Featured – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Tue, 26 Mar 2024 00:42:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Featured – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Kiki Iriafen launches women’s basketball into the Sweet 16 https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/25/kiki-iriafen-big-performance-round-of-32/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/25/kiki-iriafen-big-performance-round-of-32/#respond Mon, 25 Mar 2024 08:57:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1245001 Kiki Iriafen's 41 point, 16 rebound performance helped lead the Cardinal to an 87-81 win over Iowa State in the Round of 32.

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Just over a year and five days ago, the Stanford women’s basketball team suffered its most humiliating defeat in years, losing to No. 8 seed Ole Miss in the Round of 32. While avenging last year’s early tournament exit was on the minds of all Cardinal players coming into the postseason, at several times tonight, it seemed Stanford was bound to the same fate.

After giving up another three-point shot, the team (30-5, 15-3 Pac-12) found themselves down three points to the No. 7 seed Iowa State Cyclones (21-12, 12-6 Big 12) with 3:43 remaining in regulation. To make things worse, within the next two minutes, Pac-12 Player of the Year Cameron Brink picked up her fifth foul — which meant she had to sit on the bench for the rest of the game. 

But the Cardinal had something at their disposal that they didn’t possess last season: a fully-developed Kiki Iriafen. 

During her first two years in college, the six-foot-three forward averaged 4.2 and 6.7 points per game respectively. But after an offseason of skill improvement and boosting her confidence, the star forward emerged as a force on the court, averaging 18.6 and 10.9 rebounds a game. 

Indeed, the star forward for Stanford didn’t disappoint when the Cardinal needed her the most. She scored six crucial points down the stretch of the game that allowed Stanford to send the game to overtime. Iriafen’s defense on Cyclones’ star Audi Crooks also helped keep the Cardinal within striking distance.

“I think if you want it bad, nothing will faze you,” Iriafen said. “I wanted it really badly so I didn’t let fatigue get into my head.”

Despite missing a shot at the end of regulation that would have sent Stanford to Portland, the Los Angeles product kept her composure throughout the overtime period, tallying 11 points.

But perhaps the biggest shot of the game came from someone who didn’t attempt a field goal until the fourth quarter. 

After Iowa State took a one point lead with 31 seconds remaining in overtime, junior forward Brooke Demetre set a cross screen in the paint for Iriafen. Demetre then came up to the top of the key to receive the ball. Despite the Maples crowd expecting the ball to go inside Iriafen, Demetre immediately went into her shooting form off the catch. The shot had the perfect combination of arc and power, and it spinned through the hoop to give Stanford a two-point advantage — a lead they maintained to secure their spot in the Sweet 16.

“Tara calls Brooke ‘Steady Eddie’,” Iriafen said. “You can always count on Brooke. She is just always, always ready since our freshmen year, regardless of how the game is going for her or how we are doing. 

Despite the loss, Iowa State demonstrated why their future is bright. Senior guard Emily Ryan, who is slated to come back for a fifth-year, accumulated a career-high 36 points on six-for-nine shooting from deep. 

“I thought our bigs had good hands tonight and made big plays down low,” said Ryan. “Then the shooters were making them spread the floor, so it opened more stuff up in the lane and driving lanes.”

Overall the Cyclones shot over 60% from beyond the arc, which helped keep them even with Stanford throughout the game. However, in the end, the Cardinal capitalized more on opportunities to hit shots and get stops at timely moments.

Up next, Stanford will head to Portland for their Sweet 16 game against the winner of the NC State-Tennessee matchup. After failing to get through the Round of 32 last year, the Cardinal are glad to have gotten over the hump this year.

“As much as I love Maples, I didn’t want my season to end here tonight,” said graduate guard Hannah Jump. “We worked hard to be in this game and moment, and I’m super excited for our team to go on to Portland.”

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Women’s basketball braces to play Iowa State freshman phenom Audi Crooks https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/23/womens-basketball-braces-to-play-iowa-state-freshman-phenom-audi-crooks/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/23/womens-basketball-braces-to-play-iowa-state-freshman-phenom-audi-crooks/#respond Sun, 24 Mar 2024 02:22:59 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244993 After a 40-point performance against Maryland in the first round, Iowa State's Audi Crooks is the talk of the tournament. But Stanford may be uniquely prepared to limit Crook's effectiveness.

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While Stanford women’s basketball spent last night in cruise control, defeating Norfolk State by nearly 30 points, their upcoming NCAA tournament opponent faced a more strenuous challenge. 

In their game against Maryland, Iowa State found themselves down 20 points with 1:28 remaining in the second quarter. The Terrapins had shot 60% from the field and 70% from beyond the arc in the first half, and looked to be clicking on all cylinders. 

