globalization and the cultural appeal of populism were also very clear in the results of the 2016 election.  

“There was a populist revolt against the party establishment [in both parties],” Berman said. “And in one party, that populist revolt won, and in one party that populist revolt was crushed — and the party in which the populist revolt won is the one that won the election.”

Fukuyama echoed Berman’s sentiments, adding that there’s a cultural identity element to the discourse as well, largely in response to immigration increases in recent years.

“In many countries there has been a similar [populist tendency],” Fukuyama said. “Especially on the part of people that didn’t benefit from globalization, who feel that they’re being displaced by immigrants and foreigners.”

Fukuyama, who wrote about this topic in his book “Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment,” went on to say that the populist tendency that we are seeing extends beyond economic causes and seeps into identity politics. Questions of identity used to be predominantly addressed and championed by populist movements on the left, Fukuyama argued; however, today we are seeing more and more right-wing populists take up these issues.

“That whole framing and rhetoric has now moved over to the right,” Fukuyama argued. “You get white nationalists now who say, ‘We are being pushed aside by minorities, our rights as Americans are not being respected, and the elites are looking down on us.’”

Fukuyama questioned why, even in light of the economic motivations behind this phenomenon, the left-wing populist movement did not end up dominating the government with people like Bernie Sanders and movements like “Occupy Wall Street.”

To Fukuyama, the answer is obvious: Cultural divisions among the American populace were an equal, if not more powerful motive for political action, and help to explain the Trump vote in 2016. He also asserted that in the period since the financial crisis, right wing populism has been much better organized and more forceful than left wing populism.

“The right wing populists speak to these cultural and identity issues in a way that the left wing populists don’t really do,” Fukuyama said.

Berman agreed with Fukuyama’s assessment, adding that oftentimes coinciding with populism’s social agenda is a xenophobic, anti-other mentality.

“This is sad to say, but one feature of populism also historically has been some kind of hostility toward others — toward minorities — and sometimes nativism,” Berman added. “And if intolerance toward minorities is a feature of populism, it’s well distributed across the spectrum.”

To Fukuyama, this nativist sentiment, combined with the extreme polarization of issues, is malignant.

“I work a lot on immigration reform issues, and because of this stupid wall of his, that issue has become so toxic for people,” Fukuyama lamented. “I think it’s going to be years before we can get back to a kind of reasonable discussion of how we can reform our immigration system.”

Jaksic asserted that this shift in rhetoric is motivated by what he describes as “white rage.” He characterized the populism we see in America today as a populism without principles and as such also questioned whether or not it could be labeled as a movement.

“‘Make America Great Again’ is not a principle,” Jaksic said. “It’s a politics of anger and it’s a politics of pandering.”

‘This is what it sounds like’

The internet has lead to the increased democratization of voices in public discourse, a fact which many scholars agree has fueled the “populist tendencies” of many modern political candidates. It also has academics considering the long term effects of this shift in dialogue.

“There’s nothing wrong with people’s voices being heard in this unfiltered way,” Fukuyama said. “The problem is that the internet can be easily weaponized by people that don’t necessarily share democratic values.”

Fukuyama asserted that this problem extends beyond the question of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election to everyday people in the U.S who are able to propagate conspiracy theories and misinformation that “20 years ago would have been relegated to the complete fringes of the political discourse.”

Berman pointed out that the traditional “gatekeepers of allowable opinion,” such as The New York Times or The Washington Post, have lost their power to control the scope of political discourse, which is just one effect of the populistic, anti-elite sentiment that we see in America today.

“[The internet] was going to give everybody a voice,” Berman said. “And you know what? It did that. And this is what it sounds like.”

Of course, many worry about false news being propagated through internet channels, and criticism of both journalism institutions and regular people spreading misinformation abounds. In these debates over fake news, Berman says that he is much more concerned with the potential risks of censorship and the subliminal or overt values that are embedded in censored material than he is with deciphering fact from fiction online for himself.

“Censorship is not value free,” Berman said. “So instead of being able to hear every nut, I’m only going to be able to hear the nuts that Mark Zuckerberg approves of.”

In order to make ethical decisions about what kind of content they allow on their platforms, many tech companies create regulatory frameworks to help them decipher what falls within the bounds of acceptable content. These regulatory frameworks — from Facebook’s controversial comment moderator to WhatsApp’s viral message forwarding mechanisms — are now ubiquitous in Silicon Valley, but their presence is not going unnoticed, as it is often a damaging one.

In recent months, these companies have faced heavy criticism about the burgeoning negative effects of their regulatory frameworks. The regulatory policies of these companies go awry — sometimes as a result of biased algorithms, sometimes as a result of negligence and almost always as a result of attempting to occupy a role they were never meant to occupy: as the arbiters of free speech.

Facebook’s comment moderation framework, for example, mistakenly shut down a fundraising appeal for volcano victims in Indonesia, but allowed a prominent extremist group in Myanmar to maintain their page, despite being accused of instigating genocide. In addition to Whatsapp’s viral forwarding mechanism, which makes it easy to rapidly send information to vast amounts of people, the application’s encryption also makes it difficult to track where misinformation is stemming from. This became a huge issue during Bolsonaro’s election in Brazil, when targeted messages about his opponent were blasted to who knows how many people — perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions. Many speculate they came from Bolsonaro himself, but due to the aforementioned encryption, it’s virtually impossible to trace the origin of the messages.

As serious as these problems of election interference and Facebook page moderation are, regulatory frameworks have led to even worse issues, such as mob violence in India, where a number of murders have been linked to the spreading of fake news on WhatsApp by Hindu nationalists amidst growing anti-Muslim sentiment.

To Berman, the solution boils down to educating the next generation to be critical readers, whose digital literacy will help them cut through all of the false information.

And despite the concerns about information dissemination, many of which are stirred by Trump’s near-constant denunciations of the “fake news media,” the professors with whom The Daily spoke do not think, by any means, that the internet is going to indelibly change the political landscape to be a populist-centered one.   

“My suspicion, and I would say certainly my hope, is that it is a temporary glitch,” Fukuyama said. “You’re already seeing some pushback against this populist tendency… in the midterm election here in November.”

Jaksic says it all comes down to critical evaluation and mobilizing people to vote, especially young people.

“I’m confident — not complacent — but confident that the U.S. has the traditions and the institutions to get back to what has been … a very consistent trend towards the middle, towards the center,” Jaksic said.

Under the microscopic vision of the present, it can feel like we will never escape the battleground that is our current political landscape. But taking a historical lens on the political issues that we are facing today is at once reassuring and humbling: reassuring because the more alarming parallels to historical figures and populist movements that people are drawing to the Trump administration seem not to hold, and humbling because it draws our attention to the systemic problems that got us here — such as prejudice and inequality — and reveal how much further America still has to go.

President Trump casts himself as a nontraditional, unprecedented figure. Perhaps, then, there is something to please both the president himself and his opposition in the conclusion of some of Stanford’s deepest political thinkers: Trump is the first president of his kind and may well be the last — until the cycles of history turn again.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford students file first lawsuit against colleges implicated in admissions scandal https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/14/stanford-students-file-first-lawsuit-against-colleges-implicated-in-admissions-scandal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/14/stanford-students-file-first-lawsuit-against-colleges-implicated-in-admissions-scandal/#respond Thu, 14 Mar 2019 16:01:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1151355 Two Stanford juniors have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Stanford and seven other universities implicated in the admissions bribery scandal.

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Update: Erica Olsen will drop out of the suit, her lawyer told The Daily.

Two Stanford students have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Stanford and seven other universities implicated in the admissions bribery scandal, claiming that they and others did not have a fair chance to apply to these schools.

Erica Olsen ’21 and Kalea Woods ’20 alleged that while they both applied with strong applications, they “did not receive what [they] paid for — a fair admissions consideration process.”

Olsen and Woods further alleged that their Stanford degrees are “now not worth as much as [they were] before, because prospective employers may now question whether [they were] admitted to the university on [their] own merits, versus having parents who were willing to bribe school officials.”

Olsen and Woods declined to comment.

In addition to Stanford, Yale, the University of Southern California (USC), UCLA, the University of San Diego, UT Austin, Wake Forest University, and Georgetown University were named in the lawsuit, whose class includes all students who applied to, paid an application fee and were ultimately rejected from these colleges from 2012 to 2018.

William Singer, the Key and the Key Worldwide Foundation — the drivers behind the multimillion-dollar scheme that saw parents pay to artificially inflate their children’s standardized test scores and in some cases bribe athletic directors to position their children as recruits — are included as defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit contends that as a result of the cheating scheme crafted by Singer, unqualified students slipped through the cracks in admissions to these highly selective schools, taking up spots for deserving students who were ultimately rejected.

It also takes aim at Stanford — among other selective universities such as Yale and Georgetown — for accepting application fees from prospective students while failing to ensure that the admissions process was “free of fraud, bribery, cheating, and dishonesty.”

Among the 50 individuals indicted on Tuesday was former Stanford head sailing coach John Vandemoer, who pleaded guilty to accepting over $100,000 in bribes to fraudulently recruit two students to the sailing team. Shortly after the case became public on Tuesday, Stanford fired Vandemoer from his position.

Four other Stanford affiliates, along with 11 Bay Area parents, were also charged.

“ … [E]ach of the universities were negligent in failing to maintain adequate protocols and  security measures in place to guarantee the sanctity of the college admissions process,” the class action lawsuit reads. “And ensure that their own employers were not engaged in these type of bribery schemes.”

Stanford is currently reviewing the suit, according to University spokesperson E.J. Miranda.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Erica Olsen is a sophomore at Stanford University, not a junior.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Erin Woo at erinkwoo ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford affiliates, Bay Area parents charged in college admissions bribery scandal https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/12/stanford-affiliates-bay-area-parents-charged-in-college-admissions-bribery-scandal/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/12/stanford-affiliates-bay-area-parents-charged-in-college-admissions-bribery-scandal/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2019 01:41:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1151288 Four Stanford affiliates, along with 11 Bay Area parents, have been charged for their participation in a national college admissions cheating scandal.

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Four Stanford affiliates, along with 11 Bay Area parents, have been charged for their participation in a national college admissions cheating scandal involving at least 50 Hollywood celebrities, prominent business leaders and college coaches — including Stanford’s head sailing coach John Vandemoer, who was fired after pleading guilty to accepting $270,000 in bribes for the sailing program on Tuesday.

The scandal involved two main ploys. The first consisted of a college entrance exam cheating scheme, wherein students were provided undue extra time on the SAT and ACT, and student test answers were fraudulently corrected. The second involved athletics recruitment, wherein some parents paid more than $500,000 in bribes to college coaches to designate their children as athletic recruits in order to facilitate their acceptance into competitive universities including Stanford, Yale, the University of Southern California (USC), Wake Forest and others.

Central to these crimes was William Rick Singer, founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, also known as The Key. Singer, who pleaded guilty to numerous charges on Tuesday, leveraged The Key and its associated nonprofit Key Worldwide Foundation (KWF) to process the bribes and facilitate the cheating.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 32 individuals were charged with “conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud,” which describes any fraudulent artifices or schemes intended to deprive another of honest services and has been increasingly interpreted by prosecutors to refer to “any dishonesty or lack of integrity” in situations that citizens engage in on a daily basis.

William McGlashan Jr. M.B.A ’90, Mill Valley

McGlashan, founder of private investment firm TPG Growth, is one of many Bay Area parents charged in the imploding college admissions scandal revealed Tuesday morning. McGlashan — one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent investors and a Stanford Graduate School of Business alum — allegedly conspired with Singer to pay bribes amounting to $50,000 to college entrance exam administrators in order to facilitate cheating on the ACT for his son.

The total payment McGlashan made to the fake charity is believed to be upwards of $250,000. TPG Growth placed McGlashan on “indefinite administrative leave effective immediately,” and has replaced him temporarily with TPG Growth co-founder and billionaire Jim Coulter.

McGlashan’s son received a fraudulent score of 34 out of 36 on the exam, allegedly as a result of the proctor correcting his answers after the exam. The false score put him in the 99th percentile of ACT test takers.

Court documents indicate that in many cases, the students taking the exams were unaware of the arranged cheating; for instance, the FBI affidavit reads that McGlashan’s son “had no idea … that [a cooperating witness believed to be Singer] helped him on the ACT.”

The documents further relay conversations wherein McGlashan discusses the potential of using the athletics “side door scheme” with regards to both USC and Stanford. He also discusses using the scheme to benefit his two younger children as well.

“Pretty funny,” McGlashan stated in a recorded phone conversation, in response to the idea of Photoshopping a photo of his son to make him look like a kicker. “The way the world works these days is unbelievable.”

McGlashan is a leading voice in Silicon Valley for ethical investing as the founder of The Rise Fund, the largest social impact investment fund. The Rise Fund invests in ventures including K-8 education technology in the U.S., wildfire protection in Botswana and solar power in India.

Elisabeth Kimmel ’86, of Nevada

After spending more than $450,000 in exchange for recruitment of her two children as athletes at elite colleges, Kimmel — who studied history at Stanford and currently owns Midwest Television, Inc. — faces charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Kimmel’s daughter was admitted to Georgetown as a purported tennis recruit in 2013, and graduated in 2017 having never been on the school’s tennis team. Kimmel’s son was admitted to USC as a purported track recruit in 2018.

In her daughter’s application to Georgetown, Kimmel wrote that the student participated in the Southern California Junior Tennis program throughout high school and was a “ranked player,” though the U.S. Tennis Association — which operates the program — has no record of her daughter’s participation.

Singer funneled a total of $244,000 in monthly installments to Georgetown tennis coach Ernst through The Key and later KWF between around September 2012 and September 2013. Meanwhile, Kimmel paid $275,000 in monthly payments to KWF through the Meyer Charitable Foundation, where she is an officer.

Singer also coordinated the manufacture of a fake athlete profile for Kimmel’s son, whose application to USC contained lies added by Kimmel regarding the student’s athletic history. USC Senior Associate Athletic Director Donna Heinel presented Kimmel’s son to the college’s admissions as a track and field recruit for the pole vault. The fake profile includes a purported image of Kimmel’s son pole vaulting, though Kimmel is not the person in the photo.

When reviewing her son’s USC application prior to submission, Kimmel added the designation of pole vaulter to her son’s application, presenting him as a “three year Varsity Letterman” in track and field and “one of the top pole vaulters in the state of California.”

About one month before her son’s acceptance to USC, Kimmel signed a check for $200,000 from the Meyer Charitable Foundation to KWF.

Kimmel and her spouse called Singer after their son’s orientation to note that their son’s advisor at USC asked him about his track career, confusing the student — who had no idea he was admitted as a recruited athlete.

“I would say that if they do ask you, which I doubt they will, that [your son] had an injury over the summer, to his shoulder, and so he stopped vaulting,” Singer said in the call, which Kimmel made to note that her son was “still in the dark” on why he was accepted to USC.

Robert Zangrillo M.B.A. ’94, of Miami Beach

Zangrillo is the founder and CEO of a Miami-based firm that focuses on venture capital and real estate investments. Zangrillo allegedly conspired with Singer to bribe athletics officials at USC to fraudulently designate his daughter as an athletic recruit. He also paid an employee of Singer to take classes on his daughter’s behalf. These bogus grades were submitted as part of her college application.

While Zangrillo’s daughter was initially rejected by USC, he went on to continue to conspire with Singer in order to concoct a new scheme that would allow his daughter to transfer to USC as a rowing recruit. Although her previous application showed no indication of rowing prowess or accolades, her transfer application  — submitted to USC on Feb. 1, 2018 — falsely stated that she rowed crew at a club 44 hours per week, 15 weeks out of the year.

According to court documents, the USC crew coach agreed to facilitate Zangrillo’s daughter’s acceptance, provided that KFW pay the crew program.

“Okay, I will take her,” the coach allegedly told the cooperating witness, as recorded in the affidavit. “You guys help us, we’ll help you.”

The documents reveal that Donna Heinel, senior associate athletic director at USC, ultimately did not advocate for Zangrillo’s daughter to admissions department as an athletics recruit, but instead placed her on a “VIP list for transfers.”

In total, Zangrillo wired $200,000 to KFW’s fraudulent charity accounts and also mailed a check of $50,000 to “USC Women’s Athletics.”

Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez, of Atherton

The Henriquezes participated in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on four separate occasions for their two daughters — once in the fall of 2015 and another time in the fall of 2016. Manuel currently serves as the vice-chair of the Lucille Packard Foundation’s Board of Directors. The Foundation “works in alignment with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and the child health programs of Stanford University,” its website states.

For the Henriquezes’ older daughter, who attended a private college preparatory school in Belmont, California, the couple arranged for an unidentified confidential witness to proctor the exam at the Belmont location. The proctor sat beside the daughter during the exam and fed her answers. The Henriquezes wired $15,000 to Singer’s personal bank account and $10,000 to an account in the name of The Key, referring to KWF.

In subsequent instances for the younger Henriquez daughter, Singer and KWF assisted in ACT cheating schemes and also falsified the daughter’s tennis achievements. The Henriquez Family Trust made a contribution totaling an upwards of $400,000 to KWF in May 2016 in a “gift” transaction falsely reported to have involved no exchange of any goods or services.

Amy and Gregory Colburn, of Palo Alto

The Colburns participated in the college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of their son, paying $24,443.50 and $547.45 to KWF under the guise of a “charitable donation.”

KWF proceeded to pay $20,000 each to Igor Dvorskiy, a test administrator at the West Hollywood Test Center who “agreed to accept bribes” to aid the scheme at the Los Angeles location, and to the second unidentified confidential witness who served as the proctor.

Agustin Huneeus Jr., of San Francisco

Huneeus participated in both the college entrance exam cheating scheme and the college recruitment scheme for his daughter to facilitate her admission to the University of Southern California (USC) as a supposed water polo recruit. For this, Huneeus allegedly contributed $50,000 to KWF. Singer, who told Huneeus that he “controlled” the West Hollywood Test Center, arranged for an unidentified confidential witness to proctor the SAT exam and correct the daughter’s answers after she completed the exam.

Marjorie Klapper, of Menlo Park

Klapper has been charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud for her role in securing undue extra time for her son to take the ACT college entrance exam in exchange for a $15,000 bribe paid to KWF under the guise of a charitable contribution.

Marci Palatella, of Hillsborough

Palatella conspired to pay over $400,000 to the Key foundation and $100,000 in bribes to USC’s senior associate athletic director to make her son a football recruit and aid his admission as an undergraduate there. In 2016, Singer arranged for a psychologist to evaluate Palatella’s son and provide medical documentation necessary to qualify for extra time on the SAT. Palatella was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Peter Jan Sartorio, of Menlo Park

Sartorio participated in the college entrance exam cheating scheme by paying Singer $15,000 in three separate transactions of cash in June 2017 to have another confidential witness proctor the ACT exam for Sartorio’s daughter and correct her exam answers.

Todd and Diane Blake, of Ross

Todd Blake, entrepreneur and investor, and his wife Diane Blake, a retail merchandising firm executive, allegedly paid to get their daughter into the University of Southern California as a volleyball recruit. The couple paid $200,000 to KWF and $50,000 to the University of Southern California Women’s Athletics department. The Key Foundation allegedly falsified volleyball honors and indicated that she had played on a team that qualified for club nationals. USC Senior Associate Athletic Director Donna Heinel then allegedly used the fabricated records to present the student as a recruit.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu, Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Elena Shao at eshao98 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Phi Psi event with Palantir co-founder canceled following backlash over 2012 sexual assault allegations https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/11/phi-psi-event-with-palantir-co-founder-cancelled-following-backlash-regarding-2012-sexual-assault-allegations/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/11/phi-psi-event-with-palantir-co-founder-cancelled-following-backlash-regarding-2012-sexual-assault-allegations/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2019 02:12:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1151249 Phi Kappa Psi house staff has officially cancelled an event with Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale that was scheduled to be held at the Phi Psi house on Thursday at 5 p.m.

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Phi Kappa Psi (Phi Psi) house staff has officially canceled an event with Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale ’04 that was scheduled to be held at the Phi Psi house on Thursday at 5 p.m. The cancellation follows backlash from concerned students regarding 2012 allegations of sexual assault, gender violence and sexual harassment, among other charges, against Lonsdale by Stanford alumna Elise Clougherty ’13, who sued him in Jan. 2015.

Lonsdale’s event was marketed as a “Dinner Discussion” on public policy, technology and entrepreneurship, according to the event flyer.

Event organizer Joey Hurlocker ’19 — a former fellow at Lonsdale’s venture capital firm 8VC — told The Daily he “was contacted by a member of Joe’s staff interested in having such an event.” Hurlocker added that he was unaware of “the degree of concern regarding Joe Lonsdale.”

“I recognize the unintended consequences of my actions, despite my best intentions, and apologize for those consequences which have negatively impacted others,” he wrote in a statement to The Daily.

He added in a later statement that, while he “was the sole organizer” of the event, he directed “a couple people to help.”

Lonsdale was subject to a 10-year campus ban under Stanford’s Title IX policy in 2014, after a University Title IX investigation into Clougherty’s allegations concluded that he had sexually abused her throughout a year-long relationship while she was an undergraduate and he was her mentor for the class ENGR 145: “Technology Entrepreneurship.” In response, Lonsdale filed a countersuit for defamation in June 2015.

The ban was subsequently lifted in Nov. 2015 as a result of “new evidence that came to light during litigation,” then-University spokesperson Lisa Lapin wrote in an email to The Daily at the time. The respective lawsuits were settled in court under terms not disclosed to the public, according to The New York Times. Stanford’s ban reversal spurred criticism of Title IX’s investigation and adjudication of rape accusations on University campuses.

Despite the reversal, Stanford did not drop all accusations of misconduct against Lonsdale, as he is still subject to a 10-year ban from mentoring and teaching. He currently serves as a board member for the Stanford Global Projects Center.

“Because Mr. Lonsdale and Ms. Clougherty engaged in a relationship and did not disclose it as per Stanford’s Consensual Relationships policy, Mr. Lonsdale has agreed that he will not challenge the temporary mentoring and teaching suspension that was imposed,” Lapin wrote to The Daily in 2015.

Phi Psi Community Manager (CM) Tony Moller confirmed to The Daily that the event was cancelled Monday after the fraternity became aware that it had not been approved by Phi Psi staff. Though some fraternity members knew of the event, many others were unaware until a series of social media posts criticizing the talk were published on Monday by Theresa Gao ’20, Jasmine Sun ’21 and Sasha Perigo ’17, hours before the event’s cancellation.

Phi Psi is expected to discuss the event and its cancellation Monday night at its pre-scheduled chapter meeting.

“The event was originally geared toward mentoring entrepreneurship, and we deeply regret that the [organizers] didn’t apply more intentionality to their choice of speaker,” Moller wrote, adding that Phi Psi’s staff began talks to cancel the event immediately after social media backlash emerged.

“I’m not denying his right to free speech, but it’s a slap in the face to survivors for Phi Psi to host Lonsdale despite these allegations,” Sun wrote in a Tweet. “The consent workshops mean nothing if you continue to give platform to abusers & amplify them as role models and mentors.”

Fraternity members were told on Monday not to share screenshots of their conversation about the event’s cancellation, one Phi Psi member told The Daily, referring to the fraternity’s group chat as “explosive” in the hours before the cancellation. Phi Psi members also deleted comments they had made on Gao’s Facebook post criticizing the event.

Lonsdale is still scheduled to appear at a May 21 event hosted by the Stanford Federalist Society at Stanford Law School.

This article has been updated with additional comment from Joey Hurlocker.

A previous version of this post incorrectly cited Joe Lonsdale’s class year as 2003. It is in fact 2004. The Daily regrets this error.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Holden Foreman at hs4man21 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Following months of controversy, Dinesh D’Souza speaks to packed auditorium https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/01/following-months-of-controversy-dinesh-dsouza-spoke-to-packed-auditorium/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/01/following-months-of-controversy-dinesh-dsouza-spoke-to-packed-auditorium/#respond Fri, 01 Mar 2019 08:04:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1150597 Controversy surrounding D’Souza, who spoke Thursday on what he sees as historical and present racism in the Democratic Party, has been ongoing since November.

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When Dinesh D’Souza took the stage after months of funding drama, student backlash and dueling Daily op-eds, he was greeted by cheers and a standing, if partial, ovation.

