Redefining Community Service workers are not being given a voice on campus. We have seen examples of R&DE oversight leading to initiatives and projects negatively affecting service workers and their jobs. As ASSU Exec, we believe that the community goes beyond the students on campus - but also the service and contracted workers that Stanford cannot survive without. We will work with activists on campus to ensure that service workers and contracted workers are financially supported in the immediate future. We will also continue to fight for a fair living wage for workers, along with adequate housing and transportation options. As an official stance, we believe that workers should be directly supported, and we hope to serve as a liaison between student activists, workers, and administration.
Disability Advocacy Working within the ASSU, we are frustrated with the lack of transparency and input administration has given us regarding the process of creating a permanent community center for students with disabilities. We believe that students of all abilities should feel welcome on campus, and empowered to push administration to recognize these concerns. Martin has worked continually with disability advocates including Rachel Wallstrom and Bryce Tuttle, and is a member of the ASSU Disability Advocacy Committee. Now that the Disability Advocacy Committee has submitted their request for a permanent community center, we plan to assist this committee in whatever way possible through this application process, advocating for Stanford’s recognition of the disability community.
While the two of us have been impressed by the increased effort and accommodations offered by instructors as a result of COVID-19, we know that these actions could have benefitted students in the past, and it is unfortunate that students with OAE accomodations and documented disabilities were not supported by Stanford by the same level of efficiency and initiative. When classes resume in-person, we intend to work with Stanford’s disability advocacy organizations in order to ensure all students continue to be supported academically and socially on campus.
Sexual Violence and Relationship Abuse Prevention - Expanding Free Legal Aid When a survivor convicts an alleged assaulter, Stanford gives the survivor 9 hours of free legal aid. However, 9 hours is insufficient to prepare a case. In fact, a majority of cases end up being non-hearings because the survivor did not have enough time to adequately prepare for a hearing. This issue has been voiced by numerous students including Krithika Iyer and Julia Paris - members of the ASSU Sexual Violence and Relationship Abuse Prevention Committee. Collectively, we are asking for 18 hours of free legal counseling in order for survivors to have a fair opportunity at presenting a case where all evidence and circumstances are fully taken into account.
The Future of Callisto With the contract between Stanford and Callisto terminated, the state of this resource is currently in flux. We are asking Stanford to increase its transparency on the status of the website, how information sent to the website will be handled, and what other resources should be offered to students. Callisto allowed students to report on their own terms. As a staff member, Martin advocated for Callisto to students, and believes that students on campus should be notified in a timely manner whether Stanford chooses to renew its contract with Callisto.
Mental Health - Training for a Reorganized Staff Team Next year will bring the largest restructuring of staff positions in decades. With the elimination of the PHE position, staff duties associated with undergraduate health and wellness will be redistributed amongst the remaining staff roles. Not only is this an opportunity to incorporate student and staff input into the new RA role, but also to re-evaluate what is necessary for RAs in order to create a welcoming and inclusive living environment. As a current staff member, Martin is aware of the steps needed in order to revise the RA role and staff training to better serve the needs of students. Martin is passionate about making Stanford more accessible through its staffing structure, and will work with current row and RF staff members to make this change a reality during staff training.
Jennalei has been a member of the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Advisory Committee for two years now, serving as the ASSU Co-Director of Mental Health & Wellness last year and the Chair of the ASSU Mental Health & Wellness Committee this year. She has not only urged for more opt-in intensive training on mental health support for staff members, but she has also fought for an established liaison between residences and CAPS & Vaden to continue to meet the health and wellness needs of students.
Mental Health - Co-Pays and Stipends With copays and transportation, seeing a regular therapist can cost up to thousands of dollars a year. It is disheartening that after all the work scheduling an initial CAPS appointment and being referred to a long-term provider, therapy is still financially inaccessible to many students. These costs are most severely affecting FLI students, and appointment co-pays are often still a large barrier. We need to make co-pays and transportation reimbursement more accessible to Stanford students. This is yet another example of how Cardinal Care is systemically inaccessible.
Jennalei has communicated with the Office of Financial Aid and Susie Brubaker-Cole to provide funding for students to be able to seek mental health services off campus. Although the details have not yet been completely finalized, we will work with administration to ensure that students can easily find resources and programs relevant to whatever needs they have in the areas of mental and physical health.
Mental Health - Collaboration with Class Presidents Both Martin and Jennalei are closely connected with the current junior class presidents, the junior class cabinet, and the incoming senior class presidents. They have been passionate about increasing the accessibility of mental health resources on campus through programs like “CAPS Declassified.” As Exec, we will work with our Communications Director to publicize class president events that involve aspects of campus life important for undergrads.
Mental Health - OAE Policy (Automatic Provision to Professors) For many students with OAE accommodations, there is a unique anxiety that comes with presenting an OAE accommodation letter to faculty. Hearing from students who have had to navigate the OAE system, a simple solution entails creating an opt-in system where OAE letters are automatically sent to a student’s instructors. This idea has been received positively by students, and we plan on working with administration to turn this idea into materialized programming.