But there was one player for the Cyclones that stood above the horizon, willing her team back into the game: freshman sensation Audi Crooks. The six-foot-three center’s 40 points and 12 rebounds helped Iowa State achieve the second-largest comeback in the history of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament. 

However, Crooks isn’t worried about repeating Friday night’s performance against Stanford on Sunday.

“I’m just gonna stick to the game plan,” said Crooks. “Last night, obviously that was interesting, [but] not every game is going to be like that.”

While limiting Crooks is a challenge for any team, Stanford certainly has the personnel to make the freshman’s job tougher. With six-foot-four senior forward Cameron Brink and six-foot-three junior forward Kiki Iriafen at their disposal, the Cardinal have the athleticism and height to throw at Crooks. 

“We’ve seen multiple things from [Stanford],” Crooks said. “They front other players, but I’ve also seen them try to go one-on-one in the paint. Early on we’re gonna look and see what they do and we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer had high praise for both Crooks and her teammate Addy Brown.

“I think she should be in the talk of the top freshman. I would say Addy Brown, too,” said VanDerveer. “They’re really having a great, great year.”

Sunday’s game will also mark the end of an era, as the remaining members of the 2021 National Championship team, Brink and graduate guard Hannah Jump, will be playing their last game at Maples Pavilion. 

“When I think of someone’s last game [at Maples], I think of the great games that Lexi Hull and Candice Wiggins had,” VanDerveer said. “I just want [Cam] to have a great game tomorrow and I want Hannah to have a great game, too.”

Last night, the Cardinal received great shooting performances from both Jump and junior guard Elena Bosgana, who each made four threes. Despite having an inconsistent three-point shooting season compared to previous years, Jump believes that she can continue to have the hot-hand well into the tournament. 

“For me, it’s about confidence,” said Jump. “When I have open shots, knocking them down. If I’m getting limited touches, just bring out what else I can do to impact the game.” 

In the Round of 32 last season, No. 1 seed Stanford lost to No. 8 Ole Miss 54-49 in perhaps the biggest upset of last year’s tournament. But while last season’s end lingers for those involved with the program, VanDerveer hopes her team will be on the good side of history this time around.

“You’re never gonna get away from history,” VanDerveer said. “There is also a pretty good side of history in that I think we’re 42-5 in this building [during] the NCAA tournament. I would rather think about that.”

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George Triantis appointed as dean of law school  https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/20/george-triantis-appointed-as-dean-of-law-school/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/20/george-triantis-appointed-as-dean-of-law-school/#respond Thu, 21 Mar 2024 06:25:05 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244964 After two interim deans, law professor George Triantis was appointed as the dean of SLS on Tuesday.

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George Triantis, the Charles J. Meyer Professor of Law and a senior associate vice provost for research at Stanford, was appointed dean of Stanford Law School (SLS), according to a Tuesday announcement in the Stanford Report. 

“It’s a privilege to be asked to serve in this role, and I am grateful for the support of the provost and my colleagues. I’m looking forward to it and eager to begin this summer,” Triantis wrote in an email to The Daily. 

He will assume the position on June 14, succeeding Jenny Martinez who became Stanford’s provost in October 2023. After Martinez’s appointment, professors Robert Weisberg J.D. ’79 and Paul Brest have both served as interim deans of the school. Weisberg stepped down in January to address health issues.

Prior to Stanford, Triantis was the Eli Goldston Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He joined the Stanford faculty in 2011. From 2014 to 2017 he was the associate dean for research at Stanford and faculty co-director of the Stanford Cyber Initiative. Since 2020, he has served as senior associate vice provost for research, addressing research integrity and policy, international engagements and risk management.

As the new dean of Stanford Law School, Triantis aims to lead in promoting vigorous and open debate in key areas of law and public policy, according to the Stanford Report. 

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94% of elevators on campus have expired permits https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/15/94-of-elevators-on-campus-have-expired-permits/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/15/94-of-elevators-on-campus-have-expired-permits/#respond Fri, 15 Mar 2024 08:39:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244572 Records reveal that over 95% of residential elevators and over 70% of non-residential elevators on campus have expired permits. Most of these elevators are still in operation and some consistently malfunction.

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Vince Pane Ph.D. ’23 was returning to his apartment at Blackwelder in November 2021 when he found himself stuck in an elevator between floors. Pane initially tried to call for rescue using the alarm and emergency call buttons, but found that they did not work, and his phone had no signal.

Pane, an American Ninja Warrior semifinalist, first tried to pry open the door with a knife from the dining hall, to no avail. Then, he climbed onto the elevator railings and proceeded to dislodge a ceiling panel with a series of kicks. As he recorded on his phone, he hoisted himself out of the shaft and jumped onto the next floor.