Approximately 15 minutes into the event, he was also greeted by a steadily strengthening odor that audience members speculated was a stink bomb. Members of the Stanford College Republicans (SCR) — who hosted the event — confirmed such reports to The Daily after the event. Stanford University Department of Public Safety members on the scene removed an audience member midway through the event, but declined to answer any further questions. 

Controversy surrounding D’Souza, who spoke Thursday on what he sees as historical and present racism in the Democratic Party, has been ongoing since November, when The Daily reported on a leaked application to fund his visit. The latest in a series of right-wing speakers to highlight the tension between free speech and campus inclusion, D’Souza — a policy advisor to the Reagan administration, a former Hoover Institution fellow and a pardoned felon — is famous for his bestselling books, films and an incendiary Twitter account where he has retweeted hashtags including #burnthejews and #bringbackslavery.

(MATT SHIMURA/Special to The Daily)

‘A swirling current of accusation’

D’Souza described his Thursday lecture as being centered around “a swirling current of accusation aimed against Republicans and conservatives.” D’Souza apologized for some of his most controversial statements, including retweeting the hashtags #burnthejews and #bringbackslavery, tweets that he alleged were originally posted by fake accounts, “a booby trap” set for him by the left.

However, he doubled down on his core thesis that the Democratic Party, both past and present, is the source of racism and fascism in American society. Students and professors who believe otherwise, D’Souza argued, have been deceived by a curriculum of “progressive history.”

D’Souza cited comparisons between the Jim Crow laws of the American South and the Nuremberg Laws of Nazi Germany, saying that the Nazis used the ideas of Southern Democrats as a “template.” Both sets of laws imposed segregation, forbade intermarriage and condoned confiscation of property, D’Souza said, arguing that to get from one set to the other, the Nazis only had to “cross out” the word “black” and replace it with “Jewish.”

He also made a case for Democrats as “the party of slavery that metamorphosed into the party of racism.” To support his argument, D’Souza mentioned the “crushing fact” that no Republicans owned slaves. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party, and Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president.

D’Souza further said that the “party switch” of the early 20th century did not occur, naming recent scandals involving Virginian governor Ralph Northam and his wife as proof. Northam has come under fire for a 1980s photo of the then-medical student in blackface; his wife made headlines just this week for allegedly offering raw cotton to a group of black students on a tour of the governor’s mansion and asking them to imagine what it would be like to pick it.

The lecture, delivered to an audience composed largely of non-students and peppered with bright red “Make America Great Again” hats, drew frequent applause, especially in the moments when D’Souza mentioned President Donald Trump and the “streak of bullying and intimidation and intolerance coming from the left.”

In a question-and-answer session following his prepared remarks, he directly invited “hostile” questions, and the audience responded. Questioners challenged D’Souza on the use of eminent domain to build a wall, D’Souza’s statements denying the party switch and his use of his Indian heritage as a diversity card.

To the question on his Indian heritage, the final query of the night, D’Souza responded, to audience applause: “It’s possible for anyone to be a racist.”

‘Be tolerant, accept racism’

In the hours, days, weeks and months leading up to D’Souza’s visit, SCR, the University and the speaker himself drew campus ire.

While D’Souza spoke to an audience of hundreds in CEMEX Auditorium, across campus at the Markaz, the Stanford chapter of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) and Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hosted a discussion on “A People’s History of Racism,” advertised in direct opposition to the D’Souza lecture.

The event spanned subjects ranging from the roots of structural racism to the Israel-Palestine conflict. Bridging the variety of topics was an acknowledgement of the polarized political dialogue on campus and a commitment to change.

“I know that everything feels really dire right now,” said SJP member Zaeda Blotner ’21. “Our tuition dollars, or at least my tuition dollars, are being used so that a man can stand up in front of a bunch of people and gaslight us, tell them that the pain that we feel is not valid and the atrocities that have been committed against us did not occur and do not continue to occur.”

Thursday morning, student activists in Students for the Liberation of All Peoples (SLAP) hung a banner accusing SCR and Provost Persis Drell of “accept[ing] racism” in an attempt to “be tolerant” of free speech on campus.

“Administrators refused to take responsibility for student safety and stand up to racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, ableism, homophobia and intellectual dishonesty,” SLAP wrote in a statement to The Daily, which went on to call various University administrators “all complicit and facilitators of yet another act of hate speech on campus.”

University spokesperson EJ Miranda told The Daily that Drell “defends the right of students to express their opinions, including when they are expressing frustration toward her” and that she “welcomes meeting with students on this issue.”

“We reiterate that Stanford deeply values both diversity of thought as well as the dignity of all peoples,” wrote Drell and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole in a Daily op-ed published Wednesday. “We know all too well that some expression can be, and has been, deeply hurtful to members of our community.”

Students have also vandalized and torn down posters hung in various student residences to advertise D’Souza’s lecture, and two fall quarter petitions opposing D’Souza’s invitation garnered hundreds of signatures each.

‘Funding bigotry’

Student activism opposing D’Souza’s visit comes in the wake of months of back-and-forth among the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) student government over whether or not the Undergraduate Senate would fund the event — debates which underscore both the powers and limitations of the 15 elected undergraduates, nearly all of whom are sophomores serving their first terms.

Last November, the Senate declined SCR’s request to fund D’Souza’s visit on the grounds that the $6,000 request included $1,624 for alcohol. SCR disputed the Senate’s rationale, calling it an excuse to “make it impossible for conservative ideas to be publicly expressed at Stanford,” according to SCR treasurer Ben Esposito ’21.

In an “emergency” meeting nearly two weeks later, Senators doubled down on their decision, defying an internal review from the ASSU financial manager that would have funded over half of SCR’s request.

In response, SCR filed a suit with the Constitutional Council, the judicial branch of the ASSU. The suit alleges that the Senate discriminated against conservative viewpoints by denying D’Souza funding, citing a committee meeting in which Senators opposed the event on the grounds that they did not want to fund “bigotry.”

However, one day before the suit could make it to Council proceedings, the Senate reversed its decision and accepted the internal review. Council members found the next day that the Senate’s change of heart meant SCR’s suit had “no underlying grievance,” and the scheduled Council vote on its frivolity never occurred.

Over a month later, the Senate voted again on D’Souza: This time, 9-0 to pass a resolution condemning his invitation while being careful to maintain their neutrality as a funding body.

“Although we are funding this event, we are not in support of both past activities and actions of Dinesh D’Souza,” said bill co-author Senator Martin Altenburg ’21 in the Senate’s Feb. 5 meeting. “We support an environment in which there is a free exchange of ideas, but it should be done in a culture of mutual respect, civility and dignity, and we feel that there’s kind of a breach of that aspect with this event.”

‘One of the more fearless leaders out there’

Editorials published this week in The Daily have accused D’Souza of “buil[ding] a career out of homophobic, racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic speech.” One author called him an “ideological charlatan,” while another attacked his detractors as “puerile, insipid, aspiring authoritarians.”

In D’Souza’s words, however, he is “one of the more fearless leaders out there”: a “provocateur” aiming not to enrage but to educate.

“I am a provocateur in that I’m taking what a lot of people consider history and I’m going to show that what is often considered history is in fact progressive history,” D’Souza asserted.

Born in India, D’Souza came to the States to study English at Dartmouth College, where he told The Daily he recognized and consolidated his conservative beliefs.

At Dartmouth, D’Souza wrote and edited for The Dartmouth Review, where, according to the College’s newspaper The Dartmouth, he in 1981 published an article outing five officers of Dartmouth’s Gay/Straight Association.

In his interview with The Daily, D’Souza categorically denied involvement in the incident. However, when asked about other controversial occurrences — such as a Feb. 2018 tweet he shared which mocked Parkland survivors — D’Souza expressed a mixture of regret and defensiveness.  

While he described the Parkland tweet as a total “misfire,” he also defended his actions, saying that his intended target was not the students, but rather the media. D’Souza went on to state that it is normal to “say a couple of things you didn’t mean” in the “heat of the debate.” However, for the most part he stands by his controversial tweets, stating that they “reflect [his] actual views.”

D’Souza’s views have been well-documented in a series of best-selling books and films, including 2010’s “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” — adapted into the film 2016: “Obama’s America” — and the 2012 book-turned-documentary-style-film, “Hillary’s America.” His most recent entry, the 2018 film “Death of a Nation,” compares Donald Trump to Abraham Lincoln to argue that the Democratic Party is the party of racism and fascism.

D’Souza is no stranger to Stanford University. After stints in the Reagan administration and American Enterprise Institute, D’Souza was a fellow at the Hoover Institution from 2001 to 2007. He is also a fixture on the conservative campus lecture circuit, where he sparked protests at his alma mater this year as part of the Young America Foundation’s “D’Souza Unchained” tour.

“I feel that I have ideas that students don’t know about,” he told The Daily.

He is drawn to speak on college campuses in order to combat what he laments as increasing campus intolerance and waning “intellectual diversity” on college campuses.

“[Universities] have championed diversity while undermining the most important kind of diversity in a university context: namely, philosophical or intellectual diversity,” D’Souza said.  

When asked by The Daily about whether or not other types of diversity, such as diversity of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, age, gender and religion, can lead to increasing intellectual diversity, D’Souza responded that he does not believe there is a “necessary connection.”

On Thursday, D’Souza called for conservative students at Stanford and across the country to speak up, condemning the “intellectual gangsterism” he believes emanates from the left.

“Intellectual freedom means fighting against the people who are blocking you from being able to think for yourself,” he said. “I submit, at the end of the day, that’s not Dinesh D’Souza … that’s the bullying elements who are around you every day, who will make your life hell if you want to be nothing more than what you should be, which is in fact an intellectually liberated you.”

 

Contact Erin Woo at erinkwoo ‘at’ stanford.edu, Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Zora Ilunga-Reed at zora814 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Graduate students criticize R&DE’s handling of six-month-long rat infestation https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/12/graduate-students-criticize-rdes-handling-of-six-month-long-rat-infestation/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/12/graduate-students-criticize-rdes-handling-of-six-month-long-rat-infestation/#respond Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:53:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1149569 All six resident apartments in Building 70 have been affected by rat mites and or rat presence in their homes.

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After multiple visits from pest control, Irán Román, a fifth-year Ph.D student in Music and Neuroscience, thought he had seen the end of the rat and rat mite infestation that had affected all six apartments in Escondido Village Building 70 since late September. He returned home in October after what was meant to be the last pest control contractor visit and opened up his cabinet to get a drink of water. However, instead of finding an empty cup, Román found himself face to face with a glass that contained a rat nestled inside.

Five graduate student residents of Building 70 and their families, as well as a graduate student representative of the Stanford Solidarity Network, met with Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) representatives on Monday evening to discuss the lack of communication from the University surrounding the ongoing infestation and steps to improve cleanliness in the 60-year-old building.

“We regret the stress and inconvenience this issue has caused our residents in six apartments,” R&DE spokesperson Jocelyn Breeland wrote in an email to The Daily. “Student Housing is committed to quickly resolving this problem and to mitigating, as much as possible, the inconvenience to residents.”

In mid-October, about a week before Román found the rat in his cabinet, his neighbors were moved from their apartment to temporary housing so that their apartment could be deep cleaned after they had noticed the presence of rats in their home.

“Maybe for months, on top of the mite bites, we were drinking from or using cooking utensils where rats came to hang out,” Román said. “[When our] neighbors were sleeping, rats [would be] running around and waking their kids up.”

According to both Carrillo and Román, one resident’s child was experiencing an allergic reaction to the rat mite bites and was taken to both the emergency room as well as the pediatric dermatologist because their mother could not figure out the origin of the child’s rash. Carrillo and Román went on to claim that the child’s mother was not informed that her neighbors had rat mite infestations and as such thought that her child had bed bug bites or a rash from daycare.

The issue for Román and his family began on Sept. 20, when they first called R&DE after discovering rat mites — tiny parasites which feed off of rat blood — in their kitchen. R&DE’s independent pest control contractor, Crane Pest Management, came and sprayed the apartment, but never explicitly warned Román that rat mites might be linked to rat presence, Román said.

Although it is not typical of R&DE to notify residents of maintenance issues in other apartments, “given the nature of this issue,” all of the neighboring residents were notified via email on Sept. 24 of the pest control inspection, Breeland wrote. R&DE also sent out email communication to residents on Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 about the placement of glue traps for mites and the need for a contractor to come and inspect their apartments.

However, both Román and his fellow resident Mateo Carrillo, sixth year Ph.D candidate in Latin American history, took issue with R&DE’s email communication in general, as it did not specify exactly what pest control was coming to handle or of what, specifically, residents may be at risk. At various points in an email sent to residents from R&DE on Oct. 25 and subsequently forwarded to The Daily, the rat mites were referred to as “insects” and the object of the glue traps — the rat mice — was left unspecified; Carrillo argued that this vagueness in R&DE’s communication with residents evidenced a lack of transparency.

The inspections showed no sign of a pest infestation, Breeland wrote in an email to The Daily.

However, despite the spraying and the results of the inspection, Román and his family continued to be bitten by the rat mites at a rate of “about two new bites a day,” and Román also began to witness rats in and around the apartment. Immediately, he reported the rat sightings and mite bites to R&DE, as did at least one other neighbor. Pest control returned and began to put up rat traps in the apartments’ shared large attic, which was a magnet for rat nests due to the its combined dirtiness and warm climate, Román asserted.

Román told The Daily that pest control was shocked when they discovered several holes in his wall that allowed for rats to move from apartment to apartment, telling him that “‘[w]e cannot believe this; this is so bad.’”

“As soon as pest control leaves, it doesn’t take 20 minutes for the traps to start catching rats,” Román said.

“Why were those holes there and why weren’t they covered before?” Román added.

According to Román, Crane Pest Management continued to come and set traps that would catch rats at a rate of “one rat per week” up until early February. However, these visits were not communicated to R&DE because residents were told by the contractors to individually call Crane, rather than fill out “Fix-It” requests, according to Carrillo. Because of the lack of reports, R&DE thought that their mitigation efforts — spraying for rat mites, setting traps and removing rat access points through trimming overhanging tree branches and sealing holes in apartments — were successful, Breeland told The Daily.

However, despite the pest control visits, multiple residents continued to hear the sounds of rats scratching and running above their ceiling and to be bitten by the mites up until about a week ago.

“It was a shame that Stanford let it advance so much,” Román said.

Román further stated he hesitated to complain “too much” to the University because of his status as an international student, adding that he and his family have “been looking at the upside any time something happens.”

“I am an international student,” Román said. “So when I first came to the U.S, I was brainwashed by where I went to undergrad … ‘You’re an international, be nice, don’t create any trouble.’”

Finally, after returning from a visit back home to Mexico in December, Román reached his breaking point when he encountered a dead rat right outside their apartment front door.

“[It was] kinda like telling us ‘this is not over, my friend,’” Román said. “At this point, I’m hitting the limit. I want this to be over; I want to address the root cause.”

Román proceeded to email R&DE demanding the attic that he shares with all of his neighbors be cleaned and that this issue be resolved. In response, Román and his family, along with one other family, have been temporarily moved out of their residence to off-campus housing on Sandhill Drive. However, he thinks this move was only to appease the “squeaky wheel.”  

“Now that they have moved me off campus, that’s just another little fix,” Román said. “R&DE has done a terrible job communicating about the shared attic or about the health hazards of these rats that carry terrible diseases.”

Residents of Building 70 proceeded to send an email to R&DE demanding that action be taken to clean the attics and stop the infestation, as well as to reform the communication standards between residents and R&DE in regard to pest control issues.  

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have temporarily relocated two families and have been working to address individual needs of the other families, including offering more temporary relocations if needed,” Breeland wrote in her email to The Daily.

However, Román questioned whether or not the other residents should move as well, since it was unsanitary for his own family to stay in their housing. Carrillo echoed Román’s concerns, adding that the unsanitary nature of the attics, which allegedly contain fiberglass, rat nests and mice droppings, made the building unhealthy.

“I couldn’t tell you if the attics have ever been cleaned,” Carrillo added.

Residents brought up these concerns to R&DE in their Monday evening meeting. According to Carrillo, during the meeting R&DE agreed to reform communications procedures and commit to cleaning the attic.

“Do they want kids to be rushed to the E.R. because of some weird virus or because they get bit?” Román asked. “What has to happen for R&DE to do the right thing?”

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

This article has been updated to reflect that the object of the original glue traps was rat mites, not rats. 

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As TDX pushes back against Uni. decision to revoke housing, other Greek orgs consider the future of housed groups https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/22/as-tdx-pushes-back-against-uni-decision-to-revoke-housing-other-greek-orgs-consider-the-future-of-housed-groups/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/22/as-tdx-pushes-back-against-uni-decision-to-revoke-housing-other-greek-orgs-consider-the-future-of-housed-groups/#respond Tue, 22 Jan 2019 09:46:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148530 As of late Monday night, the Theta Delta Chi (TDX) fraternity has gathered over 700 signatures on its campus-wide petition, originally released Sunday evening. The petition opposes to the University’s decision to remove the fraternity’s housing, the first in which consecutive failed conduct reviews — under the “Standards of Excellence” (SOE) evaluation system —  directly resulted in the loss of fraternity housing.

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As of late Monday night, the Theta Delta Chi (TDX) fraternity has gathered more than 700 signatures on its campus-wide petition released Sunday evening, opposing the University’s decision to remove the fraternity’s housing. The decision is the first case in which consecutive failed conduct reviews — under the “Standards of Excellence” (SOE) evaluation system —  directly resulted in a loss of fraternity housing.

The University’s decision follows four years of failed SOE reviews, though TDX leadership characterized the process of attempting to meet the University’s requirements as trying to hit a “moving target.”  

The fraternity’s petition was circulated through online posts, emails and tables at Arrillaga Family Dining Commons and White Plaza throughout the day on Monday. It continues to garner new signatures by the hour, according to TDX leadership.

The petition called on students to express support for TDX’s continued status as a housed organization and encouraged signees to share personal experiences with the fraternity that might encourage administrators to re-evaluate the decision.

Newly-elected TDX vice-president Michael Quezada ’20, who assumed his post last week, told The Daily that TDX is pleased by the widespread support the petition is receiving from students.

“Testimonies that people have written have been honest and touching,” Quezada wrote in a Monday statement to The Daily. “We’ve all been super appreciative of the support that we’ve gotten across campus.”

TDX hopes to obtain at least 1,000 petition signatures prior to its appeal to Residential Education (ResEd) Dean Koren Bakkegard. The group has until Feb. 4 to file the appeal, a deadline which was extended on Tuesday from the original date of Jan. 28, according to TDX leadership. Bakkegard’s decision in evaluating the appeal will be final.  

Initial reactions

Though morale among TDX members was low after learning of the University’s decision on Sunday, the community immediately united behind the decision to appeal and is encouraged by the outpouring of support received from petition signatories, according to Quezada.

“We’re prepared to fight back with everything we have,” he wrote in his statement to The Daily. “Everyone in the house agrees that win or lose we’ll become closer as a chapter after fighting back together through this.”

Former TDX president Erik Ubel ’19 echoed Quezada, saying that the process of appealing has already brought the community closer. Ubel emphasized the powerful testimonies TDX has received via the petition form.

“We have testimonies from women saying this was the safest [Inter-Fraternity Council] IFC organization on campus when they were here,” Ubel said. “[These testimonies] are real people … who took the time to say our community is safe for people of different sexual orientations, people of different gender identities, people of different races.”

ResEd’s Fall 2018 SOE review listed TDX’s “equity and inclusion” as a strength, but its “health promotion and harm reduction,” “member learning and development” and “recruitment, education and retention” as organizational weaknesses.

Though current Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) president Sloane Maples ’20 expressed disappointment regarding the University’s decision given the “strong and long-term relationship” between KKG and TDX, she also understood the rationale behind removing the fraternity’s housing.

“I kind of understand where the University is coming from as I have gotten to learn more about the Standards of Excellence process as president,” she said. “I think it’s a difficult decision but somewhat understandable. I think the policy is a bit harsh, but if that’s what Stanford has decided to implement, that’s what we as organizations have to hold as our standard too.”

However, former Kappa Sigma president Santiago Rodriguez ’19 expressed surprise that TDX received the “Needs Improvement” designation from its SOE evaluation for the fourth year in a row this fall, given the organization’s attempts to improve its performance.

“I knew all of the work they put in during the year based on the feedback they had gotten the previous year, so I was shocked they got `Needs Improvement’,” he told The Daily.

TDX argued in its November report on SOE progress that the chapter has worked hard to address University comments, including concerns that TDX lacked a “a mission, vision and group identity … as a fraternal organization at Stanford.” After receiving the report from the Organizational Conduct Board (OCB), TDX cancelled all social events for fall quarter 2018. The fraternity also said that it stopped serving hard liquor at events.

Per Stanford’s alcohol policy, hard liquor, defined as beverages containing at least 40 percent alcohol by volume, has been prohibited at all categories of undergraduate student parties since 2016.

Procedural concerns

“This is a very strange sort of process,” Ubel said. “I think a lot of people on campus have a certain suspicion of the administration, and it’s very easy to take the position of, ‘Oh the administration is out to get Greek life’ … but I think that’s too simple of an opinion to take.”

While Ubel contended that the University did not act “maliciously” in making this decision, and that “[TDX] is not perfect,” he emphasized the “trend of improvement” that the organization has shown in response to SOE feedback. He added that the attributes of the community, as reflected by the testimonies that are being garnered alongside the petition signatures, reveal that TDX’s effect is a net positive.

“I personally don’t think that the conduct of our organization merited a removal from our facility, because we are an improving organization,” he said.

Additionally, Ubel argued that some of the feedback from SOE evaluations proved vague or difficult to dispute, such as the University’s desire for the fraternity to develop a “chapter purpose,” a key part of the feedback in TDX’s 2017 SOE evaluation.

“When you think about an organization like TDX, or any frat or sorority which is very social in nature, it can be very difficult to outline a guiding purpose for an organization like that,” Ubel said.

Rodriguez said that while SOE evaluation involves eight discrete categories — ranging from “Chapter Management” to “Equity and Inclusion” to “Health Promotion and Harm Reduction” to “Public Service and Civic Engagement”  — these categories were very difficult to define.

Ubel also contended that housed Greek organizations are not held to the same standards as other themed houses or co-ops, especially since these groups are not required to go through the SOE program. Rodriguez agreed with Ubel’s assessment, arguing that there is a “higher scrutiny” from the University toward Greek organizations; however, he emphasized that he does not believe Stanford is trying to “eliminate Greek organizations one by one.”

“At the end of the day, if you just shine a spotlight at any organization on campus you’re going to find deficiencies, and I just think that they shine that spotlight at Greek organizations more than other row houses or other organizations,” Rodriguez said. 

Ubel argued that the timing of SOE action was nebulous. While the University told TDX multiple times through written communication that it could lose its house if it failed to receive a rating of 2, Ubel said TDX was never informed of exactly when this consequence would occur or under what circumstances.

“When you look at this correspondence, you see sort of off-the-cuff suggestions for things that our organization ought to accomplish,” he said. “There is never any sort of set guidelines.”

However, other Greek life leaders believe the SOE program to be straightforward.

Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) president Peter Guzman ’20, told The Daily that he believes the University “tries to be as objective as possible” in the SOE process, which he participated in this year.

“It’s been a pretty straightforward process,” Guzman said. “The University just gives us straight bullet points about what we did wrong and what we did do well, and from there we just build on the next SOE from there.”

Guzman also mentioned concrete recommendations that the university gave SigEp to work on, which included hosting more philanthropy events with Sigma Psi Zeta (an Asian-interest sorority which shares the 1047 Campus Drive house with the fraternity) and improving internal engagements within the organization to engage active membership.

“The action items [the University has] given us are pretty concrete and our executive team has been doing well getting feedback from the university and turning it into real events that our organization has been enjoying,” Guzman said. 

Maples said that the stipulations of SOE could be better publicized in order to reach all members of Greek organizations as opposed to just those in the leadership.

“A lot of people within organizations don’t know much about [SOE],” Maples said. “So it’s hard when you hear news about an organization being disciplined and don’t understand the process that decides that disciplinary action.”

Nonetheless, Maples emphasized the importance of enforcing these standards.

