Gillian Brassil – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Tue, 18 Jun 2019 00:28:47 +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 Gillian Brassil – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Brassil: Home https://stanforddaily.com/2019/06/16/brassil-home/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/06/16/brassil-home/#respond Sun, 16 Jun 2019 07:01:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155812 What is a home? I’m thinking as I pack my bags for another summer away from the Farm. I’ve defined Stanford as my home address for a while, despite my interludes away. But this break is different: it’s practically permanent. I have another quarter to finish a master’s degree, but a whole swath of people I built my home out of when I started here almost four years ago is leaving.

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What is a home? I’m thinking as I pack my bags for another summer away from the Farm. I’ve defined Stanford as my home address for a while, despite my interludes away. But this break is different: It’s practically permanent. I have another quarter to finish a master’s degree, but a whole swath of people I built my home out of when I started here almost four years ago is leaving.

I say this because the most important things I gained at Stanford are my friendships with peers, alumni and faculty. This even included friends of friends, people I’ve dated — missed connections with people I know by face, not by name. This is the community I’ve built my Stanford-home out of. As a result, these have been “the most” four years of my life: the best, the worst, the memorable.

When I came here freshman year, I only knew synchronized swimmers. The same people from the same circles I had known for the past decade of my life. Comfortable: my synchro home, which I still love and cherish. This synchro-family is a home I had known for the majority of my life, given that I had never lived any specific place for more than seven years prior to my admission. I moved into Granada with a teammate in lieu of my parents. From there, I was handed off to my two roommates: at the time, as with most freshman, total strangers, but who are now some of my closest friends.

Those friends, my dorm-mates and my teammates: that’s how I built my safety net. These are the people I went to in my time of need. I’m blessed that my safety net expanded to my classmates, my Daily and KZSU co-workers and the incredible people I’ve met through my friendship-network. I know which “family member” to go to in differing times of need: the person I have to gossip with, vent to, cry with, get a hug from, come out to and take me to the hospital at any hour. In these interactions, Stanford became my home.

Here’s a plot twist. As much as I’ve glorified the Stanford community thus far, home-building has not been a joyride. I’ve had fights over issues (large and small), hard introductions, fear for each other’s lives, painful break-ups, awkward overcomings and difficult losses. Still, the bonds I’ve created through these times have either been defining or dangerous.

By this, I mean that Stanford has not always been a safe space. Deep in the lavender file folder where I keep the written definitions I’ve been prescribed, there is a diagram I’ve been handed from the Sexual Assault Response Team. Although I don’t know the person who got me sent there, I remember the two people who gave up their nights to drive me to San Jose. I’m forever grateful for those friends; despite this, the trauma and fear associated with the night in question was petrifying, and it sent me spiraling.

But at the bottom of the spiral was where I discovered how deep my friendships ran. Yes, Title IX needs to be more helpful for victims (and I encourage the future Stanford generations to call for them to do more), but at least I learned how to rely on my Stanford community despite Stanford’s administration. I was afraid to walk alone at night for a period of time, so I recruited people to walk me home without giving them a specific reason. As we all know, those can be precious hours for working, partying or laying out a newspaper. Yet, you would be surprised how many people have volunteered at least 20 minutes of time to escort me to my room. I’m glad to have overcome this fear, but the conversations I’ve had during my escapades from various locations on campus have become some of the most memorable of my Stanford career. I’ve learned things about my friends that I wouldn’t have otherwise and I’m forever thankful for not only the time, but also the trust I’ve been offered as a result.

So, Stanford, as I prepare to “graduate,” I have to say that you are not my home. Neither is the place I lived during high school, nor is the physical home that my parents occupy. The home I’ve developed is through my relationships, good and bad, at Stanford and beyond. Not all homes are good homes, but they are homes, regardless. I’m glad to say that the home I’ve built here is ultimately good. I encourage everyone here to cherish the homes that they’ve built, because the relationships you create here are incredible. Whatever your home definition is, you have the opportunity to build a great one here. Don’t miss out.

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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On leaving the sport that raised me https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/17/on-leaving-the-sport-that-raised-me-2/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/05/17/on-leaving-the-sport-that-raised-me-2/#respond Sat, 18 May 2019 01:59:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1155115 I qualified for my first Olympic trials when I was 14 years old. Getting there was hard, but leaving the sport was harder. Synchronized swimming (now artistic swimming), as Wikipedia defines it, is a “hybrid form of swimming, dance and gymnastics, consisting of swimmers performing a synchronized routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied […]

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I qualified for my first Olympic trials when I was 14 years old. Getting there was hard, but leaving the sport was harder.

Synchronized swimming (now artistic swimming), as Wikipedia defines it, is a “hybrid form of swimming, dance and gymnastics, consisting of swimmers performing a synchronized routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied by music.”

Some people still see synchronized swimming (synchro for short) as underwater dancing performed to 1950s showtunes, but to me, it was therapy. Slipping beneath the surface, creating chlorinated currents with a cupped hand — I felt powerful. A synchro swimmer is strong physically and mentally. We lift our teammates to new heights — figuratively and literally. It is the ultimate team sport.

Synchro was my home. My safe haven. My identity.

But synchro almost killed me. Athletics are a way of life and every sport has its hurdles. Mental health issues in athletics are hard to treat and Stanford offers some resources for its athletes in need, but what are you supposed to do if you were burnt out before you even got here?

Maybe you’re a synchro swimmer, maybe you’re a varsity athlete, maybe you’re someone with a passion for something that you’ve left behind. No matter what that passion is, you’ve likely had a love-hate relationship with it. This is mine.

Therapy

When I was in preschool, I spent a month bedridden with a Kawasaki-imitation disease followed by pneumonia. I was small for my age and suffered from severe asthma. The combination of these ailments set me up to focus on academics rather than athletics. Still, my parents wanted me to be recreationally active, so they signed me up for gymnastics and ballet.

But when I was nine, I was diagnosed with hypermobility syndrome (real-world double-jointedness). I spent a year off and on crutches while my overly flexible joints prohibited me from participating on the dance floor. The doctors said, “No land sports.” Luckily, my mother met the daughter of a synchro coach who convinced her that it would be a good sport for me to try.

On leaving the sport that raised me
By the time I turned 11, I had my sights set on Stanford. I swam before school, did my homework while I waited for the bus and trained until 9 p.m. before I went home, went to sleep and started all over again. (Courtesy of Tom Brassil)

I started at my local YMCA in Andover, Massachusetts. By the time I turned 11, I had been talent-identified, as the search for synchro swimmers across the nation grew to save the dying sport. From there, I participated in a series of USA National Team camps and trials, which brought me to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.

Even though I did not make the 11-12 aged National Team, I knew I wanted to swim at Stanford some day. Stanford was and remains in the top two synchro schools in the nation. My parents came from nothing: My mother worked two jobs while pregnant with me to pay her way through law school and my father dropped out of college to become a firefighter. My grades weren’t going to be strong enough on their own, especially if I couldn’t afford tuition.

That’s when synchro swimming became my family’s life.

My mother picked up synchro coaching to aid our tiny team — but at some point, I started losing her as a mother. When I went home at night, we only talked about synchro or about the homework I needed to do. We used to fight over how I spent my time; if I wasn’t studying, I should be stretching. Mostly, we argued over my crippling shyness.

Through swimming, I learned how to express myself. After presenting myself in the pool, it translated elsewhere. In middle school, I made new friends. I flirted back when pre-pubescent boys talked to me. I befriended my teammates. My presentation in the water carried me a long way — so far that my family realized the small club team where I started couldn’t sustain my drive.

On leaving the sport that raised me
I became well-known for my presentation in the water. This solo, which I competed in as a 13-15 at Nationals, in Spain and at the following Junior Nationals, became one of my most well-known routines. (Courtesy of Roger Sommer for USA Synchro)

When I was 14, after realizing that my scores at Nationals qualified me to try out for the first phase of the 2012 Olympic trials, my mother started speaking to other coaches at a talent-identification camp. Although I had been invited to try out for a lot of National Teams, I had never made the final cut. My mother decided it was time to ship me out west to train with one of the best synchronized swimming teams in the country: the Walnut Creek Aquanuts.

My mother told me that I could either stay in Massachusetts and never swim again or move across the country. Above all, she said she hoped it would give us the space we needed to repair our relationship.

On leaving the sport that raised me
My family sacrificed togetherness for me. My father was able to move because he is a disabled firefighter, meaning he wasn’t tied to Massachusetts, where my mother is still a civil attorney. (GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily)

Three weeks after that camp, I moved to a one-bedroom apartment in Moraga, California with my father, but I wasn’t the first synchro swimmer to move West. Most of my coaches had done the same thing, and many of them have at least one Olympic title.

California

My freshman year of high school, I didn’t make any friends at school; instead, I devoted myself entirely to synchro. I did my homework in the library during lunch. I only ate meals during car rides — always the same: milk for breakfast, peanut butter sandwich for lunch and chicken with broccoli and carrots for dinner. Swimming 30 hours per week, I would have my father take me to the pool to swim on my own when I didn’t have practice.

I landed a spot on my first National Team that year. Instead of competing for them, however, I went on to represent the U.S. at the most highly regarded competition in the world for swimmers under age 15: the Mediterranean Cup. Although I placed well and left a strong impression on the international community, the most important thing I gained in Torrevieja, Spain was friendships with swimmers from all over the world. I was reminded that despite political differences, these swimmers could come together for the love of synchro.

That reminder helped me come out of my shell and further fueled my passion. I visited my mother and found that our relationship had greatly recovered. I started building bonds with other kids at school. I started chatting with my teammates about things unrelated to synchro. I was set up for a happier year in California.

On leaving the sport that raised me
My skills were what made me known internationally. Above is a picture of me performing a “split rocket,” one of many figures which synchro swimmers compete in individually to be added to our routine scores. (Courtesy of Walnut Creek Aquanuts)

Dark clouds

Synchro had been my therapy, but when I was 15, I was torn from it with multiple injuries. I fractured a rib but continued to swim. I recovered with a mild misshappenness, but the real trouble came when I tried to front-flip into the pool and landed headfirst on the deck instead.

I remember my teammates crying while one of them held my blood-covered swim cap. I was too shocked to cry. Strapping me to a backboard, the lifeguard pulled me out of the water amid the faint sound of blaring sirens. My coach was tear-stricken on the phone with my father. It was winter. I was shivering in my swimsuit and the paramedics kept asking me what day it was and how many fingers they were holding up as they loaded me into the ambulance.

My tears came when they called my mother and she started yelling at me over the phone, “Are you stupid? I told you this would happen.” That phone call left me numb.

The doctors stapled my head shut, no anesthesia required.

But the worst part of it was that I wasn’t allowed to swim for the next 10 days. Nationals were in 14. For the first time since the beginning of my freshman year, a sadness clouded my vision. I was disappointed in myself, my relationship with my mother was on edge and I felt like I was letting my team down.

Still, 10 days passed and I not only competed in, but also placed well in, all the events I had intended to at Nationals, going on to earn a spot on the Junior National Team for that summer.

On leaving the sport that raised me
After three days of training, I went on to compete in the team, duet, solo and individual categories at the 2013 Junior Nationals. This is me and my duet partner, who I lived with in my senior year of high school. (Courtesy of Brian Horii)

But that safety didn’t follow me to Riverside, California, where I was training with the National Team. Already hindered by asthma in the dry, southern California air, I decided to try something I’d only tried once before: having someone backflip off of my shoulders.

I had jumped off of people’s shoulders before, but I’d never had someone jump off of mine. The National Team coach, whose harsh style of coaching preceded her, was making us do a punishment set. I was too afraid to say that I wasn’t ready to serve as a springboard, so at the end of a long, hard practice, in an attempt to impress my coach, I let my teammate attempt take a leap of faith off of me.

I don’t clearly remember what happened next.

Someone pulled me to the surface. I remember hearing “come to the wall” and I complied. A few days later, I was tested for a concussion. The doctor said not only was I severely concussed, but also I likely had a brain bleed. I’m lucky to be writing this article for you today.

My mother flew out to take care of me — a bonding moment for us — but when she went home, I was left alone in the team cottages with my concussed thoughts. They weren’t happy ones.

Searing headaches made it hard for me to be awake for more than three hours at a time. I had no hobbies, no television that I was able to watch.

That’s when I realized I was not only lost without swimming, I was dependent on it.

On leaving the sport that raised me
The trick that left me so injured was an attempt at what we call a lift. I had jumped off of people’s shoulders before, as pictured above, but that was my first experience having someone jump off of mine in a routine. Eventually, I recovered and went on to have people jump off of my shoulders in the future. (Courtesy of Brian Horii)

An identity

I tried to get in the pool two months later, but the water pressure drove sharp pains through my brain, so I left the National Team behind and visited Andover for the first time in nine months. I pushed myself through National Team trials to make the 2014 Junior National Team — a team that was expected to build the foundation for the 2016 Olympic team — but my efforts in those tryouts led me to collapse in my classes at school. I went to a brain doctor, who told me I should end my synchro career or risk never recovering.

For a while, I held onto my identity. I pushed myself harder in the pool, training up to 45 hours per week, fueled by my desire to compete at Junior Worlds in Helsinki, Finland. I often ignored the pains in my head, taking the medicine which the doctors prescribed to stimulate brain cell repair.

On leaving the sport that raised me
As part of the National Team, I competed in Helsinki, Finland, at Junior Worlds. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life. I completely recovered from my concussion around then, too. (Courtesy of Kari Pajunen for FINA)

Ultimately, I turned down my spot on the 2016 Olympic team after I was recruited by Stanford. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make, but it showed me something that I had previously undervalued: synchro-life balance.

I returned to my high school and the Walnut Creek Aquanuts. I still swam before and after school for at least 35 hours per week, but I contributed more vocally in class and in the pool. My relationship with synchro felt healthier. The promise of swimming at a world-class academic institution like Stanford meant that I would be able to be more than a swimmer again. Although I came in second when the Aquanuts competed at Nationals, my team won and I enjoyed the journey. We competed in Switzerland that summer; it was the last time I would carry the American flag for my country.

On leaving the sport that raised me
My coaches raised me to be a strong, independent woman. Two of my coaches attended my high school graduation in lieu of my parents, and my coaches found out I was accepted to Stanford before my parents did. (Courtesy of Kari Pajunen for FINA)

At Stanford

Once I got to Stanford, I realized that not only was collegiate synchro very different from National Teams, college-Gillian was very different from old-Gillian. I had access to something I never had growing up: time to build real relationships outside the pool, and a desire to do so.

Practice was capped at 20 hours per week under NCAA rules, allowing me more time to focus on the side of me which thrives outside of the pool. The atmosphere at practice was more relaxed. But often, practice felt like a chore. I loved my Stanford teammates and coaches, so why didn’t I like what I was doing?

This dissonance stuck with me. I still defined myself as a synchro swimmer, but people started to like me before they realized I swam. I stayed up until 4 a.m. with my friends despite my 5:15 a.m. alarm. I could have dedicated myself to synchro more, but I didn’t want to. I was burned out from doing the only thing I knew how to do as a kid.

But I was afraid to quit. I kept swimming through my first three years at Stanford. In the end, it took time away from Stanford for me to realize that your identity is never set and that no one expects you to be the same person you always were.

My junior spring, my uncle overdosed on heroin and died. I got the phone call that he was brain dead around midnight on Thursday. I stayed up all night and got a bus ticket home from New York City so that I could be there after we pulled him off life support.

My family recognized that I was no longer a child, and they turned to me for advice. I helped choose the photos we used on the funeral cards; I edited the obituary for the paper. I carried my uncle’s 31-year-old son with cerebral palsy down the steps of the church. I drove the leading car in the funeral procession.

Ultimately, I realized that although synchro shaped me into the woman I am, I am more than it now.

That tragedy helped me understand that I had the strength to leave the sport that raised me. The only person standing in my way was me.

On leaving the sport that raised me
My first year at college, Stanford Synchro won the NCAA National Championships. Despite this success, I still didn’t have the same passion for synchro that I once had. (Courtesy of Stanford Athletics)

I stopped swimming this fall. After two full-fledged concussions, multiple broken bones and lots of heartache, I left the sport that taught me how to speak — taught me that if I worked hard enough, I could achieve anything. It taught me how to build the best relationships I’ve ever had.

Synchro is always with me, just in a different capacity. I can happily reflect on both the good and bad times, even if they were just … times. I’m forever grateful for the people and training that molded me into the person I am today.

Although it’s been a while since I’ve competed, the lessons that synchronized swimming taught me have translated into everything I do. That’s something I’ll never lose.

On leaving the sport that raised me
The relationships I built through swimming were life-lasting. Above is my last international performance with my last duet partner, who remains one of my best friends to this day; I celebrate Thanksgiving with her family almost every year. (Courtesy of Walnut Creek Aquanuts)

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Where do Stanford students go if they’ve attempted suicide? https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/05/where-do-stanford-students-go-if-theyve-attempted-suicide/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/04/05/where-do-stanford-students-go-if-theyve-attempted-suicide/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2019 23:28:36 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1148995 This story contains references to students with thoughts of suicide and self-harm that may be troubling to some readers.

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This story contains references to students with thoughts of suicide and self-harm that may be troubling to some readers.

This is based on one Stanford student’s account of a hospitalization mandated by California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 5150: a voluntary or involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold on an individual identified as a threat to themselves or others. The identities of the student and his roommate have been withheld out of respect for the student’s patient privacy.

At 3 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018, a Stanford student closed his laptop in his dorm room on a half-finished philosophy paper.

He scribbled notes like “don’t come in; I don’t want you to see this” in his philosophy notebook and ripped out the pages. Quietly, he opened his door and taped the notes to the outside before locking himself in. His roommate was hanging out with a friend into the early hours of the morning, unlikely to return that evening.

The student sat down in front of his closed laptop and considered opening it again.

But he was tired of trying — not only with the paper, but also with battling depression, hiding his sexuality from his parents and working to pay for school as a first-generation, low-income student.

He pulled out his tool kit and took a deep breath, hoping it would be one of his last.

Suicide is on the rise in America. Almost 45,000 Americans died from suicide in 2016, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in July 2018, and suicide among people age 10 and older increased more than 30 percent in half of the U.S. between 1999 and 2016. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death for 15- to 34-year-olds and is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States. According to the report, most people who have attempted or died by suicide are never identified as having mental health disorders.

Stanford is not immune to this issue. Two Stanford students died by suicide this winter. Engineering graduate student Ziwen Wang was found dead in the Paul G. Allen building in February. In March, a master’s student, Olympian and three-time world cycling champion, Kelly Catlin, was found dead in her dorm after dying by suicide at age 23. University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell held a moment of silence at a Town Hall the week she died. The Office of Religious Life is holding a grief memorial in light of these recent losses as well as the tragic loss of undergraduate Mischa Nee ’20 on April 11 in Memorial Church.

Just as Catlin had expressed frustrations with balancing school and life, so did the student in his dorm room at 3 a.m. The student developed a plan, but an hour passed and his plan wasn’t working.

“So by that point it must’ve been 4 or 4:30 a.m. and I was out of options,” he said. “I made another plan. I was just going to go buy a hose and gas myself in the car. But this was of course 4:30 to 5 a.m. Nothing’s open, so I couldn’t go buy a hose. I knew I needed to wait; I didn’t want to wait.”

Asking for help

At 5 a.m., the student called the 24-hour campus hotline through Stanford’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The operator asked for his location: She could send Stanford Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) officers but not a counselor; it is not customary to send counselors to dorms in an emergency at this hour of the night. The student did not want to deal with law enforcement and refused to disclose his location. Finally, the operator told him to seek counselor assistance when Vaden Health Center — where CAPS is located — opened.

When he arrived at CAPS at 9:00 a.m., tired from fewer than three hours of sleep, the receptionist told him to sit in the waiting room. He saw the first available counselor. She asked him to describe his thought process and how he was feeling, the student recalled. When he finished recounting the events of the previous night, the counselor smiled and left.

When she returned, she brought two SUDPS officers. “Sorry,” is all the student remembered she said.

The student was taken in under the California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 5150: a voluntary or involuntary 72-hour psychiatric hold placed on an individual who is identified as an imminent threat to themselves or others. He was not informed of this until he was taken to the Inpatient Psychiatric Service ward at Stanford Hospital six hours later, he said.

Section 5150 is part of the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act of California’s Welfare and Institutions Code, which went into full effect on July 1, 1972, according to the California Hospital Association. It was the first bill of its kind for modern mental health institutions in the United States, giving more power to psychiatrists in the decision to commit an individual to a hold.

CAPS, law enforcement and community providers such as Residence Deans (RDs) can recommend students for 5150 evaluations, according to Student Affairs Communications Director Pat Lopes Harris. Evaluations and 72-hour holds are recommended at the hospital by trained psychiatric staff in the emergency department at a designated hospital to decide whether or not the student should be held for the 72-hour 5150 hold. Students can elect to go to the hospital for an evaluation voluntarily, Harris wrote in an email to The Daily.

“CAPS will only write a 5150 when we believe that a student is at acute risk of being a danger to self, danger to others or so gravely disabled that they cannot meet their basic needs outside of a care facility,” Harris wrote, adding that less than 0.2 percent of CAPS visits end in 5150 recommendations.

The University does not keep a running record of the number of students who are transported to a 5150 hold each year, Harris said.

We feel it is important for students to know that CAPS providers work every day with students who experience thoughts of suicide, self-harm or feelings of anger and aggression,” she wrote. “For the vast majority of these students, treatment plans can be developed that do not require inpatient admission.”

Once an individual is recommended for a psychiatric hold on campus, SUDPS officers transport the individual to a hospital for further evaluation and treatment, according to SUDPS spokesperson Bill Larson.

SUDPS officers undergo “Peace Officer Standards and Training,” a required crisis intervention training that teaches law enforcement how to respond to individuals with mental illness, intellectual disability and substance use disorder, Larson said.

Wrists scraped from last night, the student was handcuffed and put into the back of a police car.

“As a general practice, deputies handcuff individuals for safety — to prevent self harm or harm to others — when transporting a person,” Larson wrote in an email to The Daily, explaining that the transport is not an arrest. “A person who has been placed on a hold and transported by ambulance may be placed in restraints by Emergency Medical Technicians for the same safety reasons.”

The identity of the individual in this article was not disclosed to Larson or Harris.

“The police officers were really nice,” the student said. “[One of them] told me this happens a lot, it’s not like I’m under arrest and I don’t need to fret like that — even though I was in handcuffs in the back of a squad car.”

The hospital

First, the student was admitted to the Stanford Hospital Emergency Room, where he spent five hours sitting in a hospital bed with occasional visits from nurses and doctors. A law enforcement officer removed his handcuffs when they arrived, he recalled.

After SUDPS brings individuals under a Section 5150 to a hospital, supervision is transferred from SUDPS officers to medical professionals on site, Larson said, adding that SUDPS does this at no cost to the individual as opposed to an ambulance transport fee.

Once there, hospital staff allowed the student to text a few of his loved ones — including his roommate, a friend and his then-boyfriend — about his location.

“Please don’t fret, I am doing well,” he wrote. “I was taken to the hospital from CAPS. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but wanted to let you know.”

At 3 p.m., the student was brought in a wheelchair to the securely-locked psychiatric ward, Unit H2. From there, he was stripped of his shoes, phone and wallet and provided a set of blue-striped pajamas.

“I remember the nurses telling me that they get a lot of Stanford students [in H2] — they were telling me that in a reassuring way,” he said. “That there’s clearly something at Stanford and it’s not me.”