Later that day, Pane said he found the elevator blocked off with yellow tape. By the next day, it was up and running again, Pane said. As he heard no work on the elevator during the night, he believed that nothing was ever truly fixed.

According to Pane, the Blackwelder elevator’s permit was expired at the time. Though it has since been inspected, its permit expired once again on Aug. 12, 2023 — making it just one of the 260 elevators on campus, 94% of a total of 274, with expired permits, according to documents obtained by The Daily through a public records request. On average, each expired elevator is over 160 days overdue.

On their way to an ice cream study break on May 30, 2022, Carlene Sanchez ’24 and Katelin Rose Zhou ’24 free-fell two stories in an EVGR-A elevator and landed between the first and second floors. Zhou, Sanchez recounted, began catastrophizing.

“She was like, ‘What if someone calls it on the 10th floor, and then we go to the 10th floor, and then it drops?’” Sanchez said.

According to Sanchez, they were rescued by the Palo Alto Fire Department 20 minutes after repeatedly pressing the call button.

The Daily spoke to several students who shared similarly harrowing experiences with faulty elevators across campus. The doors of the elevator in Ng often open before the elevator has finished descending. An elevator in the Spilker Engineering & Applied Sciences Building has stuck buttons. An elevator in the McClatchy Building has its open and close buttons switched.

All of these elevators have expired permits.

The exterior elevator button box reads "Light does not work. Elevator does (most of the time)."
This seemingly humorous sign in the Packard Building claims the elevator only works “most of the time.”(Photo: ANDREW ZENG/The Stanford Daily)

An elevator mechanic, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation, told The Daily that elevators with expired permits are often unsafe to use.

 “[Parents] have a reasonable expectation that their children would be safe [here], right?” they said.

Each year, dozens of elevator rescue requests made to the Palo Alto Fire Department originate from the Stanford campus, including 41 in 2021 and at least 38 in 2022, Palo Alto Online reported.

Legal experts told The Daily that Stanford would bear liability in a potential lawsuit on the basis of expired permits or injuries resulting from an elevator malfunction. The University subcontracts its elevator maintenance to KONE, an elevator engineering company based in Finland. 

“The University maintains a full-service elevator maintenance contract with an outside service provider [KONE] that provides planned, reoccurring preventive maintenance as well as reactive coverage requiring one hour response time, 24/7,” wrote University spokesperson Luisa Rapport in a statement to The Daily.

Rapport wrote that KONE provides routine maintenance, despite state-wide inspection backlogs, and is expected to respond to elevator reports and outages within an hour.

KONE did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment. 

The California Code of Regulations mandates that “No elevator shall be operated without a valid, current permit issued.”

Palo Alto Online reported in December 2022 that there was a backlog in elevator inspections of more than two years in the San Jose district, which includes Stanford’s campus. Just nine inspectors are responsible for the district. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) acknowledged the need for more elevator inspectors and told Online that hiring was “a top priority.”

“The safety of our campus elevators is a top priority,” Rapport wrote. “Stanford remains in compliance with inspections and permit requests, but does not rely on the state inspection to ensure the safety and operation of our elevators.” 

After The Daily’s inquiry, signs began appearing on elevators across campus informing riders that the elevator was “routinely inspected by the State of California.” Records showed that many of the elevators bearing these notices had expired permits.

Accessibility issues arising from faulty elevator

Members of the disability community told The Daily that broken elevators significantly impair their daily lives. Adri Kornfein ’25 recalled having a “difficult” experience when she lived in Meier during her sophomore year. She uses crutches and lived on the third floor, relying on the building’s single elevator to travel to and from her room. That elevator, Kornfein said, was broken for half of the two quarters she lived in Meier.

According to Residential & Dining Enterprises’s website, all floors of Meier “are accessible.” Nevertheless, Kornfein said she left the dorm last spring without the elevator ever having been permanently fixed. That elevator’s permit is currently expired.

Kornfein said relying on Meier’s defective elevator was stressful. “Sometimes I would just stay in my room instead of going [downstairs], because it was hard to get up and down [the stairs] so many times,” she said.

Stuart Seaborn, the managing litigation director of the nonprofit Disability Rights Advocates, said his greatest concern with unsafe elevators was their impact on members of the disability community.

“Broken or non-maintained elevators pose a systemic problem to members of the disability community, and we have litigated that issue on multiple fronts,” Seaborn said. “When [elevators are] not maintained, they present a significant barrier.”

University spokesperson Mara Vandlik wrote, “A review of our records does not reveal any long-term outages for the elevator in Meier Hall last year.” The only extended period of outage happened in late October 2023 for 10 days, when parts had to be ordered before repairs could occur, she wrote.