“I do understand that they have these rules in place, so it’s important to uphold them,” she added.

Asked about the Greek leaders’ concerns about the SOE process, Student Affairs spokesperson Pat Harris said the administrative body is working to address the students’ questions. Harris declined to immediately answer specific inquiries about the SOE process, including the distribution of Greek organizations’ scores. Harris also did not name the administrator charged with overseeing the SOE system.

The future of Greek housing

In the wake of the TDX housing decision, other Greek organizations are considering the potential repercussions for their own communities.

For Kappa Alpha (KA) president Patrick Gilligan ’20, TDX’s loss of housing “forces the rest of the Greek community to reflect on their status as chapters and members of this campus.”

“It is very clear that more is expected out of housed organizations than ever before,” Gilligan wrote in an email to The Daily. “I think that if chapters do not work diligently to meet and exceed the increased expectation from university administrators, then it is possible that we will see more houses lose their ability to live in an on-campus residencies.”

Rodriguez expressed concern regarding the perceived ambiguity surrounding the SOE evaluation process among Greek leaders, and argued that it allows for a subjective administration of the rules.

“This is worrying in general, the fact that because of subjective opinions and subjective measures that the university has in place, any house could lose their house at any point,” Rodriguez said.

Ubel laments the loss of a “pervasive sense of freedom and autonomy” that comes about through choosing to live with people who are “similar to you in certain respects, and different from you in very important respects” in communities like TDX. Ubel raised the question of who will replace TDX in the facility at 675 Lomita.

“I think it’s a fair question of what’s lost in that transition, from an organization that has that continuity to just another sort of living space on campus,” he said.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Berber Jin at fjin16 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

This article has been updated to reflect an extension on the deadline for TDX to file an appeal to the decision. 

 

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TDX fraternity to lose housing https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/20/tdx-fraternity-to-lose-housing-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/01/20/tdx-fraternity-to-lose-housing-2/#respond Mon, 21 Jan 2019 04:01:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148436 The Theta Delta Chi (TDX) fraternity will lose its housing at the end of this school year, after the University found for the fourth year in a row that the group “needs improvements” to meet Stanford’s “Standards of Excellence” (SOE) governing reviews of Greek organizations. The fraternity plans to appeal the decision, and will receive a final outcome from Residential Education (ResEd) by Feb. 1.

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The Theta Delta Chi (TDX) fraternity will lose its housing at the end of this school year, after the University found for the fourth year in a row that the group “needs improvements” to meet Stanford’s “Standards of Excellence” (SOE) governing reviews of Greek organizations. The fraternity plans to appeal the decision, and will receive a final outcome from Residential Education (ResEd) by Feb. 1.

ResEd acknowledged TDX’s efforts to address critical feedback but said they ultimately fell short. Panelists on the SOE review board said that the “seriousness” and “urgency” of TDX’s attitude toward alcohol and safety concerns were “primarily spurred by sanctions.”

TDX’s SOE review emphasized the need for TDX to develop a new member education curriculum incorporating the “foundational values of the fraternity,” to establish a relationship with an alumni advisor and to fill the house with TDX members, not non-member “boarders.”

“Long-standing concerns” about alcohol consumption, including “several” investigations within the past year, were among the University’s main concerns about TDX, according to the chapter’s SOE review released this fall.

Members of TDX found the process of meeting the University’s requirements difficult and frustrating, according to the new TDX president Nico Garcia ’20, who assumed his position last week.

“It seems like it’s kind of this moving target of their expectations,” Garcia said. “We’ve done the things they’ve outlined, and then they list like two more that come out of nowhere.”

Newly elected vice-president Michael Quezada ’20 echoed Garcia’s sentiments.

“It seems like to me — from what I’m aware of — each year they came up with something different,” Quezada said.

The fraternity has circulated a University-wide petition to galvanize support in its quest to retain its housing.

TDX leadership told The Daily they were shocked to find out that they would lose their housing after what they deemed to be insufficient warning.

“It definitely felt out of the blue to us,” Quezada said.

Residential Education (ResEd) told TDX last March that it could lose its residence at 675 Lomita if it did not raise its scores under the SOE system, according to a March 25 letter from ResEd Assistant Dean Amanda Rodriguez to TDX leadership.

TDX received the lowest score, a “3” — indicating the “needs improvements” designation— following this year’s review, and was put on probation for winter 2019. Organizations must score a “2” in order to “meet expectations” and a “1” indicates that a group has exceeded the University’s standards. Chapters that do not meet or exceed expectations are placed on probation, and have one quarter to improve their status or face removal from the chapter facility.

According to the program description, SOE reviews are based upon the Greek organization’s promotion of shared values, development of group identity and mission and adherence to community norms, among other considerations.

TDX plans to appeal the decision directly to ResEd Dean Koren Bakkegard, Garcia and Quezada confirmed to The Daily. The group has until Jan. 28 to file the appeal.

In the fraternity’s petition to defend its access to housing, published on Jan. 20, TDX leadership asked for “testimonies of Stanford students, alumni, and other relevant voices” to include in their appeal, arguing that TDX was cited for “minor shortcomings” despite “recognized improvements … and no transgressions explicitly meriting removal.”

Appeals can cite bias or procedural errors in the evaluation process or offer new information worth the University’s consideration, Rodriguez’s letter states.

Bakkegard’s response to the appeal, to be issued by Feb. 1, will be final.

TDX’s petition is modeled after Outdoor House’s Nov. 2018 efforts to defend its housing.

In Nov. 2018, residents of Outdoor House pushed back with public testimonials and administrative outreach after ResEd announced, without explanation, that it would strip the residence of its theme. Within two days, administrators extended the House’s theme. House staff said the initial decision was “an administrative misstep that resulted from broken communication channels.”

TDX fraternity to lose housing

History of the TDX review

The SOE program was established in the 2014-15 school year, with the goal of assessing Greek organizations on campus and helping them to “enhance their positive impact” on the broader community. The program launched shortly after fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) lost its housing, amid heightened national scrutiny of Greek organizations’ conduct.

The University’s first-ever SOE review in 2015 gave TDX a low score, taking issue with the chapter’s communication with ResEd as well as chapter management and finances.

Stanford asked TDX not to host all-campus parties in fall quarter of 2017 after finding that the chapter fell short of expectations for a third time. In its fall 2017 feedback, ResEd praised TDX’s efforts on diversity and communication but told the chapter to “identify, cultivate, and articulate a sense of purpose in order to ensure sustainability on campus.”

The University reiterated that sentiment last spring, telling TDX to develop its “mission, vision and group identity” shortly after warning that the organization could lose its housing in the next SOE review if it did not raise its scores. Stanford also instructed TDX to “abide by the University policy and California law that prohibits smoking inside the facility at all times,” among other directions.

That same month, Stanford’s Organizational Conduct Board (OCB) opened an investigation into TDX regarding “alcohol-related incidents” at three recent TDX social events, according to the chapter’s November submission to the University for its latest SOE evaluation. Two months later, the investigation expanded to examine another event the chapter held in April.

TDX argued in its November report on SOE progress that the chapter has worked hard to address University concerns.

Responding to the charge that the group “develop a mission, vision and group identity,” TDX noted the chapter’s heterogeneity in terms of interests and identities, emphasizing that the group’s unity revolves instead around “friendship” as well as a mission to “foster a community in which members are expected to strive towards the intellectual, moral, and social improvement of themselves and their fellow members.”

“Our members share a reflective demeanor, seeking to better themselves humbly rather than by pushing past others,” the chapter added later, saying that “there’s something about our members’ respect for and appreciation of individual struggle that makes TDX unique.”

After receiving a report from the OCB investigation, TDX wrote, the chapter cancelled all social events “indefinitely as a demonstration of good faith towards the findings of the Report.”

“This process has been uncomfortable and frustrating for the members of our organization, and canceling our social events has certainly affected the morale of our community—but we felt (and still feel) that the latter action constituted a necessary step… to ensure that our organization is doing its best to keep our fellow students safe,” TDX members stated.

The group said that it had stopped serving hard liquor at events. In the future, TDX wrote, it would take further actions to improve party safety, including checking IDs and monitoring drinks “more stringently”; putting kitchen tables away during events to prevent people from dancing on top of them; bringing in Stanford Office of Alcohol Policy and Education staff for workshops; drafting a risk management plan; and requiring members to complete sober monitoring and party-planning training.

Feedback from the University last fall credited TDX for “minor” improvements, including “fresh clarity on the foundational values of the fraternity,” but still criticized the chapter for not doing enough to meet standards. For instance, the review stated that “[it’s] great that the chapter has eliminated serving hard alcohol at social events. [It’s] also concerning, however, because that’s a practice that should have been eliminated years ago.”

After the 2018 SOE review, TDX was placed on probation for winter of 2019 and asked to create an action plan. The chapter was told that if it could lose University recognition or housing privileges if it did not improve during the probationary period.

TDX fraternity to lose housing

Perceived discrepancies in University’s approach to Greek life

In addition to the shock of finding out that TDX has lost its housing, Garcia highlighted the discrepancies between the University’s claims of support toward Greek life and what he views as its unfair punishments for Greek organizations.

Discussing a recent meeting among university officials and representatives from all campus Greek organizations, Garcia said that the university encouraged fraternities to “be excellent” and “step up and be the role models” for the campus community.

However, one week after the meeting, TDX received news of the ResEd decision.

“I understand this is not the news you hoped for, however we are committed to supporting you as an unhoused organization moving forward,” Rodriquez wrote in the Jan. 18 letter informing TDX of its housing loss.

TDX members argued that the University wants Greek organizations to stand as “pillars” of communal excellence, yet also imposes harsh sanctions on them.

“If they want us to meet expectations and to continue to improve, I think it’s instrumental that we keep this house and keep this space for the community, so that this community has a place to center around and work on the things that [the University administration] wants us to,” Garcia said.

Other TDX residents reiterated Garcia’s sentiments, saying the chapter fosters a strong sense of belonging for its members.

TDX member Luke Soon-Shiong ’18 told The Daily last spring that he felt comfortable exploring gender in TDX as someone who identifies as genderqueer. He also noted a growing Native American community within the fraternity chapter that he believes has encouraged more Native students to rush the group.

ResEd commended TDX last fall for its “equity and inclusion”— a consistent strength in SOE review reports that TDX members have emphasized amid long-standing concerns about and efforts to increase diversity in Greek life broadly.

However, Garcia speculated that rather than work alongside Greek organizations to build upon these improvements, the University is actually attempting to “cut down” on Greek organizations as part of a broader initiative to limit students’ housing options. Other members of Greek life feel similarly, says a fall Op-Ed by Kappa Sigma senior and Daily columnist Harrison Hohman ’19.

“In bureaucratically taking us down, or in kind of setting different expectations … it seems like they’re executing, with purpose, this sort of take-down to root us out,” Garcia stated.

Multiple other fraternity presidents said the same in previous interviews with The Daily.

However, Student Affairs spokesperson Pat Harris categorically denied that the University’s ResX Task Force is trying to shut down Greek life on campus by stripping fraternities of their housing.

According to Harris, Stanford’s ResX Task Force has not reached any definite conclusions about how Greek life will factor into its proposed plans to establish residential “neighborhoods,” which are housing clusters similar to Harvard’s “houses” or Yale’s “residential colleges.” The Task Force convened last spring and is charged with developing recommendations for improving residential life under the University’s long-range planning process.

Recent fraternity housing controversies

During the last five years, both the Sigma Chi and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternities have lost their Stanford housing. Most recently, Sigma Chi lost its campus residence in May 2018 after an investigation by Sigma Chi International during which the fraternity was barred from participating in spring recruitment, leaving them without a 2018 pledge class. The investigation followed an alleged January drugging by a non-Stanford affiliate at the Sigma Chi house.

A few days later, Stanford’s Sigma Chi fraternity lost its charter after Sigma Chi International voted to close its chapter at Stanford due to “risk management concerns” and “accountability issues” within the chapter. The International Fraternity’s Executive Committee said that there were “few members” who would be able to “carry the chapter forward in a positive manner.”

Three years earlier in May 2015, the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity also lost its housing following two Title IX investigations conducted by the University.

The initial Title IX investigation opened in July 2014 over concerns that SAE “caused, condoned and tolerated” a “sexually hostile environment” at its May 2014 Roman Bath party. The investigation results came out in December and led Stanford to place the fraternity on alcohol suspension, social probation and a two-year housing suspension beginning spring 2015.

The second investigation opened in March 2015 after concerns that SAE violated probation and participated in acts of retaliation or harassment that month. The investigation then expanded to look into alleged retaliatory behavior against a Title IX witness in Cabo San Lucas over 2015 spring break.

In May 2015, as a result of the investigation, the fraternity lost its housing indefinitely, and the University placed SAE on probationary status for three years.

Other currently housed fraternities include Phi Kappa Psi, Kappa Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Sigma Nu and Sigma Phi Epsilon.

 

Holden Foreman, Erin Woo and Claire Wang contributed to this report.

 

Contact Hannah Knowles at hknowles ‘at’ stanford.edu, Ellie Bowen at  ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Berber Jin at fjin16 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Researchers work to ensure data validity amid rise in online studies https://stanforddaily.com/2018/05/28/researchers-work-to-ensure-data-validity-amid-rise-in-online-studies/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/05/28/researchers-work-to-ensure-data-validity-amid-rise-in-online-studies/#respond Tue, 29 May 2018 06:43:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1141650 Amid the growing use of online survey platforms to conduct research, Stanford labs are working to both increase the number of participants in their experiments and, at the same time, reduce the inadvertent skewing of data being produced.

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Amid the growing use of online survey platforms to conduct research, Stanford labs are working to both increase the number of participants in their experiments and, at the same time, reduce the inadvertent skewing of data being produced.

The Daily spoke solely with non-profit labs on campus for this article, yet much of the research those labs conduct has far-ranging, real-world impact in areas ranging from business practices to organizational behavior to politics.

According to Olivia Foster-Gimbel, a social science research coordinator at the Graduate School of Business (GSB) Behavioral lab, such research is not intended to make money or improve advertising but rather to advance the discipline in which it is conducted.

“At the end of the day, while we are a lab in the business school, we are a psychology lab,” Foster-Gimbel said. “We might be using Doritos and Fritos [chips] as study material, but what we’re really looking for isn’t ‘do people like Doritos better,’ it’s ‘how do you pursue your goals when tempted by sugary snacks’ or ‘how do you understand interactions with other people.’”

“It is more about the psychology and getting in people’s heads than [about] market research,” she added.

In order to make psychological findings to achieve that goal, however, researchers must first produce statistically significant and replicable data; and to do that, many are increasingly turning to online studies.

Some of those researchers, such as Social Science Research Coordinator for the GSB Behavioral Lab Aastha Chadha, laud the capacity of online platforms like the crowdsourcing-based Amazon Mechanical Turk because they help to increase sampling diversity.

While the paid incentive might seem to attract a non-random or even skewed demographic of participants, Chadha said that online platforms are actually fairly economically diverse.

“People automatically assume [that] because the entire sample is all people who would take a survey for 20 cents [which is the 2 minute rate for Amazon Mechanical Turk], they must be very very poor or very in need,” Chadha said. “But the survey [population] on Mechanical Turk is a lot more diverse than you think.”

Some academics worry that participants can exploit the online interface of Mechanical Turk by, for example, taking the same study multiple times or rushing through a study without actually reading the questions.

However, according to Associate Director of the Laboratory for Social Research Chrystal Redekopp, there are significant measures in place to prevent cheating. For instance, studies often include questions that explicitly check to see if the participant is paying attention, and if answered incorrectly, the data is discarded.

Additionally, because participants have to connect Mechanical Turk to a personal bank account in order to receive payment, it is difficult to create multiple accounts.

Redekopp added that meta-experiments have been run using data replication testing techniques to gauge the validity of online research, showing that online experimentation is generally accurate.

“Most of those papers have come out on the positive side of using online platforms,” Redekopp said. “The nice thing for us is that the research community is constantly interested in the quality and efficacy of the research.”

Moreover, all of the researchers that The Daily spoke with agreed that online studies allow for cheaper access to a large pool of subjects, from which they can select for certain characteristics based on a demographic survey.

In contrast, in-person lab studies require a huge commitment of time and resources, according to Foster-Gimbel.

“To run a study online, you can get 200 people for $200,” she said. “Conversely, if you wanted to get 200 people down here [in person], at a minimum it would cost $1000, and I’ve [even] run studies that have cost $20,000.”

Despite the significant resource requirement, Foster-Gimbel said that academic journals prefer that data be collected via in-person, rather than online, for peer-reviewed studies.

“[Journals would] be more likely to publish [a paper] if it were four online studies and one study in the lab compared to five online studies, because it’s taken more seriously,” Foster-Gimbel said.

Foster-Gimbel added, however, that in lab studies suffer from similar issues.

Those issues largely relate to the much smaller pool of participants that in-lab, on-campus studies have to draw from, at least relative to online studies.

With a smaller pool of participants, researchers worry that subjects self-select and thus garner non-representative or statistically insignificant data.  

“A lot of the times, things we think are facts in psychology, when cross cultural psychologists will test [them in] different populations, they will … realize [they’re] not applicable in other contexts,” said Nicole Abi-Esber, another social science research coordinator at the GSB Behavioral Lab. “So it’s inherently problematic that we’re testing this specific sample [of Stanford students], and [students] being paid is just one of the problematic things.”

While Stanford Economics Research Lab (SERL) Director Muriel Niederle echoed some of the researchers’ qualms, she pointed out that in-lab studies are more suited to examining interaction and negotiation than online alternatives.

Niederle explained that SERL performs many game theory experiments, in which participants must think about what other participants are thinking, which can be more difficult to run online.

In-person SERL experiments ensure data validity by providing monetary incentives to participants who perform a certain way within the experiment itself. These incentives are added to the base payment, and encourage students to take the experiment seriously.

Students who participate in research often prefer those types of escalating experiments, as they offer the opportunity to earn more money.

“I think if it’s a fixed [pay] I’m less invested in whether I make rushed decisions, because, I mean, at the end of the day, who really cares?” said Alessandra Marcone ’20, a frequent study participant.

Overall, Niederle said that SERL mostly uses Stanford students for experiments that don’t require too many subjects.

Other labs, such as the Laboratory for Social Research, run almost all of their studies online because they require larger subject pools, according to Redekopp.

“We just finished a big, in-person [study] that we ran over the course of two years,” Redekopp said. “But I’d say that the majority of our studies, we run online.”

Despite the popularity of online studies, some researchers think that the digital platforms they use to conduct their research — such as the scheduling system Sona or the survey building service Qualtrics — are due for an upgrade.

“We have a lot of online systems that aren’t necessarily great, but they’re the best we have, so we deal,” Chadha said.

The GSB Behavioral Lab researchers that spoke with The Daily also explained that some of the problems with research are unrelated to their methodology, and are simply inherent to the self-selecting nature of population sampling, such as the fact that women generally take far more studies than men.

Foster-Gimbel hypothesized that this might be because there are more women in the social sciences overall, or perhaps due to greater altruistic tendencies among women.

“I think there is something about women and helping,” Foster-Gimbel said. “There’s some sort sort of [phenomena] of, ‘Oh, you need me to take a survey, sure.’”

Other researchers, such as Chadha, speculated that it has more to do with either increased female industriousness or the way that women’s social networks are structured (allowing for awareness of paid experiments to spread more quickly via word of mouth).

Regardless, this trend can sometimes make finding male subjects for experiments difficult, and is just one example of the difficulties researchers face when trying to compile a diverse pool for their experiments.

But despite the various challenges of representation and integrity, Redekopp emphasized that undergraduate participation in research — on any scale — is ultimately rewarding and enjoyable.

“It was a really enriching part of my undergraduate experience, and obviously I liked it enough to keep doing it,” Redekopp said. “It can be really fun.”

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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NYT Executive Editor: ‘Hear from other thoughtful voices even if you disagree with them’ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/03/07/ny-times-executive-editor-hear-from-other-thoughtful-voices-even-if-you-disagree-with-them/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/03/07/ny-times-executive-editor-hear-from-other-thoughtful-voices-even-if-you-disagree-with-them/#respond Wed, 07 Mar 2018 09:48:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1137931 Executive Editor of the New York Times Dean Baquet has held the newsroom’s highest ranking position since 2014, where he has overseen coverage of content ranging from President Donald Trump’s Russia controversy to reporting on Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement. On Tuesday night, Baquet addressed audience members in Cubberley Auditorium as part of an event hosted by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Prior to the event, he also sat down to speak to The Daily about Stanford’s open-mindedness to differing viewpoints, the New York Times’ coverage of Trump and how technology is changing the journalism field.

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Executive Editor of the New York Times Dean Baquet has held the newsroom’s highest ranking position since 2014, where he has overseen coverage of content ranging from President Donald Trump’s Russia controversy to reporting on Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement. On Tuesday night, Baquet addressed audience members in Cubberley Auditorium as part of an event hosted by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. Prior to the event, he also sat down to speak to The Daily about Stanford’s open-mindedness to differing viewpoints, the New York Times’ coverage of Trump and how technology is changing the journalism field.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What do you think is the most important issue that we should be reporting on here at Stanford or more broadly in Silicon Valley?

DB:  I don’t think there is a university that has had as much impact on the culture of America in the last 25 to 30 years. I mean you wouldn’t have Silicon Valley without Stanford. I think that’s a great story. I think the effect one has on the other is a great story. [On a tour today] I saw the Hoover [Institution], which is probably the most credible conservative think tank, and if it was on a campus at Berkeley it would’ve been burned down. If it was on the campus of Columbia there would be constant protests, and it’s just interesting to me.

I don’t mean that to criticize Hoover. I just meant it’s an interesting cultural phenomenon because universities have a personality. I actually think it’s a compliment, from where I sit, that you could have a conservative think tank on a university campus. There are a lot of universities that wouldn’t — the equivalent of the universities that wouldn’t have had ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps] while I was in college.

TSD:  Stanford has invited a series of leading figures, some of which have been controversial, to come speak on campus through Cardinal Conversations, and I’m interested in hearing more of what you have to say about universities inviting these speakers, and relatedly how the New York Times covers some of these small and vocal fringe groups?

DB:  I do think there’s a trend in universities now to not want to hear from a variety of voices, which makes me a little bit anxious. Again, I’m not talking about obviously racist or anti-semitic [rhetoric], but it’s not unlike what’s going on in newspapers. When the editor of the editorial page picked Bret Stephens as a columnist, people were really upset. I thought there were going to be protests. And I disagreed with that. You should want to hear from other thoughtful voices even if you disagree with them, because at the heart of journalism is inquiry and understanding. And I would say the same for universities.

Don’t forget, most journalists, including me, did not think Donald Trump would win. And that means there’s a whole chunk of the country that we don’t understand. If you only listen to people who you agree with – what’s the point of that? Stay home.

TSD: The New York Times’ reporting on Harvey Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement and a wave of reporting on sexual harassment and assault. Can you talk a bit about the particular journalistic or ethical challenges of those stories and how you/other people at The Times navigate them?

DB: They were difficult, to start off, in that all of the people we wrote about were powerful men. I mean Harvey Weinstein in his world was very powerful. And Bill O’Reilly in his world was very powerful. And people didn’t want to talk about them because they could hurt their careers. The device that made it work was that we started to understand how many of these cases had lead to settlements. And if there was a settlement that gave you a concrete way to capture the fact that something had really happened. In some cases, like with O’Reilly and Weinstein, the men themselves were just bullies. They tried to bully us — the good thing about working for a big powerful institution, is that it’s hard to bully the New York Times.

TSD: How is covering the Trump administration different than past administrations?

DB: [Trump] tells lies. All politicians tell lies, but he does it more publicly than any politician I’ve ever seen, and I covered Southern politicians. He also doesn’t have a bedrock set of principles. I was Washington Bureau Chief during the [George W.] Bush and Obama administrations. You sort of knew what Bush and Dick Cheney stood for, and you knew what Barack Obama stood for. Constant attacks on the press, which are meant to undermine all of the institutions that are independent, such as the press, the judiciary, the justice department – all of the institutions that are not beholden to him – he attempts to undermine regularly.

TSD: How do you think artificial intelligence will affect journalism?