This student’s situation was not unique. According to an estimate by the former director of the ward, Dr. Rona Hu, H2 admits between one and three students every week, meaning at least one out of the 15 beds is constantly in use by a Stanford undergraduate, graduate or postdoctoral student.

“The unlocked unit, G2, has less publicity, but students can also check in there when they are feeling more depressed than suicidal,” Hu said, meaning that the total number of students admitted to Stanford Hospital each week could be higher than the one-to-three estimate. She added that there are four other psychiatric wards in the area that students could go to, meaning that the rough estimate of students admitted to psychiatric wards per week could be higher.

Other beds in H2, like the other psychiatric wards available in the area, are dedicated to patients suffering from various mental illnesses and diseases, ranging from mood disorders to schizophrenia, she added. It is the same ward where one of the nurses was attacked by a patient in March.

The identity of the student in this article was not disclosed to Hu.

When asked about the nature of H2, Stanford Health Care declined to comment, on patient privacy grounds.

While in the ward, the student was allowed to read, engage in group and cognitive therapy, play board games and have visitors. There were two phones in the ward which patients could call friends and family on.

The student recalled a plastic mirror and private bathroom with a padded door in the sleeping room. The room looked like a typical hospital room with a thin curtain separating the student from his hospital roommate.

“It wasn’t a good place, but it wasn’t a bad place either,” the student said. “It’s like purgatory.”

Friends find out

On Feb. 1, the student’s Stanford roommate woke up to the text that he had been hospitalized. The roommate had returned to his room around 7 a.m. when the student was sleeping. The roommate recalled a conversation he had with the student a few weeks prior in which the student mentioned ending his life.

“I told him that if I got the call that he had slit his wrists I would be furious with him,” his roommate said. “I didn’t want him to end up in the hospital because he had attempted to take his own life.”

The roommate didn’t realize that the student had been serious at the time. Now, the roommate found himself rushing to the ward with an extra set of clothes and a book titled “Good Omens.”

When the roommate arrived at the ward, he had to call for a nurse to unlock the outer door to H2 which opens to a small waiting room. After the first door shut, the nurse buzzed in for the second door to open. From there, visitors had to check in at the nurses’ desk and hand in any items that were prohibited by the ward, including sharp objects or objects that could be used for strangulation. Visiting hours are limited to 6:30-8:30 p.m. during the week and 12:30-8:30 p.m. on weekends with minimal exceptions, according to Hu.

RDs and CAPS keep in contact with hospital staff during a student’s stay, according to Harris, and can schedule visits with students. RDs can send emails to teachers and bring allowed items from the student’s dorm room.

The student’s friends, RD and Academic Advising Director (AAD) visited him during his stay. On the first evening, the student asked his roommate to sneak him a wristwatch. The student said it wouldn’t be hard.

Time passed slowly in the ward, the student said. There were two clocks: one behind the nurses desk and one in the entertainment and meeting room, according to the student. Alone in his room, the student had no concept of time apart from when he was called for meals and group therapy sessions.

The next day, the roommate brought the student his watch.

“I think my experience would have been very different if I didn’t have my wristwatch,” he said, adding that not knowing the time would have driven him crazy.

Release and now

The student’s 5150 commitment was extended into a Section 5250 commitment, a psychiatric hold that can last up to 14 days. Many 5150 holds get extended into 5250 holds to offer patients more time to heal, Hu said. The patient has to be cleared by a hearing officer and can leave at any time that the hearing officer proclaims that the patient can leave.

The student stayed in the ward for five days before being released by the hearing officer on Monday.

The student said his hold was extended because he saw three different doctors during his stay the doctor who gave him his initial check-up, an interim doctor and the doctor who let him go on Monday making it impossible for them to coordinate for him to leave.

The release process is like a hearing, according to Hu. A doctor unaffiliated with the ward serves as a hearing officer and determines if the patient is healthy enough to leave. The patient is represented by an outside advocate who must present evidence that the hospital is overreacting by extending the hold.

After a student is discharged, CAPS reaches out to students to offer supplementary support, according to Harris. CAPS support includes consultation on care, transitioning back into campus and following a hospital-recommended treatment plan. Depending on the level of need, RDs will work with students for anywhere from a few days to a few quarters on their self-care and schoolwork.

After being released from the hospital, the student said he was required to attend La Selva, a “partial hospitalization” program, which mandated the student attend therapy and group classes for five hours a day, three days a week. The student, already overwhelmed from having missed five days of schoolwork, decided to take a leave of absence for winter and spring quarter.

“If a student chooses to take time away from their studies, an RD will support this decision and can help facilitate logistics for the student such as working with families and/or packing belongings,” Harris wrote.

Last spring, a group of students joined Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) in filing a lawsuit against Stanford, claiming that the University discriminated against students with mental health disabilities by encouraging them to take a leave of absence after being hospitalized for an actual suicide attempt, act of self-harm or vocalization of suicidal ideation. The case seeks modifications to Stanford’s leaves of absence policy. The lawsuit also asserts that Stanford does not consider whether its actions would put the student at an even greater risk.

The University contests these allegations, saying that the University’s leave of absence decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

The case was started as part of DRA national investigation into the mental health policies of universities and colleges. The first case was targeted at Stanford, as the study found the University’s policies the “most egregious.”

Litigation has since been paused as the DRA continues to work on settlement with Stanford. 

The student in this article is not part of the lawsuit.

The student had his hospital fees waived from the 5150 commitment due to his income status, but he recalled that the bill was over $500. He currently pays $125 per week for therapy, which he has attended five days per week, every week since the hospitalization — over a year — amounting to over $6,750 thus far, he said.

Still, he came back to Stanford in the fall with an improved outlook on life — even though he never finished that philosophy paper from the year before.

“That paper almost killed me,” he joked wryly.

The student has since taken another leave of absence, citing the pressures of Stanford for putting him in this position.

Author’s note: If you or someone you know is contemplating self harm or suicide, there are available resources both on and beyond campus that are reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: +1 (800) 273-8255
Stanford Counseling and Psychological Services: +1 (650) 723-3785
Stanford Confidential Support Team: +1 (650) 725-9955

This article has been updated to include information about two campus suicides and the assault in H2 as these incidents occurred after the print version of the magazine was designed.

Editor’s note: This article has been further updated to remove a description of self-harm methods utilized by a student referenced in the story. 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Children at risk for cancer potentially find hope with preventive treatment https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/06/children-at-risk-for-cancer-find-hope-with-new-preventive-treatment/ https://stanforddaily.com/2019/02/06/children-at-risk-for-cancer-find-hope-with-new-preventive-treatment/#respond Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:08:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1149242 Agnieszka Czechowicz ’05 Ph.D. ’10 M.D. ’11, assistant professor in pediatrics, has developed a preventive gene therapy treatment that would eliminate the need for radiation and help children accept healthy stem cells.

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One in 285 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer by age 20, according to the American Childhood Cancer Organization. But for kids born with Fanconi anemia, the risk is much higher — almost a certainty.

Many of these kids’ bone marrow will fail as a result of their disorder, meaning they need blood-forming, donor stem cell transplants to sustain health after their own blood and immune systems fail. Doctors currently wait for a patient’s own bone marrow to fail before offering such a live-saving stem cell transplant.

Stem cell transplants normally require therapies, such as radiation and chemotherapy, so the children’s failing stem cells can be replaced with healthy donor stem cells, but these toxic treatments often lead to prolonged hospitalizations, deadly infections, infertility and secondary cancers.

For kids with Fanconi anemia, who cannot repair DNA damage as a result of their genetic disease, the side effects can be worse, which ultimately limits the use of these treatments.

Agnieszka Czechowicz ’05 Ph.D. ’10 M.D. ’11, assistant professor in pediatrics, along with Associate Professor Sandeep Soni, members of the Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine and the Stanford Children Health’s stem cell treatment team are testing a preventive treatment that will genetically-modify the patients’ own stem cells to prevent bone marrow failure and hopefully blood cancers — potentially ending the need for radiation and chemotherapy post-failure. Once in the body, these corrected stem cells should give rise to new cells and serve as the body’s repair system.

Now, children with Fanconi anemia Type-A — one of several syndromes which lead to bone marrow failure — are being screened at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to potentially participate in a clinical trial sponsored by Rocket Pharmaceuticals for the gene therapy treatment. Stanford Medical Center is the only site in the U.S. offering the treatment at this time.

“The prospect of a single treatment in her area of study is really exciting,” said Harvey J. Cohen, pediatrics professor and former chair of Stanford’s pediatrics department. “She’s a leader in the field of gene therapy.”

Czechowicz, who was awarded the Harvey J. Cohen Endowed Lectureship in Pediatrics, presented her research at the first Pediatric Grand Rounds of 2019. She studies blood-forming stem cells in the Stem Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine division of the Stanford School of Medicine’s Pediatrics department with a growing team of researchers.

For the last decade, Czechowicz along with Irv Weissman M.D. ’65, Judith Shizuru M.D. ’92 Ph.D. and colleagues have been pioneering alternative approaches to traditional stem cell transplants. They have been using proteins called antibodies, which target patient’s failing stem cells and identify and remove offenders. These treatments, called antibody-based conditioning, are primers for stem cell transplantation and may eliminate the need for the current chemotherapy or radiation pre-treatment.

A clinical trial led by Rajni Agarwal is already underway at Stanford Children’s testing the first-generation antibody-based conditioning in children with severe combined immunodeficiency. Czechowicz was awarded $180,000 by the Fanconi Anemia Research Fund last year to develop a similar treatment for Fanconi anemia. She is in the process of conducting other studies and planning an additional clinical trial which could dramatically decrease the toxicity of such transplants, further enabling their use as preventative therapies.

Optimally, these types of treatments could be offered even before the disease appears, Czechowicz said. They could potentially be performed with minimal side effects, meaning children would be able to receive them easily as outpatients.

Czechowicz and colleagues also recently reported in Nature Communications on next generation approaches in mice to potentially improve the safety and efficacy of these antibody-based stem cell treatments. They also found that the stem cell donors do not need to be perfect matches for the recipients, eliminating the need for an immune-match for transplantation.

“We hope to expand and apply this research to all types of blood and immune diseases: genetic, malignant and even autoimmune,” Czechowicz said. “This work has made nice progress since I started as a student, but there is much more to be done. Additional resources and community support are much appreciated in our efforts.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

A previous version of this article conflated separate studies and treatments. The Daily regrets this error.

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Stanford to remove home equity from financial aid calculation next year https://stanforddaily.com/2018/12/04/stanford-to-remove-home-equity-from-financial-aid-calculation-next-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/12/04/stanford-to-remove-home-equity-from-financial-aid-calculation-next-year/#respond Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:30:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1147644 Stanford will remove home equity as a factor in calculating financial aid from tuition and fee levels for undergraduate students starting next academic year, the Board of Trustees announced Tuesday.

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Stanford will remove home equity as a factor in calculating financial aid from tuition and fee levels for undergraduate students starting next academic year, the Board of Trustees announced Tuesday.

“Removing home equity from the financial aid calculation is the first of what we expect will be several additional steps to further enhance our undergraduate aid program in the next few years,” said Jeffrey Raikes ’80, chair of the board, in a press release.

Home equity is the value of a homeowner’s interest on their house, according to Investopedia. The change will provide more support for middle-income families, according to the release.

The budget for need-based financial aid is expected to increase seven percent next year. Currently, the financial aid program provides $162 million in need-based aid to undergraduate students. Families with annual incomes below $125,000 with similar assets currently do not pay tuition, and parents with an income at or less than $65,000 with similar assets do not pay tuition or room and board.

Undergraduate tuition for 2019-2020 will be $52,857, 4.25 percent higher than the current academic year, the board announced. The board set tuition fee levels two months early to provide information to students admitted through Restrictive Early Action, a change which the board expects to uphold.

The average net price to attend Stanford has increased 0.3 percent in the past decade, accounting for financial aid, according to the release.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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University moves toward completion of Title IX investigation into former wrestlers’ accusations of non-physical misconduct by Stanford lecturer https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/29/university-moves-toward-completion-of-title-ix-investigation-into-former-wrestlers-accusations-of-non-physical-misconduct-by-stanford-lecturer/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/29/university-moves-toward-completion-of-title-ix-investigation-into-former-wrestlers-accusations-of-non-physical-misconduct-by-stanford-lecturer/#respond Fri, 30 Nov 2018 07:26:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1147501 Allegations made by seven former Stanford wrestlers that a University lecturer sexually harassed them between 2002 and 2010 are under investigation by the University’s Title IX office.

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Allegations made by seven former Stanford wrestlers that a University lecturer sexually harassed them between 2002 and 2010 are under investigation by the University’s Title IX office.

The investigation, launched this summer, is “nearing completion,” according to University spokesperson EJ Miranda. The Mercury News reported Thursday afternoon that the investigation could be wrapped up as early as Friday.

The wrestlers have come forward against Hung Le Ph.D. ’95, who works in Stanford’s computational and mathematical engineering department. They claim that the lecturer and longtime supporter of the team would stare at them while they were naked in the public locker room and sometimes touch himself, according to the Mercury News.

Le denies all allegations, saying that the accusations were rooted in a misunderstanding. He says that it was merely coincidental that he would shower in the locker room around the same time as the wrestlers.

“I never had any improper behavior,” Le told the Mercury News.

Miranda emphasized that the alleged misconduct was non-physical.

“There have been no allegations, at any time, of inappropriate physical contact with students or others in this matter,” he wrote. “Our commitment is to conduct such investigations thoroughly, fairly and impartially.”

Title IX Coordinator Jill Thomas declined to comment on the matter as of Thursday evening.

The allegations, according to the Mercury News, were made in relation to Le’s involvement with the Cardinal Wrestling Club, a youth program team associated with Stanford’s wrestling team. Le resigned from his position before charges were leveled.

Le had been associated with the wrestling team for 25 years, and was listed as a “Friend of Stanford Wrestling” in media guides. He frequently made donations, hosted dinners and served on the youth team’s board to handle its finances. He did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment Thursday night.

The wrestlers claim, according to the Mercury News, that Le often waited for the athletes to come to the showers after practice, even when training sessions ran late or ended early. The wrestlers also contested that the coaches did nothing to stop Le’s behavior.

“I felt pretty exposed and pretty unprotected by the folks who were supposed to be [guarding athletes’ safety],” said former wrestler Josh Brown ’06 in an interview with the Mercury News. “Any given day where that happened would be the worst day.”

Former wrestler Drew Martinez ’07 told the Mercury News that the coaches at the time, Steve Buddie ’91 and assistant Jay Jackson ’95, knew about Le’s behavior, but the coaches said they were unaware of the allegations.

“It breaks my heart that this comes up now and I am hearing of this,” Buddie, who led Stanford’s wrestling team from 2001 to 2005, told the Mercury News. “I had zero reported to me or brought to my attention.”

Contested claims

Ray Blake ’05, a teammate at the time and a current Associate Head Coach, told the Mercury News that to his knowledge, “nothing inappropriate ever happened, and if it had, I would have reported it immediately.”

Wrestlers told the Mercury News they did not come forward at the time because they were either embarrassed or did not take Le’s behavior seriously.

Although Le claims that the wrestlers never confronted him about being uncomfortable with his behavior, some wrestlers said they witnessed teammates confront him, according to the Mercury News.

Jay Jackson ’95 — assistant coach at the time — referred The Daily to the current coaches for comment, but added that, “There’s a backstory where basically disgruntled former wrestlers [are] trying to create a story that didn’t happen.”

Jackson declined to elaborate further on his refutations of the wrestlers’ claims. The Daily has contacted the wrestling team’s Sports Information Director Regina Verlengiere to receive permission to contact the current coaches.

Matt Gentry ’04, a two-time Canadian Olympian and 2004 NCAA champion for Stanford, also contested the severity of the allegations, although he confirmed that “excessive staring in the shower” did occur.

“To my knowledge, nobody actually felt threatened, harassed or changed their locker room behavior in any way (i.e. didn’t shower),” he wrote in an email to The Daily. “To my knowledge, nobody took this issue to our coaches, and I am confident that if they did, the coaching staff would have taken appropriate action.”

This quarter, Le was lecturing in courses including gateway vector calculus course CME 100, a class hundreds of students take at the outset of their engineering programs. His students were notified on Oct. 23 that he “had to take a leave of absence for personal and family reasons.”

No further details were officially released to Le’s students about the matter. In an official online academic catalog, Le is still listed as this spring’s principal instructor for CME 100.

“Because we were told Hung Le had a family emergency, I hoped that everything was going okay with him,” said Victoria Yuan ’20, a student in Le’s CME 102 class this quarter. “I was really shocked [to hear the allegations].”

According to Miranda, the University launched a separate Title IX investigation in 2010 in response to similar allegations, but concluded that “no violation of the university’s sexual harassment policy had occurred.” Le was told to avoid showers and individual encounters, according to the Mercury News.

University investigations in response to 2010 allegations found no violation of the university’s sexual harassment policy, according to Miranda. The current investigation was opened this summer after the University received further allegations of misconduct during the same 2002-2010 time period.

Le said the previous investigation was informal and that he was never interviewed by the Sexual Harassment Policy Office for it. The wrestlers who came forward with these most recent allegations said they were unaware of the previous investigation, the Mercury News reported.

This time, the Title IX office, which came into fruition in 2014, is conducting the investigation.

In light of the current investigation, the current head coach, Jason Borrelli, said he believed Le did not pose a threat and allowed wrestlers to attend holiday dinners which Le has hosted since 2010. Associate Head Coach Ray Blake, who attended the University at the times around when the alleged misconduct occurred, told the Mercury News that he does not recall anything inappropriate occurring.

But for some wrestlers, the effects of Le’s alleged conduct have had a lasting impact.

“Even to this day I am wary in locker rooms, at least keeping my head on a swivel,” Martinez told the Mercury News.

This article has been corrected to reflect that allegations made against Le in relation to his affiliation with the Cardinal Wrestling Club were made this summer, rather than during the previous investigation. It has also been corrected to state that the Title IX office was created in 2014, not 2011. The Daily regrets these errors. 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu, Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu and Karen Kurosawa at karen16 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Feinstein retains Senate seat against de Leon https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/07/feinstein-retains-senate-seat-against-de-leon/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/11/07/feinstein-retains-senate-seat-against-de-leon/#respond Wed, 07 Nov 2018 09:55:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1146412 Senator Dianne Feinstein ’55, D.-Calif., retained her chair in Tuesday’s midterm elections against former California State Senator Kevin de Leon, D., in what has been reported as her fifth and final term for U.S. Senate.

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Senator Dianne Feinstein ’55, D.-Calif., retained her chair in Tuesday’s midterm elections against former California State Senator Kevin de Leon, D., in what has been reported as her fifth and final term for U.S. Senate.

Dissenters of Feinstein claim her age would limit her ability to represent, calling for a newer, younger voice to represent the largely Democratic state. De Leon claimed that the Senate needed a “new voice” and “new vision,” saying that he would offer more progressive values throughout his campaign, according to a New York Times article published Nov. 2.

“We need Democrats in Washington, D.C., that have the courage of their convictions, to not just be on the sidelines but on the front lines,” de Leon said during the race’s only debate on Oct. 17.

Feinstein was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992 after serving as San Francisco’s first female mayor. She is the oldest senator currently serving at 85 years old. De Leon was first elected to legislature in 2006 as a member of the state assembly before becoming part of the state senate in 2010 and Democratic Party leader of the state senate in 2014. Feinstein contends that the Senate requires a range of seniority and experience levels to represent the aging population of the United States.

“My opponent always uses seniority derogatorily,” Feinstein said in the interview with The New York Times. “But it has advantages in the Senate.” Feinstein added that “it should be a government of all people. America is growing more elderly.”

“I’m very pleased to hear that Senator Feinstein has been re-elected by the voters of California: I think she’s [shown] proven leadership within the Senate and is a strong representative of California as a state,” said Gabe Rosen ’19, President of Stanford Democrats which endorsed Feinstein. “I still want to applaud de Leon for all that he has done on behalf of communities that have traditionally been marginalized within California society.”

Feinstein drew national attention during the confirmation hearing battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, when it was revealed that the Senator received a letter from Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford alleging Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school.

Feinstein kept the letter confidential for several weeks before turning it over the the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the Associated Press. U.S. President Donald Trump and Kavanaugh supporters accused Feinstein of leaking the letter to the press in an attempt to derail Kavanaugh’s confirmation, which Feinstein denied.

Feinstein said that the election and her relationship with Trump did not affect her decision to run again, according to the interview with The Times, despite his verbal attacks on her age during the Kavanaugh hearings.

“[Trump will] take anything he can,” Feinstein told The Times. “I think I’m in good physical condition. It’s the same way he attacked the F.B.I. I don’t know how long you can be president by offending everybody. I think we are going to find out.”

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Residential Education updates guidelines for addressing “high-risk behavior” surrounding alcohol and drug use https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/07/residential-staff-training-analyzes-high-risk-behavior-surrounding-alcohol-and-drug-use/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/09/07/residential-staff-training-analyzes-high-risk-behavior-surrounding-alcohol-and-drug-use/#respond Sat, 08 Sep 2018 05:34:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1143584 Residential Education (ResEd) will now more formally define what constitutes “high-risk behavior” under its substance use policies. Despite sharing the “high-risk” label, the behaviors range in severity, from beer pong and smoking marijuana to taking shots and blacking out.

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Residential Education (ResEd) will now more formally define what constitutes “high-risk behavior” under its substance use policies. Despite sharing the “high-risk” label, the behaviors range in severity, from beer pong and smoking marijuana to taking shots and blacking out.

Student Resident Assistants (RAs) are expected to hold weekly discussions as a staff about “high-risk behavior” in their respective dorms based off a set of questions provided by ResEd, according to an email sent to all RAs on Sept. 20 by Interim ResEd Dean Koren Bakkegard.

The Residence Dean (RD) assigned to the residence will follow-up with either the student staff or the faculty in-residence, or Residence Fellows (RFs) about the needs and concerns of the residential community. From there, the RD could connect students who are deemed as repeatedly conducting high-risk behaviors to the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE). Though RAs are held accountable for reporting incidents of “high-risk behavior,” they are not involved in making decisions about the resident(s) in question.

The updated guidelines follow backlash from RAs during staff training after ResEd presented an initial plan for reducing high risk behavior. Previously, ResEd informed RAs that resident staff in all campus housing, had to submit anonymous weekly incident reports of “high-risk behaviors.” Residence staff would also refer students whose behavior could inflict harm upon themselves or others to RDs.

ResEd conducted a series of three workshops with approximately 20 student staff members and up to nine ResEd and OAPE leaders to redevelop the guidelines, according to Bakkegard. The definition of “high-risk behaviors” is still being shaped.

“As you know, my goal for alcohol training this year was to provide a set of expectations to equip staff to respond to high risk drinking and a process for connecting students in need of additional education and support to professional staff in OAPE,” Bakkegard wrote.

She added that ResEd will continue to work with student staff to develop appropriate responses and guidelines for reducing high-risk behavior. There will be follow-up meetings between Bakkegard and staff in November and at the end of the quarter.

Initial guidelines

According to a memo distributed to incoming student residential leaders at staff training in early September, one staff member from each residence would have been required to submit a Weekly Staff Report through an online survey. The survey was intended to provide “information about environmental and behavioral risk factors addressed by staff in that week and provide information about students who need additional follow up,” and asked staffers to report the number of events where listed “high-risk behaviors” necessitated a staff member’s interference.