Lloyd May, a fourth-year music Ph.D. student and former ASSU director of disability advocacy, said that Stanford’s inaction on elevator safety is one of many examples he sees of the University’s “systemic silo-ing” when it comes to addressing the needs of the disability community. Support for the disability community is handled by many different departments and offices that have little communication with one another, resulting in many inefficiencies, he said.

Similarly, Cat Sanchez ’19 M.A. ’21, former co-chair of the Stanford Disability Initiative, said it was “frustrating” for students with disabilities, who often get “very, very slow change or very slow response” when they raise concerns. She criticized the University for leaving students “in the position of having to ask for help” when University facilities like elevators do not meet their needs.

Kornfein remains disappointed with the University’s inaction toward elevator maintenance. “I just think [the University could do] better,” she said.

Vandlik also wrote that students who have elevator issues are encouraged to report by submitting a fix-it ticket or, if urgent, notifying their housing service center. Emergency maintenance is available after hours. 

“We appreciate that elevator outages are important to all students, but especially significant for those who need the elevator as an accommodation,” Vandlik wrote. Students are offered more accessible temporary accommodations if repairs cause an issue, she wrote.

“The University is committed to ensuring its facilities, programs and services are accessible to everyone, including those with disabilities,” she wrote.

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Pro-Palestine students protest Condoleezza Rice https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/13/pro-palestine-students-protest-condoleezza-rice/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/13/pro-palestine-students-protest-condoleezza-rice/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 08:44:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244578 Outside an event where Hoover Director Condoleezza Rice was speaking about American values, students protested Stanford’s affiliations with corporations that support the Israeli military, including Chevron and Lockheed Martin.

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Palestinian flags and “Spineless Saller,” a blown-up cut-out of President Richard Saller with bloody hands, waved overhead as 75 students gathered outside Encina Hall at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Protestors demanded the University divest from Israel, especially ventures tied to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, and criticized Hoover Institute Director Condoleezza Rice’s involvement in the Iraq War while she was U.S. Secretary of State. 

Inside Encina Hall, Rice was speaking at an event titled “What Does America Stand For?” hosted by the Center for International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

A speaker for student group Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), who did not identify themselves, quoted the event’s title and responded, “Apparently genocide.”

Students demanded that Stanford divest from Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin and Chevron. Speakers at the protest included leaders from organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), JVP, and the Muslim Student Union (MSU). While associated with these companies through various avenues, it is unclear if the University is directly invested in them because details of the endowment’s portfolio remain private.

Yungsu Kim ’25, a member of the Stanford Asian American Action Committee (SAAAC) who led sections of the rally, said, “To Saller and [Rice], the ball is in your court. We [the students] can only point out the inherent contradictions in the University’s values and actions.”

The Daily has reached out to the University for comment. 

As speakers spoke on the actions of Rice and the U.S. government, students repeatedly chanted “Shame!” Speakers also criticized the Biden administration’s proposed $14.5 billion military aid package to Israel. 

MSU co-president Mahmoud Hamdi ’24 told demonstrators about his great-grandmother, who fled during the Nakba — an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe” that refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Rather than her life’s belongings, he said his great-grandmother chose to save her newborn baby, who grew up to be his grandmother: She understood the “value of human life,” Hamdi said.

Hamdi said colonial actors always use the “name of terrorism” to justify “ethnic cleansing.” According to him, examples of genocide and ethnic cleansing included the Rohingya in Myanmar, Uyghur Muslims in China and Iraqi people during Rice’s term as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State in the Bush administration.

The Israel-Gaza war is “not about religion,” he said. “It’s about settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing.”

The Daily has reached out to Rice for comment. 

“Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes,” the crowd chanted repeatedly throughout the rally, at times replacing “Israel” with the names of companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. 

Lockheed Martin, the largest U.S. defense contractor and the company that supplies the Israeli military with planes and missiles, is a part of Stanford’s Industrial Affiliates Program. 

Organizers also said that Chevron, an oil and gas company, profits directly from Israeli occupation because of its gas extraction from gas fields near the Gaza Strip. Chevron is also a member of the University’s Industrial Affiliates Program.

The Industrial Affiliates program is meant to facilitate mutually beneficial exchange between Stanford researchers and corporations where “faculty and students can learn about industry perspectives and priorities, and corporate members are exposed to new ideas and research directions,” according to the program’s website. 

At around 4:45 p.m., Kim announced to protestors that administrators inside Encina Hall had told protestors to turn off amplified sound or face Office of Community Standards (OCS) disciplinary action. The organizers complied by turning off their microphones and speakers but asked the crowd to chant and drum louder. 