DB: I think it will have a huge impact. Personalization, that bothers some people. That doesn’t bother me. We will always give you the big stories, and the things we honorably think you should read. But nothing is more personalized than the print newspaper. My wife, son and I would get the print paper in the morning, and I read some stuff first, they read some stuff first, but it’s always been personalized. AI will make it easier, and I think the possibilities are tremendous. I’m sure there will be bad stuff. But all of this stuff ends up being better for journalism. Don’t be in league with the people who look at every change as something really awful.

TSD: What keeps you up at night?

DB: A lot of things. I have reporters who are covering war. I’ve had reporters who have worked for me who have been killed or almost killed. At the height of America’s various wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other places, I’ve had to participate in the decision about whether or not [a reporter] could go someplace. Good war reporters always want to go where the action is. But war today is very different than it once was. If you read the accounts of Vietnam and elsewhere, both sides sort of understood that reporters were neutral. That’s not the case anymore. I mean the people who the US is engaged in wars with are very angry with the US, and do not see reporters as neutral. One of the reporters who I was closest to on the NY Times staff – I had also worked with her at the LA Times – was almost killed in a helicopter crash a few years ago. When I first saw the pictures of her I was certain she wasn’t going to make it. I was the one who had to call her mother and her sister and her husband to tell them what happened. And that’s what keeps me up at night.

This transcript has been lightly edited and condensed.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the name of NY Times columnist Bret Stephens. The Daily regrets this error. 

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AOERC women’s training hours stir controversy, men’s hours instated https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/26/aoerc-womens-training-hours-stir-controversy-mens-hours-instated/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/26/aoerc-womens-training-hours-stir-controversy-mens-hours-instated/#respond Tue, 27 Feb 2018 07:02:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1137397 The newly launched women-focused athletic training sessions offered by Arrillaga Outdoor Education Recreation Center (AOERC) have sparked a debate over whether they discriminate on the basis of gender.

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The newly launched women-focused athletic training sessions offered by Arrillaga Outdoor Education Recreation Center (AOERC) have sparked a debate over whether they discriminate on the basis of gender.

After reading about the “women’s-only” sessions in The Daily last week, Adam Behrendt ’19 filed a Title IX complaint to the U.S. Department of Education and a gender discrimination complaint to California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which enforces the Unruh Act prohibiting arbitrary discrimination on the basis of gender. Behrendt also filed an Act of Intolerance report through Stanford’s Student Affairs office.

Following Behrendt’s reports, Stanford added weight-lifting sessions focused on men’s exercise, offering the same number of hours per week as the women’s sessions and in the same studio.

Behrendt said he does not plan to rescind the complaints in the aftermath of Stanford’s policy change.

“Am I hurt from women’s-only anything? Probably not,” Behrendt said. “Does it sort of bother me that it sort of undermines the gender equity push? Yeah.”

In a written statement to The Daily following the release of the initial article, University spokesperson E.J. Miranda said that the women’s-focused hours were originally instituted as a response to a survey conducted by Stanford Recreation, through which many women and trans women reported that they were not comfortable lifting weights in Stanford’s athletic facilities. According to the survey, this discomfort stemmed from a lack of privacy, pressure to hurry and religious reasons, among other factors.

While Stanford Recreation did not previously receive feedback that men were not comfortable lifting weights in the facilities, they decided to add the men’s-focused sessions following the complaints, according to Miranda.

The women’s training hours began Jan. 29 and are held twice a week in a studio that is usually reserved for personal training and has never had open fitness hours. Miranda clarified that no equipment in the studio was taken from any other Stanford athletic or recreation facility.

“All community members may drop in any time the studio is open (regardless of gender focus),” Miranda wrote in his email statement. “No one is being banned because of gender.”

After reading about the women’s-focused training hours in The Daily last week, Behrendt contacted Jennifer Sexton, director of fitness and wellness programs and one of the creators of the women’s hours, to voice his concern that the hours perpetuate gender stereotypes.

In an email response to Behrendt, Sexton clarified that the original intention for the women-focused training hours was to create a place where all women, including trans women, felt comfortable, and were not specifically created for beginning lifters as many of the women participants are advanced.

Behrendt argued that the exclusion of men from the training hours was discriminatory, pointing out that the reasons women mentioned in the survey – religion, privacy and pressure – did not solely apply to women.

“I think you are still missing the point,” Behrendt wrote in response to Sexton. “Excluding men from a gym in order to make women more comfortable … potentially violates state and federal law.”

Behrendt also explained that he was interested in Stanford’s approach to anti-discrimination law.

“I’m not concerned with the impact of two hours or four hours a week at a gym,” Behrendt said. “I’m concerned with understanding how the University applies anti-discrimination laws to itself, and whether they’ll be honest about that.”

Behrendt then filed the Title IX and Unruh complaints and submitted the Act of Intolerance report.

“I’ve had a lot of problems with the University in a pseudo-legal sense, and so if there’s an opportunity I try to understand what they do and why,” Behrendt said. “I think it’s a bit hypocritical for the University to say, ‘Hey, we don’t discriminate on the basis of gender,’ and then to say, ‘Oh well, except for when we do.’ That’s not consistent.”

Behrendt also consulted Mark Perry, a professor of finance and business economics at the University of Michigan-Flint. Perry wrote in his blog “Carpe Diem,” run through the American Enterprise Institute, that “The new women’s only policy that discriminates against men appears to violate Stanford’s own policy of nondiscrimination.”

Stanford’s non-discrimination policy prohibits, among other things, discrimination on the basis of gender identity.

Two years ago, Perry brought attention to a similar issue at Michigan State University (MSU), where there was a women’s-only study lounge. After hearing about the lounge, he submitted multiple discrimination complaints to MSU and wrote a blog post about the situation. The lounge was eventually shut down.

Associate Dean of Students Dr. Alejandro Martinez, who heads the Act of Intolerance Protocol, referred Behrendt’s Act of Intolerance complaint to the Title IX Office. As of Monday evening, Martinez did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

Behrendt also reached out to Lauren Schoenthaler, senior associate vice provost for institutional equity and access, regarding the issue.

“Reinforcing the ‘need’ for gender segregation only undermines advances in participation, pay and other areas of gender-inequity,” Behrendt wrote in an email to Schoenthaler.

However, Miranda stated that the space is open during its drop-in hours to all community members, regardless of gender focus.

“It is unfortunate that in an effort to ensure the well-being of all community members in response to raised concerns, an initial solution to ensure that women and members of the transgender community felt comfortable working out generated a concern of exclusion,” Miranda wrote.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Adesuwa Agbonile at adesuwaa ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Kimball posters ignite free speech debate https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/12/kimball-posters-ignite-free-speech-debate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/12/kimball-posters-ignite-free-speech-debate/#respond Mon, 12 Feb 2018 08:48:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1136598 A series of politically-charged posters placed on — and subsequently taken down from — the walls of Kimball Hall over the past few weeks have sparked debate surrounding free speech and community standards on campus.

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A series of politically-charged posters placed on — and subsequently taken down from — the walls of Kimball Hall over the past few weeks have sparked debate surrounding free speech and community standards on campus.

The controversy originated on Dec. 15, when a Kimball resident’s immigrant resource poster, which displayed a hotline for alerting family members to immediate U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) activity, was torn off of her door and replaced by a handwritten “#BuildTheWall” sign.

The appearance of subsequent flyers and posters satirizing the original hotline poster – some of which were removed by Kimball staff due to concerns about community standards – has led to heated discourse within Kimball and the wider Stanford community about the scope of free speech.

Stanford administrators have advocated for free speech on campus, as outlined in President Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Drell’s ‘Notes From the Quad’ statement earlier this year.

 

Kimball posters ignite free speech debate
Posters highlighting the tension between free speech and inclusion caused controversy in Kimball Hall. (Courtesy of Andrew Todhunter)

Timeline of events

According to Andrew Todhunter, Resident Fellow (RF) of Kimball, the unnamed resident who put up the original poster advertising the ICE rapid response resource hotline on her door was “completely entitled” to do so.

When the unidentified person replaced the original poster with the “#BuildTheWall” poster on Dec. 15 — a few days after the original posting — Kimball staff were immediately alarmed that this constituted an Act of Intolerance in their dorm.

“I had never seen anything like it in my close to five years as RF in Kimball,” said Todhunter. “[It was] shocking to all of us, and seemed cruel and deeply intolerant … and quite a hateful thing.”

Kimball staff filed a formal Act of Intolerance with Residential Education, and are still unaware of its official status, according to Todhunter and a Kimball staff-wide email sent to The Daily.

At the beginning of winter quarter, Kimball staff sent out an email which said that Acts of Intolerance were unacceptable in Kimball. The staff chose not to mention this specific incident in order to protect the targeted resident, Todhunter clarified.

On Jan. 20, another ICE hotline poster was torn from the resident’s door. In response to this act, three students – Jessica Reynoso ’20, Mayahuel Victoria Ramírez ’20 and Araceli Alicia Garcia ’20 – printed over 200 more of the yellow ICE hotline posters with the support of Stanford’s branch of Chicanx Student Movement of Aztlán (MEChA). They proceeded to post flyers all over the foyer and in many of the hallways of Kimball.

In a Daily op-ed published last week, these three students expressed that they, along with MEChA, wanted to stand in solidarity with the resident who was targeted. The students also expressed frustration with what they described as a “vague” response from Kimball, in regards to the email sent out to residents.

“We felt that we had to address the situation in a more concrete and explicit way due to the lack of meaningful and decisive action on behalf of Kimball and University staff,” the students wrote in their Op-Ed.

Reynoso, Ramírez and Garcia went on to describe that the lack of response from both the University and Kimball to a “blatantly racist and xenophobic” event was alarming.

“As people who are directly impacted by the hateful rhetoric of the current political climate, and on behalf of our fellow resident who was directly impacted by hateful acts in their own home, we felt that we could not let the issue go unresolved,” the students wrote.

In response to student concerns, Associate Dean of Residential Education Jennifer Calvert wrote to The Daily, “The student staff, RFs and ResEd professional staff are working together to address the incident, respond to student concerns and move the community forward.”

 

Satirical posters

Kimball staff said that they eventually had to remove the plethora of ICE hotline posters from the foyer because they were overwhelming the residence’s entryway. Prior to doing so, the staff consulted with Reynoso, Ramírez and Garcia. The flyers were then returned to the students to redistribute.

However, on Jan. 24, different posters were put up in the residence, which further stirred controversy among dorm residents. These posters satirized the original ICE reporting hotline by offering up a hotline to “report legitimate law enforcement activity” because “beloved community criminals deserve protection from Trump’s tyranny.”

In the context of the original filed Act of Intolerance, staff members wanted to remove the satirical posters due to concerns that they violated community standards of respect, Kimball staff wrote in a jointly-authored email statement to The Daily.

Staff talked to the Residence Dean Lisa De La Cruz-Caldera, who told them that if they collectively felt that the flyers could be seen as an Act of Intolerance to the dorm, that the staff could remove them, according to the email statement.

“The flyers were still anonymous at that point and we were not yet certain about their connection to the previous poster incidents,” staffers wrote in their statement. “As a staff, we felt these flyers constituted an [Act of Intolerance], so per the RD’s communication, we took them down.”

However, following the removal of the satirical posters, the student who put them up – Isaac Kipust ’20 – came forth to Todhunter to ask why they had been removed.

“Here was an issue where there was only one side being represented, so I decided … I could represent another side,” Kipust explained. “Then after I learned more about what the ICE flyers meant, I had come to disagree with my own flyers, but I think it’s just as important for my flyers not to come down, especially by staff members.”

According to Todhunter, staff explained to Kipust that in the context of recent events, the flyers seemed “hurtful and inconsiderate.” However, Kipust argued that the removal of his posters violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

“I went and explained to them that free speech is important,” Kipust stated. “Instead I was told that because it offended people it wasn’t acceptable speech in Kimball.”

 

Ensuing Discussions

Staff members decided to set up a meeting between the involved parties and various ResEd and Kimball staff. However, after the fact, the students and staff involved felt that the meeting was unproductive.

“The dialogue [in the meeting] was enormously uncivil,” Todhunter said. “It was extremely upsetting.”

Reynoso, Ramírez and Garcia expressed in their Op-Ed that the meeting was full of verbal attacks and insults, rather than meaningful dialogue. They also relayed their frustration with the lack of empathy in the discussion for the emotional impact of the postering events, and felt that the context of the original “#BuildTheWall” incident was not sufficiently addressed.

“The resident who created the mocking flyers would not have done so if he was not emboldened by the original ‘#BuildtheWall’ flyer that had been plastered on another resident’s door,” the students wrote in their Op-Ed. “The events and their impact are clearly and intentionally conflated to further inflict fear and hate.”

“The substance of my flyers didn’t motivate me; principle did,” Kipust wrote in a Stanford Review article. “I was determined to fight for every Stanford student’s right to share their opinions in any manner they wish.”

He argued that this constituted dangerous censorship, which violated “Stanford policy, California state law and the Constitution.”

Staff members also expressed dissatisfaction with the results of the meeting.

“Given that all parties felt wronged in different ways, it was difficult to reconcile intent and impact and come to a united resolution,” Kimball RAs wrote.

Afterwards, Kipust proceeded to meet with Cruz-Caldera, who, after speaking with him, concluded that the Kimball staff’s act of taking down the satirical posters violated his free speech, and staff were informed that he would be allowed to put his posters back up.

Cruz-Caldera did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

Residential Education then released a temporary poster policy, which mandates – among other things – that flyers only be posted on public bulletin boards or doors of a student’s own room, and that they must contain the name of the individual or organization who posts it.

Referring to this policy, Calvert wrote, “We have implemented an interim flyering policy for Kimball to assist in more clearly setting the standards and expectations.”

 

Community response

In their post on free speech, Tessier-Lavigne and Drell emphasized that they viewed the statement as the “start of a conversation,” but to many Kimball residents, including ASSU Undergraduate Senator Chapman Caddell ’20, the conversation in response to these events was unproductive and even, at times, hostile.

“Isaac was well within his rights under the First Amendment and California’s Leonard Law, but his flyers were hardly conducive to a productive debate on immigration policy,” Caddell stated.

Caddell continued on to state that the subsequent discussion in Kimball, especially through their dorm email chain, was “uncivil.”

“We have the right to behave as children, but the responsibility to behave as adults,” Caddell stated.

Todhunter also emphasized his disappointment in the lack of beneficial debate about differing views, which he sees as one of the hallmarks of a college education. He went on to state this his goal is to cultivate an environment of mutual respect, where the focus is on the real-life effect of actions, not their technical permissibility.

“It was saddening and ironic to see the first amendment used to shield, if not an Act of Intolerance – and that remains to be seen – a kind of discourse which is not inclusive, which is divisive, which created very clear and palpable suffering on the part of certain residents,” Todhunter stated.

In contrast, Kipust contends that this situation evidenced a deep misunderstanding of free speech rights by the people who students interact with most often. Kipust emphasized the importance of being able to express one’s point of view, and while he believes that free speech is properly supported by Drell and Tessier-Lavigne, he stated that RAs and RFs are more concerned with “not offending people.”

“They don’t seem to understand that the goal of making people feel comfortable shouldn’t be subordinate to protecting free speech,” Kipust stated. “I think the university needs to do more and I hope they will do more in the future to better execute their free speech policy on a more local level.”

Kimball staff lamented the fact that this could have been a chance for a productive debate about immigration, and instead turned into a dispute over what is allowed on a bulletin board.

“The recent dialogue surrounding free speech on campus has felt increasingly like a debate about how provocative or potentially harmful speech can be before it becomes intolerable,” the Kimball RAs wrote.

They went on to express that the emphasis should not be on the limits of provocation, saying that “to allow such an important issue [as immigration] to fade into the ‘background,’ especially when it involves deep sensitivities about identity, race, status and so on, feels wrong.”

Residential Education wrote to The Daily that they are collaborating with communities across campus to better address this problem in the future.

“These issues are complicated, but it’s important that we confront them as an academic community that promotes the free expression of ideas, as well as the inclusion of people of all backgrounds and perspectives,” Calvert wrote.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu

Vibhav Mariwala and Julia Ingram contributed to this report.

 

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Brain folding sheds light on neurological diseases, researchers find https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/05/brain-folding-sheds-light-on-neurological-diseases-researchers-find/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/05/brain-folding-sheds-light-on-neurological-diseases-researchers-find/#respond Mon, 05 Feb 2018 08:52:07 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1136127 It may seem unlikely that studying the mechanics of concrete would inform brain research. However, Ellen Kuhl, mechanical engineering professor and head researcher for the Living Matter Lab, started out studying the molecular interactions of concrete and is now applying this understanding to the field of neuroscience, where her research has led to groundbreaking discoveries about neurological disorders.

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It may seem unlikely that studying the mechanics of concrete would inform brain research. However, Ellen Kuhl, mechanical engineering professor and head researcher for the Living Matter Lab, started out studying the molecular interactions of concrete and is now applying this understanding to the field of neuroscience, where her research has led to groundbreaking discoveries about neurological disorders.

Brain folding sheds light on neurological diseases, researchers find
(Courtesy of Stanford News)

According to Kuhl, a mechanical perspective on brain functioning could have direct implications on the diagnosis and treatment of a diverse array of diseases, ranging from epilepsy to schizophrenia to autism.

In an interview with Stanford News, Kuhl said her interest lies in understanding the mechanical forces within complex systems such as the brain. She added that mechanics are integral to brain functioning, contrary to what many people may believe.

Though mechanics are highly involved in neural processes, “a lot of people think the brain is not involved in any mechanics because it’s isolated,” Kuhl said.

Neuroscientists have long understood that the folds in the brain allow for a large cortical surface area to exist in the small space of the skull. The folded feature of brain tissue is thought to increase the brain’s connectivity and computational power. Increasingly, researchers including those on Kuhl’s team have found that mechanical forces in brain folding may affect much more than space maximization — they are finding that these forces shape developing brains and may underlie diseases from Alzheimer’s to traumatic brain injury.

“The idea is to bridge from very small scales in, say, a petri dish to the real brain,” Kuhl told Stanford News.

To discover more about the little-known mechanics of brain folding, Kuhl’s team used tools traditionally employed in the study of folds in the Earth’s crust. This application paved the way for mechanical interpretations of genetic brain-folding disorders, and researchers are now applying this strategy to understand some of the most significant neurological disorders today.

However, this approach can be challenging.

“It’s a big, big step from the cell to the brain,” Kuhl said.

Despite the challenge, researchers are capitalizing on this approach to take a critical look at diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which is caused by head injuries suffered by athletes who play contact sports and is oftentimes accompanied by severe mental illness. Until now, encephalopathy could not be diagnosed without a postmortem study of the brain, but Kuhl and her team are working to change that.

To do so, Kuhl and Soichi Wakatsuki, photon science and structural biology professor, are studying the structure of neurons, in particular the axon portion of the neuron, which sends cell signals, and how it responds to the sudden shocks that accompany traumatic brain injury.

Kuhl is also collaborating with Antonio Hardan, psychiatry and behavioral science professor, and Roland Bammer, radiology professor, to examine the development of autism. The team will take some of the first measurements of brain mechanics in living people by shaking participants gently and measuring the effects of the resulting movement in their brains through MRI brain imaging.

Although the brain diseases being studied differ significantly in terms of scale — trauma happens quickly and in a small part of the brain, whereas Alzheimer’s slowly affects the whole brain, for example — Kuhl argues that this research will be applicable to any time scale.

“To us, from a mechanics point of view, they’re all kind of the same,” Kuhl told Stanford News.

Within a decade, Kuhl believes that this research will lead to the construction of a brain model that traces the mechanical influences of brain folding from prenatal development through disease and long-term decline.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Time off Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2018/02/03/time-off-stanford/ Sun, 04 Feb 2018 06:09:30 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?post_type=tsd_magazine_post&p=1135688 By the end of his sophomore year, Adison Chang ’19 was “done” with Stanford. Burned out from juggling his extracurricular commitments and frustrated by his major requirements, Chang felt like he’d lost sight of his purpose at school. “I was like, ‘Why am I here? What do I want out of my time here?’” He […]

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By the end of his sophomore year, Adison Chang ’19 was “done” with Stanford.

Burned out from juggling his extracurricular commitments and frustrated by his major requirements, Chang felt like he’d lost sight of his purpose at school.

“I was like, ‘Why am I here? What do I want out of my time here?’”

He took a leave of absence. Over 200 Stanford undergraduates do the same each year, according to Corrie Potter, Associate Vice Provost and director of Stanford Institutional Research.

Students’ reasons for taking time off from the Farm range widely, going far beyond the Stanford stereotype of the computer science major who leaves to work in tech or found a startup. Some take leaves to pursue a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; some like Chang leave to get distance from the college experience; still others leave because of circumstances beyond their control.

Whatever their reasons for leaving, students whom The Daily spoke to found themselves gaining new perspectives — and coming back to Stanford without regrets.

Time off Stanford
(Courtesy of Jess Fry)

Realizing a dream

The decision to take time off comes easily to some.

“[It] was kind of a no-brainer for me,” Jessica Fry ’19 said. “When you have the opportunity to perform on Broadway, you don’t miss it.”

Fry, a Physics and Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) double major, has always been interested in theatre and has danced since she was three years old. She is highly trained in multiple forms of dance including ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop and tap, with credentials from renowned dance programs such as The Juilliard School and American Ballet Theatre.

For her first two years at Stanford, Fry was involved in many performing arts groups on campus  from Cardinal Ballet to Urban Styles to Ram’s Head Theatre — on top of her Physics core courses and research. As a consequence, she spent many hours rushing between the physics lab and the ballet studio in order to keep up with both her training and her academic pursuits.

When asked how she had time to juggle all of her extracurriculars on campus, she replied, “I actually have a time turner like Hermione Granger, so that helps out.”

Fry might have continued pursuing both passions on campus, like many Stanford students who are interested in both artistic and academic careers. But in spring quarter of her sophomore year, her agent in New York called her about an opportunity to audition for a role in a Broadway play. She jumped at the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.

Like Fry, Josh Petersen ’18, a German Studies and Philosophy major, was eager to realize a longtime dream through his leave of absence after receiving a fellowship to study at the University of Freiburg in southern Germany. This particular fellowship had been his goal ever since he attended a BOSP summer seminar there after his freshman year.

“It was the perfect storm of networking and financial opportunities,” Petersen explained. “And after two years here and a little burnout, I figured it was time for me to get away, get out and get a little perspective.”

Time off Stanford
(Courtesy of Adison Chang)

Bursting the Stanford bubble

For other students, the decision process is much less clear-cut.

Chang, who is studying Symbolic Systems (SymSys) and TAPS, just returned from two quarters on leave, during which he studied at a Kung Fu Academy on the Kunyu Mountain in China and then traveled solo through Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Korea.

Chang decided to take time off in part due to academic burnout. Towards the end of his sophomore year, he was taking what he describes as “really lame” and difficult SymSys requirements while also trying to balance his theatre commitments as a member of Stanford Shakespeare Company.

“Since I wasn’t enjoying my SymSys classes, and I knew I wanted to pursue theatre after graduation, I was kinda beginning to lose sight of what I wanted to get out of my education,” Chang said. “SymSys just seemed like I was doing it because it seemed like it would get me a financially stable job, and I didn’t really have any deep love for the subject.”

Chang said his parents understood how confused he felt and were very open to letting him take time off to do something non-academic and garner more life experience. So in winter quarter of last year, after attending Stanford in New York in the fall, Chang packed his bags and moved to a remote mountain village in China’s Shandong Province.

Chang was drawn to the disciplined and rigorous lifestyle practiced at the martial arts academy, which he says was the exact opposite of his schedule at Stanford.

By the end of sophomore year, Chang said, he would miss his morning classes and wake up at 3 p.m. due to the excessive stress from his overwhelming academic and extracurricular commitments. In stark contrast, at the academy, Chang would wake at 6 a.m. everyday for Tai Chi before breakfast. From 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., he attended classes in various martial arts practices, ranging from Shaolin-style Kung Fu basics and mountain running fitness to Qigong meditation and Chinese language.

Still other students decide to take a leave of absence in part because they want to make their college experience more intentional.

“I’ve heard that graduating in four years is good for employment,” said Jessica Luo ’19, “because it shows that you’re good at meeting deadlines and being competent in general, but there are other ways to signal that.”