The survey also asked staff to disclose other “reportable issues,” such as sexual misconduct. Since the survey does not collect names, ResEd could use the information it collects against individual students.

Despite the shift in protocol, the University maintained that this is not a policy change.

“While there are no changes to the alcohol policy, we are in the process of developing clearer guidelines for undergraduate students and staff about the behaviors that constitute high-risk drinking,” wrote University spokesperson E.J. Miranda in a Sept. 7 email to The Daily. “It’s important that student staff across campus apply the same standards to assess and intervene in high-risk situations.”

“Because it is no small challenge to design a protocol that can be applied consistently across more than 80 houses, some compromise is inevitable, but we want to conclude with a protocol that student staff broadly support,” Bakkegard wrote on Sept. 6.

Student pushback

After an initial alcohol training session, some incoming staffers said they were not clear on the expectations for reporting and addressing concerning behavior, according to Bakkegard’s initial email on. Bakkegard sent out a form to garner further student feedback.

“We were told to just follow our intuition, which is great,” wrote one student,who will be staffing in Lagunita. “But, the concern comes once we get back to the specific policy because we are then told to adhere to reporting things as simple as beer pong, which goes against our intuition.”

Bakkegard’s email also apologized for the “lack of clarity and input” at the training session.

The instructional changes follow a recent shift in ResEd administration. Former ResEd Dean Deborah Golder departed from her position, as Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole said she would be “taking Residential Education in some different directions.”   

In prior years, RAs have practiced an “open-door policy,” under which residents could drink so long as they informed an RA beforehand and kept their door open. Multiple incoming RAs voiced concern at the initial Q&A session that increased reporting to the University will limit trust between residents and student staff, making it less likely that residents will approach house leaders when more serious safety concerns arise.

But some staff members said the shift wasn’t as dramatic as they appeared. In previous years, staff held weekly meetings with RFs in which they discussed the same types of incidents that staff will now be required to disclose in the weekly reports.

“It may intuitively seem overbearing that the new policy suggests students write down and ‘report’ these incidents to their RFs, but in dorms this already happens on a more informal basis,” wrote one upper-class house staff member in a statement to The Daily.

The same staff member, who has staffed a campus residence before this year, said that during weekly meetings, staff and RFs would discuss who hosted weekend parties and whether any incidents arose.

Another memo, circulated this year to inform incoming staff members of “High-Risk Alcohol and Drug Protocol,” codified University involvement. An included flowchart shows that upon “first concern” for a resident, staff members will discuss the incident with that resident before holding a separate discussion with RFs. According to the flowchart, RDs do not get involved until the “second concern.”

“Because [ResEd chose] to exclude us from decisions about our residents, we can’t feel comfortable giving [ResEd] information because we don’t know what [ResEd] is going to do with it and we don’t have any control over it,” the Lagunita staffer wrote. “If we as staff can have more power in decision making, then maybe we’d be more open to communicating things to RDs.”

These guidelines and protocol are expected to be shared with all students during the first week of the academic year, according to Bakkegard.

ResEd affirmed that it will keep student feedback in mind moving forward and intends to collaborate with students on future wellness initiatives.

“The goal is to work with students to create a plan that will reduce and prevent the harmful effects of alcohol,” Miranda wrote.

This article was updated on Sept. 20 to reflect ResEd’s new decisions regarding alcohol use guidelines.

Holden Foreman contributed to this report.

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu and Julia Ingram at jmingram ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Behind the Board https://stanforddaily.com/2018/03/04/behind-the-board/ Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:51:49 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?post_type=tsd_magazine_post&p=1135988 From green-lighting building projects to managing an over $20 billion endowment, the 33 members of Stanford’s Board of Trustees wield no small role in the University and its future. The Board of Trustees was established on Nov. 11, 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford to serve as directors for the University. The official job of […]

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From green-lighting building projects to managing an over $20 billion endowment, the 33 members of Stanford’s Board of Trustees wield no small role in the University and its future.

The Board of Trustees was established on Nov. 11, 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford to serve as directors for the University. The official job of a trustee, as expressed on the Board’s website, is to share “responsibility for setting the direction of the university, ensuring Stanford’s continued well-being and working to sustain its foundation of excellence.” In practice, this means duties such as consulting with top administrators, appointing presidents, approving budgets and making sometimes controversial final calls on matters like divestment from private prison affiliates and fossil fuels.

The Daily took a look at how the Board operates and how it shapes Stanford.

Who’s on the Board?

The trustees consist of the president of the University and 32 other members.

Candidates for trustee are not necessarily alumni of Stanford. According to University spokesperson E.J. Miranda, eight seats on the Board are designated for alumni nominated through the Alumni Committee on Trustee Nominations (ACTN). The Board’s trusteeship Committee reviews those picks in addition to making its own nominations. Selections then go before the entire Board.

Candidates who would be 70 or older when their term commences and current faculty, staff or students are not eligible. They must show a “serious commitment” to the University’s well-being.

The selection of new trustees occurs every two and a half years, with new trustees starting this April; the next selection process will begin in July of 2019. The Board is capped at 38 trustees who serve in five year terms.

Philip Taubman, the Board’s secretary, said one of his goals throughout his Board term and now as secretary is to increase Board diversity. He hopes to see greater representation of gender, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status and professions.

Taubman says representation of all but the latter has improved since the time he served on the Board from 1978 to 1982. Of the 32 trustees listed on the Board’s website in addition to University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, 14 have backgrounds primarily in investment, while another six hold business leadership roles outside the realm of investment. Another six started their careers in investment, business or tech before shifting to a focus on philanthropy or nonprofit work. Eighteen out of 32 have an MBA, mostly from Stanford or Harvard, and many head companies. Net worths in the millions and billions abound.

The newest members of the Board include Carrie Penner M.A. ’97, Walmart heir and Board chair at the Walton Family Foundation; Felix Baker ’91, Ph.D. ’98, a managing partner at Baker Borthers Investments; Jerry Yang ’90, M.S. ’90, who co-founded Yahoo! and AME Cloud Ventures; and Henry Fernandez M.B.A. ’83, CEO of MSCI Inc., which provides tools to support investment.

Meanwhile, Board members marking the end of their five year terms in March include Fred Alvarez ’72, J.D. ’75, partner at Jones Day; Gail Block Harris ’74, J.D. ’77, lead director of Evercore Partners; Bernard Liautaud M.S. ’85, general partner at Balderton Capital in London; and Lloyd Metz ’90, managing director of ICV Partners. 

How does the Board operate?

The trustees meet five times every academic year, although additional sessions may be called; four of those times are on campus, and one is an offsite retreat with an emphasis on longer-term planning. In-person attendance is expected at every meeting.

The Board supports University leadership on a broad range of University issues — some of which are confidential, such as the selection process for an incoming University president. Secretary of the Board Taubman said the process must be confidential to protect individual rights of candidates; such secrecy is common among high-profile University searches.

Just as the president is selected by the Board, the Board can fire the president.

Board members also make decisions related to resource allocation, land use, academic programs, facility plans, University rules, federal and public support of education, community relations, minority representation, finance and fundraising. Trustees are volunteers and are responsible for all University decisions carried out in their name.

“The Board is a consulted body to support the president and provost with the perspective from the outside looking in,” Taubman said, adding that the Board exists for feedback and discussion.

“It’s a continuum of conversation in which the president and provost are in conversation with the Board about what’s happening at the University,” he said.

As Secretary of the Board, Taubman works closely with Tessier-Lavigne and Board Chair Jeff Raikes ’80 to discuss issues that the Board should address, ensure the Board plays the role it is designed to play, support management and plan meetings.

Once something takes the form of an action item, the Board needs to take a vote. According to Taubman, it is generally hard to predict whether a matter that comes up for discussion will make it to a vote.

As part of their advisory role, the trustees are assigned to various committees, which work on individual areas the Board presides over. Committees — which include Alumni and External Affairs, Development, Land and Buildings and Finance and Globalization — help the Board accomplish more specific projects; for example, the Land and Buildings Committee has focused on planning Stanford’s expansion into Redwood City.

Trustees serve on Board committees with students and faculty representatives. Additionally, trustees may be asked to serve on school or departmental committees or panels.

Board meetings last about a day and a half and comprise both committee and full group meetings. Meetings include presentations from various deans, department heads, on-campus institutes and other stakeholders aimed at providing a holistic perspective on current happenings on campus.

Individual consultation also occurs, especially with the Board chair, Taubman said.

The Board also reviews the annual budget developed by the provost, including on the construction of new buildings. Construction requires a number of approvals — site selection, design, concepts and financials — that the Board must vote on.

Outside of meetings, trustees might be asked to represent Stanford at events related to University matters and are encouraged to participate in alumni and fundraising activities.

Looking ahead

Recently, the Board has been reviewing the long-range planning process, an initiative launched by Tessier-Lavigne and Drell that called for community input on the University and its direction over the next 10 to 15 years. Ideas from the nearly 2,800 offered by students, faculty and staff — vetted and summarized into white papers by steering groups — go to University leadership for discussion supported by the Board.

“As trustees, we can leverage our networks, speak to the people to which we’re connected, learn their viewpoints and provide an external perspective that will contribute to the process,” Raikes said in an interview with Stanford News. “Stanford has big aspirations for its impact on the world. So a big question for us is: How can we as trustees tap into our external experience in ways that really enhance what [Tessier-Lavigne] and [Drell] and University leadership will do as part of long-range planning?”

Raikes said the Board’s 2018 spring retreat will focus on long-range planning as well as the negotiation of the Santa Clara County General Use Permit (GUP), which will govern the University’s land use for years to come and is negotiated between Stanford and the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Stanford is in the process of applying for a new GUP spanning 2018 to 2035 — as Taubman put it, the University is “running out of square footage.” The Board consults with Tessier-Lavigne on these negotiations.

According to Raikes, another important topic for trustees is Stanford Medicine, one of the biggest single contributors to the overall revenue of the University and home to revolutionary discoveries in healthcare and biotechnology.

“I expect that with the volatility with U.S. healthcare, there will be some twists and turns ahead,” Raikes told The Daily. “We don’t know what those things are going to be, but the Board can be very attentive to what those challenges and opportunities might be. We have Board members with specific expertise in the health care field, and they will be particularly valuable in those discussions.”

But Raikes also hopes trustees are able to learn more about discoveries made by all departments.

“Stanford has become a focal point in the world because of the University’s profile in a number of dimensions,” he told Stanford News.

Taubman hopes that Board matters and objectives become clearer to the public in cases when the work is not confidential.

“We’re trying to make an effort, and going forward, we are trying to make more of an effort to talk about more what the Board does,” Taubman explained, adding that the Board holds a press conference after every meeting to present the Board’s public agenda.

Raikes admitted that a challenge for trustees is staying in touch with campus life. He also noted the complexity of Stanford and its seven schools.

“I oftentimes hear from Board members it really takes a few years to get up to speed on the University,” he said. “Many are contributing right out of the gate, but they make a fair point.”

For students frustrated with the Board’s decision making on topics like divestment, the Board is disconnected from the student body.

In a response to trustees’ decision on fossil fuels in 2016, members of Fossil Free Stanford criticized the Board for “choosing cowardice over leadership.” Students stated that they were “deeply disappointed that Stanford’s Board has chosen to ignore the calls of the student body and Stanford community.”

Taubman views the Board differently.

“The Board is not some distant, detached, aloof institution,” he said. “I would hope students would think of the Board as a benevolent institution.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Josh Wagner contributed to this article.

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Title IX office, CAPS find new home in Kingscote https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/24/kingscote-offers-home-for-institutional-equity-and-access-caps-cst/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/24/kingscote-offers-home-for-institutional-equity-and-access-caps-cst/#respond Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:06:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1135518 Located between the Faculty Club and Harmony House, Kingscote underwent a year-long renovation effort geared toward opening more university offices — in particular, the offices under the Division of Institutional Equity & Access.

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A century after it was first built, Kingscote Gardens opened at the start of the school year as a new space for Institutional Equity & Access and the offices it oversees, as well as Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the Confidential Support Team (CST).

Title IX office, CAPS find new home in Kingscote
Kingscote Gardens, home to several offices for student services (AXELLE TALMA/The Stanford Daily).

Located between the Faculty Club and Harmony House, Kingscote underwent a year-long renovation effort geared toward opening more university offices — in particular, the offices under the Division of Institutional Equity & Access. The historic building was first built in 1917 and has housed Stanford affiliates ranging from visiting professors to a Russian revolutionary to author Charles Beardsley, who was forced to leave after writing a novel about the salacious happenings at a fictional apartment complex whose tenants resembled Kingscote residents.

The Daily took a tour of the new space to learn more about the offices under Institutional Equity & Access and the CST.

Institutional Equity & Access

Headed by Senior Associate Vice Provost Lauren Schoenthaler, Institutional Equity & Access oversees five offices: Diversity and Access, Ombuds, the Office of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse Education and Response (SARA), the Sexual Harassment Policy Office (SHPO) and Title IX.

Schoenthaler said Institutional Equity & Access’ goal was to provide a safe environment for all students, faculty, staff and community members to prevent and recover from all forms of harassment, hate and violence.

The entrance is a sunlit patio, leading into an atrium with glass windows from ceiling to hardwood floor. The open-concept style makes Kingscote welcoming to visitors, Schoenthaler said. She encourages students to make use of the grounds — for walking, lunch and visits to the office.

“What I love is they were true [to] and kept as many of the original things as possible,” Schoenthaler said. “The have the historic ceilings preserved and many of the windows and stairs.”

According to a Stanford News article announcing the renovation, Kingscote was designated to house student service offices.

“Offices involved in response to sexual assault and Title IX concerns have a vital role to play for students at Stanford,” said Greg Boardman, former vice provost of student affairs, to Stanford News. “The functioning of all of these offices will be enhanced considerably by being located in the same space. In addition, Kingscote Gardens is a perfect place for students to seek services. It is centrally located, set back from the road, very quiet and surrounded by attractive landscaping. It offers a sense of tranquility on our otherwise bustling campus.”

Kingscote held open houses for students and staff during New Student Orientation. The building also has a large meeting space area where they’ve already done a workshop with the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band.

“Because we have such excellent meeting space here, we are hosting many student meetings and training here,” Schoenthaler said. “For example, the SARA Office and Fraternity and Sorority Life just launched a Yoga as Healing class for student survivors of assaults on Tuesday evenings in Kingscote.

Just up the first flight of wooden steps is Schoenthaler’s office. She encourages students who have a concern — whether about sexual health, discrimination, mental health or institutional response — but don’t know where to go, to come and visit.

“If you think that you have a problem, the first question to ask is, ‘Is there someone who can help me try to solve this problem?’” Schoenthaler said. “Just asking that question is always a good thing.”

Schoenthaler explained that her office can be an ongoing resource should students decide to take the next step and talk to one of the other offices under Institutional Equity & Access. Formerly separated, the office of Institutional Equity & Access helps bring its umbrella offices closer together, aiding with referrals and helping students find the best resource for their needs.

Schoenthaler approximated that 65 percent of her work has surrounded sexual harassment and violence matters, with the remainder of her time being devoted to diversity and access programming as well as responding to concerns. Additionally, Schoenthaler also provides trainings and creates projects in collaboration with other offices, such as a website to help students navigate finding support after dealing with sexual violence.

“This entire building is based around service and helping students in need,” Schoenthaler said. “We want to help students solve their problems.”

SARA

Across from Schoenthaler’s office is the SARA office, where students, faculty and staff can learn about resources for preventing and remedying issues related to sexual assault and sexual health. Director of SARA, Carley Flanery, said SARA’s main goal is to educate the Stanford population about handling issues related to sexual health, assault and prevention.

SARA is in charge of dorm workshops and educational programs, such as Beyond SexEd, and collaborates with the other Institutional Equity & Access offices to find help for students who reach out in need of support. SARA can also act as an intermediary for both Title IX and outside legal issues, such as ordering restraining orders.

Students are welcome to walk into the office with questions. The SARA office is not confidential — if there is evidence of prohibited conduct, students, staff and faculty will be referred to Title IX.

“There are no expectations for students to share,” Flanery said. “When a student interacts with us there is no pressure on them to share what they don’t want to share, and we’re happy to connect them with resources that can help them.”

Flanery said she was excited to move into Kingscote to have a new creative workspace where students can work on projects related to sexual health education. In the back of the SARA office is a decorated student workspace where student staff, volunteers and leadership can work together to design workshops and outreach materials.

“We encourage students to come in here, work on an outreach project with some of our students staff,” Flanery said. “It’s really a great space.”

Title IX office

The Title IX office is located down the hall from SARA. Cathy Glaze, the Title IX coordinator, said the mission of Title IX is “stopping, preventing and remedying gender discrimination and sexual violence on campus.”

Title IX offers resources for recovery, also located in Kingscote, and will conduct investigations when necessary. If students feel they should report to Title IX or are curious about the Title IX process, Outreach and Student Resources Coordinator Miranda Tuttle said there are a variety of resources to go through — such as calling, emailing, using the Callisto app or going through other offices — but that walking into the office is just as good an option.

“My doors always open: come by, ask questions,” Tuttle said. “I want students to feel that they are really in control of the decisions they’re making about how to move forward.”

SHPO

Across from Title IX is SHPO, where Associate Director Nanette Andrews encourages faculty and staff to voice community concerns about sexual harassment awareness and prevention. SHPO provides faculty and staff with education on how to help students dealing with issues related to sexual health and assault.

“Our focus, especially lately, is on how to appropriately respond to students who have issues in the Title IX space,” Andrews explained. “Educating the entire community is really important — not just students — faculty and staff tend to be a good resource to students, so we are very active in making sure the entire community is educated.

CST

For students looking for confidential support, the CST is located just upstairs from Title IX, where Helen Wilson, director of the CST, said her team is available to help students affected by sexual assault, relationship or gender violence, discrimination or stalking.

The waiting area aims to give students who need same-day urgent appointment assistance a comfortable space to spend a few moments. CST provides counseling and evidence-based psychotherapy.

CST has a 24/7 hotline for students requiring immediate counseling outside of business hours.

“It can feel overwhelming, it can feel scary after an experience where by definition things are out of control, unpredictable or unwanted,” Wilson said. “It can feel scary to have to share that experience with someone else or know where to go to for support. There are a lot of people here for you and we are at least one potential option for a confidential first-stop.”

Ombuds

Also on the third floor is the University Ombuds, David Rasch, who offers confidential, informal assistance to anybody in the Stanford community who has an issue, conflict or concern with life, from classes to living situations. Rasch said his job is to resolve differences, act as an intermediary for disputes and offer advice on any range of issues.

The Ombuds, an impartial appointee aimed to resolve complaints, said he has students come in for a variety of issues, from academic grading complaints to conflicts within student groups to fees or tuition discrepancies.

Rasch stressed that he is a confidential resource — unless there is evidence of an imminent physical threat or harm.

“This is a safe place to talk about any issue,” Rasch said. “Students really have the opportunity to do whatever they think is right after they’ve had the chance to think through and I’ve had the opportunity to help in any way I can.”

Diversity and Access

Located on the first floor, the Diversity and Access office offers Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance as well as reviews public accommodations, employment and nondiscrimination support for faculty and staff.

Diversity and Access takes care of accessibility for students needing accommodations for dorm trips or living situations. Although students generally go straight to the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) for support, the Diversity and Access office is also a resource for students seeking assistance.

“Not only do they have a legal right, Stanford is absolutely committed to making sure they can have whatever opportunity or experience that is available to other students,” said Rosa Gonzales, director of Diversity and Access.

Additionally, Diversity and Access offers nondiscrimination education for faculty and staff and will help remedy situations where community members feel they are being discriminated against.

“We’re here to help, that’s our message,” Gonzales said. “Whether it’s as a resource or in training or whatever your needs are.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Judge Persky recall petition gets nearly 100,000 signatures https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/12/judge-persky-recall-petition-gets-nearly-100000-signatures/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/12/judge-persky-recall-petition-gets-nearly-100000-signatures/#respond Fri, 12 Jan 2018 08:14:22 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1135011 The petition to recall Judge Aaron Persky ’84 A.M. ’85, the presiding judge in the sexual assault case against former Stanford student Brock Turner, reached nearly 100,000 signatures Thursday. The petition comes as part of a campaign to to recall Persky for the lenient sentence of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner through the June ballot.

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The petition to recall Judge Aaron Persky ’84 M.A. ’85, the presiding judge in the sexual assault case against former Stanford student Brock Turner, reached nearly 100,000 signatures Thursday. This exceeded the 58,634 valid signatures needed to qualify for the June 5 ballot.

Judge Persky recall petition gets nearly 100,000 signatures
The campaign to recall Persky (Courtesy of John Shallman).

Persky, a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, sentenced Turner to six months in county jail in June 2016 based on a recommendation from the Probation department, only for Turner to be released after three months for good behavior. The petition comes as part of a campaign to to recall Persky through the June ballot for what critics describe as an overly lenient sentence.

As chair of the Persky Recall Campaign, Frederick I. Richman Professor of Law Michele Dauber spent the past four months collecting signatures with over 200 volunteers from Stanford to Gilroy, reaching 94,518 signatures in total.

“This is a great first step in this campaign; to bring the signatures in really means nearly 100,000 voters are saying it loud and clear that they are holding Judge Persky accountable,” Dauber said. “In cases of sex crimes and violence against women and marginalized communities, they’ve lost confidence in his ability to fairly adjudicate.”

Turner appealed his conviction in December 2017, seeking a retrial and the removal of his name from the sex offender list after serving three months in county jail for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman outside a Kappa Alpha party in 2015. Turner claimed he did not receive a fair trial in his 172-page appeal.

At the time of the trial, Persky noted prison would have a “severe impact” on Turner. Turner was ultimately convicted of three felony accounts of sexual assault: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person and sexual penetration of an unconscious person.

Prosecutors argued that Turner should spend six years in state prison for the crime. The controversial ruling as well as the publication of the letter written by the victim, referred to as Emily Doe, gained national attention and support for the recall.

“Emily did not get justice — neither did any of the other victims in which Judge Persky also exhibited bias,” Dauber said.

Since the recall effort began, Persky has attempted to halt the petition. According to an article published by SFGate, his attorneys succeeded in preventing the collection of signatures for 12 days in August 2017, arguing that as a state official, the procedure for removing him should be overseen by the Secretary of State, not the county registrar.

The campaign to recall Persky has also met with opposition from members of the public and law professors, including faculty at Stanford Law School (SLS).The Retain Judge Persky campaign, Voices Against Recall, has said that Persky’s recall would compromise the judicial independence and that Persky’s ruling complies with the Probation department recommendation.

In June 2017, 53 SLS graduates also presented an open letter to Dauber opposing the recall effort, while 95 California law professors signed a letter published Aug. 17 urging readers against signing the petition. Thirty of these signatories were professors at Stanford.

“A fair and equitable justice system requires judges who dispassionately assess the culpability and background of offenders, without fear of public opinion, balancing the goals of retribution, deterrence and rehabilitation,” the letter reads. “The recall campaign risks allowing public clamor to distort these crucial acts of judgment.”

The letter stated that the last three elected District Attorneys of Santa Clara County are against the recall and argued that recall movements make judges start “ratcheting up sentences” in fear of media campaigns.

In a September 2017 interview with The Daily, law professor Robert Weisberg J.D. ’79 added that many Stanford Law professors publicly opposed the recall campaign partly because they sought to separate the effort from the University.

“There is a fair amount of distress that the recall campaign and things said by the recall campaign were imputed to [Stanford] Law School,” said Weisberg, Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor at SLS and a signatory of the second letter. “If more Stanford law professors opposed the recall than favored it … that should help disabuse the public of the notion that [the recall campaign] is Stanford Law School’s position.”