The protestors circled the building for the next hour until Rice’s event ended, chanting slogans including, “Free, free Palestine.” Security prevented protesters from entering the Encina Courtyard.

This article has been updated to reflect that Stanford’s investments are not publicly disclosed and it is unclear if the University is invested in Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin and Chevron.

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Cameron Brink declares for WNBA draft https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/12/cameron-brink-declares-for-wnba-draft/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/12/cameron-brink-declares-for-wnba-draft/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:10:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244544 Senior forward Cameron Brink announced her intentions to declare for the WNBA draft on Tuesday afternoon. Brink is slated to be a top-three pick in the draft.

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Senior forward Cameron Brink will enter the 2024 WNBA draft, forgoing her last year of college eligibility, according to an announcement released on Instagram Tuesday. 

Brink has had one of the most storied careers in Stanford’s history. Coming into Stanford as one of the highest ranked recruits in the nation, Brink became a national champion in her freshman year while being selected to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.

Later, Brink collected two Pac-12 Player of the Year awards: one as a sophomore and one as a senior. The six-foot-four senior has also picked up three Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year awards during her time on the Farm. Nearing the end of her senior season and approaching the NCAA Tournament, Brink said, “Although I am excited for the next chapter, we still have unfinished business and so much to accomplish in my final season at Stanford,” in her social media announcement.

Multiple mock drafts project that Brink will be selected second overall in the WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks, where she will replace Stanford alum Nneka Ogwumike ‘12, who recently signed with the Seattle Storm.

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DOJ investigator unveils Stanford’s $1.9 million settlement deal https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/08/doj-investigator-unveils-stanfords-two-million-settlement/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/08/doj-investigator-unveils-stanfords-two-million-settlement/#respond Fri, 08 Mar 2024 08:54:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244264 Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Corcoran, a lead DOJ investigator of the case against Stanford, provided extensive details in an interview with The Daily. Faculty members shared concerns about racial profiling and anti-China sentiment under government policies.

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A Department of Education report on foreign funding at universities sparked a three-year Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into Stanford that, last fall, culminated in a nearly $2 million settlement deal.

Interviews with lead DOJ investigator Thomas Corcoran, faculty members and University officials unpacked the investigation into the University’s alleged failure to disclose foreign support from countries such as Australia, China, Israel and Japan in federal research grant proposals.

The settlement came amid government officials’ growing unease over foreign influence in federal research, particularly from China. On the opposing side, academics and civil rights organizations have argued that strict federal rules inhibit academic freedom and international cooperation.

Several professors criticized the University in October for its decision to settle, telling The Daily it created a wrongful appearance of misconduct and could unfairly damage their reputations. Others expressed confusion. 

“Stanford continuously updates our policies and designs systems to support disclosure by research personnel on sponsored research grants,” wrote University spokesperson Dee Mostofi to The Daily. “We and other research universities strive to be good partners with federal agencies to comply with evolving federal rules and practices, and to respond to any concern when it is raised.”

In recent months, University officials have launched several initiatives aimed at strengthening compliance with government rules while protecting academic freedom.

Inside the DOJ investigation

A 2020 report from the Department of Education triggered the three-year investigation into Stanford. The Department of Education raised concerns that Stanford and other universities had fallen short of requirements to report foreign contracts and gifts over $250,000 under Section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

In response, Corcoran, an assistant United States attorney who co-led the investigation, said the DOJ issued a subpoena to Stanford in 2020 requesting information about gifts, funding and research support from foreign sources between 2015 and 2020. The DOJ then cross-referenced this information with federal research awards to the University.

“That’s where we found the problems,” Corcoran said, alleging that Stanford’s failure to disclose additional “current or pending foreign support” for research violated federal requirements.

Corcoran declined to name other universities where the DOJ identified similar failures. “There are others. Let’s just leave it at that,” he said.

Referring to grants awarded to Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science, Corcoran alleged the concealment of foreign funding that made Zare “overcommitted.” He said this problem went beyond the other professors’ alleged disclosure failures because Zare had dedicated more time than was allowed to different projects.

Zare did not respond to a request for comment.

“[Zare’s case] was different,” said Corcoran. “He didn’t tell the truth to the federal agencies that he was already [over]committed on everything else that he was doing, so he had no time to do work on the federal awards.”

Corcoran highlighted Zare’s affiliation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Fudan University, saying he failed to disclose ties to both institutions on grant proposals. Corcoran also claimed that Zare omitted support from entities in other countries, including Israel, Japan and Australia.

For Corcoran, Zare’s alleged omissions were compelling. He described speaking with another researcher at a different university who lost out on the NSF funding that Zare received.