Unlike Chang and many other students, Luo, a SymSys major, never intended to graduate in four years when she started her freshman year at Stanford. In high school, her chemistry teacher and mentor advised her to consider taking time off if she didn’t know what she wanted to do with her time in college by the end of freshman year, and she heeded this advice.

When she was younger, Luo was set on going to art school: A trained visual artist, she focuses mostly on drawing but has also branched out to painting, sculpture and video. Luo explained that in deciding to come to Stanford, she had to relinquish not only this idea of going to art school but also her original, clear idea of what she wanted to do in the future. Because of this, she had difficulty finding academic direction her freshman year.

“With college apps, especially the essay, you are giving an account of yourself, and you have to have a certain kind of certainty about what kind of person you are and what interests you have — and be really sure about that, or otherwise you’re not going to be able to fit into the tiny space they give you,” Luo explained. “I was very conscious of this when I was writing the essays — that I was constructing a persona — but I think I was kind of holding on to it.”

Because she felt tied up to the identity she constructed, she had trouble eliminating options and admitting that some things interested her more than others, Luo added.

“It was really compelling to have this clearly articulated person that I could be,” she said, “except being that person wasn’t really getting me anywhere at Stanford.”

Time off Stanford
(Courtesy of Jessica Luo)

She began thinking of taking a leave of absence just two weeks into fall quarter, after reading a text from a Chinese philosopher in one of her Structured Liberal Arts Education (SLE) core courses and being reminded of her desire to improve her Chinese language skills in college. With the encouragement and support of her parents and mentor, Luo decided to spend fall quarter of her sophomore year in Taipei at the National Taiwan University and winter quarter in Beijing at Peking University learning Chinese.

There are, of course, many other students for whom a leave of absence is less of choice than a necessity due to circumstances beyond their control.

“My decision to take a leave of absence wasn’t a decision at all!” wrote one student, who wishes to remain anonymous given the personal nature of their responses, in an email to The Daily.

“My parents got divorced in June of this year, and the updated financial award I received … was not even close to commensurate with my new level of need,” the student wrote, explaining that Stanford was already a financial stretch for them and that most family expenses doubled with the divorce.

The student went on to say that they decided to take a leave rather than transfer to a less expensive institution in large part because of the support of friends.

“Over the course of this prior year at Stanford, I was pretty miserable,” they continued. “Fall and winter quarter were marked by a continuation of my anxiety and depression, contrary to what every rosy-tinted account of Stanford led me to expect.”

The student said their mental health struggles eventually culminated in larger issues that made life at Stanford increasingly difficult; they spent the summer on campus as a “poly-addict” working to support their drug use.

“During spring quarter, when the campus to me seemed ever more histrionic and detached from how I was feeling, I slipped into severe substance use, to the extent that I began neglecting every responsibility and activity that previously I was sure were inseparable from my identity,” the student said. 

Jerry Brower ’20, a Computer Science major from a Native Alaskan whaling community, took time off during winter quarter of his freshman year in order to support his family during a difficult time.

Time off Stanford
(Courtesy of Jerry Brower)

“Over the past few years at boarding school, everytime [my family] needed me, I couldn’t be there because, you know, high school is mandatory,” Brower explained. “My family relies on me to be a father figure for my little nephews … and they want me to be a bigger part of their life and put them on the right track.”

Brower said that he’s always felt this responsibility to care for his family, especially because of the community he comes from. During his freshman year at Stanford, Brower was constantly managing his schoolwork along with the stress of hearing news from home and the desire to be with his family.

“It was always kind of known, always kind of put on me from an early age.” Brower said. “It was always like okay, you’re the only son. Especially from a whaling family it’s a lot of pressure.”

Demystifying the process of taking a leave

After making the difficult decision to take time off, Chang was surprised by how logistically easy it was to go on leave.

“Stanford really wants to let students go do cool things,” Chang said. “It was one sheet of paper, literally.”

To learn more, The Daily spoke with Sally Mentzer, the coordinator of Transfer Advising and the Returning Students Process for Undergraduate Advising and Research, who advises students through both the processes of taking a leave and returning. Contrary to what students may think, the process of requesting a leave of absence is extremely easy, according to Mentzer. Students are only required to meet with their Academic Advisor (AAD) once and then simply fill out a one-page form stating a reason for their request.

Other students such as Luo echoed Chang’s sentiments.

“I didn’t even get the leave of absence form until the day housing closed,” Luo said. “This is just to illustrate how easy it is. I went to my AAD and filled out the form … and gave it back to her in the space of 15 minutes, and then I was on leave.”

Mentzer says that advisers work to support students in whatever way possible. She said the most rewarding part of her job is when students learn about their own individual strengths and focus on maximizing those as opposed to comparing themselves to those around them.

“I’m a proponent of a student making the most of their time here, whether that means four years, or whether they find they need to take time out,” Mentzer said. “I love being part of the process of resilience of students.”

Beyond classroom lessons

After taking the leave of absence, students embarked on journeys taking them miles away from campus, both geographically and ideologically. For most, the experience was both challenging and eye-opening.

Chang described the transition from “Stanford mode” — wherein you have “six different meetings in different parts of campus every day” — to living abroad as profound. For Chang, the experience gave him the opportunity to focus on just one thing at time, instead of doing everything all at once. The shift wasn’t just relaxing; it was perspective-changing.

“Stanford trains you to believe that once you graduate, your only option is to go in to work for a big tech company or other company from nine to five,” Chang said. “It’s a very normalized career path that they make us believe is the only option — at least that’s my experience. And in China, I met people who were like, ‘yeah, I’m just gonna stay at the academy for like a year … until I run out of money.’ It was really cool to meet people whose life trajectory is up in the air, and nothing is set in stone for them.”

While he was studying at the academy, Chang had a 29-year-old roommate from Australia. One day, another student asked his roommate what he was doing with his life, pointedly referencing the fact that he was almost 30 years old and still living out of a backpack with no structured plan for the future.

Chang said it was really powerful to hear his roommate answer: “I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing.”

Luo, too, experienced a perspective shift.

Through her experience studying Chinese language, Luo began to see herself less and less as an inadequate Chinese speaker and more as a Chinese language learner. As a result, Luo said, she was able to actualize the cliché of adopting a “growth mindset” as opposed to a “fixed mindset.”

“I realized that a lot of my frustrations came from expecting myself to be able to do something naturally,” Luo said, “instead of thinking of it as just a skill I hadn’t acquired yet.”

Petersen said that one of the most eye-opening parts of his leave was being in what he dubbed the “foreigner box” for the first time. In his first week in Germany, Petersen visited the immigration office everyday in order to transfer his tourist visa into a student visa. However, due to the influx of people and the incredibly high demand for immigration office services, he was unsuccessful for the first four days. Finally, on the fifth day, he got up at 5 a.m. and was able to get to the line in time to make an appointment for that day.

For some people in line with Petersen, obtaining a visa in a timely manner was far more pressing. One woman was leaving the country to go home and visit her dying mother, but her visa was set to expire while she was gone. If she didn’t get her visa renewed that day, she would have had to choose between seeing her mother before she died or being able to assuredly return to the country where her children live.

“It was jarring beyond an academic sense,” Petersen said. “When we think of mass immigration, we think about people on boats in the Mediterranean; we see all these pictures of people coming in on trains and being greeted in stations — but there’s a more realistic aspect to it of people trying to learn the language and no one being there to teach them, of people trying to get visas legally and not being able to and there not being an infrastructure for them.”

Part of Petersen’s motivation for taking the leave of absence was a sense of wanting to have more responsibility, and this is something he’s confident he gained. When asked why he thinks one can’t learn these “adulting” lessons by staying at Stanford, Petersen said that the “crises” students face in the adult world are more removed at Stanford. And rightly so, he added, but that’s not how the real world works.

“I’m not saying we need to add some more ‘Lord of the Flies’ back into the University,” Petersen joked. “There was just some sense in which I felt ready to be more in the world.”

Peterson said it was empowering to confront the threats and obstacles that riddle real life — and to find that he could make it on his own.

“I got mugged in Poland, got robbed once or twice and pick-pocketed and locked out of my apartment when it was 17 degrees outside, and there were four inches of snow on the ground,” Peterson recalled. “No matter what happened, in the long run it was fine, and I figured it out.”

Time off Stanford
Art that Jessica Luo encountered on her travels (Courtesy of Jessica Luo)

Rare experiences

While it would be hard to return from a leave of absence without a good story or two, few people can say that they shot an attacking polar bear during their time away. But Jerry Brower can.

To support his family, Brower is currently spending a year at home in Nuiqsut, Alaska — a city at the northernmost tip of Alaska with a population of approximately 400 people, mostly members of a Native Alaskan tribe who work as whalers.

One day while out cutting up whale meat with the other hunters, Brower noticed a polar bear waiting nearby and getting increasingly impatient. When it finally charged at the group, Brower was forced to shoot it to save their lives.  

Apart from whaling work and family responsibilities, Brower is using his leave to teach, from sharing his hunting and cooking skills with his nephews to leading coding lessons for the local school children.  

“I’ve done a lot of stuff at the school,” Brower said, “I went there and talked to the kids about where education could get you. In rural Alaska — middle of nowhere, with 400 to 500 people — there’s not a lot of CS known. So I want to go home and be able to give and hopefully get people interested in [CS], or at the very least, let them have some fun with it.”

Overall, Brower says spending time with his family and being there for the little things like birthdays have been meaningful for him.

“The whole experience in itself was very empowering — I got to solidify what I value and what I hold dear,” Brower said. “And being able to grow as a person from it and take this time off from school — my first break from school in years — being able to step back from it and see it from a different lens, that really makes me miss Stanford all the more.”

While Brower has to shoulder significant responsibility in his family, he does not see it as a burden — to him, family and community have always come first.

“I’ve never thought negatively about it,” Brower said thoughtfully. “Yes, I took time away, but this is my family. I need to take care of them. They’re under my wing. Whatever happens, I’m going to be there.”

In a very different way, taking time off has also allowed Fry to focus on something she loves — dance. Her year away from Stanford was devoted to rehearsing and performing for her Broadway debut.

“This has been a dream for me ever since I was a little girl,” Fry said. “When I was 10, I traveled to New York for a dance competition and saw my first Broadway musical, “A Chorus Line,” and fell in love with it. It’s been my dream ever since then.”

Fry laughingly said that the experience has all felt surreal until recently when she got her first paycheck, which made it real to her that she was a professional dancer and could call herself that.

Another big moment for Fry was walking in to Broadway’s Cort Theatre for the first time and seeing the set, the stage and her name on the dressing room.

“That’s when it finally hit me that this experience was not just something in my dreams,” Fry said.

This summer, Fry also had the opportunity to pursue another, quite different dream of hers: particle physics research. She spent the summer months leading up to her Broadway debut in Geneva, Switzerland researching at the Center for European Nuclear Research.

She explained that at Stanford, she was used to balancing dance and physics; the harder thing for her this past summer was switching from sitting at a desk programming and doing equations all day for 10 weeks to the two-week pre-show period where she was dancing eight hours a day.

Back home to the Farm  

For other students, transitioning back to life on campus also brings the fear of losing friends and falling behind in their academic careers compared to their peers.

Petersen explained that he didn’t discuss his leave with his friends beforehand because he had already made up his mind and didn’t want them to influence his decision. Afterwards, however, he says many of his friends were shocked and skeptical.

Petersen pointed out that many people take two quarters abroad during their junior year, and students don’t find that weird — but “up and leaving is considered crazy,” he said. Many of his friends asked if he was nervous about not graduating with other people or losing touch with friends.

“I lied and said ‘No, not at all,’” Petersen said. “But I was. I think the idea of people having a whole year of life without you — well you want to think that you’re an absolutely critical part of your friends’ lives and [they of yours], but their lives will go on without you and vice versa; that’s just how it is.”

Mentzer, who runs a support group for returning students, said that many students come to her with these concerns after taking time off, only to find that their worries are typically quickly assuaged.

For Chang, re-joining the Stanford community was easier than he anticipated, but he said that transition was eased by his summer work for Stanford repertory theatre, where he reconnected with many of his friends from the Stanford Shakespeare Company.

Both Luo and Chang said that their friends tended to tread carefully around the topic, even though taking time off wasn’t exactly stigmatized.

“The only reason I have to believe that there’s a social stigma is how careful people have been to express their supportiveness very obviously,” Luo said. “They’ve been very deliberate in saying this is a good thing, not saying quite as clearly ‘I don’t think badly of you for it,’ but a lot of people think I might be insecure about it.”

The anonymous student echoed Luo in their email to The Daily.

“I could tell from the ubiquitously gloomy tone of [friends] responses that they considered my taking an LOA as more of an abnormal setback as opposed to a genuinely good thing,” they wrote. “But I can’t blame them; a few months ago I thought the same way.”

Chang said that there is a sort of mystery to the idea of taking time off, since people do it for such disparate reasons. Many students avoid the topic altogether as a result, he observed.

Fry, on the other hand, said her friends were very supportive of her decision, which she attributes to Stanford’s interdisciplinary culture.

“One thing I love about Stanford is its encouragement of interdisciplinary pursuits — everyone at Stanford does so many things.” Fry said. “It didn’t feel super unusual to spend hours in the studio and then hours in the lab. That two-sided thinking is very encouraged, and that’s one of the things that drew me to the school.”

Brower said his friends and dorm staff, especially his freshman RA, were there for him throughout the process, from his initial decision to leave to his time away from Stanford. He recalls many people taking the time to talk through his situation with him and updating him regularly via email till today.

“Their main focus was making sure that you were gonna be okay before coming back,” said Brower. “In the short time [I was at Stanford], I connected with a lot of people… I’ve been keeping in contact with everybody, and they still say that they miss me. I feel like my friends are still there for me, and they’re definitely waiting for me to get back.”

Time off Stanford
Adison Chang came back to Stanford refreshed after spending time at a monastery in China (Courtesy of Adison Chang).

Approaching Stanford anew

Momentary anxieties aside, if he were to repeat his Stanford experience, Peterson said he would definitely take a leave of absence again.

“I might even take another one and be Class of 2020,” He said with a laugh. “I don’t buy into the four-year plan. I think people are at different maturity levels and in different places. I don’t think [the four-year structure] has to be for everyone … and [none of my friends who took leaves] have ever been like, ‘I wish I had that year back.’”

Chang agreed with Peterson, commenting that his time away expanded his horizons and gave him time to think deeply about how he wants to approach his education.

Each student The Daily spoke with views Stanford in a different light after spending some time away.

“I still see it as this magical place where opportunities are made,” Brower said. “But looking back at it, I look at it from a sentimental point of view that makes it look even more magical with the sunshine all the time … and I tell the story from a different point of view — from a storyteller’s point of view.’”

Fry shares his nostalgia for the University and the people that comprise it.

“I’ve come to appreciate the intellectual vitality of Stanford’s campus,” Fry said, “[and] those late-night conversations in dorms about very philosophical concepts. It’s rarer to find those things in a work environment, outside of the university setting. That’s something I’ve learned that I really do value.”

Mentzer says many of the returning students she advises express similar feelings of newfound appreciation and also become more intentional in their approach to college in general.

“I can’t remember anyone being dissatisfied that they took a leave, and I think many of them appreciate Stanford more when they return,” Mentzer said. “And many also change their [academic] focus … [after realizing] ‘oh, I go to a liberal arts school, and maybe I’m being a little narrow in my major,’ so they add in some other kinds of classes to be more balanced.”

Mentzer also commented that many students feel better equipped to make friends and participate in the Stanford community after returning.

Now that he has returned to campus, Chang feels that the experiences he had on his leave have influenced the way he sees Stanford.

“[At Stanford] I was largely surrounded by people of a certain socio-economic background,” Chang said. “Abroad I met people from all different backgrounds, which really put Stanford as a special bubble into perspective a little more.”

His leave of absence also changed his attitude towards his academics.

“At the end of my sophomore year, I was just taking classes just to take them… I wasn’t putting much thought or effort into what I was taking or how I would take them,” Chang said. “But now I feel more intentional about the way I’m approaching my schoolwork.”

For students who were feeling disenchanted or burned out, taking time off gave them new perspective on Stanford and on themselves.

“So, while technically I took an LOA to work and save to be able to return, I also took it to rehabilitate myself and rediscover the person whose attributes got me to Stanford in the first place,” the anonymous student wrote. “I’ve been clean of all substance use since taking it, and I’m on track to get a very decent-paying job in my local tech industry.”

For Luo, her time in China was a time of personal growth as well as academic growth. Having to focus solely on learning Chinese while abroad helped her to develop better study skills, but above all, Luo says the experience has shown her what she wants out of the rest of her Stanford experience.

Because she was spending so much of her time during her leave studying, which could be isolating at times, Luo began to realize that when she returned to campus, she wanted to prioritize building stronger relationships. The process of language learning also led Luo gradually to Symbolic Systems and Comparative Literature.

“Because I grew up in a place that doesn’t emphasize humanities education in the same way, I don’t have that kind of skill, but because of that I’ll try to develop it through studying Comparative Literature,” Luo said. “Before it seemed to me that it was a certain type of person that I wasn’t.”

Luo’s break from Stanford freed her from viewing school as stress-inducing and pressure-filled and opened her to a new approach to her education.

“I have spent more time doing acquiring things to be curious about,” Luo said.

While the decision to leave can be difficult and sometimes less than voluntary, each student The Daily spoke to described their time away as a period of growth — and, at times, healing.

“I’m happier than I ever was while [at Stanford], and I’ll return to campus a rehabilitated and strengthened individual,” wrote the anonymous student.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate introduces resolution to support professional development for campus service workers https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/10/senate-introduces-resolution-to-support-professional-development-for-campus-service-workers/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/10/senate-introduces-resolution-to-support-professional-development-for-campus-service-workers/#respond Wed, 10 Jan 2018 08:56:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134884 The new resolution encourages the University to promote learning opportunities for service workers, stating that the inconsistent and long work hours of employees — especially in dining halls — currently prevents them from accessing professional development.

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In its 16th meeting, the 19th Undergraduate Senate introduced a joint resolution to support professional development for service workers on campus. The resolution encourages the University to promote learning opportunities for service workers, stating that the inconsistent and long work hours of employees — especially in dining halls — currently prevents them from accessing professional development. The joint resolution will be introduced to the Graduate Student Senate tomorrow night and voted on next week.

The resolution also endorses a professional development proposal created in collaboration with Habla, Tutoring for Community and SEIU Local 2007 which demands that the University execute a training and development plan for service workers. Both the proposal and the resolution affirm the key role Stanford service workers play in facilitating a healthy and productive environment for all community members and points out that many service workers have stated that professional development programs such as English language and GED tutoring have direct applicability to their jobs.

Senator Lizzie Ford ’20 authored the resolution and is also helping to craft the proposal. Ford stated that a second resolution regarding professional development will be presented next week. The new resolution will be geared specifically towards dining hall workers as this subgroup has different needs than the general service workers population.

Ford added that there is strong faculty support of the proposal and resolution, stating that “there’s definitely faculty in line with our views on empowering workers here at Stanford.”

The resolution will be voted on in next week’s Tuesday meeting and is likely to pass unanimously, according to Senate Chair Kojoh Atta ’20.

“They serve us our food, they make sure our campus is clean and looking as beautiful as it is,” Atta said. “I definitely think that any way we can support them … as a Stanford body is very powerful, and I’m glad there is so much student support and attention to this issue.”

Senate legacy

Atta also encouraged Senators to “push through and finish strong” in their remaining time with the 19th Undergraduate Senate. Atta and Senator Remy Gordon ’20 are working to establish that legacy in collaboration with President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s Chief of Staff Megan Pierson, who is currently leading many long-range planning (LRP) initiatives. Through meeting with Pierson, Atta and Gordon hope to keep the University accountable to the student input they received regarding LRP proposals, especially in regards to the potential Redwood City expansion.

“When we first arrived as senators we had a long laundry list of requests and recommendations that the student body had [for long-range planning],” Atta stated. “We want to see how our input is being utilized.”

Annual grant funding and fee waivers

In the meeting, Senators emphasized that the annual grant application window for student groups is currently open on their website and will close on Jan. 26. Senators are working to promote the annual grant time period, and encourage student groups to apply before the deadline to receive ASSU funding for the year.

Senators also discussed the ASSU student fee waiver, which allows students to choose not to fund certain campus organizations through the Student Activities Fee, which is otherwise automatically charged to any Stanford student enrolled in degree-granting programs. Senators recommended that students think carefully before deciding to waive the fee, as doing so could affect student groups’ budgets and students’ ability to participate in and benefit from group resources.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Nov. 10: On this day in Stanford history … https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/09/nov-10-on-this-day-in-stanford-history/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/09/nov-10-on-this-day-in-stanford-history/#respond Fri, 10 Nov 2017 07:08:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1133171 The feature “On this day in Stanford history … ” details unusual or humorous events that occurred on the same date or week in past years from The Daily archives.

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Nov. 10: On this day in Stanford history ...
Nov. 9 in Stanford history (The Stanford Daily Archives).

The feature “On this day in Stanford history … ” details unusual or humorous events that occurred on the same date or week in past years from The Daily archives.

According to The Stanford Daily archives, on Nov. 10 in …

1894: Sigma Nu allowed Justice of the Peace Gilbert W. Wigle to entertain political friends in its house. A “very large” crowd came. After the politicians discussed a talk they had attended earlier in the evening by a law professor, the house was opened up to guests and “songs were sung and dancing was enjoyed.”

1897: An article lamented the fact that graduation took so many great musicians away from campus and pled for any freshman artists to join the Ladies’ Mandolin Club, which was tragically affected by such vacancies. The recruits were welcome to attend club meetings “whether or not they are personally known to any of the present members of the club.”

1898: The annual Princeton Cane Spree took place — an event in which sophomores wrestled canes from freshmen who tauntingly carry walking sticks, as was the fashion for gentlemen of the time.

1954: Frosh began collecting wood for the Big Game bonfire, with each wing of Encina Hall scheduled for either an afternoon of wood collecting or a 12-hour shift of guarding the said wood, which had to be watched around the clock.

1960: The Daily Cal went from a daily publication to a weekly publication due to financial problems.

1970: The Stanford Police Chief spelled out University’s general policy regarding marijuana violations, saying that police did not make a point of looking for pot or rounding up drug offenders.

1990: A new Tree was announced and interviewed. The Tree described himself as a “balding junior majoring in philosophy who copes with pressure of always being funny” and continued on to discuss his journey to Stanford, saying, “I guess I was first planted in a small little town called Cinnaminson, NJ, and then I was uprooted out to California.” He also described plans to renovate the Tree costume by adding a refrigerator and cable TV.

1997: The Daily announced the end of an era as Stanford chose PCs over Mac computers as its standard.

2004: Peter Trinca, a manager of the Pulse Copy Center in Tresidder Union, was arrested on charges of grand theft. He used dubious billing methods to defraud the University of approximately $1.5 million between 2000 and 2003.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu

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[magazine] The Archivist: A living time-machine engineer [copy ep] https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/08/magazine-the-archivist-a-living-time-machine-engineer-copy-ep/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/08/magazine-the-archivist-a-living-time-machine-engineer-copy-ep/#respond Wed, 08 Nov 2017 22:04:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1131535 The Hopkins Room in the Bing Wing of Green Library is spacious, with large, arched windows featuring a magnificent view of Hoover Tower and lined with antique books in wooden bookshelves, giving it that distinctive old book, museum-y smell. This beautiful room is the headquarters for the University Archives, which are not, contrary to what […]

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The Hopkins Room in the Bing Wing of Green Library is spacious, with large, arched windows featuring a magnificent view of Hoover Tower and lined with antique books in wooden bookshelves, giving it that distinctive old book, museum-y smell. This beautiful room is the headquarters for the University Archives, which are not, contrary to what one might assume, located in hidden underground vaults deep within a mountain. With its juxtaposition of antique furniture against top-notch computers and digitization tools, the room is at once historical and futuristic: a perfect reflection of the work that is accomplished there.

 

Preserving and creating narratives

The goal of the University Archives is to preserve institutional memory by capturing student and faculty life at Stanford and to make this content available to researchers and students. With the archives spanning over 60,000 linear feet of manuscript and archival material and containing almost 300,000 books, this is no light task. Charged with deciding what is archive-worthy and what is not, the archivists play a unique role in the simultaneous preservation and creation of historical narrative.