The letter from SLS alumni clarified that their doubts about the recall campaign did not translate into unqualified support for Turner’s sentence.

“To be clear, our hesitation about a recall campaign does not stem from a belief that Judge Persky’s decision to give Turner a below-guidelines sentence was correct or that his stated justifications for doing so were sound,” drafters wrote. “Many of us, like you, believe that justice called for a stiffer sentence in his case. But we think humility requires us to recognize that we won’t always be able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate exercises of judicial mercy.”

However, Dauber said the implications of not going through with the recall are more dangerous for victims of assault as reporting of sexual assault on campuses is already extremely low.

“If survivors of sexual assault believe they are not going to be treated fairly, they are much less likely to report,” Dauber explained. “Especially when judges are issuing all of these biased rulings.”

Dauber added that although the Turner case brought Persky into the limelight, he has a history of gender- and minority-biased rulings in favor of privileged communities, such as white college males. Dauber cited four cases in the 17-month period Persky served as a judge in the criminal court, which she said demonstrated his tendency to issue lenient rulings to white men and college athletes who had either raped, sexually assaulted or possessed pornographic photos of children.

“There’s a long history of bias, and the lawyers for the victim in that case as well as others indicated that Persky is biased,” Dauber said, referring to a 2011 De Anza gang rape civil case he presided over. “He does not understand sexual assault or violence against women, and he doesn’t take it seriously.”

Weisberg, one of the 30 SLS signatories on the Aug. 17 letter, disagreed that Persky’s rulings could be proven as an “anomaly” among sexual assault cases in Santa Clara County.

“In the spirit of recall, if a judge makes unpopular decisions, does that make him an outlier?” Weisberg said. “There is hardly an evidence of an atypical ruling in the cases of sexual assault as a baseline. There is no evidence of clear bias on behalf of Judge Persky. The historical understanding of the recall law is that there has to be an anomaly; it has to be extreme.”

Weisberg added that it is difficult to find legal statistics to prove that Persky’s rulings are an anomaly, especially since many of his rulings were compliant with Probation department recommendations.

The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters now has until March 9 to verify the signatures. If the signatures are approved and the recall is placed on the ballot, voters will be asked to select a candidate to fill Persky’s seat on the bench. So far, Cindy Hendrickson, an assistant district attorney for Santa Clara County, has filed papers for the position.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Classy classes: Students bring video games to life in CS 146 https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/11/classy-classes-students-bring-video-games-to-life-in-cs-146/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/11/classy-classes-students-bring-video-games-to-life-in-cs-146/#respond Thu, 11 Jan 2018 08:23:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134839 Last fall, fourteen student teams designed computer, video and mobile games in CS 146: “Introduction to Game Design and Development.”

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Last fall, 14 student teams designed computer, video and mobile games in CS 146: “Introduction to Game Design and Development.” Taught by computer science professor Doug James and bioengineering assistant professor Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, the course allowed students to create a complete game available for download online.

“The students learn a wide range of lessons about video games and what makes a good product,” James said in an interview with Stanford News. “We do that partly by having weekly projects but also by having industry speakers that come in and talk about different parts of game design – everything from artistic aspects to storytelling to good sound design.”

The course, open to any student with basic programming skills, allowed students to hear from 15 professionals in the video game, multimedia, design and marketing industries. These professionals spoke to students about the game engine Unity, the platform used to design games in the class.

At the end of the course, students created a trailer for their game and showcased their projects to local industry professionals, receiving feedback and awards. Richard Lin ’20, a student who co-created Access Denied – a game in which the player acts as a robot invading a human spacecraft – said he learned about how designers make games interesting and suspenseful.

Classy classes: Students bring video games to life in CS 146
(Courtesy of Kurt Hickman/STANFORD NEWS)

“I didn’t really know about how people worked in the industry before this,” Lin said. “So, it’s really cool to hear about how they come to decide which feature they want to include in their game and how they worked on different parts of the game.”

James and Riedel-Kruse said the course was inspired by Stanford students’ love for video games. Maya Ziv ’20, who co-created Access Denied, said her longstanding interest in games motivated her to create them herself.

“I am passionate about games in general,” Ziv said. “I do many games in various forms. I love board games, card games, roleplaying games, live-action roleplaying games – as nerdy as it gets I love it – and I think that video games as a medium for storytelling are really, really powerful.”

Aside from some mandatory components such as 3D models and shading, projects are conceptualized and proposed by teams, allowing students to develop original designs on their own. Students brainstormed ideas for their games in the first week, using the rest of the quarter to design, create and test their creations.

Games ranged from an augmented reality “escape the room” to action-adventure world exploration, each with their own storylines and worldbuilding. Khoi Le ’20 co-created Luminosity, a fantasy game in which the player controls a “light spirit” escaping detection by antagonists called Keepers of Light.

According to Le, dividing tasks as a team made the game more interesting.

“There’s a certain magic to it just because I didn’t build the entire game myself,” Le said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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American public no more polarized than decades ago, Stanford professor finds https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/08/american-public-no-more-polarized-than-decades-ago-stanford-professor-finds/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/01/08/american-public-no-more-polarized-than-decades-ago-stanford-professor-finds/#respond Tue, 09 Jan 2018 06:55:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134714 Research from Wendt Family Professor of Political Science Morris Fiorina shows that the American public is not more politically polarized than it was in 1976, despite the apparent polarization of party candidates.

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Research from Wendt Family Professor of Political Science Morris Fiorina shows that the American public is not more politically polarized than it was in 1976, despite the apparent polarization of party candidates.

In an interview with Stanford News, Fiorina argued that despite politicians’ claims that voters are more polarized than ever, the public is not grouped around two party extremes to a greater extent than it was under the Reagan administration.

Americans are more likely to classify themselves as moderate then liberal or conservative, Fiorina notes.

“The distribution of partisan identification flatly contradicts the polarization narrative: Self-classified Republicans are no larger a proportion of the public than in the Eisenhower era, while self-identified Democrats are a significantly smaller proportion than in the 1960s,” Fiorina said, adding that 40 percent of today’s public does not identify with either party.

Fiorina, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, recently published these findings in his book, “Unstable Majorities: Polarization, Party Sorting and Political Stalemate,” combining previous research on elections and public opinion with new data.

Fiorina said the process of “party sorting” — the polarization of issue stances along party lines  —  is often mistaken for polarization of voters. Despite increased alignment of ideology and partisanship for politicians, he claims, the general public has not taken sides as part of the increased divide across issues. 

Fiorina says party sorting contributes to divisions between parties, making it difficult for politicians across parties to collaborate. He also describes a geographic gap in which Democrats increasingly represent urban, coastal states while Republicans represent Southern and Midwestern states, drawing a geographic barrier.

“A common complaint is that the two parties don’t work together to solve our country’s problems,” Fiorina said. “It’s difficult when the most liberal Republican in Congress is more conservative than the most conservative Democrat, as is the case today.”

Regarding specific issues, Fiorina said that the public favors a middle ground opinion; for example, the majority of the public supports abortion “sometimes, for some reasons,” in contrast to strong pro-choice advocacy from a Democratic platform or the pro-life platform typical of a Republican campaign.

Fiorina notes that, as neither party has a clear majority following, with government positions flipping between Democratic or Republican representatives across voting periods, many policies get reversed with each new administration. Still, Fiorina said internal party cohesion appears stronger today than in previous years, even though the power of any one party to control nominations has decreased. Fiorina said this was apparent in the 2016 election, in which Donald Trump slowly rose to the top of the Republican party and Bernie Sanders lost the party seat despite wide public support. Fiorina attributed these results to parties becoming more than just political organizations.

“Parties are much more multifaceted than they used to be — not just party and government officials and a few big interest groups, but also donor networks, campaign consultants and pollsters and issue activists,” Fiorina explained.

After party candidates are elected, Fiorina continued, failure to follow through on ideas for policy changes described during campaigns leads voters to change party ideologies. This can make voters who once identified with the Democratic party vote Republican or vice versa, blurring lines on party issues.

Above all, Fiorina said, most of the public is not politically involved: Because it is easier to draw conclusions about politics by watching the small minority of political elites represented in the media, polarization appears more extreme than it actually is among the public.

“As always, most Americans are working, raising their families and otherwise going about their daily lives, not paying much attention to the political wars being fought by political elites,” Fiorina said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Supreme Court’s travel ban green-light spurs new uncertainty for international students https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/06/supreme-courts-travel-ban-green-light-spurs-new-uncertainty-for-international-students/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/06/supreme-courts-travel-ban-green-light-spurs-new-uncertainty-for-international-students/#respond Thu, 07 Dec 2017 06:38:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134537 Executive Director of Bechtel International Center Shalini D. Bhutani explained that students from abroad have F-1 and J-1 Visas, which are not affected by the travel ban. For some Stanford students, though, the ban's implications are more serious.

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On Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the latest version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to take effect as appeals pend.

For one graduate student, the travel ban is enough to end his studies at Stanford.

The graduate student, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons, has only completed one full academic year at the University. His last day is Dec. 16.

“The U.S. has a lot of things to offer people from other countries, but at this point, I don’t think I can use them,” he said. “So I am going to leave at the end of the quarter.”

The Supreme Court’s decision earlier this week marks the first time the Court has allowed any version of the ban to take full effect. The first version of the ban, issued in January as an executive order and quickly challenged, sought to bar citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The most recent iteration of the ban,issued in September, restricts travel to various degrees for citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain people from Venezuela.

Executive Director of Bechtel International Center Shalini D. Bhutani explained that students from abroad have F-1 and J-1 Visas, which are not affected by the travel ban. Similarly, students who are permanent residents are not affected.

However, she said students from countries listed under the travel ban as well as from other surrounding countries tend to be anxious when news of an increased ban come to light.

“Students from other parts of the world tend to be a little anxious for themselves or their family members and for what the future holds,” Bhutani said. “Thereir tends to be this unspoken anxiety about what the risk of traveling might be.”

According to Bhutani, affected students will probably face a more enhanced entry screening ‒‒ especially students from Iran, where most international students in the travel ban’s scope hail from. According to the New York Times, Iran will still be able to send students on student exchanges after extensive screening. Bhutani said international students from countries affected by the ban should feel reassured that there are resources available to them on-campus.

Restrictions resulting from the court’s decision to allow the ban for now include an enhanced vetting process and travel only with visa. According to The New York Times, most citizens of the travel-restricted countries will find emigration to the U.S. impossible, and after vetting, many visitors will be barred from “working, studying or vacationing.”

For some Stanford students, the ban’s implications go beyond a tougher screening.

The graduate student terminating his studies this quarter is moving back home because his fiancee in Iran will not be able to come to the United States. From there, he plans to move to Switzerland.

“This ban is going to be updated and it’s not just going to be one ban,” the graduate student said. “You can’t be sure what happens to you if they have this ban and someone blocks it, then the administration puts out a new ban. This doesn’t stop.”

The graduate student said he might return to find postdoctoral positions in the U.S. if the situation gets better or after his remaining family members pass away.

“I do want to see my family,” he said. “I don’t know how long they are going to be around for. I want to use this opportunity [to be with them] for as long as I can.”

On Monday, Stanford’s president and provost posted an update to a University website informing students about University and local resources on immigration. Bhutani said Bechtel also updated its site to remind students of available resources, including advisors on standby to talk about worries and law school and immigration attorneys available to offer advice on travel registry. Bechtel offers support for students affected by the ban and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals repeal.

“Everything is in place, which doesn’t make it any easier,” Bhutani said. “The University is strongly in support of all students and we are here as staff at Bechtel to support them. We stand by our students and their families.”

Other peer institutions such as University of California-Berkeley and have offered support for affected students as well as ongoing advocacy at the national level.

Some students are determined to stay in the U.S. even as they face uncertain futures here. For another graduate student The Daily spoke to, school comes first, meaning he does not plan on leaving the States at all before finishing his Ph.D.

“I’ve accepted the fact that this could change any day and I’m not risking my Ph.D.,” the student, who also wished to remain anonymous on the grounds of security, said. “I’m not going home until I’m done with this.”

The graduate student said he is too far into his Ph.D. to switch schools. Otherwise, he would pursue other options.

The graduate student explained his parents have come to visit him twice from Iran. Both times, they needed to stop at another country with a U.S. Embassy first and acquire a single-entry visa. The graduate student said he wasn’t sure if they would even be able to do this anymore.

Not seeing his family or being able to go home is especially depressing, the graduate student said, because his sister is getting married in May. He has a tough choice: he must risk traveling home for the wedding or miss his sister’s ceremony.

“It is kind of depressing, but at least this is a good thing that is happening,” he explained. “If something really bad happens, that’s when you really want to go back.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Q&A: Former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks state of politics, immigration https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/01/qa-former-la-mayor-antonio-villaraigosa-talks-state-of-politics-immigration/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/12/01/qa-former-la-mayor-antonio-villaraigosa-talks-state-of-politics-immigration/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2017 09:22:43 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1134272 The Daily sat down with former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa, who is one of the Democratic candidates running for governor of California, to chat about why he thinks “politics is broken” and what Stanford students can do to help fix it.

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As part of a discussion held by Stanford Democrats on Thursday, former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa talked to audience members on immigration law, California politics and public service. The Daily sat down with Villaraigosa, who is one of the Democratic candidates running for Governor of California, to chat about why he thinks “politics is broken” and what Stanford students can do to help fix it.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): Some students are feeling unsafe with recent immigration policy and the Trump administration’s repeal of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Could you talk to me a little bit about your thoughts on immigration policy and how students who are affected by the repeal should be feeling?

Antonio Villaraigosa (AV): Our immigration system is broken: We need to fix it. We need to take responsibility for what we’ve created in this country, which is an immigration system that — no matter what side of the aisle you are on — most people believe is broken. DACA arose out of a broken immigration system. We had all of these young people who came with their parents [and] know no country other than this one, and they were treated as if they had crossed without documentation. We weren’t taking advantage of their talents and their energy, of their willingness to work. So DACA came out of this, not just a broken immigration system, but the failure of both parties to fix it.

The President did an executive action, which said if you’re working, if you come here before [age] 16, and you’re not old enough, and you’re working or going to school, you can apply for an extended stay. We’ve seen there are young Dreamers here at Stanford, at Berkeley, at Harvard, at UCLA, at USC; they’re contributing mightily to our country. They’re buying homes, starting businesses, defending our country. I think it’s really important that those young people know that in this state, we’re going to stand up for them. We’re going to work to make sure they have the resources they need to complete their education. We’re going to stand up for the notion that we have to fix that broken immigration system instead of denying our state and the nation the talent they provide. So, my vantage point: I understand that fear. Your vote counts — not everyone is impacted equally with the new policies coming from Washington D.C. and this administration — but if you’re a Dreamer or you’re undocumented, you feel the difference. My hope is that saner voices will prevail, but there is very little indication that will happen, from the rhetoric we see coming out of Washington D.C..

TSD: How important is it for young students to continue pursuing higher education?

AV: There are students who come from very affluent communities and then some students who come from very impoverished ones, and I think what many young people feel right now is uncertainty about the future. It used to be that buying a home was part of the American dream. Now, just trying to get an apartment or a mobile home, a place to live, we’re seeing [that] people graduating with degrees can’t find jobs in their areas of expertise or a good paying job with a college degree. I think there is good reason to feel some trepidation.

On the same token, I think we also need to understand that one way to address that trepidation is to make the economy work for more people, to educate and train more people for the jobs of the 21st century, which require intellectual capital, and I think that we need to look at – in this world that we’re disrupting so much with technology and the shared economy — what we do to retrain and reinvent the value of certain work.

I also have a lot of confidence in this generation — hearing the young students today. It’s a generation that cares a lot about others. It’s a generation of others who are less fortunate. It’s a generation that wants to change the world. That’s good; we should encourage that, celebrate it.

TSD: Finding housing in the area, both for students, faculty, staff and others in the local area, is difficult with increasing costs of living. How can future leaders handle the crisis of finding housing, and why should we start caring as undergrads?

AV: I think we’ve got to recognize that this is not just a problem, not even just a crisis — it’s a disaster. We’re not building enough housing. We’re pricing the middle class out of housing. The state needs to partner with cities and counties that are putting up their own money. They need to have a plan for homeless housing, workforce housing and affordable housing; workforce as professors, teachers, librarians, cops and firefighters; transit-oriented development in building density, downtown, transportation corridors in the like.

Finally, a plan to reduce the time it takes to approve that housing. Costs increase the longer it takes to approve. Bring back redevelopment, giving cities about a billion dollars a year to invest in housing. I like the notion of putting together kind of a cap and trade program for housing that addresses that this is a crisis and says, in those communities that don’t want to build that kind of housing, that they have to give to a fund, so we can build that housing. Nobody should care about that more than people at Stanford, UCLA, Cal State LA and community colleges because that was always part of the social compact. You work hard, get an education, play by the rules; you have enough to live a life of dignity and to have a piece of the rock.

TSD: How can Stanford students go out and fix broken politics in the world?

AV: I think we need people who are idealistic about the world, optimistic and bold, creative about taking on the challenges that we face. We need people who are willing to listen to one another and work with people who they don’t necessarily agree with. We need to be focused on trying new things that work. This institution is nurturing and developing the best and the brightest, many of whom want to change the world. I think it’s important to include those voices and take on these challenges with the vigor and the tenacity that the magnitude of the challenges we face require.

 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Faculty Senate talks long-term planning, ‘Diversity in the Field’ initiative https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/30/faculty-senate-talks-long-term-planning-diversity-in-the-field-initiative/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/30/faculty-senate-talks-long-term-planning-diversity-in-the-field-initiative/#respond Mon, 30 Oct 2017 07:32:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1132044 In its first meeting of the academic year, Faculty Senate received updates on long-range planning, a recap of President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s first year and a debrief from executive leaders of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) on the issues of diversity and student support in academics.

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In its first meeting of the academic year, Faculty Senate received updates on long-range planning, a recap of President Marc Tessier-Lavigne’s first year and a debrief from executive leaders of the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) on the issues of diversity and student support in academics.

Tessier-Lavigne recognized the work of Stanford faculty, students, staff, alumni, friends and trustees, saying all Stanford affiliates should be thinking about how to improve humanity while leading innovation with humility. He also commented on the breadth of the University’s strengths, noting as an example its combining of tech with the humanities to provide a more complete understanding of the world.

“We have the capacity, the opportunity and the responsibility to change the world,” Tessier-Lavigne said. “Our biggest danger is to be too incremental, not ambitious enough.”

In the past year, Stanford had stable research funding for work ranging from post-recession economic growth and methods of stopping brain cancer growth. There were 136 new faculty appointments and 180 faculty awards and honors during that time period.

Tessier-Lavigne also updated the Senate on long-range planning, a process launched last school year to chart Stanford’s future. He said that four steering groups focused on different areas of the planning are finishing reading over 2,800 ideas and proposals that were submitted by community members. The groups will update Senate on their progress in November as the Executive Cabinet begins to synthesize proposals.

This year, Tessier-Lavigne hopes to improve faculty diversity, on-campus affordability, support services for students and student service opportunities as well as renovate facilities.

Tessier-Lavigne also said he and Provost Persis Drell would continue to increase communication with the campus community, especially regarding challenges facing the nation and University such as immigration policy changes, overall student health, sexual violence prevention, free speech and cultural and political divisions.

ASSU President Justice Tention-Palmer ’18 and Vice President Vicki Niu ’18 reported on academics and diversity through teaching, mentorship and co-curriculars.

Niu spoke on the importance of “active inclusivity” to help students who may have difficulty adjusting to college life. The ASSU is developing accessibility and cultural sensitivity training for faculty and teaching assistants to combat this issue.

According to Niu, issues of inclusivity come from a 2015 campus climate survey that showed students who identify as a minority, low-income, first-generation or disabled felt less connected to faculty or more overwhelmed by their academic load.

Tention-Palmer mentioned increasing demand for the Diversity in the Field curricular initiative — an idea built off of the Diversity in the Major initiative, which an ASSU Executive team began pushing for in the 2014-15 academic year. The Diversity in the Major initiative, which would require students take a class on issues of diversity within their academic area, has not been adopted.

ASSU leaders said that, although Diversity in the Field and other related initiatives will take longer to develop, there are mentorship, internships and research opportunities that can be offered in the short range to start fixing issues now.

“If we want the leaders of Stanford tomorrow to encompass a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, we need to cultivate that knowledge and excitement about learning now,” Niu said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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School of Humanities and Sciences to replace Thai Cafe https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/09/school-of-humanities-and-sciences-to-replace-thai-cafe/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/09/school-of-humanities-and-sciences-to-replace-thai-cafe/#respond Mon, 09 Oct 2017 07:14:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1130803 After campus institution Thai Cafe closed its doors on 30 years of business at Stanford in June, the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) is seeking a new food vendor for the vacated space at the courtyard outside Jordan Hall.

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After campus institution Thai Cafe closed its doors on 30 years of business at Stanford in June, the School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) is seeking a new food vendor for the vacated space at the courtyard outside Jordan Hall.

According to H&S Director of Public Relations Joy Leighton, H&S maintains the space where Thai Cafe used to operate and has issued a request for proposal from food vendors. Leighton said that H&S hopes to have a new vendor up and running in spring quarter 2018 based upon student, faculty and staff feedback.

School of Humanities and Sciences to replace Thai Cafe
Thai Cafe (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily).

“H&S will be soliciting feedback later in October from the Stanford community in order to help inform the selection of a new food vendor,” Leighton wrote in an email to The Daily. “A survey will be sent to faculty, student and staff listservs asking for feedback on a number of issues.”

The survey will ask the Stanford community what they expect from a new vendor, and potential vendors will hold a taste test for selected survey respondents once the results have been analyzed. Interested individuals can choose to enter the lottery for spots in the taste test after they complete the survey.  

Leighton said the new vendor will need to offer reasonable prices and a short wait time for patrons — qualities that Thai Cafe was praised for. CJ Paige ’19, who had several classes near the eatery last year, said that Thai Cafe was unique among food vendors at Stanford.

“One of the things I appreciated most about Thai Cafe was that the prices were reasonable and it was quick service, which is not something you find easily on-campus or in Palo Alto,” Paige said. “The food was different — it was something that we can’t get anywhere else on campus.”

Former owner Mykhanh Bahlman informed H&S last May of her plans to retire at the end of spring quarter. According to Leighton, Bahlman needed to close the cafe sooner than expected due to a family emergency.

“Ms. Bahlman was an important part of the Stanford community,” Leighton wrote in an email to The Daily. “Many faculty, staff, students and alumni knew her and enjoyed eating at the Thai Cafe, and we wish her only the best.”

Before its closure, Thai Cafe had an enthusiastic following at Stanford that resulted in long lines outside Building 420 every weekday at lunchtime. Its name was a misnomer coined by customers over the decades — Bahlman told The Daily in 2014 that her heritage and her food were actually Vietnamese, and the eatery never had a dedicated seating area.

For some students, the loss of Thai Cafe felt personal. Ben Schwartz ’18, who described himself as a frequent customer, said he was particularly sad to see it go in his senior year.

