On Nov. 28, an anonymous user on Fizz posted a petition to hold a recall election of the current Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Executive Branch.

The post claimed that 1,000 students had already signed in favor of voting to remove ASSU president Ava Brown ’26 and vice president Will Berriman ’26 from office, citing their inaction to address student’s concerns despite receiving significant monetary stipends.

Linked to a post on Fizz — an anonymous social media app for college students — the Google Form receives signatures as students select a checkbox and consent to their email being shared with the ASSU Elections Commission and Constitutional Council. Petitioners also indicate if they are an undergraduate, coterminal or graduate student.

On the form, the anonymous organizers listed their motivations for creating the petition.

“Over the summer and fall terms, the Executive Branch failed to execute a number of essential administrative and representational responsibilities associated with its office, despite receiving $20,000 in compensation from student funds,” they wrote, referencing a 2011 Daily article that lists the president and vice president’s respective stipends for the 2010-11 academic year as $10,000 each, a figure some Fizz users believe has since increased.

ASSU stipends are publicly listed on the ASSU website. Brown and Berriman each receive $7,500 annually.

Brown noted that the ASSU website publicly lists stipends for the Executive Branch, Undergraduate Senate (UGS), Graduate Student Council (GSC), Elections Commission and Constitutional Council. According to Brown, funding from the Student Activities Fee is transparent — the ASSU votes on annual grants in the spring election, UGS and GSC discuss quick grants in weekly meetings and VSO funding allocations can also be requested from the ASSU Financial Manager, Johan Sotelo. Most executive branch events are paid for through independent fundraising with other departments, such as Athletics or Vice Provost of Student Affairs (VPSA), not the Student Activities Fee, Brown said.

“Will and I do not receive $20,000 stipends,” Brown wrote to The Daily. “Our stipends are unchanged from last year and the ASSU Financial Manager, Johan Sotelo, assured us that Executive stipends have remained constant over the past several years.”

Petition organizers also cited recently cuts to “diversity programs, community centers, and club funding” as examples of ongoing issues the Executive Branch needs to address. 

“This pattern of inaction has resulted in ineffective engagement with ongoing student concerns and diminished the role of the ASSU in representing its constituents,” the petition wrote.

Brown and Berriman believe that their regular meetings with administration, UGS Chairs and GSC Co-Chairs over the summer prepared them to address student concerns.

“Since the beginning of the school year, we have continued to prioritize amplifying student voices in administrative decision making,” they wrote. “Our platform focuses on empowering students to invest in the academic, social, and cultural fabric of our community, and a key part of that goal is advocating for the students and institutions that make our community special and engaging.”

The petition is part of the process outlined in the ASSU Constitution, which states that students can “remove from office the President or the Vice President of the Association” through a recall election once a petition seeking one is submitted to the Elections Commission with signatures of “at least 15 percent of the membership of the Association.”

The Fizz post linking the petition claimed it needs 2,500 signatures to be validated. The ASSU Constitution states that the approval of over 15% of the student body, or 2,550 signatures, is necessary to bring a petition to vote.

If the petition is validated, all members of the student body would be eligible to vote on the recall of the president and vice president. As the ASSU Constitution states, “approval shall require the concurrence of 2/3 of the graduate and undergraduate populations separately, with those voting in favor of removal within each population constituting at least 15 percent of their respective populations. Any office which becomes vacant as a result of a recall election shall be filled according to the relevant sections of this Constitution.”

Some students on Fizz supported the petition.

“All they do is send mass emails to everyone,” one user wrote. “Recall ASSU. I don’t know who made this petition, I don’t know who will run instead, but ASSU does not deserve our money.”

One user partially agreed, but found difficulty with the idea of blaming ASSU for distributing funding to clubs. “I agree the students ‘leaders’ on ASSU shouldn’t get our money, but we shouldn’t fuck up the clubs,” they wrote.

Other Fizz users disagreed, claiming ASSU officials were receiving unfair criticism. “Do you even know what goes into being ASSU exec/senate? most of the hard work is behind the scenes,” one user wrote.

This article has been updated to accurately reflect how VSO funding allocations can be requested.