The University Archives is not the only such repository on campus. While the Special Collections branch of Stanford Libraries manages the University Archives, Curators, Reading Room and Manuscripts divisions, the other repositories include Stanford Law School, the Hoover Institute, the Stanford Medical History Center and the Archive of Recorded Sound. There is even an unofficial annual get-together of archivists, where they all convene to discuss ideas for enhancing Stanford’s various collections.

The University Archives has a small staff, with only three full-time archivists, and, according to Head University Archivist Daniel Hartwig, it is difficult to say when the Stanford collection exactly started. There have been four official head University Archivists: Ralph Hansen (who in 1965 was the first to take the role), Roxanne Nilan, Maggie Kimball and now Hartwig.

In his current role, Hartwig collaborates with University offices, faculty, student organizations and institutions to take in materials, write descriptions of them to be used by researchers or in exhibitions and often digitize them. He hopes to broaden the diversity of collections and types of stories that the Archives harbors and also to raise awareness of its tools and interesting collections to the broader University community.

“[Something is archive-worthy] if it documents the history of the University with a keen eye to research value,” Hartwig said. “But this research value changes and evolves. In the past it may have been letters or manuscripts; nowadays, it’s computer files, data sets, email… It gets more sophisticated and more complicated.”

Hartwig contends that while his job is not as grandiose as it might sound, it also does not fit the image of the archivist as someone who simply stores antiquated objects on dusty shelves.

On the contrary, archivists thoroughly engage with the material by describing and organizing it, and researchers in turn analyze and take inspiration from it. Almost every archivist that The Daily spoke with described their work as an extremely active process. 

“I fell in love with the tangible history of seeing in my studies works or ideas that literally changed the world,” Hartwig said. “I was just fascinated by those materials.”

 

Diversifying collections

Across the board, one of the major goals of repositories on campus is to diversify their collections to better represent Stanford students and faculty.

Jenny Johnson, Collections Management and Processing Archivist for the University Archives, explained that working with many of the researchers and putting on exhibits has shown a need for more inclusive collecting and outreach to historically under-documented groups such as women, communities of color, activists and LGBTQ groups.

Assistant University Archivist Josh Schneider also commented on this effort to collect underrepresented materials, officially titled the “Make Your Mark” campaign, stating that archivists are less afraid of exhibiting forward thinking and becoming political where it matters.

“Archivists as a profession are moving away from the idea that we need to be entirely neutral when it comes to collecting,” Schneider said. “[We are] committed to providing that larger context … moving towards being committed to social justice, to being inclusive.”

Drew Bourn, historical curator at the Stanford Medical History Center, spoke to this idea of the archivist as a promoter of social goals.

Bourn collects materials both about the history of medicine at Stanford Medical School and about the history of medicine in general, and he believes that some of the most interesting work that can be done with primary source materials in medicine has to do with social work in relation to race, immigration, gender, sexuality, and labor and capital.

“Being an archivist means you are responsible for making sure the primary source material of history is available and accessible to researchers today and in the future,” Bourn said. “[These materials] are there for researchers to put the pieces together to help us understand the past and figure out why things are the way they are now.”

Part of the Medical History Center’s collection includes materials from a former student at Stanford Medical School, Leo Stanley M.D. ’12, who went on to become the chief medical officer at San Quentin Prison. His papers documented the unethical experiments he conducted on prisoners as part of his research on eugenics. To Bourn, these papers testify to the history and evil of white supremacy and the denial of prisoners’ rights.

But not all of the collections are grim. The Medical History Center also houses the papers of Adelaide Brown, who graduated from Cooper Medical College (a precursor to Stanford Medical School) in 1892 and who later opened up a family planning clinic in San Francisco. (Although it was highly illegal to provide information about contraception, she felt it was important for women, especially poor women, to have this information.)

 

Archiving in the digital age

Preserving these materials for the future can be a difficult task. Schneider and Johnson pointed out that, counterintuitively, the digital materials are actually at the highest risk of obsolescence. Hartwig echoed their sentiments, pointing out that the fundamental challenge of contemporary archivists is that software is ever-evolving and impermanent, which creates complications for preserving digital media. Hartwig used the examples of AOL Instant Messenger and Myspace, jokingly commenting on how communication via these mediums is lost to the void of software obsolescence.

If archivists do not preserve digital media in a timely manner, it is lost forever. Because of this, the University Archives has focused much of its efforts lately on its digital repository. While digitizing materials can be both expensive and difficult, Hartwig believes the benefits outweigh the costs. Hartwig explains that if nothing is done with the magnetic video and audio recording in the archives, it could lose $44 million, according to a cost of inaction calculator that he and his team utilized.

The headquarters of the operation to digitize and provide access to media materials in the collections is the Stanford Media Preservation Lab in Redwood City. The lab consists of three specialists: Media Production Coordinator Geoff Willard, Audio Digitization Specialist Nathan Coy and Moving Image Digitization Specialist Michael Angeletti.

If the Hopkins Room of the University Archives is the quintessential archive base — with its antiquated books and boxes filled with artifacts — the Media Preservation Lab is its 21st century counterpart. It consists of two separate high-tech recording studios, a video lab and an electronics work studio. All of these studios are used by the members of the lab to create objects for the digital repository, modeled after work done at Indiana University and The British Library.

The recording studios are soundproofed and contain advanced software and audio devices used to digitize outdated record players and compact cassette tapes, while the video studio contains many old-fashioned film monitors and tapes.

All of this equipment is serviced in the electronics work studio, where the team cleans and fixes old technology using parts purchased from anywhere they are still sold (primarily eBay). They also call in specialized mechanics who are often retired or the sole technician still working with that format of media. While the process of digitizing so much content can be cumbersome, lab members on the whole state that they enjoy the work.

“My favorite part of this work is the content,” Angeletti said. “It’s hard to imagine doing this job if you don’t really enjoy the material you’re working with, and they do have some really fantastic collections. You’re learning something new every day.”

Franz Kunst, Processing Archivist for the Preservation Lab, said that the most rewarding part of the job is when collections start coming together thematically.

“[My favorite part of my work is] when you have a mess of a collection, and you sort it into an order… it’s a tricky thing, and it takes a lot of experience and a lot of judgement calls,” Kunst said. “But there are so many occasions where I will sort through a bunch of papers that don’t make sense, get them into chronological order, and then you see this narrative that just suddenly pops out.”

Some of the highlights of Stanford’s collections include early photographs of Eadweard Muybridge (the founder of motion photography), papers from Black Panther Party members, the largest collection of rare books written in Arabic script (dating back to the 13th century) and recordings from Allen Ginsberg (an American poet and one of the lead figures of the Beat generation).

To the archivists, while these materials are incredibly unique and valuable in and of themselves, they’re not worth anything if they sit on a shelf somewhere, unused. Teaching, learning and research based on these materials adds the real value, so the archivists of Stanford’s collections strive to make them increasingly known and accessible to the academic community and beyond.

Although it may evoke a history already set in stone, in reality, the University Archives is anything but stagnant.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Obituary: Former Stanford provost, William F. Miller, dies at 91 https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/29/obituary-former-stanford-provost-william-f-miller-dies-91/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/09/29/obituary-former-stanford-provost-william-f-miller-dies-91/#respond Fri, 29 Sep 2017 08:09:33 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1130429 Miller served as provost from 1971 to 1978 and was also a founding member of Stanford’s computer science department.

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Former Stanford provost William F. Miller died at the age of 91 on Wednesday, Sept. 27 in Palo Alto.

Obituary: Former Stanford provost, William F. Miller, dies at 91
William F. Miller (Courtesy of Special Collections & University Archives).

Miller served as provost from 1971 to 1978 and was also a founding member of Stanford’s computer science department. As a pioneer in the field, Miller was one of the first to apply computational strategies to business throughout the world, from Silicon Valley to Asia. During his career, he worked as a business leader, nonprofit founder, wildlife conservationist and government advisor. Miller also served as a faculty member, provost and acting president under former university president Richard Lyman.

“Bill was a great university citizen whose influence at Stanford and in Silicon Valley has been remarkable,” said John Hennessy, former Stanford president and director of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, in an interview with Stanford News. “He led SRI [the Stanford Research Institute] through a critical period of expansion and diversification and was an early advocate and champion for building bridges and collaborations among the countries and companies on the Pacific Rim.”

Miller devoted a large part of his academic and business career to making scientific research more systematic and mathematical. After joining Stanford to head the computation team at SLAC in 1964, Miller expanded research in the cutting edge field of computational science and experimental data interpretation, encouraging Stanford to invest in the field as an early predictor of its importance in both academia and industry.

Since his retirement from active teaching in 1997, Miller continued to be active in the Stanford community and in research. At age 84, he co-authored his last research article with Charles Eesley, which analyzed the economic impact of Stanford’s innovation and entrepreneurship.

Besides his accomplishments in research and business, people close to Miller also described him as a generous man.

“Bill and his wife fostered two orphan children who had cystic fibrosis,” said Patricia Devaney, associate dean of research, emerita. “He gave away more than half of his wealth to charitable causes long before it became fashionable to do so. He was an astute judge of people and showed an extraordinary spirit of generosity with his time, help, money and wise counsel to so very many people.”

Miller and his wife Patty, who passed in 2008, were also avid wildlife conservationists and nature photographers.

Miller worked as provost during some of the most foundational moments in Stanford’s history, facing events as varied and challenging as student Vietnam war protests to the founding of Stanford’s computer science department.

“Meeting with him was like touching a very important part of Stanford and Silicon Valley history,” Eesley told Stanford News. “The high standards that he held himself to, and the excellence to which he strove made me realize the type of extremely high-quality, diligent people who helped make Stanford what it is today.”

Miller is survived by his son, Rodney, and daughter-in-law, Olivia Miller, of Redwood City; and his brother, James L. Miller, a farmer in Vincennes, Indiana.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Stanford Women’s Action Network promotes women’s rights https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/02/stanford-womens-action-network-promotes-womens-rights/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/02/stanford-womens-action-network-promotes-womens-rights/#respond Fri, 02 Jun 2017 08:54:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128889 In the midst of political discord, a group of Stanford students, faculty and administrators are working together to take actionable steps toward ensuring women’s rights through the newly formed Stanford Women’s Action Network (SWAN).

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In the midst of political discord, a group of Stanford students, faculty and administrators are working together to take actionable steps toward ensuring women’s rights through the newly formed Stanford Women’s Action Network (SWAN).

Stanford Women's Action Network promotes women's rights
Professor Estelle Freedman (Courtesy of Stanford News).

Estelle Freedman, Edgar E. Robinson Professor in United States History, and Allyson Hobbs, associate professor of history, worked together in January along with other Stanford faculty to bring a group of Stanford students to the Women’s March in Washington D.C. SWAN formed in the aftermath of the event as a way of maintaining activist momentum. Freedman explained that, as historians, she and Hobbs recognized the significance of the march and wanted to offer students who might not have been able to do so otherwise the chance to attend.

“This was one of those historic events that we wanted our students to be able to observe, witness, process, write about, think about,” Freedman said.

Following mobilization for the Women’s March after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the group had many ideas but not much coordination, Freedman said. Freedman and Hobbs decided to reach out to some of the students who had marched and enlist them in putting together a weekly news digest of both local and national events.

Stanford Women's Action Network promotes women's rights
Professor Allyson Hobbs (Courtesy of Stanford News).

“My goal is to try and enable students to have resources to be engaged citizens,” Freedman said. “To get out of the bubble of Stanford and to look at the larger world and to think, ‘How can I be engaged?’”

SWAN’s first event, a panel discussion titled “Resilient Resistance,” took place on May 8.  Students advertised the event, and faculty spoke to an audience of approximately 50 people about topics such as reaching out to the community through the press, taking steps to help the national women’s rights movement and continuing to fight for the goals outlined by the Women’s March.

The group has since grown from the small handful of students who took part in the Women’s March to about 250 people in total.

Callan Showers ’19, one of the founding members of the group, works alongside Hobbs and Freedman to produce and edit the weekly newsletter. She said that the most impactful part of working with SWAN has been seeing the same solidarity she witnessed at the march.

Showers explained that SWAN has given her the opportunity to work with great professors and not only stay politically involved herself, but also help others do so. Showers noted that the act of creating something that is easily digested and relevant to the community has been particularly rewarding.

“Even though I’m not personally affected by the Trump administration every day, I want to be a part of the resistance,” Showers said. “But it can be easy to fall off of that train. SWAN became a built-in way for me to not only disseminate information to the rest of the community and be a resource, but also learn about resources that I didn’t know were out there and partake in them myself.”

Showers feels that SWAN members are connecting to the national movement through their outreach efforts and that SWAN has the potential to make a big change through small, daily actions that are easy to accomplish.

“Seeing the audience grow bigger and bigger has been really special — to feel like what we’re doing has helped people feel involved and informed,” Showers said. “In light of a very traumatic election cycle … activism is becoming more accessible, which I love.”

Hobbs agreed with Showers’ assessment that SWAN works to give people hope and tangible goals in a sometimes disempowering political environment.

“This action is critical,” Hobbs said. “The [presidential] election was devastating for many groups of people. Certainly for women, certainly for minorities, certainly for immigrants, certainly for Muslim-Americans. For many vulnerable groups in our country … SWAN believes in the importance of intersectionality, and for that reason we try to be very inclusive in the types of actions and events we advertise.”

According to Freedman and Hobbs, the group hopes to continue to expand its network. In particular, they want to include more graduate students.

Hobbs said that she hopes SWAN can be a collaborative space where people can focus on accomplishing something positive.

“I read somewhere that perhaps one of Trump’s achievements as president is that he has united a really wide range of progressive activists who are challenging his policies, and I really do believe that,” Hobbs said.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ Stanford.edu.

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A closer look into CAPS’ relationships with other mental health resources https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/a-closer-look-into-caps-relationships-with-other-mental-health-resources/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/a-closer-look-into-caps-relationships-with-other-mental-health-resources/#respond Thu, 01 Jun 2017 07:44:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128766 The Daily sat down with representatives from several mental health groups on campus to examine how each interacts with Stanford Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and their efforts to help students in need.

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A closer look into CAPS' relationships with other mental health resources
The Bridge Peer Counseling Center is one of several alternatives to CAPS on campus (ROGER CHEN/The Stanford Daily).

This article is the third in a mini-series examining Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and how it has responded to increased community scrutiny.

Flyers for The Bridge Peer Counseling and the Confidential Support Team hotline plaster bulletins all across campus. With the multitude of mental health resources available to students, it can be difficult to keep track of where each resource fits into the ecosystem of mental health support at Stanford.

The Daily sat down with representatives from several mental health groups on campus to examine how each interacts with Stanford Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and their efforts to help students in need.

Resource allocation

CAPS, located on the second floor of Vaden Health Center, is the University’s primary counseling center. CAPS is staffed by psychologists and social workers, and has separate funding from other mental health resources on campus.

According to Vaden Director James Jacobs, the existence of other resources, such as the Confidential Support Team (CST) and the athletic department’s mental health staff for student-athletes, has a net positive impact on CAPS because it lessens the number of students competing for space at CAPS.

“In a way, resources have grown,” Jacobs said. “It’s just not CAPS resources, per se.”

The Confidential Support Team is a relatively new campus resource created in December 2014. Vaden leaders, alongside recommendations from the Sexual Assault Task Force, developed the service to be separate and insulated to ensure confidentiality and to address the wide range of needs of students who have experienced trauma from sexual assault or relationship violence, including needs that may not necessarily be related to mental health.

CST’s confidentiality sets it apart from other sexual assault resources like the Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse (SARA) and TItle IX offices. In contrast to the SARA office, CST also offers clinical services and situates itself, according to director Helen Wilson, as a first stop for students seeking healing after a traumatic experience.

According to Wilson, about one quarter of students that have suffered traumatic events use the service only once. However, in addition to confidential consultation and informational support, CST also offers more long-term counseling and emotional support.

“[The ultimate goal is] that we wouldn’t need an office like CST, but I think that is, unfortunately, unrealistic in the near future,” Wilson said. “Provost [Persis] Drell has stated that sexual assault is one of her top issues to address, so I see us continuing to have a lot of support and resources from the University.”

Wilson went on to express that while Stanford is at the forefront of providing mental health resources to students — most college campuses do not even have an office like CST, she said — these resources are still limited in their capacity to reach the broader community.

Meanwhile, counselors at The Bridge Peer Counseling Center — which shares a building with CST — expressed the same concerns about limited mental health resources.  

The Bridge is a 24/7 counseling service that is run by trained undergraduate and graduate students. Members of the Stanford community may call The Bridge hotline at any time, or drop in to Roger’s House to receive free counseling.

Rebecca Bromley-Dulfano, a counselor and university relations coordinator at The Bridge, reiterated that CAPS operates at full capacity. According to Bromley-Dulfano, The Bridge works in conjunction with CAPS and constitutes a multi-functional resource that is best for short-term care.

Bromley-Dulfano described the experience of coordinating with the SARA, Resident Dean (RD) and CAPS offices as encouraging.

“Like many people, I have frustrations with the mental health support systems at Stanford,” Bromley-Dulfano said. “But being able to talk with administrators who are working there and who are trying really hard to make sure that students get the support that they need was just overwhelmingly heartening.”

Bromley-Dulfano believes that while The Bridge and CST work to alleviate pressure on CAPS, there are still significant changes that need to be made, such as an increase in and diversification of CAPS counselors.

While the variety of mental health resources available to students cultivates a diverse and visible network of support on campus, Bromley-Dulfano pointed out that the complexity of the system can make it confusing and inaccessible to some students. To combat this, she is collaborating with CAPS to create informational videos explaining the resources available to students, which will launch on the website in coming months.

Questions of resource parity

One student-athlete, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke to The Daily about the differences between her experiences with both CAPS and Stanford Psychiatry, which is the counseling resource used by the athletic department. This student expressed dissatisfaction with the way she felt constantly shuffled around at CAPS, and claimed that the counselors she saw there were not equipped to handle the severity of her depression.

After her coaches noticed a dip in her performance at the end of her freshman year, she was referred by the sports psychiatrist to Stanford Psychiatry. Here, the student made a full recovery and was fully satisfied with the care she received.

“[As a student-athlete] I have access to facilities that are excellent and that are enough for me, but other people don’t have access to those,” said the anonymous student, adding that she believes it is difficult for non-student athletes to get into Stanford Psychiatry.

The student-athlete also claimed that she found the professionals at Stanford Psychiatry to be more experienced and that they had a wider variety of resources at their disposal, like surveys and electronic materials. She also noted that she was able to see the same therapist consistently at Stanford Psychiatry, whereas at CAPS, her appointments were with different counselors and were more spread out.

However, CAPS Director Ron Albucher said that while athletes may utilize a more complicated system, it is not inherently better. The athletic department, he explained, has several longstanding contracts with certain departments at the medical center, including the mental health department.

Because of this, athletes have both the option of contacting Director of Sports Medicine in psychiatry Lisa Post to get into Stanford Psychiatry or reaching out to CAPS. In an email to The Daily, Post wrote that the services “do our best to set appointments promptly.”

Still, Albucher attested that these differences do not affect wait times or value of care, as students are just as likely to see a psychiatrist at CAPS as they are at Stanford Psychiatry.

“It’s not a two-tiered system where athletes are getting in really fast and getting care,” Albucher said.

Albucher also noted that psychologists at CAPS are employed under the University, whereas psychologists at Stanford Psychiatry are faculty at the department of psychiatry in the medical school. He explained that department employees get better salaries and benefits than employees who work for CAPS, a problem that evolved gradually and become increasingly problematic as CAPS went from offering mostly psychological services to offering more psychiatric services.

Albucher said that while this complex system is based on history and a natural development of services, it no longer makes much sense in the status quo.

“We’re trying to address this, but we’re working in a student affairs model,” Albucher said. “It’s not a medical center model, and so the budgets are different and the incentives are different. It’s a very slow process. We’ve been working for years trying to get it closer. I’m hopeful we’re getting nearer to that point.”

Ongoing initiatives

As ASSU’s Mental Health and Wellbeing executives this past year, Emma Coleman ’17 and Hope Yi ’17, worked to revamp Stanford’s health and wellness website in order to clarify the resources available to students. Additionally, they have worked with CAPS administrators to create promotional videos that “demystify admittance procedures.”

In an email to The Daily, they expressed that the goal of the website is to help students more easily find the resources that they need.

A lot of mental health and wellbeing services are spread by word of mouth, or knowledge that is embedded in certain in-groups– which is great to see, since it means that the community that we surround ourselves with can help us meet our needs,” Coleman wrote. “But resources also need to be accessible to edge cases… We want everyone to feel as if they are not alone, and have someone to turn to in times of need.

Coleman and Yi remain optimistic about the improvement of mental health resources on campus, but hope to see increased inclusivity in future wellness initiatives.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ Stanford.edu.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the Confidential Support Team is an auxiliary service of CAPS developed by CAPS leaders. In fact, he CST was developed by Vaden leaders and considers it entirely separate from CAPS.

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Melinda Gates emphasizes confidence at campus talk https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/28/melinda-gates-emphasizes-confidence-at-campus-talk/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/28/melinda-gates-emphasizes-confidence-at-campus-talk/#respond Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:48:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126742 Gates was on campus for a fireside chat sponsored by Stanford Women in Business (SWIB) as part of SWIB’s spring executive leadership series.

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Melinda Gates emphasizes confidence at campus talk
Melinda Gates spoke at Stanford for a SWIB event (RYAN JAE/The Stanford Daily).

On Thursday afternoon, Melinda Gates — business executive and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — spoke to an audience of students, alumni and prospective freshman about leadership, philanthropy and the challenges of being a woman in the tech sector.

Gates was on campus for a fireside chat sponsored by Stanford Women in Business (SWIB) as part of SWIB’s spring executive leadership series.

Gates began the chat by discussing her path to studying computer science in college and the challenges she faced as a woman in a male-dominated field. Gates first began to code when she was a student at an all-girls parochial high school, where a teacher took a particular interest in her and encouraged her to experiment in the field. Her parents supported her interest, eventually investing in a family computer. Gates’ father, who worked as an aerospace engineer on the Apollo missions, also inspired her by proactively seeking out women mathematicians to place on his teams.

“My dad always said that his teams were better when they had women on them,” Gates said. “I would meet these women at the company’s summer picnics, and I would hear my dad talk about how amazing they were, and so he absolutely believed that women could be good in business and science.”

Gates said that oftentimes being the only woman in a lecture hall or computer science project group was daunting, but the most important thing was to maintain confidence in her abilities. Drawing on those experiences, she advised audience members to find partners who are willing to be vulnerable and admit that they also find the material difficult. She also pointed out that such collaboration made her realize her leadership potential.

“We know that women, even in the workplace, have more doubt than men,” Gates stated. “And society gives them all of these messages along the way that ‘maybe you can’t do this, and we’re not sure of you.’ You have to keep your confidence up.”

Throughout her talk, Gates emphasized the importance of surrounding yourself with challenging people who will be brutally honest with you and yet still support you. She discovered the importance of heeding honest advice while being recruited by IBM right after college; her hiring manager told her that she would have more upward mobility at Microsoft. Gates started at Microsoft in 1987 and worked there for nine years.

“We were changing the world and we knew we were changing the world,” Gates said of her early days at Microsoft.

Gates said that while Microsoft was an intense place to work, she loved the challenge. However, she said there were times when the culture of the workforce felt antithetical to her personality. According to Gates, a key moment for her career came when she decided to “try on her own style” at Microsoft. The more she did this, she said, the more she attracted sought-after developers and engineers to work for her.

Asked what the biggest challenge of working at Microsoft was, Gates joked, “Well, first of all, it’s a little challenging when you’re dating the CEO.”

Gates said she had to be careful not to come home and discuss work-related things, especially once she began managing teams, but went on to state her belief that the partner you choose in life is the most important decision you will ever make.

During their engagement, Bill and Melinda decided that their vast earnings from Microsoft would go back to society, and after the death of Bill’s mother, they started the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The foundation, built upon the conviction that all lives have equal value, works to provide health care and education in developing countries.