“Waiting in line for Thai Cafe is one of the quintessential memories of a Stanford student,” Schwartz said. “It can be really unifying actually. It will be hard to replace.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Robert Cannon, emeritus professor of aeronautics and astronautics, dies at 93 https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/24/de-gb-robert-cannon-emeritus-professor-of-aeronautics-and-astronautics-dies-at-93/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/08/24/de-gb-robert-cannon-emeritus-professor-of-aeronautics-and-astronautics-dies-at-93/#respond Fri, 25 Aug 2017 05:04:19 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1129880 Emeritus professor Robert Cannon, an early proponent of autonomous robotics and cofounder of the Aerospace Robotics Lab, died at the age of 93 on Aug. 15 at Stanford Hospital.

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Robert Cannon, emeritus professor of aeronautics and astronautics, dies at 93
A forward-thinker in autonomous robotics, Robert Cannon served as chair and professor for the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Courtesy of Brad Elliot/STANFORD NEWS).

Emeritus professor Robert Cannon, an early proponent of autonomous robotics and cofounder of Stanford’s Aerospace Robotics Lab, died at the age of 93 on Aug. 15 at Stanford Hospital.

Cannon, the Charles Lee Powell Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Emeritus, served as the chair of his department at Stanford.

Cannon’s successor as chair, Paul Pigott Professor of Engineering, Emeritus George Springer, told Stanford News that Cannon was “one of the best department chairs [he] ever worked with.”.

“He always hired people who he had faith in and let them loose,” Springer said. “He provided everything they needed to succeed. He was also always optimistic and upbeat.”

Born in Toledo, Ohio on Oct. 6, 1923, Cannon earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering. He served in the U.S. Navy, spending time working with new radar technology aboard a destroyer. After his time in the Navy, Cannon helped design a hydrofoil sailboat that remained the fastest sailboat in the world for 30 years.

Cannon served in various government positions — including chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force — and as chair for several scientific and engineering boards.

He first came to Stanford in 1959 to help create the University’s  Guidance and Control program, an area within aeronautics and astronautics. After a brief stint at the California Institute of Technology, Cannon returned to Stanford in 1979 as the chair of the department of aeronautics and astronautics, holding the position until 1990 and retiring from teaching in 1995.

After retirement, he continued to live on campus and assist with the department.

Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Stephen Rock Ph.D. ’78, who co-developed the Aerospace Robotics Lab (ARL) with Cannon, described Cannon as a forward-thinker who developed ideas that the ARL is still producing today.

Speaking to Stanfore News, Rock said Cannon was “always fun to work with” and praised his ability to identify and attract “brilliant students” to his lab.

“He envisioned sophisticated, flexible robots that could carry out complex tasks in space under high-level human control and over large time constants,” Rock said. “He had the vision to see what this new technology could be used for and the problems people had.”

When Cannon first came to Stanford in 1959, he was part of a team of researchers that proposed a spinning gyroscope be sent to space in an effort to measure Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Named Gravity Probe B, the project eventually launched in 2004. After several years of research, the project’s data was able to verify Einstein’s theory. Although he did not lead the study, Cannon played a prominent role in its implementation.

Despite this dedication to his work, Cannon valued family above all else.

“I am proud that we are engaged in a research effort that is 10 million times more difficult than what anyone has attempted before, but in my scale of values, my now-grown family – six boys and a girl – is definitely more important,” Cannon said while he was developing the Gravity B Probe Project.

Cannon is survived by his seven children and second wife, Vera Berlin Cannon, as well as their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A memorial service in his honor will take place Sept. 23, at 2 p.m. at the Valley Presbyterian Church, located at 945 Portola Road, Portola Valley.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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GSC brainstorms long-range planning, discusses housing issues https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/gsc-brainstorms-long-range-planning-discusses-housing-issues/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/06/01/gsc-brainstorms-long-range-planning-discusses-housing-issues/#respond Thu, 01 Jun 2017 07:41:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128771 In its Wednesday meeting, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) brainstormed ideas for Stanford’s long-range planning process and saw updates from housing and an Undergraduate Senate bill to review Constitutional Council guidelines. Meanwhile, the GSC must consider what they must allocate parts of their budget to for the coming academic year.

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GSC brainstorms long-range planning, discusses housing issues
The GSC had a variety of ideas for long-range planning, including ways to minimize car use (GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily).

In its Wednesday meeting, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) brainstormed ideas for Stanford’s long-range planning process and saw updates from housing and an Undergraduate Senate bill to review Constitutional Council guidelines. Meanwhile, the GSC must consider what it must allocate parts of its budget to for the coming academic year.

Long-range planning

The GSC developed ideas to add to the long-range planning initiative, creating leadership roles in forming proposals for long-term change. Long-range planning, an initiative launched by Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell, calls for student and faculty input to improve University policy over the next 10-15 years.

The brainstorm session, led by GSC proxy Kate Gasparro from the School of Civil Engineering, incorporated ideas from four sections that University administrators plan to improve: advancing education, expanding research, building community and reaching “beyond Stanford.” The goal was to establish a task force in each of the four areas to develop ideas for proposals.

Gasparro said that ideas thrown out that would not be fit for long-range planning could be tackled by the GSC next year and encouraged everyone to contribute.

“No idea is a bad idea,” Gasparro said.

Suggestions included a better Marguerite system and “Go Passes” for students to subsidize travel costs as a sustainable car-free initiative, increasing local greenery on campus, advising training for faculty, childcare for students and faculty with children, a communal graduate kitchen and increased engagement with local activism and schools.

GSC member Melanie Malinas, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics, proposed empowerment for graduate students to speak for themselves when faculty advisors aren’t serving student needs. She also added that subsidized housing and increased research opportunities for undergraduates should be considered.

“It’s long-range planning,” Malinas said. “I’m dreaming big here.”

Proposals are due June 30, and individuals can submit as many proposals as they would like.

Graduate housing projects

GSC member Gabriela Badica from the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages updated the GSC on housing improvements discussed at the Graduate Housing Advising Committee (GHAC) last week, saying projects are at the “demolition and utilities” stage. According to Badica, this means that housing is working on tearing things down to rebuild safer and more accommodating houses, roads and parking areas.

Regarding last week’s controversy, Badica said that Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) reached out to apologize for the short notice entry last week and to spark collaborative discussion of necessary policy changes after reading the GSC minutes and Daily article published last week.

The original plan to send a letter to GHAC and R&DE was overturned, as R&DE felt informed about the GSC’s intentions. R&DE and GHAC offered to come to GSC meetings and to work with council members on improving housing policy.

“They’ve always been really responsive and want to work with us on improving these policies,” Badica said.

Constitutional Council committee

Undergraduate Senators Gabe Rosen ’19 and Katie Hufker ’18 updated the GSC on a bill to create a joint committee with the Undergraduate Senate (UGS), GSC, ASSU Executive and Constitutional Council to review and restructure Constitutional Council operations. UGS passed the bill at their final meeting last Tuesday.

Rosen said the bill has arisen after the conflict around the LSJUMB/KZSU v. Undergraduate Senate case last winter, which led to discussions of censuring some Council members. These discussions were dropped.

These issues raised concerns over Council decision-making and procedure transparency within the student body as well as in the student government. Rosen said the goal of the committee would be to clarify what the Constitutional Council should rule going forward and to provide a sense of continuity as members of the Council graduate.

The joint committee would meet via video chat and email over the summer to develop ideas for improving guidelines and transparency.

“While recent memory is still very fresh from what’s going on, we really need to change structure going forward [by] codifying these rules while stakeholders are still around to do these certain things,” Rosen said.

Hufker, who represented the Band in the case and witnessed this conflict, said that the second case this spring over the appointment of Lizzie Ford ’20 to Senate went “much smoother” after issues regarding Council rulings were discussed openly in the student government body.

GSC member Isa Rosa M.S. ’16 from the Graduate School of Engineering was also present at the LSJUMB/KZSU v. Undergraduate Senate proceedings and said that this joint committee would be beneficial in making the affairs of the Constitutional Council more transparent. Rosa also noted that it is unusual for the Council to hear two cases in a year, and that there are many years when it doesn’t hear any.

“We need to create a formal definition of what the Constitutional Council is,” Rosa said. “The Constitutional Council is missing that at the moment.”

Financial issues

The GSC rehashed issues regarding funding committee guidelines despite the expedited process at the meeting this week.

Questions regarding the funding approval process were continued from the previous two weeks’ discussions about changing guidelines.

Rosa and Malinas, funding committee co-chairs, said that the process is already smoother, as demonstrated by the quicker and more transparent approval of all the funding committee requests this week.

GSC Financial Officer Dan Walls, a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, said that Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) officers should not be required to attend GSC meetings.

Rosa and Malinas said they would prefer that the VSO financial officers come to the GSC meetings to make funding decisions transparent and to have a second set of eyes on decisions.

Former GSC Co-Chair Terence Theisen from the School of Medicine echoed this position, saying that having the financial officers come to meetings also makes the GSC proceedings more open and available to the public.

“It forces at least one person to see that the GSC is here and what we do,” Theisen said. “It creates that personal connection with at least that one person who is here.”

These funding committee questions arise as the GSC ponders spending for social events from its reserve funds. Although funds are healthy now, they might not be later, advised Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) assistant financial manager Luka Fatuesi ’17.

The GSC hosts social events for the graduate community each year, according to Badica, who serves as GSC social chair.

Fatuesi says the GSC differs from UGS with regards to hosting these events. Fatuesi says that the ASSU and SSE hope to “harmonize” GSC and UGS next year with regards to funding and working collaboratively.

Special fees for student groups cover large events, and UGS relies on student groups to host events without hosting any itself. Badica said she worries about cutting funding for social events, especially for the graduate community.

“It’s not the only way to combat isolation, but it is one way,” Badica said, referring to GSC-sponsored events.

The GSC will need to look over the budget for the coming year to determine if cutting some funding for social events will be necessary.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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GSC concerned with housing privacy, financial affairs https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/24/gsc-concerned-with-housing-privacy-financial-affairs/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/24/gsc-concerned-with-housing-privacy-financial-affairs/#respond Thu, 25 May 2017 05:25:04 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1128041 In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council proposed a public letter to the Graduate Housing Advising Committee and Graduate Student Housing about 48 hour entry warnings amidst privacy concerns. Outside updates on Stanford Student Enterprises and the funding committee pushed the GSC to question financial affairs.

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GSC concerned with housing privacy, financial affairs
The GSC discussed housing privacy and SSE’s finances (CHRIS DELGADO/The Stanford Daily).

In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) proposed drafting a public letter to the Graduate Housing Advising Committee (GHAC) and Graduate Student Housing about 48-hour entry warnings amidst privacy concerns. Additionally, outside updates on Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) and the funding committee pushed the GSC to question financial affairs.

Housing privacy concerns

A short notice entry from Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) last Friday in Escondido Village Studios Three and Four resulted in angry responses from graduate students about privacy issues.

GSC member Megan Conlon from the natural sciences division of the School of Humanities said a housing email issued at 8 a.m. last Friday notified residents of entries from housing staff starting at 9 a.m. to replace desk chairs. Due to complaints of insufficient notice, housing moved the replacement to this Wednesday.

In a response email, a representative from the Graduate Life Office (GLO) said that the 48-hour notice is “simply courtesy,” as student housing does not fall under the California Tenants Act, and thus students are not mandated a 24-hour notice of entry. Conlon, as well as graduate student Chris Miller, candidate for Ph.D. in neuroscience, said that students should be granted basic rights to privacy regarding entry.

“I think we pay enough for housing to deserve a minimal service like this,” Miller said.

Miller and GSC member Melanie Malinas, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics, said that housing should both email students and post a notice of planned entries.

GSC member Alejandro Schuler from the School of Medicine motioned for the GSC to write a public letter to GHAC and housing about creating a policy for a 48-hour notice of entry for non-emergency maintenance via post and email.

GSC member Gabriela Badica from the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages suggested a section thanking the GLO and housing for their services be added to the letter, which gained wide consensus from the council.

“It is a good idea to have the letter, but we have to recognize work they do for us,” Badica said. “Everybody makes mistakes but I don’t think they need to be demonized for it.”

SSE changes

Co-chair Jennifer Hill, Ph.D. candidate in sociology, updated the GSC on SSE affairs based upon SSE’s recent quarterly meeting. Hill is running against 2017-18 ASSU Executive Chief of Staff Matthew Cohen ’18 for chair of the SSE Board of Supervisors.

According to Hill, SSE passed a bill to discuss divesting ASSU funds from fossil fuels, titled “Joint Bill to Seek Comment Regarding Divesting ASSU Funds from Fossil Fuels.” She said that contention rose during the SSE meeting around a letter composed by Vanguard, the most prominent investor for SSE, in which Vanguard representatives said the “risks may outweigh the benefits” for divesting from fossil fuels.

Hill suggested potentially moving away from Vanguard.

“If we want to make changes, it may involve some financial hit for the moral stance we want to take,” Hill said.

Additionally, Hill said SSE is dealing with internal issues regarding legal guidelines. Although operating under the assumption of incorporation, SSE has no records of incorporation and is hiring legal assistance to sort out guidelines, according to Hill.

“There is no record of incorporation; that’s a bit of a question mark,” Hill said.

Hill also said the rules of order regarding participation from former SSE officers also does not follow California legal standards, raising questions of operation as a 501(c)(3).

In an email response to Hill’s comments, SSE CEO Jelani Munroe ’16 wrote that he did not have direct responses given that he was not at the meeting, but that “there has been no determination of any lack of legal compliance for ASSU/SSE.”

“We (certainly I) have spent a lot of time in the last year reflecting on the ASSU and trying to ensure we are running the best organization that we can,” Munroe added. “Out of this reflection came an internal proposal for us to seek legal advice on what things we do well, and what things we can improve as a non-profit. That’s the explicit mandate of this initiative.”

Funding committee updates

Malinas and Isa Rosa from the School of Engineering were named co-chairs of the funding committee.

Schuler presented a draft for a motion to update the GSC’s funding guidelines, including a form for VSO financial officers to fill out as a way to reduce time in the funding committee office hours and present the financial officers with the written guidelines. The form would require financial officers to read the guidelines and provide contact information in addition to making the request.

Schuler proposed that VSOs not be required to attend GSC meetings in addition to the funding committee office hours. This raised concerns for Rosa, who said that would give the funding committee too much power.

Kari Barclay from theater and performance studies suggested that the VSO or the funding committee could petition to come to the GSC meeting if the funding bill deemed it necessary.

The GSC tabled further discussion of the guidelines for next week.

The GSC website server is damaged and will go live as soon as it is repaired.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Graduate Student Council questions funding guidelines https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/17/graduate-student-council-questions-funding-guidelines/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/17/graduate-student-council-questions-funding-guidelines/#respond Thu, 18 May 2017 05:18:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127724 In its second official meeting Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council addressed flaws in the Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) funding guidelines and proposed outside outreach committee opportunities.

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Graduate Student Council questions funding guidelines
The GSC debated VSO funding guidelines, which do not currently fund meetings that are not open to all grad students (Gillian Brassil/THE STANFORD DAILY).

In its second official meeting Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council addressed flaws in the Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) funding guidelines and proposed outside outreach committee opportunities.

Faulty funding guidelines

A recent VSO request from the Stanford Black Biosciences Organization sparked discussion over the efficacy of the current funding committee guidelines. These guidelines were revised to fit the stringent budget two months ago, according to GSC and funding committee member Isa Rosa from the School of Engineering.

The Black Biosciences Organization requested funding for an informational session with an expected attendance of 15. The funding committee denied the group funding because the current funding guidelines say that the GSC does not fund informational sessions and the session was not planning to accommodate for a wide audience.

Rosa said that the info session addressed internal elections for the group and that the GSC only funds events that are open to all graduate students.

“There are over 200 VSOs on campus,” Rosa said. “If each VSO came and asked for funding and got it, we would have no money left for things that accommodate more grad students. We want to fund events that are going to have a bigger impact.”

The recommendation to deny funding raised questions from GSC member Megan Conlon from the natural sciences division of the School of Humanities. Conlon argued that the info session would be aimed at raising awareness for the group and that denying them funding deprived the group of the opportunity to put on an event to attract more members.

GSC members Juan Lamata, Ph.D. candidate in English and Gregor Quack, Ph.D. candidate in art and art history agreed with Conlon, saying that the guidelines should be revised to allow groups to hold info sessions that may help them with outreach.

Representatives from the organization were not present at the GSC meeting. Rosa said that the funding committee invited them to come, but representatives were not interested in attending after their request was denied.

Returning GSC member Gabriela Badica from the division of Iberian and Latin American cultures said that it would be difficult to come to a decision without representatives present but that groups who were denied funding through the committee should feel welcome to request funding during GSC meetings.

“Anyone can always come ask for things, even if it’s against the guidelines,” Badica said.

Co-chair Rosie Nelson from the School of Education recommended that the funding committee meet to discuss changing guidelines and that the GSC should check these recommendations at its next meeting.

According to GSC and funding committee member Melanie Malinas from the department of biophysics, the new funding committee has not had formal training yet, but will convene next Tuesday.

The GSC approved funding in full for the Queer Grad Women’s request for their Open Dyke Night, the Asian American Student Association’s request for a barbecue mixer, Stanford Chinese Sing’s request for for their second anniversary concert and the Taiwanese Student Association’s request for their farewell event.

New roles

GSC Co-chairs presented a range of  other campus leadership committees in which GSC members may represent the council.

Co-chair Jennifer Hill, Ph.D. candidate in sociology, offered a position as the GSC delegate for Faculty Senate.

Former GSC Co-chair Terence Theisen from the School of Medicine said that he hopes the new delegate will restart the tradition of presenting GSC matters to the senate once per year, a practice which has been abandoned in recent years.

Additionally, Hill said a GSC member should be a liaison for the ASSU Legal Counseling Service, a forum students may use to ask legal questions.

A GSC member is also encouraged to sit on the Graduate Housing Advising Committee (GHAC). GHAC is composed of Residential and Dining Enterprise leaders, graduate student housing representatives and five graduate student representatives. Graduate student representatives are appointed through the Nominations Commission.

According to former GSC member and current secretary David Fan-Chung Hsu from the School of Engineering, the GHAC has a powerful say in decisions regarding housing for graduate students and joining the committee would help increase the GSC’s voice in improving housing decisions for graduate students.

Hill mentioned positions on the Health Insurance Advisory Committee as well as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Committee. Both roles would involve meeting with Vaden directors as well as Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) to discuss graduate student healthcare.

Finally, Theisen encouraged the chairs to reach out to executives and University administration to work on Long Range-Planning, a new initiative to improve administrative transparency and address necessary University changes in the coming decade.

Hill and Nelson stressed the importance of taking these roles seriously.

“When you take on these roles, you are committed to going to these meetings and reporting back to us as well as representing the GSC and vice versa,” Hill said.

The co-chairs themselves, as well as the financial officer, will stand as representatives on the Executive Committee, which brings together GSC leaders, Undergraduate Senate and ASSU Executives. These meetings are open to the public.

Hill also said she would sit as the GSC representative on the Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) board of directors, which oversees financial planning.

Logistics

Nelson and Hill noted that the first new GSC administrative office hours were a success with six student attendees. Hill said discussion centered around shortcomings of health policy and CAPS, lead by Vaden Director Ronald C. Albucher.

Rosa and Lamata said the GSC survey task-force is working to compose a survey to be distributed to all graduate students with questions of social concern for the GSC to address. The GSC has not produced a comprehensive survey covering a wide array of issues since 2007, according to Rosa. The task force plans to release the survey by the end of the quarter.

According to Nelson, the GSC’s website is still down due to problems with updates, but in the interim there is a stand-in website through SSE.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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New Graduate Student Council elects chairs, scrutinizes committee candidate https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/11/new-graduate-student-council-elects-chairs-scrutinizes-committee-candidate/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/05/11/new-graduate-student-council-elects-chairs-scrutinizes-committee-candidate/#respond Thu, 11 May 2017 08:03:52 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1127316 In its first official meeting, the 2017-2018 Graduate Student Council (GSC) selected new Council chairs and discussed possible tension within the funding committee.

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In its first official meeting, the 2017-18 Graduate Student Council (GSC) selected new Council chairs and discussed possible tension within the funding committee.

Funding committee tension

Although the GSC did not vote on a funding committee chair during this meeting, potential chair candidate Isa Rosa M.S. ’16 from the School of Engineering faced pushback from former GSC member Kali Allison from the School of Earth Sciences, who said that Rosa has discriminated against religious and cultural groups as she served as GSC internal auditor.

“I regret that I had not spoken up sooner,” Allison said.

Rosa contested this statement, saying there are “soft cap guidelines” that informed her decisions on funding for Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs). Soft cap guidelines refer to the limit on the amount of funding available to a VSO based upon prospective membership and event turnout.

“The soft cap is a guideline and you can come to the GSC with questions about the soft cap,” Rosa said. “I know what I can tell VSOs and I try to help them.”

As a result of tensions over Rosa, GSC members discussed ensuring that at least five members would be elected to the committee.

“I feel like this is something the undergrads have better than us: a larger funding committee,” said outgoing GSC Co-Chair Pau Guinart about the ASSU Senate.

The funding committee will internally decide who will serve as chair and how to delegate stipends after several meetings.

Electing chairs

The GSC selected uncontested Co-Chairs Rosie Nelson, Ph.D. in the Graduate School of Education, and Jennifer Hill M.A. ’16, Ph.D. candidate in sociology.

GSC member Dan Walls, a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, will serve as the group’s next financial officer.

Former GSC member David Fan-Chung Hsu from the School of Engineering will remain as secretary.

GSC member Gabriela Badica from the Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages will serve as social coordinator again alongside Todd Chapman M.S. ’13 from the School of Engineering. Badica was also proud to announce that Grad Formal went well, saying the event was “sold out and then some.”

New GSC member Alejandro Schuler from the School of Medicine will serve as food czar, overseeing food at meetings.

New GSC member Melanie Malinas, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics, was elected for the new position of financial literacy coordinator, which will replace the role of tax coordinator. The role of tax coordinator was renamed to better fit the job, which involves organizing quarterly education sessions on financial literacy and communicating with relevant campus offices on taxes.

Selection of the role of webmaster was tabled until next week’s meeting.

Review and advice

In light of this year’s GSC election controversy, which led to the resending of some ballots, Allison and Kate Gasparro from the School of Civil Engineering, who was standing in as a proxy, discussed a memo for recommendations for future elections. The memo highlights the success of the Elections Commission in increasing voter turnout.

Guinart and fellow outgoing Co-Chair Terence Theisen from the Stanford School of Medicine advised new council members to hold and show up for GSC member office hours, an initiative that follows in the footsteps of the administrative office hours approved by the Undergraduate Senate earlier this year.

Funding for events hosted by the graduate students of Applied Physics and Physics, the Dish on Science, GradQ and the Stanford Japanese Association was approved.

Gasparro said the GSC’s website is still down but will go live soon.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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GSC weighs democratic fairness of reelection https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/gsc-weighs-democratic-fairness-of-reelection/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/26/gsc-weighs-democratic-fairness-of-reelection/#respond Thu, 27 Apr 2017 05:17:41 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126606 In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed the partial re-do of the election that passed last meeting and its effects on the election of the next GSC, causing members to put a reelection of the “at-large” portion of the ballot back on the table.

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GSC weighs democratic fairness of reelection
The Graduate Student Council worried over implications of a reelection after last week’s glitches (GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily).

In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed the partial redo of the election that passed last meeting and its effects on the election of the next GSC as well as funding and stipend changes for the next year. Concerns over the democratic fairness of the election versus disenfranchisement of voters raised questions of running an entirely new graduate election ballot, causing the GSC to put a reelection of the “at-large” portion of the ballot back on the table.