“He was very upset,” Corcoran said. “If you play by the rules and you lose it, [while] someone doesn’t play by the rules and they get it, that bothers me.” Corcoran declined to share the researcher’s identity.

Nonetheless, the DOJ brought its claims against the University rather than individuals. Corcoran stressed that his goal was for universities to “clean up,” not to punish professors for errors. The agreement between Stanford and the DOJ made no determination of liability.

“The case was about the failures of the university, the Office of Sponsored Research, to have systems in place to make sure they were catching everything that these professors were doing time-wise and support-wise, and to make sure that it was properly disclosed,” he said.

The negotiating table

In conversations with the DOJ, the University successfully argued that many federal grant proposals in question complied with government rules, Corcoran said. This narrowed the DOJ’s case down to 23 grants that assisted 12 professors.

The University claimed that it was unaware of reporting requirements for industry funding, Corcoran said. Faculty members echoed this point, including one professor who shared a communication in which a manager at a Stanford research office suggested that the office did not consider it a requirement to disclose industry gifts at the time.

In Corcoran’s view, however, federal regulations were unambiguous. He added that the DOJ took issue with such gifts because they “had very detailed research components” attached to them, potentially overcommitting professors’ time at the expense of federal research.

In response to the allegations, the University pursued a settlement rather than attempt to defend itself in court. Kam Moler, who served as Vice Provost and Dean of Research at the time, wrote to The Daily that this decision best supported research.

Moler wrote that she and others recommended the settlement to the president and provost. “I supported settling because it was the best path to move forward on all of the federally funded research being done by the professors and their students,” Moler wrote.

Moler also wrote that she participated in one meeting with the DOJ about the settlement.

Although the federal awards that Stanford professors received totaled far more, the agreed-upon figure of $1.9 million represented $1.3 million of Stanford professors’ time, salary, fringe and indirect costs that were charged to the award, plus a $600,000 penalty. The parties signed the settlement on Sep. 28 and 29.

The fallout

Stanford’s settlement with the DOJ attracted national attention, creating waves on campus among faculty members concerned about reputational damage. Many professors involved in the case were surprised to see the press release publicly list their specific grant numbers. Some said the University had told them the grant numbers would be kept private.

Mostofi wrote that “Stanford was not informed of and had no control over the DOJ’s decision to disclose the individual award numbers as part of the government’s press release.” 

Corcoran disputed this.

“The lawyer for the University definitely knew those awards, by number, were going to be attachments,” he said. “Whether that trickled down to the University, and whether that trickled down to the actual professors, I don’t know the answer.” 

The University did not respond to a question about the accuracy of Corcoran’s statement.

Corcoran said it was necessary to publicize the specific grant numbers to narrowly define the claims being released by the settlement, compared with thousands that “could still be subject to scrutiny,” he said.

Corcoran added that the DOJ did not intend to identify specific professors. “I didn’t realize people could Google it and figure it out pretty quickly,” he said.

Corcoran dismissed professors’ concerns that the settlement created a false appearance of misconduct, saying “I don’t know if I feel that badly for them.”

He said he thought Stanford professors would still apply for both foreign and federal awards, and likely still receive them. “If they really are as smart as they think they are … they’ll continue to get awards,” he said. “Aren’t these the brightest people in the world?”

China and foreign influence fears

In recent years, Congress and federal departments have taken a vigorous approach to combating foreign influence in academic research. In 2018, the DOJ launched the China Initiative, a law enforcement effort that focused on prosecuting espionage carried out by alleged Chinese agents at U.S. universities. Critics argued that the initiative undermined research and promoted racial bias against Asian American academics.

The DOJ shut down the China Initiative in 2022.

Although she did not comment specifically on the settlement, chemical engineering professor Zhenan Bao told The Daily that in the current landscape, “there’s no doubt Chinese Americans are being more targeted, and more Chinese researchers in the U.S. have been charged, also wrongly charged.”

Bao said she follows the rules to the best of her ability, but the government’s policies created anxiety: “I feel ‘what if I missed something?’ Then would I be put in jail or something? It’s not a good feeling to have.”

Two physics professors, Steven Kivelson and Peter Michelson, echoed Bao’s criticism of government policies, including the China Initiative.

Kivelson refrained from labeling the Stanford-DOJ settlement as an example of racial profiling, saying he did not have enough information to comment. “There’s a huge research enterprise” in China, he said. “I don’t want to draw a line from that to racial profiling.”

Corcoran stressed that his investigation “had nothing to do with” the China Initiative and did not represent a continuation of the DOJ’s strategy. In a departure from the China Initiative, the DOJ took a civil rather than criminal approach to the case, bringing its charges under the False Claims Act.

