Stanford is replacing FLI summer programs. Students call it ‘willful ignorance.’

Jan. 22, 2025, 11:53 p.m.

Various summer pre-orientation programs intended to support first-generation, low-income (FLI) students are being replaced by a single, new summer bridge program, sparking criticism from former participants.

The new program, Summer Bridge — a component of the Leveling the Learning Landscape (L3) initiative — was created because interest levels in the former programs exceeded available space, the University wrote in an email to The Daily. This new program is intended to replace the Leland Scholars Program (LSP), Stanford Summer Engineering Academy (SSEA), Stanford Online Academic Readiness (SOAR) and THRIVE, while continuing to support FLI students.

Former LSP and SSEA participants have criticized the decision, noting that students and staff were not consulted.

“It was a very immediate eradication of anyone directly involved. It was almost like [staff] were a threat to the decision making,” said a Stanford affiliate who has direct knowledge of the restructuring process and requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. “Staff was not [consulted]. Scholars were not.”

Only two of the staff members from the previous summer bridge programs — former LSP Program Manager Kylee Beck and former Stanford Summer Fellows Program Assistant Director Susie Morales — will be working in the new summer bridge experience. They will remain in the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE)’s Advising department. 

Critics say the new program cannot fully support FLI students without input from FLI students and staff.

“If you’re striving for diversity and inclusion,” said Ameera Eshtewi ’27, a former SSEA student who participated due to her identity as a minority woman in STEM, “it starts at who’s at the table.”

In an email to The Daily, the University wrote “The decision to launch was made following robust engagement from students, faculty and staff that have been involved in pre-orientation programming at Stanford.” 

Former LSP residential assistant (RA) Kyia Cole ’24 said creating the Summer Bridge without consulting students and staff “seems intentional.”

“I think if you want to do a program like this, you wouldn’t talk to students about it and you wouldn’t talk to staff about it, because they’d be like, ‘No, that’s a terrible idea,’” Cole said.

The University wrote the new program will have more course offerings, programming focused on academic success and FLI-specific needs and enhanced advising support for “appropriate” course selection.

The University said it is planning on working closely with the new program’s inaugural faculty director, mathematics Professor Rafe Mazzeo, and the envisioned faculty advisory board in an email to all VPUE staff.  

In the coming weeks, the University will be asking for student feedback to learn about potential areas for improvement in the L3 program. However, students expressed concern that input was not requested before the decision was announced.

“It’s only after the decision has been made that we’re being talked to to get advice and wisdom from how our community is made and why it’s so special, rather than throughout the process, and it feels sloppy at worst and willful ignorance at best,” Bryan Monge Serrano said. “Focus groups just signal to me that [the program is] still in development, which is bad,” he continued.

Monge Serrano said that the program, which is launching this summer, should have reached full development by now.

The Stanford affiliate who requested anonymity said a potential reason for creating the new program is to “re-center” academics, which the University said had been overshadowed by community-building in previous programs.

“The biggest negative feedback has been, ‘Why the focus on community?’” the Stanford affiliate said, adding that staff “always had to explain why the community component is so important.”

The Stanford affiliate said the University indicated a lack of willingness to fully fund the program’s community-building activities — decisions which included hiring less student staff and reducing RA’s salaries. The source said staff would often use personal funds or belongings to provide for students when program funds didn’t cover student necessities, such as clothing, backpacks, or cell phones.

The University is committed to “maintaining opportunities for community building and the small group settings that have been a valued component of past programs,” the University wrote to The Daily.

In the summer 2024, the University issued an end-of-program survey. Unlike previous years, staff were not allowed to view survey questions or be in the same room as students taking the survey, said the anonymous source.

The survey, according to former LSP student Jorge Ramos ’28, was comprehensive.

Former students of SSEA and LSP like Rose America Garcia ’28, Eban Ebssa ’25, Monge Serrano, Eshtewi and Cole have said community-building has been the most important aspect of the bridge programs and that the former programs were beneficial partially because each one addressed different student needs. They said they are worried that L3’s program would be less successful in addressing FLI student’s by generalizing all FLI students into one program. 

“Every single program has its own distinct culture, and it brings a certain type of student, and those students need to be independently supported,” Cole said. By reemphasizing academics, she added, “you’re losing what actually helps students in their academics, which is this culture, which is this community.”

This article was updated to include Bryan Monge Serrano’s full name.

Sophia Chu is a writer for The Grind. Contact grind 'at' stanforddaily.com.

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