We believe in giving credit where credit is due. The people and organizations in red are ones we’ve met with personally to recognize their hard work and ensure that as many voices as possible are included in our platform.
Academic Freedom and Free Speech
Recent controversies over invited speakers have increased political polarization on campus and made students of marginalized identities feel threatened. The university and the ASSU need to articulate a clear institutional response to these controversies that protects students’ freedom of speech, supports threatened students, and promotes education around marginalized narratives.
The key word in the sentence above is “AND.” We believe that all 3 of these goals can be - and need to be - achieved at the same time. As the leader of the 19th Undergraduate Senate’s response to free speech controversy and the Co-Chair of the ASSU Working Group on Academic Freedom, Erica has spent over a year researching the ways in which the First Amendment, the university administration, and the ASSU interact. She has worked closely with activists, the Office of Community Standards, Student Activities and Leadership, the Office of the General Counsel, and Stanford Law School students to determine how Stanford can best improve its speech policies.
After working on this issue long-term, we believe that the ASSU’s response to controversial invited speakers should focus on affirmation and information, instead of cancellation.
However, the burden of educating others should not fall on students of marginalized identities - as Black students, we know how exhausting it is to constantly explain and justify our existence to others. We believe that the ASSU needs to shoulder this burden and provide institutional mechanisms for affirmation and information in the face of hate. As Execs, we want to institute:
Improving ASSU Efficacy
Despite the important role that it plays in students’ lives, the ASSU remains obscure and poorly understood. A central part of the Exec role is to serve as a clear, effective conduit between the administration and the student body. To this end, we will:
Increasing Administrative Transparency
Recent university decisions regarding housing and student life have left students concerned and confused. We believe that administrators need to do a better job of keeping students informed about and involved in their decision-making processes.
Recent controversies over invited speakers have increased political polarization on campus and made students of marginalized identities feel threatened. The university and the ASSU need to articulate a clear institutional response to these controversies that protects students’ freedom of speech, supports threatened students, and promotes education around marginalized narratives.
The key word in the sentence above is “AND.” We believe that all 3 of these goals can be - and need to be - achieved at the same time. As the leader of the 19th Undergraduate Senate’s response to free speech controversy and the Co-Chair of the ASSU Working Group on Academic Freedom, Erica has spent over a year researching the ways in which the First Amendment, the university administration, and the ASSU interact. She has worked closely with activists, the Office of Community Standards, Student Activities and Leadership, the Office of the General Counsel, and Stanford Law School students to determine how Stanford can best improve its speech policies.
After working on this issue long-term, we believe that the ASSU’s response to controversial invited speakers should focus on affirmation and information, instead of cancellation.
- Affirmation: Hate speech and offensive language is protected by the U.S. Constitution, but that does not excuse the harm that it causes to communities on this campus, particularly communities of color and other marginalized groups. In the face of harmful rhetoric, it is crucial for ASSU leadership to affirm the identities being targeted and make it clear that this language does not represent Stanford’s values. After the invitation of Robert Spencer to campus last year, I helped write a Senate resolution to condemn his rhetoric.
- Information: Though activists have done an excellent job remaining informed and responding to hate on campus, there are many other students who may be less informed about campus controversies and how they can be effective allies. The ASSU needs to combat political apathy on campus by creating more opportunities for learning about marginalized narratives and allyship. Canceling events before creating these educational opportunities makes it harder for students who aren't directly affected by an event to learn about why an invited speaker may be problematic, and how they can challenge that individual.
However, the burden of educating others should not fall on students of marginalized identities - as Black students, we know how exhausting it is to constantly explain and justify our existence to others. We believe that the ASSU needs to shoulder this burden and provide institutional mechanisms for affirmation and information in the face of hate. As Execs, we want to institute:
- Quarterly “ASSU Speak-Out” events: Right now, students must go through VSOs or other formal mechanisms to plan and publicize discussion events. We want to create submission-based, quarterly community discussions about marginalized narratives - you submit the topic, and we’ll handle the event planning and publicity. This would create an additional platform for highlighting underrepresented identities on campus, both proactively and in reaction to speaker controversies.
- Event Factsheets: From interacting with community organizers in the Bay Area, Erica has learned that factsheets can be a great way to inform the public prior to an event so that they can stand up to injustice in person. If a speaker event threatens students on campus, we want to produce and distribute factsheets that explain who the speaker is, why they’ve been invited, why they may be problematic, and questions you can ask to challenge them.
Improving ASSU Efficacy
Despite the important role that it plays in students’ lives, the ASSU remains obscure and poorly understood. A central part of the Exec role is to serve as a clear, effective conduit between the administration and the student body. To this end, we will:
- Collaborate with campus publications like the Stanford Daily to advance the common goals of informing the public and promoting civic engagement
- Continue past Execs’ practices of releasing regular online updates to the student body, holding open office hours in community centers, and facilitating student access to administrators.
Increasing Administrative Transparency
Recent university decisions regarding housing and student life have left students concerned and confused. We believe that administrators need to do a better job of keeping students informed about and involved in their decision-making processes.
- As Student Affairs seeks to revise Greek life and campus housing, we will hold them accountable to their stated goals of transparency and increased student input.
- We will push for a clear and effective alcohol policy. Stanford’s alcohol protocols are notoriously obscure; despite new administrative policies on hard alcohol and reporting strategies, the problem of high-risk behavior persists. Isaiah is working with Jessie Seng, a PHE serving on a committee dedicated to improving alcohol policy, to address the above concerns.
- We want to clarify the new 2019-2020 financial aid policy to ensure students can make use of new financial support. We will work with campus partners to create an easy-to-follow guide for the newest feature of financial aid: reimbursement for extraneous class-related fees.
- Isaiah has met with Kirsti Copeland from the Dean’s Office of Engineering and the Director of Financial Aid, Karen Cooper, and is currently working on a phone application that will allow students to keep track of their course fees and material costs.