The partial redo suggested last week went live on Thursday at midnight and will run until 11:59 p.m. on Friday. The partial redo features all aspects of the original ballot with the exception of the Executive slate and is open to students in the Law School and the School of Medicine as well as voters affected by an originally incomplete link who were unable to revote by the deadline of Friday, April 14.

After consulting the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support, the Elections Commission determined that all previous glitches associated with the original ballot were resolved for the new ballot. There is no confirmation on whether or not the original “at-large” section of the ballot was randomized, as some GSC members, including Isa Rosa M.S. ’16, worried last week.

Several councilors wanted to motion to cast an entire reelection of the “at-large” portion of the ballot. The proposition was not voted on because there are no official election results to rerun without the inclusion of the partial redo.

GSC members were concerned with the way they were reelected, saying that they were uncomfortable with having won through a faulty ballot. Gabriela Badica from the school of Division of Literatures, Cultures and Languages noted that she did not want to win if the graduate community felt that the election results were biased.

“I don’t want to win this way,” Badica said.

GSC Co-Chair Pau Guinart Ph.D. ’18 was also concerned with the fairness of the results and questioned the democratic process. Guinart asked the newly elected members if they were comfortable with the proceedings, but also said that the Elections Commission needs to come back with more data before running a new election.

“There are not going to be enough ways of thanking the Elections Commission and all of their hard work,” Guinart said. “Still, it is hard to accept a result that has technical questions.”

This raised concerns over whether a revote would disenfranchise previous voters from voting again. Discussion of a new election was tabled until further notice after the partial redo.

The GSC passed the ASSU Executive slate of Justice Tention ’18 and Vicki Niu ’18.

Councilors also discussed Stanford Long-Range Planning, President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Persis Drell’s project to focus on improving Stanford in the coming 10-15 years.

The goal of the project is to improve opportunities for faculty and students to succeed, and its initiatives depend on hearing from staff and departments to know what departmental changes are needed.

“We want to ask, ‘How does Stanford keep improving its own mission [and] how do we best equip Stanford with what it needs to be successful?’” said GSC Co-Chair Terence Theisen from the Stanford School of Medicine.

Theisen urged the GSC to submit proposals, either as a group or individually. Proposals for change will be accepted through June. Some members, including proxy Kate Gasparro from the School of Civil Engineering and SSE assistant financial manager Sean Means ’18, questioned accountability and transparency of the information-gathering process.

Referring to graduate students, Theisen said, “There are more of us than anyone at Stanford, [so] how do you envision changing the University?”

Councilor Rosa proposed the creation of a task force within the future GSC for writing proposals.

Members also discussed stipend changes for next year, including dropping the formal office positions of tax coordinator and public relations coordinator. Additionally, the GSC discussed pooling the stipends for the funding committee and having the distribution of payment at the discretion of either the committee or the GSC as a whole. Decisions will be discussed at a later date.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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GSC votes to resend election ballots to affected voters https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/20/final-fk-gsc-votes-to-resend-election-ballots-to-affected-voters/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/20/final-fk-gsc-votes-to-resend-election-ballots-to-affected-voters/#respond Thu, 20 Apr 2017 07:46:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1126228 In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed resolutions to fix the discrepancies on ballots in the recent GSC election. Council members voted to resend ballots to students in the Law School and the School of Medicine as well as voters affected by an originally incomplete link who were unable to re-vote by the Friday night deadline. This partial re-do would include re-voting on all aspects of the original ballot apart from the Executive slate.

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GSC votes to resend election ballots to affected voters
On Wednesday, the GSC discussed its approach to ballot discrepancies in the most recent election (GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily).

In its meeting on Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed resolutions to fix the discrepancies on ballots in the recent GSC election. Council members voted to resend ballots to students in the Law School and the School of Medicine as well as voters affected by an originally incomplete link who were unable to re-vote by the Friday night deadline.

This partial redo would include re-voting on all aspects of the original ballot apart from the Executive slate. This is because the margin of votes in the Exec race was significant enough to be unaffected by resending votes, according to the Elections Commission and the Stanford Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support. Thus, the executive picks for the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) remain unaffected by the ballot glitches.

Elections Commissioner Paul Serrato ’19 said the Elections Commission worked closely with the Office of Institutional Research and Decision Support on ballot design and delivery for the new Qualtrics System, a more mobile-friendly platform for voting. Institutional Research provided technical components such as enrollment data.

Serrato said one of the key concerns regarding graduate student voter turnout was that in past years, there have simply not been enough overall votes to pass special fees and amendments.

“We all know historically, the turnout rate has been low [for graduate students],” Serrato said.

He cited a significant improvement in graduate student voter turnout this year, with a turnout rate of 25.61 percent. He noted that part of this improvement came from reminder emails. Ballots were improved by linking individual items to the voter guide site, and selection choices were randomized, although some Council members, including Isa Rosa M.S. ’16 and Yiren Shen J.D.’18, felt that this information might have been false.

Voters who opened the link within the first 20 minutes after midnight on Thursday were unable to view all possible GSC candidates. Serrato said that the Elections Commission was able to check in with Institutional Research and fix the issue for every ballot thereafter.

Post-issue, the Commission again consulted with Institutional Research to see how many voters were affected. Out of 15,913 ballots, Serrato said, 169 voters received a faulty ballot. Research found that 41 of these voters had opened the ballot but did not vote. The Elections Commission resent a fixed ballot to all 169 voters at 5:36 p.m. on Friday.

Serrato said 83 votes were recast after the fixed ballot was sent.

With this information, the Commission and Institutional Research ran three simulations to see if the affected votes had an effect on the results. The first simulation ran only the original votes cast with the faulty ballot. The second simulation counted the original votes but replaced the 83 votes recast after the fixed ballot was sent. The third simulation ran the original votes, replaced the 83 recast votes and removed the difference of the 83 recast votes from the 169 faulty ballots, or 86 votes.

The simulations showed no material change in the outcome of who won positions.

Serrato said the main concern originated when research showed that turnout for law students was low. The Elections Commission found that a glitch had not allowed registered law students to see the Law School’s district ballot. This also happened to a lesser extent to students from the Medical School filling out the Medical School district ballot, a concern that Serrato said he learned of the day prior to the GSC meeting. Both of these elections were uncontested, but turnout was extremely low: Only four law students cast votes for the candidate, Ryan Roberts J.D.’18.

Research showed that this glitch affected 90 law students. As the Medical School data came in so recently, the Elections Commission has yet to know the extent of the glitch for those students.

“I think it is important to note that these glitches were supervised by not only students in the Elections Commission but also institutional research from the University,” he said.

Serrato proposed a special election to send ballots to the people who were affected by this additional glitch and wanted to work with the GSC for help sending these ballots.

GSC member Isa Rosa M.S. ’16 from the Graduate School of Engineering was one of the students who opened the ballot within the first 20 minutes of its release. After receiving her corrected ballot, Rosa said she was concerned because the five “at large” candidates were at the top of the list of candidates, similar to what she saw on a friend’s ballot. “At large” candidates are candidates elected to the council who are not the specified member from their respective district. After discussion, most other members of the GSC said that their ballots were exactly the same.

“‘At large,’ the ballots may not have been randomized,” Rosa said. “Studies show bias for first people on the ballot.”

Serrato responded that all candidates, including the write-in feature, were randomized.

Rosa wanted a complete re-vote at first, but the idea was not supported by other GSC members. She was also concerned that voters with the corrected ballot had a short amount of time during an inconvenient time window to fill it out.

GSC member Rosie Nelson from the Graduate School of Education echoed this concern, saying she hoped that future elections would consider that members of the Jewish community who hold Sabbath cannot use technology on Friday nights.

Jelani Munroe ’16, Stanford Student Enterprises CEO, said that as the Elections Commission was limited to 48 hours for voting and that was the soonest the fixed ballots could be sent, the time frame should be considered reasonable.

GSC member Shen also noted that there was no “back” button at the end of the ballot, meaning students could not go back and review their votes. She said this may have deterred some voters from voting or prevented them from changing their minds.

Serrato said that even an unsubmitted vote would be counted as a partial ballot, including only what the student had voted on. This has been part of the rules for years, he said.

GSC member and Elections Commission member Kali Allison from the School of Earth Sciences said that some things are beyond technical ability to fix.

“I do think that some technical issues are beyond our power,” Allison said. “There is not much we can do as the commission to respond to everybody.”

GSC members recognized that the extensive information from Institutional Research likely uncovered issues that had existed in previous elections.

The Council decided that opening ballots for the 48-hour period of this Sunday through Monday would be fair and would allow the Elections Commission to review and present the results for certification at next Wednesday’s meeting. Candidates will be notified of the recast so they do not campaign between now and Sunday.

Only five members of the GSC were eligible to vote on the motion for the recasted voting for the medical and law students, as well as the students affected by the minimized time to submit ballots on Friday. These were the only two motions regarding elections to pass.

Concerns over disillusionment rose with the option of a redone election, stopping all motions on sending corrected ballots to students beyond those in the Law School, School of Medicine and those affected by the original glitch. Although voter turnout was significantly higher than in previous years, overall turnout is generally low. GSC members did not want to base election results on a “re-election” that might deter a significant portion of voters.

“Let’s remember that 70 percent of students didn’t vote the first time,” GSC Co-Chair Terence Theisen said.

The GSC did not certify any campaign slates beyond the Executive slate. The Council also tabled motions for impeachments and censures regarding the two Constitutional Council members questioned by the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) last night. The GSC will wait to make a decision until the UGS makes its decision.

The Daily has sent confirmations of each of these statistics to the Commissioner, but at the time of publishing, has not yet heard further comment.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford researchers simulate cell transporter https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/14/stanford-researchers-simulate-cell-transporter/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/14/stanford-researchers-simulate-cell-transporter/#respond Fri, 14 Apr 2017 07:13:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125893 For the first time, Stanford researchers have created a protein transporter simulation of sugar molecules across cell membranes, providing insight into the development of neurotransmitter drugs for treatment of psychiatric disorders like depression.

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For the first time, Stanford researchers have created a protein transporter simulation of sugar molecules across cell membranes, providing insight into the development of neurotransmitter drugs for treatment of psychiatric disorders like depression.

Stanford researchers simulate cell transporter
Researchers have simulated protein transporters, which has implications for developing drugs and treating psychiatric disorders (Courtesy of Stanford News).

Protein transporters control the process of nutrients and molecules passing through cell membranes. But before the development of this simulation, scientists did not have a clear picture of how they open and close. Assistant Professor in Molecular and Cellular Physiology Liang Feng partnered with Associate Professor of Computer Science Ron Dror to write the paper releasing the results of the simulation in the acclaimed scientific journal, Cell.

“Now that we have a better understanding of how transporters work, we can break down the process and see what’s actually important,” Feng told Stanford News.

Transporter proteins ferry neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin naturally, but drugs often have to evade transporters to enter the cell. Transporter proteins are part of the cell membrane and have one gate that opens to the outside and another to the inside. They are too small to be seen through a microscope, making the process nearly impossible to see in real life.

Before the creation of this simulation, scientists used a technique called crystallography to configure the shape of the protein. Crystallography combines static images with biological experiments, but only makes guesses as to how the proteins behave.

Feng worked with a graduate student in his lab, Nathan Fastman M.S. ’17, to provide  crystallography images of a transporter in different stages of a particular sugar transporter. With these images, Dror and Naomi Latorraca M.S. ’18, a graduate student in Dror’s lab, programmed the physical forces between atoms to see how simulated atoms would act spontaneously during the sugar transport process.

“Plus, the underlying physics models have become more accurate, and we now use better algorithms,” Dror said.

The simulation found structures that matched images produced by crystallography, proving the “airlock” theory of transporter control. This theory says that the outer gate opens, allowing the molecule to enter the cell, before the inner gate decides if the molecule is allowed into the cell itself. This shows that the protein is stable with at least one gate closed at a time.

“The beauty of this paper is the simulation and the experimental evidence match really well, so we know the simulation is very likely to be real,” Feng said.

Dror said this discovery allows scientists to understand how drugs are allowed to pass through the membrane, and how to produce drugs that protein transporters support. This could have wide-ranging implications for drug development and treatment of difficult diseases.

“For example, one could treat diseases like diabetes by creating drugs that bind to and regulate transporters, and preventing drugs from getting thrown out of cells by transporters would help avoid problems such as antibiotic resistance,” he said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate proposes impeachments, opens online student forum https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/12/senate-proposes-impeachments-opens-online-student-forum/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/12/senate-proposes-impeachments-opens-online-student-forum/#respond Wed, 12 Apr 2017 08:17:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125740 The Senate proposed impeachments of Constitutional Council members for “obnoxious” and “dishonest” behavior. It also passed a bill to produce an online forum for suggestions for ASSU discussion.

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At its Tuesday meeting, the 18th Undergraduate Senate proposed impeachments of Constitutional Council members for what it called “obnoxious” and “dishonest” behavior — characterizations that the two students under scrutiny contest. The Senate also passed a bill to produce an online forum for suggestions for ASSU discussion.

Impeachments

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 raised bills for discussion to impeach Constitutional Council members Brian Baran J.D. ’18 and Jonathan York J.D. ’18 following their decision in the recent hearing of LSJUMB/KZSU v. Undergraduate Senate, which Band and KZSU won.

Band and KZSU won student groups’ right to petition a Senate funding rejection when the funding request lies outside of the Senate’s funding guidelines. The case raised Senate concerns over how the hearings were handled.

Senator Jayaram Ravi ’19 described Baran’s actions as “obnoxious,” accusing Baran of a “30-minute tirade” on University fee collection after a one-sentence response from the Senate on a different topic. Fee collection was unrelated to the case at hand, Ravi said.

Baran wrote in an email to The Daily that Ravi’s accusations were false and that the meeting Ravi referenced was just “a lively question-and-answer hearing.” Although Baran found Ravi’s statement unclear, he asserted that no topic was discussed for anywhere near 30 minutes. Baran further clarified that:

“Perhaps Mr. Ravi is referring to the stipends senators receive, in which case the claim is particularly ludicrous. One of the advocates noted that senators receive stipends in the course of arguing that organizations would be breaking the law were they to pay officers. I noted my confusion with this apparent contradiction, the advocates explained that they believed senators’ pay was covered by an exception, and the Council promptly moved on to discussing the argument that officer pay was illegal. Anyone wondering whether that issue was relevant need only refer to the copious briefing on it by the Senate and its supporters in the case.”

Regarding York, chair of the Council, Katipamula said he not only failed to disclose pertinent information in an email prior to the Senate meeting but also made false statements regarding a public meeting and required public motion prior to the hearing. Katipamula said the Senate was never notified of a pre-hearing meeting.

She alleged that York’s later description of the meeting was “completely different from what the email said,” although she did not specify exact wording.

Although the Senate did not pass the bills at this meeting, senators felt that they were important to discuss. However, York took issue with the Senate’s decision to discuss the matter of impeachment at all on Tuesday. In an email to The Daily, he wrote that he notified Katipamula and ASSU Exec of being unable to attend the Senate meeting due to religious commitments during Passover.

“As such, [I] had been assured that debate and vote on this issue would be postponed until next week,” York wrote.

York also noted “the very strange circumstance where an issue that is certainly not urgent (the Constitutional Council has no plans to meet and no cases upcoming) was discussed without the key people involved, one of whom had already informed the Senate that he could not attend due to a religious conflict.”

The bills will be brought up again in the next meeting after the senators gather more information from both sides of the case.

“Impeachment is a serious thing to be considered, and the student body deserves to know that we did it in a fair and evenhanded manner,” said Senator Gabe Rosen ’19.

Student Voice

Student Voice is an online forum where students can anonymously voice opinions and ideas for changes to benefit the student body. The website, found on the ASSU Senate page, is based off of other open forum sites from comparable universities like Harvard, MIT and Oxford. According to Junwon Park ’19, one of the senators who implemented the site, Student Voice is meant to act as an inspiration for discussion at Senate meetings.

Students can “upvote” or comment on suggestions made by others. Senators will serve as administrators for the site and will have the power to remove unwanted posts. Although students will be anonymous, senators will not.

Senator Matthew Cohen ’18 voiced concerns about “trolling” and multiple postings by the same person after testing the site. Park explained that the system would not be able to prevent students from “trolling,” but said there are few examples of malevolent behavior in similar applications. Instead, Park said to focus on the number of ideas generated on the site.

“If five students suggest 100 good ideas, it doesn’t really matter how many students are suggesting them,” Park said.

Ravi was more concerned with frivolity and the question of “ridiculous” ideas that do not concern Senate affairs.

Park responded to comments saying that the forum has been successful at other universities and that protecting anonymity is key for protecting student rights.

Katipamula suggested that the communications committee control the project and have access to the source codes for use by future senates. Katipamula said having a set head of the site would help with continuity of dealing with discussion proceedings by making someone “directly responsible” for the application.

Senator Jasmin Espinosa ’18 suggested an update to have students sign in with their student ID, making the site confidential instead of anonymous and ensuring that all posts are made by students. Her proposal echoed Katipamula’s equating of the site to YikYak, an app where students have faced issues of hate speech.

Rosen was also concerned with hate speech and obscenities and asked that the site be primed with a filter to prevent inappropriate posts when the communication committee is not there to filter them out. Espinosa added to this concern, asking about the site’s ability to block users.

Park accounted for all of these concerns, amending the bill before it was unanimously passed. Student Voice should be available after the site is updated to reflect these amendments.

Tight budget

Rosen said the Senate will face funding constraints for the rest of the term and that it will most likely need to dip into reserves. After supporting recommendations for funding this week, he said, the Senate has only $37,000 left out of the $178,000 that it had for use this year. This $37,000 is for the rest of the academic quarter.

As cost concerns rise, Katipamula offered a formal response to a bill on ASSU divestment from fossil fuels, providing context for the costs associated with divestment. She said that the bill raises concerns about the Senate acting as a 501c3 instead of a corporation.

“This is the first of many divestment requests – not necessarily to us but to this body in coming years,” Katipamula said.

Still, senators wrote and passed a bill offering funding to a Comunidad event that would bring star of the CW series “Jane the Virgin” Gina Rodriguez to campus to discuss being Latina.

Other projects

Individually, senators are concerning themselves with mental and physical health issues as well as amending constitutional bylaws.

Ravi is working on raising CAPS funding and getting counselors in community centers. Senator Carson Smith ’19 is also working on mental health projects to bring CAPS and its Mental Health and Wellness campaigns to dorms.

Cohen displayed his model for the implementation of a drinking fountain on the third floor of Crothers Memorial dorm. The pilot system is expected to be installed in May and is the first water fountain to be installed in the Crothers dorm complex.

Amendments to the constitutional bylaws discussed at last week’s meeting were all passed.

Update: This article has been updated to include comment from Baran and York. The Daily regrets not having reached out to said sources for comment in the earlier version of this article.

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Admit’s outside-the-box essay says #BlackLivesMatter — 100 times https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/05/admits-outside-the-box-essay-says-blacklivesmatter-100-times/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/05/admits-outside-the-box-essay-says-blacklivesmatter-100-times/#respond Wed, 05 Apr 2017 07:32:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125320 In response to the “What matters to you, and why?” question on Stanford’s undergraduate application, new Stanford admit Ziad Ahmed simply wrote the phrase #BlackLivesMatter 100 times.

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In response to the “What matters to you, and why?” question on Stanford’s undergraduate application, new Stanford admit Ziad Ahmed wrote these three words 100 times: #BlackLivesMatter.

The unusual approach to the standard application essay has drawn significant attention since Ahmed shared his response on social media, prompting articles from news outlets like The Huffington Post and the Daily Mail. Ahmed said in a profile by Mic that the essay represents his “unapologetic progressivism” and commitment to justice.

Admit's outside-the-box essay says #BlackLivesMatter — 100 times
New admit Ziad Ahmed repeated the phrase #BlackLivesMatter 100 times in one of his application essays (Courtesy of Ziad Ahmed).

Ahmed tweeted both his #BlackLivesMatter essay and his acceptance letter on Saturday, receiving over 2,600 likes and 800 retweets.

“I was actually stunned when I opened the update and saw that I was admitted,” Ahmed said in an email to Mic. “I didn’t think I would get admitted to Stanford at all, but it’s quite refreshing to see that they view my unapologetic activism as an asset rather than a liability.”

Ahmed said that his Islamic faith is one of the main reasons he supports the BLM movement. He said it would be wrong of him to “turn a blind eye” to the daily injustices against the black community.

“To me, to be Muslim is to be a BLM ally, and I honestly can’t imagine it being any other way for me,” Ahmed said. “Furthermore, it’s critical to realize that one-fourth to one-third of the Muslim community in America are black … and to separate justice for Muslims from justice for the black community is to erase the realities of the plurality of our community.”

Although he wanted to express his support for the movement, Ahmed said that wanted to let the words of the BLM community speak for themselves in his application, rather than focus on himself.

Ahmed said he has always been involved in activism. He was recognized as a Muslim-American change-maker by the Obama administration, and he was invited to the White House Iftar Dinner, a yearly reception to celebrate Ramadan. In 2015, Ahmed delivered a TedxTalk about the impact of stereotypes, drawing on his perspective as a Muslim teenager.

Ahmed is a senior at Princeton Day School in New Jersey and worked for both the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Martin O’Malley youth presidential campaign. Ahmed has founded two youth organizations focused on activism. He was also admitted to Yale and Princeton.

According to Mic, Stanford University declined to comment, stating that it “[does] not discuss student applications.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Graduate School of Education celebrates 100th year https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/05/graduate-school-of-education-celebrates-100th-year/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/04/05/graduate-school-of-education-celebrates-100th-year/#respond Wed, 05 Apr 2017 07:27:06 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1125357 The GSE is celebrating its centennial year with special programming, exhibits and activities, giving community members the chance to look back at the school's history and contributions to its field.

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The Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) is celebrating its 100th year with special programming, exhibits and activities, giving Stanford students, faculty and alumni the opportunity to look back at the school’s contributions to its field.

Celebrations kick off with a community party at the School of Education building on April 20.

The GSE is also creating a website that showcases Stanford’s legacy in education as well as lists events related to the centennial. The platform allows members of the Stanford community and beyond to share their stories about the impact of education.

Additionally, the GSE will open a new interactive exhibit outside Cubberley Auditorium to celebrate distinguished people associated with and ideas born from the school.

“Education is a huge enterprise that touches everyone’s lives,” GSE Dean Dan Schwartz said to Stanford News. “Our centennial gives us an opportunity to shine a light on this extraordinary past while also considering what the future holds.”

Graduate School of Education celebrates 100th year
The School of Education originated as one of Stanford’s founding departments (Courtesy of Stanford News).

The School of Education originated as one of the founding and most popular departments of the University; trustees voted to elevate the department to its own school on March 30, 1997. Since then, the school has committed itself to advanced training and integration of research, theory and practice.

Faculty work to improve training through collaboration with other departments. The school offers nearly two dozen degree concentrations, research centers and collaborative programs. Alumni have careers in teaching, scholarship, activism, policymaking, technology and leadership.

Centennial festivities later in the year will include a Cubberley Lecture by acclaimed young-adult author Jacqueline Woodson, special events during Reunion Homecoming in October and a panel to discuss the future of education. Many of the events are free and open to the public.

Other GSE-related groups will hold their own centennial celebrations. The Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) will produce a centennial version of its annual Football Walk, and the GSE BeWell employee wellness team is planning centennial-themed health and fitness events.

The Stanford Historical Society will offer a free public program in early 2018 to explore GSE history.