Gates stated that she and her husband operated as absolute equals, but that regardless, she still faced bias and implicit sexism from the beginning of her work with the foundation. People oftentimes assumed that the foundation was simply Bill’s foundation or underestimated her knowledge of world issues during negotiations. In response, Bill and Melinda made a concerted effort to overcome this inherent bias by emphasizing Melinda’s equal partnership and say in the foundation and by hiring strong women leaders for important positions.

“I think it takes incredible resilience for women to make it through this world,” Gates stated. “It’s sad for me that we’re here in 2017, and it’s still so hard for women in certain areas to make their way to the top.”

Asked if she had any advice for audience members, Gates emphasized the importance of cultivating a network of supportive friends, pointing to her good friend Sheryl Sandberg as an example. Friends like Sandberg open doors and give support in times of need, she said.

Gates’ talk concluded with four takeaways: be confident, be authentic, surround yourself with people you want to emulate and have resilience.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senators discuss lower interest in student government this year https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/senators-discuss-lower-interest-in-student-government-this-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/senators-discuss-lower-interest-in-student-government-this-year/#respond Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:01:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126535 This election cycle, undergraduate Senate candidates numbered just over half of what they did last year; while 40 students ran for Senate in 2016, only 24 ran in 2017, with only two senators running for reelection.

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This election cycle, undergraduate Senate candidates numbered just over half of what they did last year. While 40 students ran for Senate in 2016, only 24 ran in 2017, with only two senators running for reelection. The Daily sat down with a few former and current Senators to explore what may underlie this year’s decline in interest in serving on the Senate.

Variety of reasons

Reasons for the decline cited by senators ranged from the Trump administration and political disillusionment amongst students to senators’ desire to explore other activities.

Senator Gabe Rosen ’19, who is entering his second term, believes that the political climate after the 2016 election is linked to the low Senate retention rate this year. He said it may have been difficult for some students to look beyond a sense of disappointment with politics and frustration with the bureaucratic pace of change.

“It’s something I have to struggle with,” Rosen said. “Like, how can I help fight back against the bigotry of the Trump administration through my role in student Senate if we have a hard time as is even putting water fountains in Crothers?”

Rosen ran for reelection because he realized that one year was not long enough to have the kind of impact he wanted, and he plans to work next year to use appropriations for advocacy, continuing his work on initiatives like the Full House Fund.

Justice Tention ’18, who was recently elected as ASSU president, served as Senate appropriations chair during his sophomore year and chose not run for reelection last year. For his upcoming senior year, he decided to return to the ASSU by running for an executive position. Tention stated that, overall, the decision not to run for reelection is oftentimes a personal one that has to do with diversifying one’s Stanford experience, as was the case for him when he chose to focus on his job as a Resident Assistant (RA) in a freshman dorm this year.

“I gained a lot of knowledge during Senate about the ASSU… [and] what students care about and also through being an RA,” Tention said. “All of these issues need to be supported from a pretty broad base, and I just wanted to participate in some other way.”

Similarly, outgoing Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 chose not to run for reelection in part because she will be participating in Stanford in Washington this fall and wants to explore other opportunities that Stanford has to offer.

Other senators who chose not to run for another term this year, such as Cenobio Hernandez ’18, cited the high demands of the job. Hernandez also wanted to give other students the chance to learn the ropes of being a committee chair while he is still around to guide them; Hernandez served as appropriations chair this year.

Balance of perspectives

Tention emphasized that low retention rates are not necessarily negative, as new Senators bring fresh perspectives and new ideas to the table each year. However, the lack of knowledge and experience that accompanies high turnover rates necessitates an adjustment period due to a big learning curve, he said, especially in areas that have more complicated bylaws such as appropriations.

Tention added that he believes veteran senators have more realistic expectations of what the Senate can do compared to new senators, who often do not realize the limitations of the group until they are part of it.

Tention agreed with Rosen that appropriations is where the most actionable work is accomplished by the Senate. While advocacy is very important, he said, new senators oftentimes get frustrated with the bureaucracy of the Senate and its inability to enact policy on issues that require action from the administration.

Hernandez noted that he believes in the importance of funding consistency and institutional memory and as such plans to stay involved with ASSU next year. Rosen shared many of Tention’s sentiments about the importance of both experience and new perspectives, adding that retention of senators helps maintain administrative momentum on key issues.

Role of Senate

Rosen also pointed out that little is known about the Senate, and as a result, there are many misconceptions among students about what the Senate can and cannot do.

Though he did not want to minimize the importance of advocacy, Rosen contended that it is necessary for the Senate to “put its money where its mouth is” and accomplish tangible goals.

“I felt frustrated by the pace of change,” Rosen said of his first term as Senator. “I wish I could’ve changed more, but I’m very glad that I was able to do as much as I did in collaboration with everybody else.”

Katipamula argued that Senators’ roles as advocates for social change remain important, citing the Senate bill against Islamophobia and Callisto, a project to improve sexual assault reporting, as meaningful and well-publicized Senate initiatives.

She is excited to see what the next Senate pursues and said she was encouraged by the administration’s “willingness to have a conversation” with students — for example, through a recent initiative to hold administrator office hours.

“This is a key time for the Senate because there is a lot of transitioning of people coming into their roles in the administration,” Katipamula said. “Even at the highest levels of the University, with the President and Provost, they’re still new… and so they’re still learning what students want, so this is a great opportunity for the Senate to make strong statements.”

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Researchers show connection between extreme weather and climate change https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/researchers-show-connection-between-extreme-weather-and-climate-change/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/25/researchers-show-connection-between-extreme-weather-and-climate-change/#respond Tue, 25 Apr 2017 07:06:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126444 Using a four-pronged framework, Professor of Earth System Science Noah Diffenbaugh ’96 M.S. ’97 and his research team have found a direct connection between extreme weather events and human impact.

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Using a four-pronged framework, Professor of Earth System Science Noah Diffenbaugh ’96 M.S. ’97 and his research team have found a direct connection between extreme weather events and human impact.  

The team’s study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences magazine, outlines an objective approach to determining whether or not extreme weather events – such as the flooding in northern India in June 2013 or the slowly-subsiding California drought that began in 2012 – can be linked to climate change over the course of several years. The researchers discovered that, for a substantial number of recent extreme weather cases, there is indeed a connection.

“Our results suggest that the world isn’t quite at the point where every record hot event has a detectable human fingerprint, but we are getting close,” Diffenbaugh stated in an interview with Stanford News.

While scientists have historically avoided directly linking specific extreme weather events to climate change due to the variability of weather, according to Diffenbaugh and his research team, it is more important than ever to determine global warming’s role in causing record-breaking events.

The study’s multi-pronged approach reveals not only surface-level weather conditions but also underlying meteorological phenomena that contribute to these events.

The team analyzed climate change observations with advanced statistical models, a framework which the researchers say can be used to inform decisions in fields as diverse as farming, insurance and infrastructure.

With this framework, the researchers found that global warming from human emissions has made extreme hot weather events more likely across over 80 percent of the areas of the globe for which observations are possible.

“Our approach is very conservative,” Diffenbaugh said. “It’s like the presumption of innocence in our legal system: The default is that the weather event was just bad luck, and a really high burden of proof is required to assign blame to global warming.”

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Of three student referenda, none survive to spring ballot https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/06/of-three-student-referenda-none-survive-to-spring-ballot/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/06/of-three-student-referenda-none-survive-to-spring-ballot/#respond Thu, 06 Apr 2017 07:20:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125422 Although the student body will vote on a multitude of candidates and Annual Grants in the upcoming ASSU elections, absent from the ballot this year are student-submitted referenda. This election season, there were three student-submitted referenda up for petitioning; however, none of them acquired enough signatures to move forward on the ballot despite strong backing from various student groups.

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Of three student referenda, none survive to spring ballot
Despite student support, none of the three student-submitted referenda will be on the spring election ballot (EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily).

Although the student body will vote on a multitude of candidates and Annual Grants in the upcoming ASSU elections, absent from the ballot this year are student-submitted referenda. This election season, there were three student-submitted referenda up for petitioning; however, none of them acquired enough signatures to move forward on the ballot despite strong backing from various student groups.

Dethrone the ASSU

The referendum to “Dethrone the ASSU,” penned by The Stanford Review’s Editorial Board, sought to change the title of ASSU “Senator” to “student council representative” and end the compensation of senators and cabinet members. The referendum also argued that the stipend paid to senators should be redirected to the “discretionary use of the Diversity and First-Gen (DGen) Office.”

Proponents of the petition believed that the title of “senator” is inappropriate because senators spend most of their time approving budgets rather than on what critics consider to be actual political processes. Because no Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs) are allowed to compensate their officers, the article questioned why senators are given stipends when other student group leaders are not. The piece also compared the compensation of senators and Residential Assistants (RAs), claiming that senators get nearly equal pay for allegedly unequal work.

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 corrected this by noting that she receives $1,500 for the whole year while other senators receive $1,000, which is far different from the $10,000 annual salary she said RAs receive.

Former Review Editor-in-Chief Harry Elliott ’18 said that he believes the petition’s proposed changes are necessary to rebalance and restructure Stanford’s student government. He referenced the debate around whether or not to adopt Fair Trade as an example of Senate’s inefficiencies.

“In my time here, I think the waste of two weeks on discussing whether Stanford should be Fair Trade or not genuinely made me feel like I was living in a parallel reality where up was down and left was right,” Elliott said. “I genuinely couldn’t believe the extent to which people were burning valuable oxygen talking about something that was just absurdly improbable and extremely morally questionable even if it did happen.”

In its original article, the Review claimed that senator stipends were taken from student fees. A major aspect of the petition was to redirect these stipend funds to low-income and first-generation students.

However, Katipamula refuted this by clarifying that Senate stipends do not come from student fees, and that redirecting funds would be ethically unjustifiable in her view. In an updated version of the article, the Review corrected that statement by clarifying that salaries actually come from a separate endowment.

“There are so many inaccuracies,” Katipamula said of the Review’s argument. “If you want to talk about alternative facts, [the Review’s] article is full of alternative facts.”

Katipamula went on to describe the lesser-known social justice projects of senators, ranging from the Spring Break Meals Program to advocating for Stanford to adopt Callisto, a sexual assault reporting app. She pointed out that people often do not see the work that the ASSU does on a weekly basis, and that the Senate is working to make their efforts more transparent to the student body.

Katipamula also said the stipend does not incentivize students to run for Senate because the amount of money senators receive does not come close to compensating them for their time. She also argued against the suggestion that funds be redirected through the DGen office, calling this “an unnecessary bureaucratic process that doesn’t make sense” in the context of the significant support the Senate provides to help low-income students.

While the petition received over 140 signatures, some students, including Gaming Society Financial Officer Matt Mistele ’17, opposed the referendum. Mistele emphasized the importance of the Senate in ensuring that Stanford events run smoothly.

He also praised the Senate for trying to instate the reporting system Callisto, a policy he called “innovative.”

Despite the opposition, proponents of the referendum are still hopeful for change within the ASSU.

“I’m disappointed that Stanford wasn’t willing to consider the issue further, but hope our senators will continue to exercise responsible governance regardless,” Elliott said.

Initiative protecting the right to petition for Annual Grants

This petition was incited when the Senate denied several VSOs, including Band and KZSU, the right to petition for Annual Grants because they violated funding guidelines. Both KZSU and Band contested this denial through a petition that would stop Senate from restricting the right of VSOs to request Annual Grants or deny the right of a VSO to appeal Senate funding decisions. This controversy eventually led to a Constitutional Council case, which the Band and KZSU won in a 5-0 Constitutional Council vote, rendering the petition unnecessary.

“I’m happy that the referendum was not necessary due to the positive outcome of the recent Constitutional Council case,” said Eric Theis M.S. ’17, who supported the petition.  

Student Media Independence Act

The final referendum called for the creation of an independent “ASSU Media Commission,” which would serve to supervise and approve Annual Grants and other funding requests from student media groups.

Author Caleb Smith ’17, who is also a Daily staffer, felt that this separate commission was necessary to avoid conflicts of interest faced by student media groups who cover student government in their reporting and also receive funding from Senate. This referendum, which was originally presented as a Senate bill, hoped to prevent retaliation from ASSU as a result of published media content.

During a Senate meeting last month, senators took aim at the bill, saying that it was unnecessary since there have not been reported instances of retaliation in the past. In response, bill supporters argued that there was no way to prove that retaliation has not occurred, and that they wanted to prevent future conflicts of interest.

In an email to The Daily, Smith expressed disappointment that the referendum failed to get enough votes and that this conflict of interest “is already impeding media groups’ abilities’ to do their jobs.”

“Instead of letting students make the call about how much power the Senate should have, the Senate unfortunately decided to reject this measure, and our attempt [during this week’s Senate meeting] to convince them to reconsider was unsuccessful,” Smith stated in response to Senate’s rejection of the resolution.

However, senators continued to emphasize that the bill searched for a problem, creating a large burden and bureaucratic shift for a conflict of interest that does not exist.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Eric Theis was receiving an M.A., not an M.S. The Daily regrets this error.

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Senate urges CAPS improvements, tables Islamophobia bill https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/08/senate-urges-caps-improvements-tables-islamophobia-bill/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/08/senate-urges-caps-improvements-tables-islamophobia-bill/#respond Wed, 08 Mar 2017 09:15:09 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124588 The Senate unanimously passed a resolution encouraging increased funding for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), to hire more counselors. ASSU also tabled a bill on Islamophobia, prompting the act's author to leave early.

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In its 24th meeting on Tuesday night, the 18th Undergraduate Senate unanimously passed a resolution on mental health and wellness that encourages increased funding for Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) in order to hire more counselors. The Senate also approved a bill seeking comment from the student body about divesting student funds distributed by ASSU from fossil fuels.

In addition, the Senate tabled a bill addressing media independence and a bill seeking to recognize the fight against Islamophobia. The latter decision culminated in the bill’s author, Senator Khaled Aounallah ’19, leaving the meeting early after a heated back-and-forth.

Senate urges CAPS improvements, tables Islamophobia bill
The Senate urged increased funding for CAPS, tabled two bills and agreed to seek comment on student funds divestment from fossil fuels (EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily).

CAPS and student funds divestment

According to CAPS Director Ronald Albucher, the average wait-time for a routine CAPS visit is three weeks. The bill states that CAPS counselors are critically underpaid; this causes problems with staff retention rates, which in turn create a lack of continuity in services for students who return to CAPS. A counselor mentioned in the bill, who wished to remain anonymous, said that demand for counselors has increased after the 2016 election, especially amongst students from marginalized groups.

To combat these issues, the Senate’s resolution urges increased funding for CAPS to hire new, diverse counselors at more competitive pay rates.

The bill specifies that the University ought to hire counselors that better reflect the diversity of the student body and requests that CAPS place counselors at community centers and housing front desks on campus in order to reach more students geographically.

The Senate also unanimously passed a bill to seek comment from the Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) Board of Directors and the Financial Manager of ASSU regarding divestment of all student funds from the top 200 coal, oil and gas companies. In addition, ASSU will invite comment from the broader student body regarding the implications of such divestment.

Senators ultimately decided that only verified students should be able to comment via confidential online forums and that comments will not be anonymous.

“[This bill] opens up a lot of dialogue on campus, instead of rushing to a decision right away,” Chair of Academic Affairs Committee Gabe Rosen ’19 said. “[It also sets] a great standard for bills going forward: They have to have direct impact on Stanford students.”

Media and Islamophobia bills tabled

The Senate went on to discuss the “Student Media Independence Act,” a resolution authored by Caleb Smith ’17, assistant general manager of KZSU Stanford and a Daily staffer. Smith’s bill sought to prevent conflicts of interest faced by student media outlets on campus that cover the Senate and also receive funding from ASSU. The bill would create an independent commission to approve funding requests from media groups.

However, some senators, including Matthew Cohen ’18, were concerned that the act would simply transfer the same problem to another body without removing the perceived conflicts of interest. Senators pointed out that there have not been any instances of retaliation from a Senator based on media coverage in Senate’s history, and, as such, many senators expressed concerns that the bill seeks to solve a nonexistent problem.

Finally, the Senate discussed a bill to recognize and support the fight against Islamophobia. Aounallah, the author of the bill, emphasized the importance of passing the resolution immediately in order to support the Muslim community in the context of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders.

However, Senator Jasmin Espinosa ’18  felt that the bill would have greater impact if it had more student signatures. Aounallah pointed out that the bill was crafted after numerous discussions with members of the Muslim Student Union, which he is a part of. He also said that garnering credibility was less pressing than the need to show support for the Muslim community during this time. Rosen expressed support for the effort but reiterated the need for more certified student support of the bill in order to make it as powerful as possible.

After intense discussion, the bill was tabled and Aounallah left the Senate meeting before it officially ended.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Students dance away stress in new Stanford Zumba club https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/03/students-dance-away-stress-in-new-stanford-zumba-club/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/03/students-dance-away-stress-in-new-stanford-zumba-club/#respond Fri, 03 Mar 2017 09:20:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124285 In the midst of the stress of winter quarter, the newly-established Stanford Zumba club provides students with an outlet to dance out their worries and stress-eating.

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In the midst of the stress of winter quarter, the newly-established Stanford Zumba club provides students with an outlet to dance away their worries and stress-eating. The group offers biweekly classes and workshops in an aerobic fitness program inspired by various styles of Latin American dancing.

Jay Gonzalez ’20 started Stanford Zumba in the middle of fall quarter after feeling disappointed by the dance cardio recreation classes offered at Arrillaga, as well as what he described as a lack of genuine Zumba classes offered by Stanford.

Gonzalez works as a flight attendant during school breaks; he began the job during his two gap years before coming to Stanford. On the job, Gonzalez trained in and performed various Zumba techniques around the world, including in China, Russia, Thailand and Australia. Stanford Zumba’s other two instructors, Gita Krishna ’20 and Cecilia Cavelier Riccardi ’20, also have extensive dance experience.

Gonzalez said the group’s goal is to build a Zumba community that gives students a chance to increase their wellness, relieve stress and make friends. Most of the students who attend the classes have no previous experience, and the group is open to anyone. It meets twice a week on Fridays and Saturdays, in the Roble Arts Gym and Arrillaga dance studios, respectively.

Stanford Zumba has grown significantly since its inception fall quarter, and new students join each week, sometimes filling Roble Studio 113 to capacity.

Each of the Zumba instructors brings a unique style to the classes they lead, but every class includes high-energy dance moves, loud music and disco lights. The class dances to about fifteen different songs, building from a slow warm-up to fast-paced, fitness-focused dance moves that create repetitive choreography. Instructors mix up the kinds of songs they play in order to give people a break while working out.

“The greatest part about Zumba is that no one is focused on you,” Gonzalez said. “They are focused on the instructors, so you just try your best and get lost in it. Once you’ve memorized the movements, you won’t even think about it — your body will just take over.”

Students such as Izzy Jo ’20, Sofia Patino-Duque ’20, Alexandra Crew ’20 and Lilla Petruska ’20 take the class as a stress reliever and have now become self-proclaimed “Zumba enthusiasts.” They appreciate that the group is student-led and welcoming, and they love its multicultural aspect — despite the challenge of learning various dance styles, from salsa to Bollywood to samba.

“It’s very rewarding, as you go more and more, to feel like you’ve mastered a move you’ve been working on,” Jo said.

Patino-Duque added that it does not matter whether or not you are a good dancer, so long as you are present during class with the intention of having a good time.

“Zumba is a place where you can go and just forget the world, dance and leave happy,” Gonzalez said.  

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate passes resolution urging Title IX lawyer’s reinstatement https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/22/senate-passes-resolution-urging-dismissed-title-ix-lawyers-reinstatement/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/22/senate-passes-resolution-urging-dismissed-title-ix-lawyers-reinstatement/#respond Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:19:34 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123505 On Tuesday evening, the 18th Undergraduate Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning Stanford’s recent dismissal of Title IX attorney Crystal Riggins as retaliatory.

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On Tuesday evening, the 18th Undergraduate Senate unanimously passed a resolution condemning Stanford’s dismissal of Title IX attorney Crystal Riggins as retaliatory and demanding that the lawyer be reinstated.

Riggins was paid by Stanford to provide legal advice to complainants involved in the University’s Title IX proceedings. On Jan. 31, Riggins was dropped from her role following critical comments she made to The New York Times about the University’s sexual assault adjudication process. Lauren Schoenthaler, senior associate vice provost for institutional equity and access, wrote in an email to Riggins that the “lack of faith in Stanford’s Title IX Process” indicated by her public comments were grounds for termination.

Senate passes resolution urging Title IX lawyer's reinstatement
On Tuesday, the Undergraduate Senate urged Stanford to reinstate Crystal Riggins, a recently dismissed attorney who criticized Stanford’s Title IX process in The New York Times (EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily).

During its meeting, the Senate heard from Schoenthaler while students — including members of Stanford Association for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) — silently protested Riggins’ dismissal with red posters proclaiming “Students Want the Truth” and “Lack of Confidence in Stanford.”

Before the meeting, ASAP Co-President Matthew Baiza ’18 distributed a brief condemning Riggins’ termination and explaining why ASAP believes Stanford’s actions are “clearly a violation of Title IX.” The brief also condemns the University’s behavior since the dismissal as a “disingenuous” way to protect the school’s image. Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law Michele Dauber also provided a letter she signed alongside Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law Deborah L. Rhode, Professor of Sociology Shelley Correll, William H. Neukom Professor of Law Mark A. Lemley and Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor David Palumbo-Liu. The letter that noted it is not “constructive for the University to silence critics rather than learn from their concerns.”

This incident is embarrassing for Stanford and has caused me to question seriously whether Schoenthaler is really in the right role,” Dauber wrote in an email to The Daily. “It may be that her background in the General Counsel’s Office, which has the job of defending Stanford from lawsuits, including by survivors of sexual assault, is not the right sort of preparation for her current position.”

As senators questioned Schoenthaler about the series of events leading to Riggins’ dismissal, Schoenthaler emphasized that the act was not retaliatory but rather meant support complainants’ best interests.

“It is unconscionable to ask a victim to work with someone who is not optimistic about the process,” Schoenthaler said. “That is the lens through which I approach the issue.”

She pointed out that Stanford’s pilot program, which provides up to nine hours of legal advice free of charge to students in sexual assault cases, is unique, and that therefore there is no “playbook” to follow. She called the fact that Stanford is one of the only schools with such a program “shocking.”

“Stanford has spent a lot of time trying to create a fair process, but it is new and there are gaps,” Schoenthaler said. “We’re trying to course-correct and evolve. I made errors here in my communication. I can tell right now, there are those of you who doubt my motives, and that’s upsetting. [I’m] trying to do what’s best for students.”

After the Q&A with Schoenthaler, senators and students in attendance remained skeptical of the University’s motives in dropping Riggins and unconvinced that the action was not simply retaliation for Riggins’ comments to The New York Times. Multiple senators felt that the University’s “performance issue” justification for Riggins’ dismissal was simply a pretext, since Schoenthaler’s original dismissal email made no mention of it.

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 also noted that she had met with Schoenthaler Tuesday morning and that Schoenthaler’s explanation of the dismissal timeline was not consistent between the two meetings or even within the singular Senate meeting.

“Fatalistic attitude is not an indictment of the performance itself, but of the system,” Senator Gabe Rosen ’19 said during an open forum held after Schoenthaler left. “Surely during a pilot year … you’d want to get as much feedback as possible — not unilaterally terminate someone for saying something in public that you didn’t like.”

The Senate’s resolution, which passed unanimously after the open forum, asked the University to reinstate Riggins and add additional sponsored lawyers, especially underrepresented minorities, who specialize in representing complainants. Pointing out inconsistencies between Riggins’ dismissal and Stanford’s support of academic freedom of speech, the resolution also called for a standardized process for performance evaluation of all Stanford-sponsored Title IX attorneys that would be transparent to all community members.

“We’re pretty ecstatic that the Senate decided to pass the resolution condemning the termination of Crystal Riggins,” Baiza said. “We believe that the University was trying to misconstrue what actually happened, and I believe that no one in the room bought the story that was being told.”