Graduate Student Concerns - Feedback Mechanism for Grad Students We recognize the challenges many graduate students face as a result of a hostile research and working environment. Student-faculty relationships are one of the most important aspects of being a graduate student, and should be a positive experience. We believe that while creating a better research environment is a complex process, we can work directly with graduate students to increase transparency and empathy between students and staff through anonymous feedback from students so that faculty can be aware of campus concerns. We also intend to continue to work with administratives to improve the culture of graduate student and staff dynamics.
Graduate Student Concerns - Wellness Programs The construction of graduate housing on campus will move over 2,000 students during its opening. Many of these students never wanted to live on campus, and we recognize this sentiment through speaking with graduate activist groups including SSWO and WINGS. What the ASSU and Stanford can do to create a more hospitable campus is to increase the number of off-campus events for graduate students. The ASSU has implemented programming for many undergraduate groups in the past, and we are set on continuing this at the graduate level.
Graduate Student Concerns - Food Insecurity Over the past two years, Stanford has responded to the issue of food insecurity on campus through the creation of a food bank. While we believe this has reduced hunger on campus, we are skeptical as to how this campus necessitates a food bank for its own students. Food insecurity is not an issue of malnourishment, but a result of the lack of accessible and inexpensive food options on campus. Instead of a food bank, Stanford can subsidize the living costs of graduate students when it comes to groceries (as it is currently doing for undergraduates), along with expanding stores like Munger Market so that affordable and healthy food is available on campus.
Cardinal Care - Revisiting Dependent Care and Medical Co-Pays Through conversations with Dr. James Jacobs, undergraduates, and graduate students, we have realized it is time for the Cardinal Care coverage plan to be re-evaluated to better suit student needs. On the undergraduate side, co-pays for hospital visits and in-patient mental health services are still exorbitant compared to our peer institutions. These co-pays are severely affecting FLI students, who subscribe to Cardinal Care at a higher rate than their peers. For graduate students, the partners and families of graduate students are not getting the care they deserve. We believe reforming Cardinal Care is a community effort involving graduate, undergraduate, and admin voices.
Community Center Funding Over the past year, Susie Brubaker-Cole has pledged to not decrease community center funding. From a realistic standpoint, Stanford’s endowment will take a huge hit with an impending economic collapse - indicating a large number of budget cuts. However, many students need the support of community centers now more than ever. Whether or not campus opens next fall, students and frosh will either return to their communities to reassemble their physical space and traditions, or continue to need the presence of a virtual community center while separated from their peers. Stanford needs to understand the needs of its students, and that events and programming by community centers are especially crucial now. It is paramount that there are student voices capable of working pragmatically with administration and the Faculty Senate in order to examine how we can create a budget that includes continued community center funding. We will alert administration that community centers are an absolute necessity for thousands of students, and choosing to decrease funding is choosing to erase the diversity and perspectives that define our Stanford community.
Housing Accessibility Many Stanford residences, particularly on the Row, are inaccessible to students with physical disabilities. We believe every house and dorm on campus should be accessible to students who wish to live in these spaces. This can be done by working in tandem with administration to understand what steps need to be taken to make spaces accessible on campus. This starts with practical measures that include Braille writing on room signs and washing machines. In order to solve a problem as complex as campus accessibility, we need to first understand the numerous changes needed that form a collective action plan.
Free Speech - Responding & Addressing Hate Crimes We are fully aware that hate crimes and racism is a sensitive issue at Stanford, and fully understand that administrative responses have been upsetting for many communities - especially those targeted by hatred. There is zero tolerance for hate crimes at Stanford.
Now, possibly more than ever in recent history, members of the Asian-American community are experiencing hate crimes while back home or on campus. We are saddened by this reality, and advocate incorporating microaggression education into staff training, along with working with the A3C and other Asian-American community groups in order to publicize resources and support for Stanford students.
As Exec, we will reinforce this student sentiment to administration as we create preventive measures, respond to the Stanford community through SUAlerts and campus emails, and care for the communities targeted.
Free Speech - Amplifying the Voices of Communities of Color In the upcoming year, student advocacy will be essential for creating change on an institutional and national level. In addition to the continually evolving policy and messages from administration, 2020 is a year full of regional, state, and national elections where many Stanford students will be making meaningful change at home and on campus. We realize many of the political movements at Stanford have their start in grass-root movements organized by students of color. As Exec, we will work to incorporate community center input into our communications with the student body, along with helping to foster collaboration between community centers now that students cannot physically meet.
Environment Justice - Cardinal Green As students, we recognize and applaud Stanford’s efforts to create a more sustainable community. In addition to advocating for students, we believe the ASSU can serve as a liaison between innovative programming and the student body. One of these programs is Cardinal Green, a program that allows students to set individual conservation goals, and track their progress on personal dashboards. Campus conservation starts with all of us, and the ASSU can help Stanford create relevant programming that is both student-focused and recognized.