“We hope throughout the year to engage a variety of voices in understanding the complexities of education,” Schwartz said. “These conversations will, no doubt, point to new ideas and actions for inaugurating the next century of work.”
Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Stanford scientists discover genes indicating corals’ environmental stress https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/10/stanford-scientists-discover-genes-indicating-corals-environmental-stress/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/03/10/stanford-scientists-discover-genes-indicating-corals-environmental-stress/#respond Fri, 10 Mar 2017 11:33:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1124669 Stanford marine biologists have discovered stress-induced defensive genes in corals that serve as a predictor for damage caused by environmental pressure and climate change. The discovery could improve conservation strategies for at-risk reefs.

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Stanford marine biologists have discovered stress-induced defensive genes in corals that serve as a predictor for damage caused by environmental pressure and climate change. The discovery could improve conservation strategies for at-risk reefs.

Stressful conditions lead coral cellular functions to fail, bleach and eventually die. Scientists predict rising ocean temperatures will increase coral bleaching worldwide. Before the discovery of the defensive genes, scientists were unable to predict coral bleaching.

Stanford scientists discover genes indicating corals' environmental stress
Stanford researchers have discovered stress-induced genes in corals (Courtesy of Zack Gold for Stanford News).

Now, scientists can detect when corals are under stress: The defensive genes trigger a process to restore normal conditions within a cell, which is called the unfolded protein response.

Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor in Marine Sciences and Director of the Hopkins Marine Station Stephen Palumbi, one of the authors on a paper detailing the discovery, said that the ancient defensive genes surfaced in response to high temperatures.

“For the first time, we are able to ask those corals, ‘how are you doing?’” Palumbi told Stanford News. “They don’t have a heartbeat. They don’t have a pulse. We need to know their vital signs in order to understand how they react to the environment.”

Palumbi worked with former Ph.D. student and current lecturer Lupita Ruiz-Jones ’16 to study over 17,000 coral genes belonging to three colonies in a lagoon on Ofu Island, American Samoa. For 17 days, Palumbi and Ruiz-Jones studied the corals’ response to stressful environmental conditions, such as high temperatures, oxygen and ocean acidity. Corals off of Ofu Island are particularly tolerant of unnaturally high ocean temperatures, making the reef an ideal spot for study.

Palumbi and Ruiz-Jones found that, when tides were low and temperatures were high, coral genes initiated the unfolded protein response. When tides and temperatures normalized, normal cellular function was restored.

“This response just shows how in sync corals are with their environment,” Ruiz-Jones told Stanford News.

Other mammals and yeast cells also initiate an unfolded protein response. Humans activate the same genes in response to diseases such as cancer.

The scientists’ discovery comes after the worst coral bleaching event the Great Barrier Reef has ever seen; climate change suggests that rising temperatures will cause even more coral bleaching in the future.

Scientists believe that exposing coral to high temperature environments may help prepare the organisms for this future. Understanding why some corals are so heat-tolerant could also help identify other coral colonies that withstand high temperatures.

“We know that corals have the ability to adapt and evolve to warmer water than we thought before,” Palumbi said. “We can use that as a primary asset to help them live through the next decades until we solve global climate change.”
Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu

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Dance Marathon partners with Lucile Packard https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/16/dance-marathon-partners-with-lucile-packard/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/02/16/dance-marathon-partners-with-lucile-packard/#respond Thu, 16 Feb 2017 08:20:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1123088 Stanford Dance Marathon is partnering with the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at Lucile Packard to raise funds for families who cannot afford cancer treatment.

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Stanford Dance Marathon is partnering with the Bass Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Diseases at Lucile Packard to raise funds for families who cannot afford cancer treatment. All donations go to the uncompensated care program to help young patients in need of bone marrow transplants, blood donations and cancer treatment locally, in contrast to previous years where funds were sent overseas.

Dance Marathon partners with Lucile Packard
Dance Marathon 2012 (ROGER CHEN/The Stanford Daily).

Dance Marathon runs for 24 hours on Saturday, Feb. 18 at the Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center and has traditionally partnered with organizations involved in universal healthcare. Last year, Dance Marathon benefited Partners in Health in Rwanda to donate funds for cancer treatment.

According to Dance Marathon Outreach Director, Maya Kuppermann ’18, Dance Marathon directors wanted students to feel like they are helping to make change locally.

“This is a really special way to connect with something that is outside the ‘Stanford bubble,’ but something that is just right outside of it instead of so far away,” Kuppermann said.

Kuppermann and other directors started talking with the fundraising team at Lucile Packard this past summer and found that the hospital needed help funding young patients who could not afford treatment. Siobhan McDonnell, a staff member of Lucile Packard’s child cancer fundraising team, said that the center was excited for students to get involved.

“The kids and the program love working with college students,” McDonnell said. “I think they have a great amount of energy.”

Participants are divided into four squads. Each squad has a “Patient Hero,” or a child who is directly benefiting from proceeds sent to the uncompensated care program. “Patient Heroes” started with Stanford Varsity Athletic teams meeting with the child-patients at the hospital and at practice.

McDonnell said that both the child-patient and team benefit from hearing each other’s stories. Athletic teams that have previously been involved with “Patient Heroes” include the football, basketball, gymnastics, swimming and golf teams.

“It is a very unique partnership because the students are on the same campus as the hospital,” McDonnell said. “We are honored to be the beneficiary.”

The four Dance Marathon directors were lucky enough to take a tour of the center and learn the stories of four “Patient Heroes” through videos and photos. Directors did not meet the children in advance due to privacy issues.

The directors had the chance to work at the hospital’s December holiday toy drive, where they got to see how donations help patients at the hospital. Kuppermann understands that it is not feasible for all students to volunteer at the hospital and expressed her commitment to getting students to help by participating in Dance Marathon fundraising.

“What’s so wonderful about this is that 100 percent of every penny donated goes directly to this fund, and because it’s a fund within a larger organization, there are no overhead costs,” Kuppermann said. “It’s truly 100 percent — every dollar fundraised is going to children who need it.”

Students are not required to stay at the event for the full duration. One of the team of directors’ goals this year was to get people to come for block-by-block sessions that will feature different events, such as a dance team showcase block, a comedy block and a Stanford Concert Network (SCN) block. SCN is also one of Dance Marathon’s partners.

The event will also feature a faculty dinner, where Stanford School of Medicine professors and other professors in medicine-oriented fields will talk about the importance of universal health care. Directors say it is not too late to register and that students can still register at the door.

Dance Marathon Outreach Coordinator Shahpar Ali Mirza ‘19 said that the support Stanford students have shown through pre-sale fundraisers has been “incredible,” such as at Dance Marathon’s “10K in One Day” event where students raised $11,000. Mirza hopes that students continue these efforts and recognize the gravity of the uncompensated care program.

“I hope people don’t forget about how hard it can be for others to receive health care and how much responsibility we need to take to help those people,” Mirza said. “I hope that people take away the idea that healthcare is an important aspect of everyone’s life.”
Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Amid financial problems, accusations embroil SSE https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/31/amid-financial-problems-accusations-embroil-sse/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/31/amid-financial-problems-accusations-embroil-sse/#respond Tue, 31 Jan 2017 09:21:29 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122172 After its last CEO resigned following ethical criticism last year, Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) has come under attack again for internal inefficiency under its new CEO amid continued financial hits over the past year. The organization exceeded its budget last fiscal year and has changed funding policies to counteract these financial hardships in the future.

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After its last CEO resigned following ethical criticism last year, Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) has come under attack again for internal inefficiency under its new CEO amid continued financial hits over the past year. The organization exceeded its budget last fiscal year and has changed funding policies to counteract these financial hardships in the future.

Amid financial problems, accusations embroil SSE
(GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily)

SSE is the funding and financial organization for the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) leadership. SSE officers work to make financial decisions and raise funds for students through business outlets like the Student Store and Cardinal Ventures.

Among other questions about SSE accountability, the 18th Undergraduate Senate has cast doubt on current CEO Jelani Munroe’s ’16 capabilities. In response to recent criticisms, The Daily investigated these claims through SSE employee testimony and financial records.

The SSE board of directors

SSE has failed to act on criticisms of its internal accountability and work ethic, say sources on the SSE board of directors and the Undergraduate Senate. At a board meeting on April 29, 2016, the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team reported to the SSE board of directors that SSE team members lacked accountability and ownership. The SSE board of directors serves as an advisory board for SSE team members, while the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team is an external board of entrepreneurs that assesses performance metrics for financial enterprises like SSE.

“[There is] systemic lack of accountability, morale and motivation,” the consulting team wrote in their report.

According to one SSE board member, the Stanford Alumni Consulting Team presented the Board of Directors with a set of performance metrics for SSE, along with with observations and suggestions for improvement, during their meeting. These performance metrics showed that supervisors were not holding employees accountable for absences or poor work. The Daily was presented with these metrics by a board member present at that meeting.

The document explained that SSE did not take action to fix these metrics, while supervisors provided little to no feedback on employee performance and leadership had “no apparent consequences for poor performance, non-performance or even absence.”

The consulting team made a series of recommendations for improvement, including that SSE directors provide employees with clear job descriptions, reviews and consequences.

They also asked Munroe, the chief operations officers and general managers to make monthly quantitative charts for “all relevant measures of success,” meaning both financial documentation as well as accountability measures, and provide a brief explanation of that month’s results for each team member’s respective line of business. These charts and explanation were to be presented to all stakeholders in SSE, including all employees and the board.

Board members report that after nearly nine months, they have yet to see some of these metrics fixed, especially regarding records of quantitative data. Instead, Munroe was reported saying that he had a “general sense” that things were going well after being asked to present the board with some data.

ASSU senators raised questions about the data at their closed meeting with Munroe last week, according to several senators. Munroe did not present senators with financial records or metrics of improvement, raising further questions of Munroe’s capabilities.

“He is not inspiring confidence that he is making necessary changes, but is instead demonstrating an utter lack of ownership and accountability,” said one senator who asked to remain anonymous.

SSE employees

SSE employees also report a lack of accountability firsthand. The Daily spoke to former SSE employees who worked at the Student Store. The Student Store is one division of revenue for SSE and has seen its revenue slide over the past decade, according to private revenue data presented to The Daily.

According to financial records, the Student Store had a near 41 percent decrease in net income from fiscal year 2015 to fiscal year 2016, amounting to $56,927.

One former Student Store worker explained that many customers have moved their purchasing online but that organization in the Student Store has never been good to begin with.

“What goes on in the store is basically up to whoever opens and closes the store that day,” the former employee said.

There is no device or metric that shows when employees open the store, and management relies on the honest word of the employee in charge that day.

During opening hours, the student in charge of the store that day records what merchandise has been sold on an iPad application. The employee also provides discounts on items based on discretion, deciding whether the customer is a student or alumnus. The former employee The Daily talked to said that he did not recall formal training on providing discounts.

At the end of the day, the employee with the last shift closes the store, using the honor code for closing hours. They do not provide financial documentation for their work that day. The employee takes cash from the register and puts it in the SSE headquarters safe in Old Union, again relying on honor code to ensure that all of the cash makes it into the safe that day.

“It is not a very great system,” the former employee said. “We don’t really know what happens overall, just what happens when we’re working.”

Impact on funding decisions

With this lack of shared data, the Senate is having difficulty communicating with Munroe on the best plan of action for funding and sticking to the budget. The Senate is in charge of delegating funding to student groups and corresponding events.

As a result, executive financial decisions are made without quantitative data.

“SSE should be collecting Student Store metrics,” one anonymous senator said. “The consulting team’s findings were clear. Yet, here we are: nine months later without any new metrics. We are flying blind.”

Senators expect Munroe will announce his running for a second term at their closed meeting tonight.

Munroe declined to comment for this article.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Band suspension lifted https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/27/band-suspension-lifted/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/27/band-suspension-lifted/#respond Fri, 27 Jan 2017 08:24:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1122017 Provost John Etchemendy lifted the suspension on the Leland Stanford Junior Marching Band (LSJUMB) in a letter to Band leadership on Thursday, marking a successful appeal by the irreverent student group.

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Provost John Etchemendy lifted the suspension on the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) in a letter to Band leadership on Thursday, marking a successful appeal by the irreverent student group.

Etchemendy placed the Band on “provisional status” for the remainder of the year, granting the group permission to participate in actions that preserve the Band as a “vibrant and ongoing student organization,” according to the letter. The travel ban will remain in effect through the end of the provisional status.

The status comes as a response to a letter of appeal from the Band’s leadership after Vice Provost Greg Boardman suspended the Band in December at the recommendation of the Organizational Conduct Board (OCB).

In Thursday’s letter, Etchemendy writes that the suspension would effectively end the Band, a solution “unacceptable to any of us.”

Etchemendy cited poor communication between LSJUMB and the University as an inhibitor to a faster resolution. He writes that, while necessary, the previous demands for reform laid out by the University were not quantifiable, and the end results were not clearly defined.

“As you note in the appeal, it is difficult to quantify, much less to prove, when adequate cultural change has been accomplished,” Etchemendy wrote.

The former suspension, effective through spring of 2017, was based on OCB and Title IX investigations of four alleged hazing, sexual harassment and alcohol-abuse policy violations that occurred as recently as winter of 2015. The investigations led the administration to work in close contact with Band management to restructure traditions and change culture.

At the end of fall quarter, when the OCB felt that LSJUMB leadership was unable to make changes, they implemented the suspension, leading Band management to write a letter of appeal to the Provost.

The Band’s appeal acknowledged some of the shortcomings of the organization’s goals to preserve inclusivity and included statements from current and former Band members as well as family and friends of Band-affiliated members.

The appeal explained how suspending the Band for the remainder of the year would cripple the organization; it also showed Band management’s abilities to redesign the structure for an effective culture change.

Previously, Boardman called Band management incapable of implementing change, causing Band leadership to respond with the importance of student action to transform the culture.

“Decisions impacting the long-term culture of the organization must necessarily involve the student membership, as the students will ultimately carry the mantle forward,” leadership wrote.

Etchemendy wrote that this insight as well as examples of Band leadership following the OCB, Office of Alcohol Policy and Education (OAPE) and Title IX guidelines prove Band leadership’s capabilities to improve Band culture.

“Your near-term plans for clarifying Band’s behavioral aspirations, and your long-term plans for codifying and communicating them to future generations, are reassuring,” he wrote.

Etchemendy called the outline set out in the appeal to be “thoughtful and realistic,” but also mentioned that Band must present “forward-looking” results. He said Band goals of inclusivity and prevention of hazing, sexual harassment and alcohol-abuse within the group align with University ideals for the organization.

“I look forward to getting the Band up and running as soon as possible, at which point I’ll join you in a chorus of ‘All Right Now,’” Etchemendy said. “On my kazoo.”

The Band is allowed to proceed with 2017-18 Dollie and Tree selection, rehearse, use the Band Shak, hold meetings and social functions as well as fill the vacant music director position. The goal is to have Band perform at home games by the end of winter quarter.

To ensure Band is complying with new sanctions, the Provost is appointing a four-member Oversight Committee composed of members of the President and Provost’s office, Student Affairs, the Athletics office and Band alumnae. Etchemendy plans to serve as the representative of the President and Provost’s office. The Committee will be dissolved once sanctions have been met.

Band leadership happily responded in a statement, pleased with Etchemendy’s support.

“Through hiring a new music director, restructuring some Band selection processes and maintaining positive, open communication with the administration, we will continue to improve our music, our jokes and our culture,” leadership wrote. “Okay, maybe not the jokes.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate under-informed on SSE finances https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/25/senate-under-informed-on-sse-finances/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/25/senate-under-informed-on-sse-finances/#respond Wed, 25 Jan 2017 10:13:55 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121911 At a closed meeting and a brief public gathering on Tuesday, several members of the 18th Undergraduate Senate said they felt under-informed about the financial health of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) due to the lack of financial data from the organization.

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At a closed meeting and a brief public gathering on Tuesday, several members of the 18th Undergraduate Senate said they felt under-informed about the financial health of Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE) due to the lack of financial data from the organization. Issues of national politics and elections also became a topic of interest during the following joint meeting with the Graduate Student Council (GSC), and the Senate discussed diversity initiatives.

 

SSE discrepancies and changes to annual grants

Senators expressed concern with the lack of financial data presented by SSE Chief Executive Officer Jelani Munroe ’16 during their closed meeting.

Senators said that the CEO seemed opposed to sharing information on financial statements, and that he claimed that “everything is fine” without collecting data. Specifically, senators had unaddressed questions on financial statements regarding the Student Store.

“He is not inspiring confidence in his doing his job effectively,” anonymous senators said.

Regarding Senate funding, appropriations committee chair Cenobio Hernandez ’18 notified the Senate about a change in the annual grants process that requires student groups to verify the reason for funding on every listed item. Hernandez emailed student group financial officers, presidents and vice presidents about how to apply.

“We want to ensure that every dollar is being spent on something,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez also suggested using Facebook as an interactive portal to answer questions live on the annual grants process.

 

Elections and endorsements

During their discussion of the upcoming ASSU selections, the GSC and Senate argued against a proposal to list candidate endorsements on the new ballots. Senator Matthew Cohen ’18 was concerned that the addition of endorsements would encourage voters to look solely at the names of endorsing groups instead of the individual candidates.

“I think that’s a big problem with American politics right now: that people are voting for the party and not the person,” Cohen said.

Senator Hattie Gawande ’18 agreed and said that adding endorsements should be powerful enough without being added to the ballot.

“Really powerful endorsements come from the organization itself,” Gawande said. “It seems like the vogue thing to do and I don’t want to encourage that.”

 

Political and apolitical stances

Senators and GSC leadership argued on the council’s role in voicing political and national election opinions to the student body. Senator Jayaram Ravi ’19 said that it was the Senate’s job to express their political stances.

“We should not be endorsing candidates that have direct impact on Senate,” Ravi said. “But we need to talk about these issues. That’s why we were elected to Senate.”

Senator Gabe Rosen ’19 disagreed, saying that Senate should be conscious of national political stances but should focus efforts on movements and changes that directly affect students.

“The most real-world relation that I can express is that members of the [Senate] should focus [on the] welfare of people directly related to that body,” Rosen said.

GSC representative Jennifer Hill, a fifth-year Ph.D. student in sociology, argued that national issues affect the student body, and therefore it was the representative body’s job to take a stance on political issues. Senator Jasmin Espinosa ’18 agreed, adding that national movements affect all members of the student body differently and personally.

“You can’t separate the ‘political-ness’ from the individual,” she said. “Our voice could be a huge, huge help not only for students at this school but also at other places.”

 

Senate encourages diversity

Rosen proposed a follow-up to the Full House bill approved last fall, which will fund extracurricular program participation for financially needy students. Rosen and Deputy Chair Mylan Gray ’19 will collaborate with the Diversity and First-Gen (DGEN) office to create an incentives program for student organizations that “foster inclusivity” for all members.

“We want to publicize those groups who embody these principles, who show that they are taking concrete steps to address these issues,” Rosen said.

Rosen said that they are also coordinating with the Office of Sexual Assault and Relationship Abuse (SARA) to add to the incentives that encourage education on assault prevention and discussion within campus communities.

Advocacy Committee Chair Espinosa said that the committee is working on recruitment sessions for underrepresented communities to run for ASSU offices. Espinosa said the goal of recruitment is to diversify student offices.

“We want to create a more representative Senate body,” Espinosa said.

 

Administrative office hours

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 said she met with Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman to discuss the efficacy of and possible changes to the administrative office hours that Senate and administrators started this quarter.

Senator TG Sido ’18 said the communications committee is working on a program to send out notifications about office hours.

“We want to get some sort of programming going so that we can say something like, ‘Hey, Harry Elam is having office hours now in this location, you should come out,’” Sido said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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ASSU Senate and administrators to hold office hours https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/20/assu-senate-and-administrators-to-hold-office-hours/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/20/assu-senate-and-administrators-to-hold-office-hours/#respond Fri, 20 Jan 2017 08:15:51 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121658 Stanford administration and faculty are working with the 18th Undergraduate Senate to build stronger communication with the student body through administrative office hours.

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Stanford administration and faculty are working with the 18th Undergraduate Senate to build stronger communication with the student body through administrative office hours.

The initiative started on Monday, Jan. 9, with office hours held by Director of Undergraduate Advising and Research Louis Newman.

The idea for the initiative came about at a quarterly dinner with the Undergraduate Senate held by Vice Provost for Student Affairs Greg Boardman. Boardman said that Senate expressed interest in making administrative decisions more transparent for students, and that administrators were happy to oblige.

“I had one student show up [to office hours] this week; it was the first day of classes,” Boardman said. “It was a great conversation.”

Boardman thanked Chair of the Undergraduate Senate Shanta Katipamula ’19 for organizing the initiative. Katipamula holds office hours from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Fridays, which she describes as open to other senators.

“Before I ran for Senate, I had no idea what it was,” Katipamula said. “A lot of people don’t know we have an Undergraduate Senate, and these office hours are an opportunity to bridge the barrier between the students and us.”

As the initiative improves, other senators will coordinate individual office hours. Office hours are meant to be one-on-one conversations with students, usually about 10 minutes each.

Katipamula encourages students to express their comments and concerns, specifically mentioning conversations on administrative changes such as the hard alcohol policy and the Band ban.

“I hope students take advantage of the opportunity,” she said. “Especially during the last six months, it has been difficult to be a Stanford student.”

Katipamula credits TG Sido ’18 for developing the idea. According to Sido, office hours build off of the importance of having face-to-face interactions to show investment in an idea or question.

“Even if it’s just one person, that’s one more voice, one more opinion the administrators can draw from,” Sido said.

Senior Associate Vice Provost of Institutional Equity and Access Lauren Schoenthaler was recently hired to her position and is a strong proponent of relying on the student body to identify University problems. She cited the Beyond Sex Ex program for freshmen as an example of a program developed by students.

“I think my understanding and students’ understanding are going to be different, and when students are willing to come in and share that with administrators, I think that’s valuable and that’s how we make a better Stanford,” Schoenthaler said.

Schoenthaler holds hours from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Harry Elam added that administrators hold office hours to be transparent and build relationships with students. He encourages students to come and speak.

His office hours, which began last year with the development of OpenXChange, are held from 12 p.m. 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. Elam says that if he cannot make office hours, he will keep the same time and have the senior vice provost or the senior associate vice provost step in.

“Hopefully if a student has a question that is that burning, they take the opportunity to come and talk to one of us,” Elam said.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate passes drinking fountain resolution, tests election system https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/18/senate-passes-drinking-fountain-resolution-tests-election-system/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/18/senate-passes-drinking-fountain-resolution-tests-election-system/#respond Wed, 18 Jan 2017 08:14:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121545 The 18th Undergraduate Senate underwent a practice round of the new elections system for the ASSU ballot in its second meeting of the new year. The body also discussed resolutions for drinking fountains in Crothers and Florence Moore Hall (FloMo).

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The 18th Undergraduate Senate underwent a practice round of the new elections system for the ASSU ballot in its second meeting of the new year. The body also discussed resolutions for drinking fountains in Crothers and Florence Moore (FloMo) Halls.

New elections system

Elections Commissioner Paul Serrato ’19 had the Senate take a practice run of the new ballot.

The new ballot will be sent through a Qualtrics link specially tailored to the student by class year.

“We’re still having some small issues,” Serrato said. “We have to go back and look at some things to make sure they are running.”

The new system is still in the testing stages, but Serrato hopes to fix all of the kinks without an absurd amount of code.

ASSU Executive updates

ASSU Vice President Amanda Edelman ’17 said the ASSU Executives will send out an all-campus email to explain what the ASSU’s goals are for this year.

“We definitely want to communicate all the work that Exec is doing,” Edelman said.