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Q&A with Veronica Chambers, author of “The Meaning of Michelle” https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/06/qa-with-veronica-chambers-author-of-the-meaning-of-michelle/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/06/qa-with-veronica-chambers-author-of-the-meaning-of-michelle/#respond Mon, 06 Feb 2017 08:28:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122471 The Daily chatted with Veronica Chambers, author of Michelle Obama's latest biography and John S. Knight fellow, about race, our current political climate and Obama’s illustrious biceps.

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Veronica Chambers, John S. Knight fellow at Stanford, is a prolific author and journalist. Her latest work, “The Meaning of Michelle: 16 Writers on the Iconic First Lady and How Her Journey Inspires Our Own,” offers essays from 16 noteworthy contributors on what Michelle Obama means to American culture. Chambers will hold a panel on Feb. 7 at Books Inc. in Town & Country to discuss the book. The Daily chatted with Chambers about race, our current political climate and Obama’s illustrious biceps. 

Q&A with Veronica Chambers, author of "The Meaning of Michelle"
Veronica Chambers’ recently published book examines Michelle Obama’ and her legacy. (Courtesy of Jason Clampet)

The Stanford Daily (TSD): How does “The Meaning of Michelle” compare to your other works, and what, in your opinion, is the role of this type of biographical storytelling?

Veronica Chambers (VC): I had written for other anthologies before, and I always loved being in a collection with other writers. I think it’s a great way to amplify your voice. One of the very first collections I was in was a book called “The Bitch in the House,” which is women writing about work, marriage and motherhood, and at the time, I wasn’t married or a mother, but I was in this book with all these more established writers. It was a chance for other people to get to know my work … When the publication date came out for [“The Meaning of Michelle”], it wasn’t just my book — it was the conversation of 16 other people. So it’s very nice to share it, because writing is usually so solitary. It’s nice to have a project like this where it’s about conversation and ideas.

TSD: What most inspires you about Michelle Obama?

VC: Oh my god, let me count the ways. I think that from the time of the first campaign to the eight years in the White House, it meant a lot to me. When I was growing up, there weren’t a lot of women who had brown skin, who looked like me, in prominent places, either in the media or movies or TV. Then to have someone who’s not an actress … a real woman who’s accomplished, who’s super educated, excelling in her life — it’s really important and it creates a real sense of possibility. People always ask me what I think Michelle Obama’s legacy will be, and I think it’s authenticity and possibility.

TSD: In what ways will Michelle Obama use her platform as the first African-American FLOTUS to speak to the minorities in America?

VC: I think she has great bipartisan support. One of the things that she did that was very inspiring was that she took on the cause of military families. My mom was a military mom, and my dad was in the Air Force, and military families tend to be more conservative — it tends to be more Middle America, not so coastal. I think that she’ll continue to do that kind of work, looking to support communities and families that need it the most. That’s a bipartisan issue handled with grace, and I hope we get back there very soon.

TSD: In an interview with New York Public Radio, you stated that Michelle Obama “lived the questions out loud.” What kind of questions did she live out loud, and how do you think her graceful and confident example facing these questions influence women of color?

VC: I think that being a first or only is really tough. And unfortunately, we’re still at a time where there is a first black president and black first lady. When you do something that no one who looks like you has done before, there are a lot of questions — like how will you handle it? How are you different from other people? How are you the same? Are you as good as this person?

I was the first black woman editor at the New York Times Magazine – that’s crazy! I’m not that old where you’d think I could be the New York Times’ first anything, but I was… People wanted to know about things, they had questions about my hair, they wanted to know where I was from, they wanted to know if I only listen to hip-hop. When people aren’t exposed to difference, there’s a lot of burden put on you to explain.

I think one of the things that the Obamas did really well is that they really took their jobs as the president and first lady seriously, and they really handled the questions and distractions with grace. And I think that takes a lot of confidence. As the first black woman editor, I felt like I couldn’t just fade in. I never had an off-day. If I wasn’t prepared for the meeting – some of the guys would come in and say, “Oh, I was out late last night” – but if I didn’t prepare for the meeting, it was like, “Oh, we hired a black woman and look, she doesn’t have her ideas.”

The time I was there, I had so little social life, because I was trying to do my job perfectly. One of the essays in the book talks about how Michelle Obama is flawlessly imperfect. She says, “I’m not perfect, but I’m doing my best.” When I was younger, I didn’t really have the confidence to say that, because I felt that if I failed, I failed everybody who ever looked like me and whoever came before me. And that’s like a lot of pressure.

TSD: The New York Times review of your book mentioned that you wake up at 5 a.m. twice a week to get guns like Michelle — what’s your lifting routine?

VC: Well, I still don’t have her arms. But I think it’s possible. I just have not figured out the right thing for me. But I do not give up. I think the fitness that she advocated and taking care of yourself is so amazing. The president joked at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner that he looked older while she seemed to be aging backwards. Though, if you google “Michelle Obama workout routine,” there’s some things from her trainer.

TSD: “The Meaning of Michelle” was nominated as one of Book Riot’s “11 Books to Help Us Make It Through a Trump Presidency.” In today’s political climate, what kind of effects do Michelle’s words, actions and example have on our society?

VC: I was so happy when I saw that! I feel like we’re all in a little bit of a PTSD from the inauguration. So many things have happened in the last few weeks that [are] — I don’t think it’s unfair to say — shocking and frightening. But the thing is, I think that we have to carry history with us. The last eight years can’t just disappear because of what we are dealing with now. It’s been quicker and more than we expected, but we can carry the experience and the inspiration with us because I think it’s really important that we don’t fall in to disappear or give up… I really agree with [Senator Cory Booker ’91 M.A. ’92] when he says, “the power of the people is always greater than the people in power.” I think if we can keep that in mind, then we’ll be okay. It’s not gonna be easy, but we’ll be okay.

 

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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StemSearch connects computer science underclassmen with summer internships https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/02/stemsearch-connects-computer-science-underclassmen-with-summer-internships/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/02/stemsearch-connects-computer-science-underclassmen-with-summer-internships/#respond Thu, 02 Feb 2017 09:45:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122308 A new student organization called StemSearch is working to help guide computer science (CS) students through the process of finding their first summer internships.

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“What are you doing this summer?”

This stress-inducing question is on the minds of many frenzied freshmen as they wind down from the exhilaration of fall quarter and look ahead to the rest of their Stanford careers. Summer opportunities abound for students of all disciplines, but many underclassmen have no idea where to begin and feel overwhelmed by the looming threat of a summer of mediocrity if they do not meet application deadlines.

A new independent student organization called StemSearch is working to help guide computer science (CS) students through the process of finding their first summer internships. StemSearch connects freshmen and sophomores to summer opportunities geared specifically towards underclassmen and meets with students individually to offer personalized guidance, advice and resume tips.

Co-founder Priyanka Sekhar ’17 jokingly refers to the group as “the Tinder of first-year internships” because its website lists multiple frosh-centric internships that students can peruse. She and Jinhie Skarda ’17 were inspired to start StemSearch after reflecting on their own struggle to find internships during freshman year.

The goal of StemSearch is largely to help students overcome the catch-22 of needing experience in order to get experience. Sekhar pointed out that the value of a first-year internship should not be downplayed because it can help students gain experience and set them up for more opportunities down the road. Skarda and Sekhar also hold office hours during which students can receive personalized feedback on their resume.

“If you have a phenomenal first year, which leads to subsequent phenomenal summers, it could lead to a phenomenal full-time job,” Sekhar said. “We try to help people who think they’re not qualified for jobs or who can’t find resources on campus to connect with employers who are willing to take them.”

Sekhar and Skarda note that the two biggest hurdles to finding an internship are lack of information and lack of confidence: Although there are numerous career education resources on campus, including BEAM and the Stanford Computer Forum, freshmen often do not take advantage of them. According to Executive Director of the Computer Forum Connie Chan, this stems partially from the fact that undergraduates often do not get put on email lists that connect them to field-specific resources until they declare their major.

Resources for undeclared students also tend to be much more general, say Skarda and Sekhar, and not the best-suited to help this niche group of CS-oriented frosh looking to get their feet wet in the tech world.

“Just going through the recruiting process ourselves — I’ve even been a recruiter myself for a start-up — we know what people are looking for from Stanford freshmen and sophomores,” Sekhar said. “BEAM does a really good job generally, but we want to specifically target a group and do a phenomenal job for freshmen and sophomores.”

Sekhar and Skarda also hope to arm freshmen with the ability to pitch themselves: Although many have impressive skillsets and relevant experience, they do not recognize that talent or emphasize it enough in interviews.

“There is a lot of pressure, especially at Stanford, to have really prestigious names, but Google only hires a few people a year. So the question is, how do you get that experience when Google doesn’t hire you? And there are a lot of ways that may not be as standard that still provide great experience,” Sekhar said.

According to Chan, however, the number of freshman getting engaged in resources and job searching has increased in recent years, with freshman now constituting 10 to 15 percent of all the students that are involved with Computer Forum. Additionally, companies have informed her that more freshmen have been sitting at their tables during career fairs and events.

“Do not get discouraged,” Chan advised. “The CS major is very popular, but there is a wide job market and plenty of opportunities — for freshmen, it can be just a little bit more challenging.”

Yet, the rising number of students declaring a CS major over the years has left many students wondering whether the internship hunt is more competitive. According to Brett Alpert, associate dean of career education and director of career ventures at BEAM, students need not fear, as the demand for jobs and internships has actually been meeting a significant need from companies.

“While there are more computer science majors, there is also a wide variety of opportunity,” Alpert said. “The key is to connect with resources early and often.”

Alpert went on to say that resources like BEAM, Computer Forum and StemSearch all work in partnership to facilitate connections between students with the ultimate goal of helping them find meaningful work.

The next goal for StemSearch is to reach out to more students across disciplines.

“We also recognize that other majors are out there and don’t know what to do, so we’re definitely trying to open up to those fields as well,” Skarda said. “Overall, we want to teach [freshmen and sophomores] to realize that they really do have strengths.”

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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SAL open membership policy, one year in https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/sal-open-membership-policy-one-year-in/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/29/sal-open-membership-policy-one-year-in/#respond Tue, 29 Nov 2016 08:04:13 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120468 One year after Student Activities and Leadership (SAL) began rigorously enforcing its policy of open membership in student groups, the benefits of increased student membership have for some organizations come at the cost of financial strain and new administrative challenges.

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One year after Student Activities and Leadership (SAL) began rigorously enforcing its policy of open membership in student groups, the benefits of increased student membership have for some organizations come at the cost of financial strain and new administrative challenges.

SAL’s open membership policy prohibits the use of applications, resumes, transcripts and interviews to determine membership in voluntary student organizations (VSOs), and it does not allow for membership tiers within an organization. This policy solely permits “a few basic expectations to meet and sustain membership” such as attendance at meetings and events.

According to the SAL website, open membership aims to increase the inclusivity of student organizations, and make them “welcoming to all Stanford students that are interested in supporting the mission of the student organization.”

According to Nanci Howe, associate dean and director of SAL, the University has significantly increased its enforcement of this policy in the last two years due to “complaints from many students, especially frosh and sophomores who often experienced great difficulty in joining selective student organizations.” In response to these complaints, SAL conducted a random sample survey and “learned that 36% of students surveyed felt that selectivity of student organizations was extremely competitive and some felt unfair.”

Howe emphasized that the policy is essential to cultivating a welcoming and open student organization community.

“The goal of the policy is to give all students an opportunity to participate fully in a range of activities the university has to offer,” Howe wrote in an email to The Daily. “Through participation in these organizations, students develop leadership and interpersonal skills that will serve them beyond their years at Stanford and the organizations benefit from a wide range of student perspectives.”

Club leaders laud membership growth, inclusivity

Despite initial concerns that open membership “dilutes the quality of experience,” many VSO leaders support the policy’s intention, expressing their desire to include anyone who is passionate about the mission of their group. They also noted some unexpected benefits that came about as a result of reconsidering their organizational structure to better align with open membership.

Stanford in Government (SIG) chair Libby Scholz ’17 stated that as SIG started moving toward fully implementing the policy, general membership started expanding and is “the largest ever this year.” Scholz conveyed excitement about the energy, opportunity and ideas brought about by new members.

“We can do a lot more because we have more people,” Scholz said. “I hope we take advantage of everyone who is enthusiastic about politics.”

Chris Yuan ’18, co-president of Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students (BASES), said that the open membership policy also makes the selection process less arbitrary. Instead of evaluating students based on limited information gathered in an application form, club leaders now have the chance to fully evaluate students’ passion and potential based on participation and commitment.

“It’s sometimes difficult to tell a lot about a person through a single interview, and a lot of times all we can do is to make a guess based on what we’ve been told and what we can see,” Yuan said. “Having a kind of extended trial period this year, when people were on the team for a couple of weeks and doing the work, allows us to better figure out who’s not really in it, and who actually cares.”

At the same time, Stanford Women in Business co-Presidents Anna Gurevich ’17 and Kitty Kwan ’17 noted that the absence of membership selection helped the group achieve greater diversity and inclusivity.

Gurevich echoed the optimism of BASES and SIG, stating that the policy “allows us to refocus on our mission of reaching as many women interested in business as possible.” SWIB has taken the opportunity to clarify language in their constitution to be more inclusive and emphasize that SWIB encompasses all students who identify as women in business and their allies.

Logistical challenges due to larger membership

However, the leaders of SIG and SWIB also acknowledged the administrative difficulties that come with catering to a larger membership. Scholz noted that SIG has faced some monetary strain as a result of the policy because increased membership inherently “takes more funds.”

Likewise, although overall enthusiastic about the benefits of open membership, Gurevich and Kwan have noted some problematic effects such as smaller attendance at events. They attribute this to the significant expansion of the group, saying that as membership increases, it becomes more difficult to keep people accountable and involved.

Yuan added that the new policy takes away some of the club’s autonomy, especially leaders’ ability to lead and make independent decisions about their membership.

“The fact that we were selecting people previously is a good learning experience for our leaders,” Yuan said. “They got the opportunity to take on that leadership role and really think about the people that they want, the skills that they want, the type of personalities that would make a really diverse… balanced and enthusiastic team.”

Yuan also cited other challenges he faced as a student group leader, such as setting a common club vision and designing a coherent leadership structure that caters to the larger membership.

Policy enforcement too inflexible, some organizations say

Other VSOs appreciate the ideal of pursuing a more inclusive student body, but take issue with the way SAL is enforcing the policy, arguing that it prevents them from running their organizations effectively.

The leader of one pre-professional organization, Alpha Kappa Psi (AKPsi), believes that there is a mismatch between SAL’s ideals and its practices. President Grant Means ’16 M.S. ‘16, who is currently completing his co-term at Stanford, expressed a need for more flexible stipulations. Means argued that basing membership upon objective criteria is not always feasible when the organization’s aim is more nuanced and, as a result, the criteria harder to meet.

AKPsi is under SAL’s jurisdiction, rather than the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC), because it is all-gender and has a pre-professional business orientation. Means explained that AKPsi must remain somewhat exclusive to adhere to the constraints placed on it by the national branch of its fraternity, such as membership limits and payment requirements.

He added that AKPsi inevitably violates the open membership policy as a result, which has led to reproof from SAL in the form of emails that threaten to end SAL funding for the club. Means believes this criticism is both misguided and unhelpful, pointing out that AKPsi is “more gender inclusive and financially inclusive than any other Greek life organization.” Means said the tone of the negotiations with SAL has been demanding rather than collaborative.

“[We] can’t focus on ways to improve the community if we can’t even improve ourselves.” Means said. “The student community would be better served if SAL was willing to gradually help student leaders implement desired policies and give them to adjust to growing pains.”

Allen Yu ’17, president of Stanford Finance and Stanford Consulting, echoed these sentiments. He expressed that the additional stipulations imposed on VSOs, such as mandatory workshops and budget requirements, have added pressure on leaders.

“The biggest challenge this whole situation poses is that there are a lot of hoops that SAL has been making organizations go through that make it very hard for students to contribute to the Stanford community,” Yu said.

Meanwhile, SAL has maintained its rigorous enforcement of this policy.

In an email to The Daily, Howe commented, “If [groups that are struggling with the open membership expectation] cannot meet university policy they will eventually lose the privilege of university recognition and all the benefits this status brings including funding opportunities, space and use of the Stanford name.”

Howe explained that the policy ought to benefit both students and VSOs by giving all students the “opportunity to participate fully in a range of activities the university has to offer,” while organizations gain “a wide range of student perspectives”.

The adjustment has clearly been more difficult for some student groups than others. As SAL negotiations continue, Means and Yu’s difficulties with the policy recalls an op-ed last year that argued that some student groups might just “need a certain degree of exclusivity” to “create effective and supportive communities”.

However, several pre-professional organizations seem to have embraced the spirit of the policy despite initial logistical difficulties.

Gurevich said, “Even if it’s challenging, it allows us to refocus on our mission of reaching as many women interested in business as possible.”

Celia Chen contributed reporting to this article.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu and Celia Chen at xinuo ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate passes bill to increase transparency, fund revamped Full Moon on the Quad https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/16/senate-passes-bill-to-increase-transparency-fund-revamped-full-moon-on-the-quad/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/16/senate-passes-bill-to-increase-transparency-fund-revamped-full-moon-on-the-quad/#respond Wed, 16 Nov 2016 08:33:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119993 In its 14th meeting of the year, the 18th Undergraduate Senate moved to increase its transparency by passing a bill to archive recordings of open Senate meetings for public record for registered students.

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In its 14th meeting of the year, the 18th Undergraduate Senate moved to increase its transparency by passing a bill to archive recordings of open Senate meetings on public record for registered students.

Additionally, the Senate voted to fund a revamped Full Moon on the Quad, a Stanford tradition put on each year by the junior class officers, after considerations from a working group that met throughout the spring and summer. This year, the event is scaled down due to concerns regarding alcohol abuse and sexual assault, and seeks to emphasize consent, school spirit and community.

(EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily)
(EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily)

The bill to make audio recordings of future Senate meetings narrowly passed, with three Senators against and two abstaining.

The transparency bill was debated at length during the meeting, with some senators expressing concerns about privacy protection, citing the risk of non-Stanford students gaining access to the recordings. Others argued that the archive would engage students in Senate conversation and help maintain an accurate and objective record.

“This bill is a great win for transparency in our student government,” Senator Gabe Rosen ’19 said.

The Senate also appropriated $7,420 towards Full Moon on the Quad, which will take place on Jan. 12 for the first full moon of winter quarter. This cost is just over half of the cost of last year’s Full Moon on the Quad event, a scale-down that falls in line with changes recommended by a working committee that has been in place since spring quarter.

Junior Class President Catherine Goetze ’18 argued that the changes the junior class officers have implemented will make the event “less club-like.” White roses will be exchanged in an effort to place a bigger emphasis on gratitude and return to the roots of the Stanford tradition.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate funds ‘Full House’ bill, recognizes Indigenous People’s Day in lieu of Columbus Day https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/26/senate-funds-full-house-bill-recognizes-indigenous-peoples-day-in-lieu-of-columbus-day/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/26/senate-funds-full-house-bill-recognizes-indigenous-peoples-day-in-lieu-of-columbus-day/#respond Wed, 26 Oct 2016 08:00:31 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118630 In its 11th meeting on Tuesday night, the 18th Undergraduate Senate passed the “Full House Fund,” a bill that works to help low income, first generation students overcome economic barriers to entering student organizations with mandatory fees.

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In its 11th meeting on Tuesday night, the 18th Undergraduate Senate passed the “Full House Fund,” a bill that works to help low income, first generation students overcome economic barriers to entering student organizations with mandatory fees. The Senate also heard a resolution in support of Stanford’s Native American community that proposes a formal celebration of Indigenous People’s Day, as opposed to Columbus Day, on Oct. 10.

“Full House” Bill

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(EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily)

The cost of participating in many student organizations on campus proves burdensome and even prohibitive for many low-income, first-generation students. The 18th Undergraduate Senate addressed this problem with their “Full House Fund,” a pilot program that appropriates money from Senate reserves to the Diversity and First-Generation Office (DGen) to collect data and help reduce economic barriers to entry into organizations with dues and fees.

Dereca Blackmon ’91, Associate Dean and Director of Diversity and First-Generation Office, addressed the Undergraduate Senate, emphasizing her goal of making these funds as easily accessible to low-income students as possible. However, she recommended changes to certain provisions of the bill, such as requiring diversity training and sanctioning groups that do not comply.

“We don’t want a stigma about funding set aside for low-income students, that there’s this higher bar,” Blackmon said. “We don’t want to create an environment where people are compelled to training, we want them to be attracted to it.”

After much debate, these changes were incorporated into the finalized bill.

Co-author Senator Gabe Rosen ’19, applauded the Senate’s efforts to improve diversity on campus. Undergraduate Senators like Rosen have been working on this bill since last spring, and its unanimous passing on Tuesday night represents the culmination of months of research and collaboration between the Senate and DGen.

Recognition of Indigenous People’s Day

The Senate also discussed a resolution to formally recognize Indigenous People’s Day in lieu of Columbus Day, an action which follows suit with a national movement of support for indigenous peoples. Senators noted the history of Stanford’s relationship with Native Americans, especially with regard to the retired Indian mascot, and expressed surprise that this holiday had not been changed already.

Senator Kathryn Treder ’18, says that a conscious decision to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day will build upon concerted efforts to support the Native community at Stanford, efforts that include the annual Powwow on campus and the numerous programming events of the Native American Cultural Center.

“This bill is affirmation from the student body that exemplifies support for this community,” Treder said. “It means a lot.”

 

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated mistakenly that the Senate voted to approve the resolution to recognize Indigenous People’s Day. In fact, the bill was only introduced and discussed during this meeting. The Daily regrets this error.

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Senate votes to create joint committee on sexual violence, fund Mausoleum Party https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/18/senate-creates-joint-committee-on-sexual-violence-funds-mausoleum-party/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/10/18/senate-creates-joint-committee-on-sexual-violence-funds-mausoleum-party/#respond Wed, 19 Oct 2016 06:14:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1118227 The 18th Undergraduate Senate passed a bill on Tuesday night to create a joint legislative committee with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) on sexual violence. Pending ratification from the GSC, this committee will combine efforts amongst ASSU branches to analyze the current status of sexual violence at Stanford, represent student concerns to the administration and recommend changes to the Title IX reporting process.

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The 18th Undergraduate Senate passed a bill on Tuesday night to create a joint legislative committee with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) on sexual violence. Pending ratification from the GSC, this committee will combine efforts amongst ASSU branches to analyze the current status of sexual violence at Stanford, represent student concerns to the administration and recommend changes to the Title IX reporting process.

The Senate also voted unanimously to fund the annual Mausoleum Party organized by the sophomore class officers. However, the request sparked debate on the allocation of funds for this event and the sustainability of current Senate spending.

Sexual Violence Committee

The Association Joint Legislative Committee on Sexual Violence bill passed unanimously during the 10th meeting of the Undergraduate Senate this year. The GSC will meet to vote on this bill on Oct. 19 before the committee officially forms, but Senators and administrators alike are expressing their enthusiasm for this effort.

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 has high hopes for the committee.

“I think it’ll be great to have members from all three branches from the GSC, the Undergraduate Senate and Executive Committee in the room to talk about ways we can support each other in the area of prevention, education and reporting,” she said.

Katipamula believes that this committee will work to “present a united front across the entire student body” against sexual violence, and bridge the gap between administrative and student communication in regards to this issue.

The plans for the joint student committee comes after extensive discussion of sexual violence over the past year, including criticisms that the administration has not been transparent with students about sexual assault statistics.

Mausoleum Party

The Senate also approved a proposal from sophomore class president Lakshmi Prakash ’19 to allocate $19,400 toward the annual Mausoleum Party. Traditionally, the ASSU has contributed to the Mausoleum Party fund, but in recent years the cost of the event has risen, putting additional strain on the fall quarter budget.

With 54 percent of the budget for fall quarter already allocated, Senators were mainly concerned that the party would reduce funds available for worthy events and causes in future.

“The opportunity cost remains to be seen,” Katipamula said. “I’m not sure if it’s going to result in us being more stringent in what we fund this quarter, or if it is going to hit us hard at the end of the year.”

However, the Senate acknowledged that they had the ability to fund above their cap with a two-thirds majority vote if the need arose, or to spread the cost out over the course of the year.

 

Contact Ellie Bowen at ebowen ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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