When asked whether he believed Asian American academics had reason to fear legal action from the government, Corcoran said, “I am just a civil attorney here at the DOJ in the District of Maryland.” 

“Nobody has anything to fear from me with regard to targeting Asians at all. None whatsoever,” he added.

Corocoran added that exclusively naming Chinese affiliations in the settlement announcement was not political, and that researchers also had affiliations with other countries. “I probably should have named the countries just to make sure everybody was aware,” he said. “I’d never even thought about it.” 

Bao said that while Stanford’s research offices were “trying very hard” to support faculty with grant applications, rapidly changing federal rules made this more challenging. “The biggest concern I have is, the policy itself is not very clear,” she said.

Kivelson said he had no background knowledge on the settlement, but expressed disappointment in the University’s decision. “If there was actual malfeasance, then someone should do something about that,” he said. “But if not, I would have preferred that Stanford would have contested it.”

The three professors shared concerns that government policies could have a chilling effect on international cooperation, with significant costs to innovation. According to Bao, researchers at other universities have faced penalties or professional consequences when collaborating with foreign countries. Speaking personally, Bao said she now had to gain approval from federal agencies to deliver research talks in China, even online.

Kivelson described government restrictions on international cooperation as “self-destructive.” He said that scientific research disproportionately relied on foreign nationals and, increasingly, exchange with China. “If we cut off exchange with China, we cut off access to all of this knowledge,” he said.

Michelson worried that government policies could erode the University’s research principles of openness and nondiscrimination. “The suspicion around students of Chinese origin does not create an inclusive community,” he said.

Amid growing tensions between China and the U.S., Kivelson added that informal communication between scientists could be vital, drawing a comparison to the Cold War. “A lot of people think they are defending this country trying to cut off China, and I think they’re selling our country short.”

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Ph.D. student testifies before Congress on antisemitism at Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/07/ph-d-student-testifies-before-congress-on-antisemitism-at-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/07/ph-d-student-testifies-before-congress-on-antisemitism-at-stanford/#respond Thu, 07 Mar 2024 09:57:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244233 Ph.D. student Kevin Feigelis urged Congress to investigate antisemitism on the Stanford campus last Thursday. Feigelis addressed the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, whose December hearing led to high-profile resignations at other universities.

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Kevin Feigelis, a seventh-year physics Ph.D. student at Stanford and an organizer involved with the Blue and White Tent, urged Congress to investigate campus antisemitism at a bipartisan roundtable hosted by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last Thursday.

“I’ve watched my campus transform from an idyllic paradise — a center of learning — into a wasteland of hatred where every interaction is a minefield,” he said in his opening remarks to the committee.

Feigelis’s comments came amid mounting congressional scrutiny around antisemitism on college campuses. After a December hearing that featured University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, Harvard president Claudine Gay ’92 and MIT president Sally Kornbluth, the committee launched a probe into the three universities. Facing backlash to their testimony, Magill and Gay resigned from their posts in December and January.

Feigelis made a direct appeal to Congress in his remarks. “It doesn’t end simply because the presidents are replaced,” he said. “Systemic change is needed. The universities have proven they have no intention of fixing this themselves. It must be you. And it must be now.”

The committee subpoenaed Harvard last month, pursuing evidence that the University had mishandled its response to antisemitism. To comply, Harvard turned over 1500 pages of documents to Congress on Monday. Committee chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx has suggested that more universities could face similar document requests.

Nine Jewish students participated in the discussion, sharing perspectives on antisemitism at institutions across the country including Columbia, Harvard and U.C. Berkeley in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

According to Feigelis, Foxx’s office invited Feigelis to speak as “one of the most vocal students in the nation leading the fight against antisemitism on college campuses.”

“They have a particular interest in the Stanford case,” Feigelis wrote to The Daily.

Foxx stressed that the roundtable was “not about policing speech or opinions, even if disagreeable or offensive.”

“It is about protecting Jewish students from the harassment, threats, intimidation and assaults plaguing their campuses, as universities are obligated to under Title VI but have repeatedly failed to do. That failure is unacceptable,” she said.

Feigelis’s testimony echoed Foxx and called on Congress to intervene where universities failed to protect Jewish students.

“Please step in and help us,” Feigelis told the committee. “Please hold our universities accountable. Please investigate the root causes of antisemitism in our colleges.”

***

In his written testimony, Feigelis alleged numerous incidents of antisemitism at Stanford, detailing actions by specific students and faculty.

Feigelis recounted an experience while at the Blue and White Tent one November night, when a student walking towards him “became openly hostile, violent and aggressive” and called him “disgusting.”

“He called me a monster and all of ‘my people’ monsters,” Feigelis wrote. “He looked at his shoes and commented how white his shoes are, then said, ‘Your face is dirtier than my shoes.’”