Edelman said that Executives were working with the Faculty Senate on basing the Engaging Diversity WAYS requirements on power dynamics instead of on religious and cultural studies.

Edelman also discussed changing the Diversity in the Major requirement to Diversity in the Field and whether the Senate should institute a systemic change or make the change grassroots.

The Senate and Executives also sat on Title IX investigation interview panels. Edelman said that they have participated in two thus far.

“One was good, the other was not-so-good — kind of bad, actually,” Edelman said.

She did not elaborate on the nature of the investigations.

Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 announced a joint meeting with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) next Tuesday during the latter portion of normal Senate hours for a proprietary meeting about Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE). The meeting comes in the midst of the annual grants process and will be closed to the public.

Drinking fountain resolution

Senator Matthew Cohen ’18 pitched his bill for installing drinking fountains in Crothers and FloMo. Cohen hopes that drinking fountains can be built by the end of the year.

“I don’t know if you’ve talked to people who live in Crothers, but their eyes just light up whenever you talk about it,” Cohen said.

Senator Jasmin Espinosa ’18, who is living in Crothers this year, believes that Crothers residents are thirsty for drinking fountains, saying that it is an area of concern.

The Senate unanimously passed the resolution.

Funding and approvals

Senate used 12 percent of the quarterly budget this week to pass funding using the resolution instituted last week to have Senator and Appropriations Committee Chair Cenobio Hernandez ’18 recommend pre-approved funding.

The largest funding bill gave $6,000 to Sigma Nu and $6,000 to Kappa Kappa Gamma for their joint sexual assault awareness event, Snowchella.

Senate also voted to approve the Nominations Commission (NomCom) chairs, who will serve toward the end of winter and the beginning of spring quarters. Members of NomCom chairs appoint students to University Committees, such as the Board of Trustees and academic policy committees.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Senate to sit on Stanford Title IX panel before OCR https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/10/senate-to-sit-on-stanford-title-ix-panel-before-ocr/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/10/senate-to-sit-on-stanford-title-ix-panel-before-ocr/#respond Wed, 11 Jan 2017 07:30:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121289 The 18th Undergraduate Senate passed bills on diversity and cultural awareness in addition to discussing the recent controversy with Title IX decisions in their first meeting of the new year.

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The 18th Undergraduate Senate passed bills on diversity and cultural awareness in addition to discussing the recent controversy with Title IX decisions in their first meeting of the new year.

The Senate is focusing on efficiency and building relationships with administration this year through efforts like sitting on panels with student groups and arranging for administrators to hold open office hours for all students.

Title IX investigations

Senate to sit on Stanford Title IX panel before OCR
The 18th Undergraduate Senate met for the first time in the new year on Tuesday (EDER LOMELI/The Stanford Daily).

The U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will be visiting Stanford to discuss the handling of the four ongoing Title IX investigations, due to recent complaints.

The Senate was invited to sit on a panel to discuss the recent rulings, as well as faculty, administration and student members of the Title IX office. Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 and student body Vice President Amanda Edelman ’17 will be two members of the panel.

“They’re coming to campus to interview to really get a broad sense of what is happening,” Katipamula said. “We are there to convey what we’ve heard from other people.”

The Title IX office will also create a position for another investigator.

In addition, Deputy Chair Mylan Gray ’19 and Senator Gabe Rosen ’19 have been working together on an ASSU sexual assault training initiative to combat campus sexual assault.

Campus diversity

ASSU Executives met with the Faculty Senate to discuss improving overall diversity at Stanford as well as diversity within the major, giving examples of current initiatives such as Stanford Women in Business.

The Resolution in Support of Stanford’s Native Community through Recognition of Indigenous People’s Day passed unanimously in the Senate as well as in the Graduate Student Council.

Elections and waivers

ASSU Financial Manager Jelani Munroe ’16 announced the new election system based on enrollment status with the University, which will be led by the elections commission. The ASSU legislative body will hold a mock election with a draft ballot next week to practice the new procedure.

There will also be a new process for waivers through the ASSU website, making it easier for senate to view and handle student group waivers. The budget will be open Jan. 13-27.

Administration office hours

Katipamula said that the University president and provost are working to make themselves more accessible to students, with the help of the new administration office hours. According to Katipamula, future Provost Persis Drell already made statements about being more accessible to the student body.

The office hours started Jan. 9 and include various major figures in University administration, ranging from the vice provost of undergraduate education and dean of students to the chief of police and Vaden health director. The office hours are designed to build closer connections between students and staff, according to Katipamula.

“The administration really wants to make an effort to connect more with what the student body is concerned about,” Katipamula said.

Sustainability initiatives

Fossil Free Stanford (FFS) reached out to the Senate, encouraging members to write letters to President Marc Tessier-Lavigne about divesting. FFS members are also writing letters.

Another bill introduced by Senator Matthew Cohen ’18 is working on a resolution to install drinking water fountains promoting sustainability in Florence Moore Hall and Crothers Hall. Cohen plans to talk with Residential Dining and Education in the coming weeks, but has already heard a lot of great feedback from students about sustainability and convenience.

“Hopefully we get the ball rolling on this infrastructure,” Cohen said. “If you asked anyone in West Flo, they would say it is a significant issue.”

Stanford Band suspension

In response to a recent move to suspend the Stanford Band, Senator Romeo Umaña ’19 has been talking with Band leadership about appealing the University’s decision with Senate assistance.

“We are figuring out a lot of courses of action that Senate could take, especially financially,” Umaña said.

According to Umaña, financial support goes to helping the Band with forming appeals.

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Students trek to Standing Rock to fight North Dakota Access Pipeline https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/09/students-trek-to-standing-rock-to-fight-north-dakota-access-pipeline/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/01/09/students-trek-to-standing-rock-to-fight-north-dakota-access-pipeline/#respond Tue, 10 Jan 2017 07:27:18 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1121219 Over Thanksgiving Break, 14 Stanford students and one alum braved a 36-hour journey to support the protestors at Standing Rock, North Dakota.

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Over Thanksgiving break, 14 Stanford students and one alumnus braved a 36-hour journey to support protestors at Standing Rock, North Dakota.

Since April 2016, a grassroots movement has come together to protest the construction of the North Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a 1,100 mile fracked-oil pipeline under construction from the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota to Peoria, Illinois. The pipeline was designed to cross under the Missouri River and through the Great Sioux Reservation, which indigenous groups say would affect drinking water for more than 18 million people and cut through sacred indigenous sites.

Since protests have started, the government has announced an easement and a reroute of the pipeline. The pipeline’s owner, Energy Transfer Partners, has continued building despite this announcement. President-elect Donald Trump has also made statements in support of DAPL.

Journey to Standing Rock

The students were funded through a GoFundMe started on Nov. 3. According to Isabella Shey Robbins ’17, the group raised some $6,205 that covered the costs of travel. Robbins is affiliated with the Diné tribe. All but one of the students identified as Native American.

The group also included two students from other California universities. The students were at the Standing Rock camp from Sunday through Thursday after facing bad weather and car troubles on its journey. Robbins recalls renting an 11-passenger van alongside a personal car and a pickup truck for all 17 travelers.

“There was some difficulty with the rental cars,” she said. “The drive ended up being a large portion of the trip. We had to stop over the Sierras to put on snow chains.”

After hours of driving, Robbins recalls driving up to the camp and seeing flags along the road from over 300 recognized tribes and nations, as well as other parts of the world like Australia and Palestine.

Helping behind the scenes

Once there, the students mainly helped with logistics behind the scenes of the protests. They helped sort items in the donation tent, where people dropped off clothing and coats for protesters.

Robbins said she particularly enjoyed working in the arts tent, where protesters could create signs and fabrics bearing the motto of the NoDAPL movement: “Water is life.”

“We didn’t feel really helpful at first,” Robbins said. “Camp is very much about family and community. I think the most important thing we brought was youthful energy.”

When students weren’t sorting or making art, they helped out in the largest part of camp, Oceti Sakowin. There, they stayed with the kitchen owner, who created traditional foods, like deer stew and bison meat.

Robbins described the camp as a cross between contemporary and traditional. One day, some students helped to build a longhouse, a traditional homestead and place for ceremony.

They also met the chairman’s father, who thanked them for coming with fresh energy.

“I still don’t know how to phrase it correctly,” Robbins said. “[The camp] was very much going to ceremony, being with family, being with friends and feeling a lot of love, even though this horrible thing is going on. I just appreciate that the people who were there were there for prayer.”

While many of the protestors were affiliated with recognized indigenous nations, the students recall mostly non-native people there. Robbins said that she was pleased to see so many people standing in solidarity, but she wished that the non-native population had been more prayerful.

“In a lot of ways, it made me feel like a minority in a space that was supposed to be my space,” she said.

Witness to confrontation

Although most of their work took place behind the scenes, some students witnessed the confrontations between the police and the protestors firsthand. Students who delivered sandwiches to the front lines witnessed peaceful protesters being sprayed with water in freezing weather conditions.

Chon Hampson-Medina ’19, an affiliated member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, was one of the students who brought food to the front lines. He said he witnessed a military-grade vehicle and barbed wire blocking the protesters from crossing the bridge they had built to cross the river.

“There were about 20 protesters left on the right side of the bridge and 30 police officers yelling on the other side,” Hampson-Medina said. “The protesters would have [swum] around, but it was way too cold.”

Hampson-Medina said that the front lines would rotate so that protestors who were sprayed with fire extinguishers and hoses could run back to camp and change into dry, warm clothes. At the camp, other students were able to help out by building fires for the protestors to warm up.

The next action that the Stanford students witnessed was on their last day in the camp near Turtle Island, where there are ancestral remains to the Standing Rock Sioux people. Hampson-Medina recalled joining a march of 200 people walking toward the bridge and barricade built near the hill.

There, Hampson-Medina said he witnessed racism by Morton police, who were yelling that the action of putting on gloves and goggles was an act of aggression. According to Hampson-Medina, the police described the protesters as “dumb, hypocritical and saying things like ‘That is not peaceful.’”

The protesters were putting on these items in self-defense against being sprayed. The police were armed with guns.

One man tried to run up the hill where some policemen were but was stopped by some of the camp’s elders.

“If that man had run up another 20 feet, he could have been shot,” Hampson-Medina said.

Hampson-Medina remembers praying in a circle, giving some protesters enough time to recapture control of the bridge. He said that about 300 protesters were able to cross the bridge that day.

The group had an agreement that if one of the travelers was arrested, that traveler would be left behind, so Hampson-Medina did not cross the bridge.

Aftermath

The Stanford group left the afternoon after the bridge incident. Later, the students were disappointed to hear that the bridge had been recaptured by police the following day.

The action occurred the same day that the announcement of a government-regulated easement of DAPL came out. Hampson-Medina and Robbins, along with many camp members, distrusted the news at the time, and since then, drilling has continued. Robbins said three times the number of people at the camp joined the protestors the day of the announcement.

“I think people there are not leaving until drilling pads leave,” she said.

Hampson-Medina agreed, adding that although there are no concrete plans to raise campus awareness on the NoDAPL movement, it is important for people to follow what is going on at Standing Rock.

“I hope that people know that it is still going on, because there are media spikes where it goes in and out of the public eye,” he said. “There are still things you can do about it, and there are so many other ways to help.”

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Band alumni speak out against Big Game ban https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/17/band-alumni-speak-out-against-big-game-ban/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/17/band-alumni-speak-out-against-big-game-ban/#respond Fri, 18 Nov 2016 07:25:46 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1120180 Alumni of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) have spoken out against the decision to bar the Band from travelling to Big Game this weekend.

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Alumni of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) have spoken out against the decision to bar the Band from travelling to Big Game this weekend. The decision, made known to the group this week, was a result of a travel ban instituted on the Band last year based on Title IX and Office of Community Standards violations.

Alumni remain active in the Band post-graduation, such as former trombonist Allison Hayward ’85, who marched in the 2013 Rose Bowl but was not permitted to in 2015. Hayward said that the ban is negatively impacting allegiance to the LSJUMB.

(SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)
(SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

“The Band is less attractive to students with no travel and has gotten quite small,” Hayward said. “Because it isn’t big, it isn’t as effective musically or visually.”

Title IX investigations in May 2015 first banned the Band from travelling due to allegations of sexually explicit and offensive acts, hazing and violations of alcohol and controlled substance policies. The relevant complaints were first filed in 2011.

The LSJUMB now faces four new complaints of breaking the alcohol suspension and travel ban, but Lapin said these counts are not deciding factors in the ban on Big Game.

“While the decision to deny travel to the Big Game is based on the previous unmet expectations, not on new complaints, these pending charges do not dispose the University to grant further exceptions to the travel ban,” Lapin said.

Despite these complaints, Band alumni still look fondly back on their time as members. For trumpeter Maria Anderson ’85, the LSJUMB was a way to support Stanford athletics when she medically retired from swimming.

“What people need to remember about the Band is that, as a group, they are the biggest supporters of Stanford athletes, going to sporting events well beyond football and basketball — volleyball, baseball, soccer, tennis, water polo, track, you name it — equally supporting the men and women,” Anderson said.

Anderson also noted that since many athletes cannot “go pro,” collegiate sports are the highest point in their athletic careers. She said having the support of the Band helped enhance the experience for these athletes.

“The travel ban imposed on the Band is robbing those athletes of an important part of their experience,” Anderson said. “Who is going to play ‘Hail Stanford Hail’ when we beat Cal? Who is going to play ‘All Right Now’ when we score?”

Even for non-athletes, the Band represented a sense of unity, according to Ted Delianides ’84. Delianides regularly holds tailgates in his home state of Colorado and said that his attendees were unhappy that the Band did not appear at the game.

“To say that the alumni were distressed that LSJUMB didn’t make the trip is an understatement,” Delianides said. “The travel bans, though hopefully an effective punishment for misbehaving band members, [are] unfortunately a punishment for the out of town alumni.”

According to Lisa Lapin, vice president of University communications, the Title IX office and Office of Community Standards found that the LSJUMB made insufficient progress in remedial actions.

Lapin said that the University allowed LSJUMB to travel to the 2015 Pac-12 Football Championship and the 2016 Rose Bowl following initial improvement, but that the band has made no progress in completing an outlined list of changes from the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) since.

But, by way of changes in LSJUMB culture, Ann Scheder ’85 said she saw improvement.

“As a Mellophone player, parent and person who still plays in the band a few times a year, I have been impressed with the way the Band has worked on making their culture inclusive and welcoming,” Scheder said.

Some Band alumni claim that OSA has not in fact given the Band an outline, however, and that they are waiting to do so until after the Title IX hearing in December.

In the meantime, Lapin said the OSA is working closely with LSJUMB leadership to accomplish remedial goals. Progress will be reviewed before football bowl season and again before basketball postseason, if necessary.

Some alumni claim that the OSA is imposing the ban in an attempt to eradicate the LSJUMB and to establish a more traditional marching band. Hayward said that the University should be clear in its intentions and treat the Band the same way it treats all student organizations.

“Whatever else, it needs to treat student groups fairly and evenhandedly,” Hayward said. “I wonder how many teams, fraternities or clubs could fulfill the demands currently imposed on the Band.”

Current Band members declined to comment for this article.

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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#NoDAPL rally asks students to “Stand with Standing Rock” https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/11/nodapl-rally-asks-students-to-stand-with-standing-rock/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/11/nodapl-rally-asks-students-to-stand-with-standing-rock/#respond Fri, 11 Nov 2016 08:13:17 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119725 Students gathered in White Plaza and marched across campus on Thursday night, calling for an end to the construction of the “Dakota Access” Pipeline (DAPL), which would affect drinking water for more than 18 million people and cut through sacred indigenous sites. The protests were held in solidarity with the ongoing demonstrations in Standing Rock, North Dakota.

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Students gathered in White Plaza and marched across campus on Thursday night, calling for an end to the construction of the “Dakota Access” Pipeline (DAPL), which would affect drinking water for more than 18 million people and cut through sacred indigenous sites. The protests were held in solidarity with the ongoing demonstrations in Standing Rock, North Dakota.

(CHRISTOPHER DELGADO/The Stanford Daily)
(CHRISTOPHER DELGADO/The Stanford Daily)

DAPL is a 1,100 mile fracked-oil pipeline under construction from the Bakken shale fields in North Dakota to Peoria, Illinois. The pipeline crosses under the Missouri River, the longest river on the continent, and would run through the Great Sioux Reservation laid out by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.

Student employees at Stanford’s Native American Cultural Center Carson Smith ’19 and Chon Hampson-Medina ’19 began organizing the NoDAPL rally about five weeks ago, finalizing the idea of the rally within the last week.

Smith, who is affiliated with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, explained the significance of DAPL construction for indigenous people.

“[DAPL] calls into question how the government treats sovereign nations like these tribal sovereign nations and not respecting or honoring these agreements,” Smith said.

According to the Standing Rock Tribe’s website, Congress divided the Great Sioux Reservation into six separate reservations in 1889, including the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe operates under a constitution established by council members in 1959 as a sovereign nation.

DAPL would impact sacred Standing Rock Sioux sites as well as those of other indigenous nations. According to the NoDAPL Solidarity site, the pipelines would renew oil fracking in the Bakken shale region and endanger drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and more than 8 million people living downstream. This statistic does not include the 10 million other people who obtain drinking water from the Missouri River’s tributaries.

The company in charge of constructing the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, recently released a statement that said they would continue construction despite a joint statement from the Department of Justice, the Department of the Army and the Department of the Interior to stop building in sacred lands. Protectors at Standing Rock are continuing peaceful protest in response.

(CHRISTOPHER DELGADO/The Stanford Daily)
(CHRISTOPHER DELGADO/The Stanford Daily)

As an affiliated member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, Hampson-Medina echoed Smith’s concerns but also raised the problem of drinking water for native and non-native communities alike.

“You literally can’t live without water,” Hampson-Medina said. “This pipeline has the potential to contaminate a body of water that is drinking water for 18 million people, including mostly non-indigenous people.”

The rally featured four student speakers, three of whom were Stanford students.

The first speaker and co-chair for the Stanford American Indian Organization (SAIO), Joseph Manuel ’18, stressed the importance of supporting fellow human beings in times of need.

“My personal dream is that we can stand together and fight for each other’s issues, even though we may differ,” Manuel said.

Manuel said that although the media is covering the protest as an indigenous nation’s issue, the real reason for the protest is water. Students who attended the rally also held signs that stated the protesters’ role as water-protectors.

One event-goer, Cindy Niu ’18, said that she was glad that people saw the bigger picture and how many people understood and reflected.

“Even though we are united under one issue, there are so many different perspectives, and the speakers reflected that,” Niu said.

The other speakers included members of the Indigenous Feminists group and other members of the Native American community.

Following the speakers, participants silently marched to the Oval, giving students time to reflect upon what DAPL meant to them. When asked, Smith said she hoped students understood that the reflection applied to more than just the water-protectors at Standing Rock.

“Families are being affected by this; Stanford students are being affected by this,” Smith said. “It’s not just something that’s going on in another part of the country.”

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(CHRISTOPHER DELGADO/The Stanford Daily)

At the Oval, students stood in solidarity to the reading of a statement from the Standing Rock protest that called for a pledge to “Stand with Standing Rock.”

The rally ended in White Plaza with chanting in honor of the people at Standing Rock, including the phrase “Mni Wiconi,” or “Water is Life.” The event closed with a prayer for the people risking their lives in peaceful protest.

Hampson-Medina added that there will be a national call to action on Nov. 15 for the Standing Rock protests. In the meantime, he encouraged students to take part in spreading awareness.

“This isn’t a fight for indigenous people; this is a fight for all people,” he said. “We must choose the planet over profit. We must choose to Stand with Standing Rock.”

 

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

 

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Sharing Our Stories at Stanford: Panels Conducted through the LGBT Community Resource Center https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/08/sharing-our-stories-at-stanford-panels-conducted-through-the-lgbtq-community-resource-center/ https://stanforddaily.com/2016/11/08/sharing-our-stories-at-stanford-panels-conducted-through-the-lgbtq-community-resource-center/#respond Tue, 08 Nov 2016 08:10:45 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1119444 Sharing our Stories at Stanford, more commonly known as SOSAS, has been sharing the stories of LGBTQ+ students at Stanford for the almost two decades through the LGBTQ+ Community Resource Center.

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(GILLIAN BRASSIL/The Stanford Daily)

Sharing Our Stories at Stanford, more commonly known as SOSAS, has been sharing the stories of LGBTQ+ students at Stanford for almost two decades through the LGBT Community Resource Center.

SOSAS is a space where LGBTQ+ students share their stories with residences and student groups in panels. Panels generally consist of four volunteers who are aligned with the LGBTQ+ community.

Stories range from discovering one’s identity to experiences growing up as LGBTQ, said SOSAS event coordinator Cheng-Hau Kee ’19.

“On one side there are the panelists — having them tell their stories, explore their identities — really creating an affirming space for them to be themselves and to explore what that really means,” Kee said.

For the first half of the panel, panelists were welcomed to share individual stories and experiences. Anecdotes varied from a chronological retelling of discovering one’s identity to describing the struggles the speaker faced when finding one’s self.

This was followed by a question-and-answer section in which panelists and audience members were encouraged to ask questions “with good intent,” meaning that questions are not meant to insult or attack, but instead to understand and empathize with the speaker.

One panelist, Ryan Mathias ’19, said he particularly enjoyed having students ask him about his experiences and how they have shaped him as an individual.

“My favorite part about being on a SOSAS panel is being able to answer questions that people would be afraid to ask me outside of that environment,” Mathias said.

Mathias, like all SOSAS panelists, had to undergo individual training with leader Shahpar Mirza ’19 before speaking on a panel. Training is used to craft relatable and empathetic stories, Mirza said.

“A different structure works for each story; each story is unique and you can learn something from each one,” Mirza said.

According to Mirza, SOSAS aims to create a space where different communities become part of the dialogue on acceptance. The audience has the opportunity to ask panelists about their stories at the end of the panel.

“Freshmen afterwards will come up to panelists and be like, ‘Oh, I identified with this so much; I understood your story and I felt that feeling before.’ I love seeing that,” Mirza said.

Both Mirza and Kee noted that different dorms have different reactions to the panels: Freshmen dorms usually have smaller, more intimate conversations about discovering one’s identity while upperclassmen dorms tend to ask questions about improving acceptance.

SOSAS also puts on panels for Greek life, which Kee describes as a more unified audience that wants to work on cultivating an open and comfortable environment for all students.

“It’s really great to see them ask questions like, ‘How can we be more accepting? How can we grow more as people? How can we grow this space?’” Kee said.

During a SOSAS panel at Sigma Nu in late October, fraternity brothers actively asked questions about how to be more accepting. One of the members, Max Pienkny ’19, who also writes for The Daily, said that he was happy to hear that the Stanford community has been accepting as a whole, but that it was important for SOSAS to share stories in Greek life.

“I thought there were perspectives given there that were very important to be told in a fraternity setting where the majority of people were white and heterosexual,” Pienkny said. “There is definitely a lot of merit in having them be able to come here and to engage in their stories that we wouldn’t necessarily get otherwise.”

Overall, SOSAS panel leaders say that responses have been great and positive like Pienkny’s, and that hearing other people’s stories has helped them to improve SOSAS as a whole.

“Just to be able to be present as they’re telling it and to absorb their stories and to process it has been one of the most powerful things for me,” Kee said.

SOSAS panels can be organized and presented upon the request of the dorm staff.

Interested parties can request a panel on the LGBTQ Community Resource Center website.

Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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