2019 ASSU Executive Slates: A primer

April 10, 2019, 1:06 a.m.

It’s election day, Stanford!

In preparation for the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) elections, which will be conducted via email ballot Wednesday and Thursday, The Daily surveyed each executive slate to find out their stances on the University’s most pressing issues. Below are summaries of each candidates responses:

Kimiko Hirota ’20 and Bryce Tuttle ’20

Endorsed by The Stanford Daily, First Generation and Low-Income Partnership (FLIP), Fossil Free Stanford and Women’s Coalition.

ASSU transparency: Continue to publicly release quarterly reports on their progress on various projects.

Disability equity: Establish a permanent disability community center in a centralized, fully accessible building with a full-time director.

Student mental health: Hire more Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) counselors at competitive salary rates; eliminate the one-size-fits-all required phone screening system for appointment scheduling; expand the existing CAPS connections to community centers; improve the off-campus referral process by hiring a staff member tasked with helping students find long-term therapists covered by insurance; and establish separate office to handle counseling and psychological services for Stanford medical students.

On-campus sexual assault: Increase funding and staffing for the Title IX Office, advocate for greater transparency in the process adjudicating harassment claims between students and faculty, promote Callisto (an online tool that allows survivors to document unwanted sexual conduct), work with the Provost’s Task Force on Sexual Assault Policies and Practices and encourage the development of a restorative justice framework as an option within the Title IX process.

ResX, housing and facilities: Fight to ensure all campus housing costs are below 30 percent of income for Ph.D. students, the threshold for affordable housing set forth by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Push ResX to incorporate student perspectives and be transparent throughout their decision making process.


Erica Scott ’20 and Isaiah Drummond ’20

Endorsed by Students of Color Coalition (SOCC).

ResEd reform: Increase transparency between student staff members and ResEd. Provide more mental health resources specifically tailored to student staff and enhance partnerships between professional and student staff.

Free speech: Continue working on a student-friendly ASSU Free Speech Guide in collaboration with the Office of Community Standards (OCS) and members of Stanford Law School.

ASSU transparency: Ensure the Senate is financially informed and increase communication between the Senate and Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE).

On-campus sexual assault: Create an updated sexual assault agenda based on the Association of American Universities survey data. Work with Confidential Support Team (CST), Title IX and the Sexual Assault & Relationship Abuse (SARA) Office to publicize Callisto to both survivors of sexual assault and student staff members.

Disability community center: Establish a permanent Disability Community Center with full staff and create Disability Studies major and minor with associated classes.

Mental health: Expand specialized resources for residential staff, support a formal apology to students affected by involuntary leave of absences, increase CAPS and CST resources, re-evaluate 5150 use and the Dean’s Leave of Absence Policy and foster the continuation of the Wellness Information Network for Graduate Students (WINGS).

Community centers: Host office hours and other public-facing events in community centers to make them more known and accessible to the general student population.

Kojoh Atta ’20 and Yusef Ferhani ’20

Mental Health: Give students the choice for treatment on campus, influence change in coordination with Stanford administration.

ASSU Accountability: Increase transparency and show “the student body all the ways in which it works for them.” Hold ASSU to a higher standard of service and meet it.

Subsidization: Remove or substantially lower class fees for courses in the arts, PE and those requiring specific materials or equipment. Highlight The Opportunity Fund as a dependable option for students in need.

Community: Ease the process of formalizing a community into a student group and accessing ASSU funding.

Disability Community: Advocate for the establishment of a disability community center and installation of more wheelchair accessible ramps and other building improvements.

Title IX: Implement a restorative justice framework within Stanford’s Confidential Support Team and ensure that the results of the 2019 Campus Climate Survey are swiftly and transparently released to the the Stanford community.


Gracie Newman ’21 and Benjamin Davidson ’21

DavidMan, the Man who is David, is a slate running as a project of the Stanford Flipside, a satirical on-campus publication with 10 solutions or “Commandments” including expelling mentally healthy students and painting Hoover Tower the color of flesh.

When asked why she is running, Newman wrote “If I had the time … I’d write this whole eloquent paragraph about the importance and necessity of satire … anyways, I’m just doing this cuz my mom told me to.”


Anthony Beron ’20 and Ricky Sanchez ’20

The Fiesta slate is running to “have fun and have the authority to put a wave machine on Roble Field.”

Contact Udani Satarasinghe at usatara ‘at’ stanford.edu.

This article has been updated to reflect the ResEd reform priorities of Erica Scott and Isaiah Drummond’s slate.

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