Since spring break, four groups have officially announced their endorsements for various ASSU candidates, and more are expected to come next week.
The Green Alliance for Innovative Action (GAIA), the Jewish Student Association (JSA), the Women’s Coalition and Stanford Colleges Against Cancer have released their lists, and at least seven other groups are expected to follow before voting officially opens April 8.
Every year, groups select the candidates they would like to see in office. Though links for the endorsing groups are listed on the ASSU Elections Commission Web site, the Commission does not regulate the endorsing process itself.
Selections are based on application processes specific to each endorsing group, but generally involve some combination of questionnaire and interview. Groups can endorse as many candidates at any level as they choose.
For the executive race, Angelina Cardona ’11 and Kelsei Wharton ’12 have already picked up endorsements from both GAIA and the Women’s Coalition. The No-Rain Campaign of Katherine Heflin ’11 and Daniel Leifer ’10 received the Stanford Colleges Against Cancer endorsement.
“We were looking for candidates that were both knowledgeable about current women’s issues in campus and had a concrete plan for how they wanted to improved the quality of life for women on campus,” wrote Paula de los Angeles ’10, a member of the Women’s Coalition selection committee, in an e-mail to The Daily.
According to de los Angeles, the executive slates were asked questions ranging from their history with women’s issues to Judicial Affairs’ handling of sexual assault to the creation of a cabinet chair for women’s issues. The process consisted of initial application and call-back interviews.
The Women’s Coalition endorsed 20 Senate candidates, including freshmen Khaled Alshawi, Katie Cromack, Madeline Hawes, Deepa Kannappan, Daniel Khalessi, Jason Lupatkin, Stewart Macgregor-Dennis, Edouard Negiar, Robin Perani, Rebecca Sachs, Kamil Saeid, Percia Safar, Rahul Sastry, Will Seaton (also a Daily contributing writer), Bennett Siegel, Carolyn Simmons, Juany Torres, Noemi Walzebuck and Showly Wang, and sophomore Rafael Vasquez.
The “So-phresh” sophomore class president slate of Joel Aguero, Imani Franklin, Elise Geithner and Thomas Hendee also picked up a Women’s Coalition endorsement.
GAIA, a coalition of Energy Crossroads, IDEAS, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Students for a Sustainable Stanford and the Stanford Solar Wind Energy Project, chose candidates who demonstrated a strong commitment to campus sustainability. GAIA selections were based on an application and second-round interview.
In addition to its endorsement of Cardona and Wharton, GAIA endorsed Senate candidates Alshawi, incumbent Michael Cruz ‘12, Hawes, Ben Jensen ‘12, Macgregor-Dennis, Nikola Milanovic ’11 (also a Daily columnist), Sachs, Sastry, Seaton and Simmons.
Unlike the Women’s Coalition and GAIA, Stanford Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) used a name-blind application process, looking for “candidates with thoughtful, creative approaches to improving student health,” according to CAC co-president Stacy Kaufman ’11.
Senate hopefuls Sachs, Safar, Simmons, Torres and Walzebuck were endorsed by CAC.
The Jewish Student Association also released their Senate endorsement list: Lupatkin, Milanovic, Sachs, Safar, Siegel, Simmons and Walzebuck. JSA representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Students of Color Coalition will release its list by the end of the week, while The Stanford Review, The Stanford Progressive and The Stanford Daily will publish their endorsements on April 5. The Stanford Conservative Society will announce its picks on April 7.
The Queer Coalition and the Stanford Democrats are also expected to announce endorsements.
Elizabeth Titus contributed to this report.