Feigelis reported the incident to the University and claimed there was “zero disciplinary action” taken against the student.

Feigelis also raised the vandalism of President Richard Saller’s home on Jan. 24, alleging a connection to Saller’s appearance at that evening’s public discussion titled “Combating Antisemitism at Stanford.” Protestors, who described themselves as anti-Zionist, disrupted the panel, which featured Saller, Provost Jenny Martinez and Feigelis.

University spokesperson Dee Mostofi wrote in an email to The Daily that there is no information on the vandalism or its motivations.

Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bill Larson declined to confirm the details of the incident, writing that “victim information is confidential.”

***

Feigelis called on formal investigation and legal repercussion for universities that allowed antisemitism to spread unchecked in a statement to The Daily. “For five months now, both the students and the universities have acted without consequence. That time is drawing to an end.”

According to Feigelis, Stanford was intimidated by mob tactics. He criticized the University’s refusal to enforce its code of conduct or even the law.

Feigelis cited an example of disruptions to classes by protestors in January, including during “Global Strike Week.” The primary organizer “has not been disciplined, despite classroom disruptions being explicitly against the code of conduct,” Feigelis wrote in his testimony.

A public University statement on the roundtable noted “disruptions of university events have led to citations by law enforcement and referral to university disciplinary processes,” referring to a pro-Palestine protest that disrupted the Family Weekend welcome session. 18 protestors were cited for misdemeanors and could face disciplinary action for interrupting the school event.

“Any classroom disruption is a violation of the university’s Campus Disruption Policy and is subject to disciplinary action through the Office of Community Standards,” Mostofi wrote in response to Feigelis’s claims about poor enforcement.

Feigelis also criticized pro-Palestine student protestors, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and comparative literature professor David Palumbo-Liu in his written testimony.

He further criticized Hillel campus branches across the country for disengagement with Israel.

According to Feigelis, in what he characterized as extreme cases, some campus Hillels are known to support or fund anti-Israel activities by organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and JStreet.

This has led Jewish students to feel “that their Hillel is seemingly more sympathetic to anti-Israel students,” Feigelis wrote.

Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, the executive director of Hillel at Stanford, said they do not support or platform any anti-Israel programs or organizations.

According to Kirschner, all Hillel branches closely follow the national chapter’s Israel Guidelines, meaning that they do not support “events or organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace that demonize, delegitimize, or apply a double-standard to Israel.”

Organizers with Stanford Jewish Voice for Peace did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

***

Beyond students organizations, Feigelis also criticized faculty responses to the Israel-Gaza war. Specifically, Feigelis characterized Palumbo-Liu and Ameer Loggins, a former instructor of COLLEGE 101 who was suspended following reports of identity-based targeting as “Stanford’s most racist faculty members.”

The testimony included a screenshot of a Facebook post by Palumbo-Liu which read, “When Zionists say they don’t feel ‘safe’ on campus I’ve come to see that as they no longer feel immune to criticism of Israel. Which has gained tremendously in amplitude and shows no sign of lessening. Well as the saying goes, get used to it.”

In response to the post, Feigelis said it was inappropriate for a professor to minimize student safety concerns. “Should any professor be allowed to celebrate the lack of safety of any student, regardless of how that student identifies?”

Palumbo-Liu responded to Feigelis’s claims in an email to The Daily, where he wrote that he does not celebrate any student’s lack of safety.

“My comment regards a student’s ‘feeling’ of a lack of safety,” he wrote. “I am saying that if one feels ‘safe’ only when unchallenged and, conversely, ‘unsafe’ because more and more people … are vociferously criticizing Israel’s actions, then one might have to become accustomed to being uncomfortable.”

***

Lee Rosenthal ’25, a former president of Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), said Feigelis’s testimony raised “troubling” issues. While Rosenthal said he hadn’t personally experienced the antisemitic sentiments that Feigelis testified about, many Jewish classmates told him about experiences with a “culture of fear and unsafeness.”

Rosenthal said that anti-Zionist sentiment on campus was frequently wrapped up in misunderstandings. According to Rosenthal, most Jewish students are Zionists, but contrary to student perspectives “a lot of students who consider themselves to be Zionists have nuanced views on the actions of the Israeli government.”

“Zionism isn’t the undying support of the Israeli government and all of its actions. It’s just a belief that the Jewish people have a right to exist in the land of Israel,” Rosenthal said.

The congressional roundtable resonated with other members of Stanford’s Jewish community.

Kirschner commended Feigelis and the other Jewish students who testified “for their courage to speak out and share their stories at a time when the country and world needs to hear them.”

Antisemitism at Stanford and other universities presented “a fundamental threat” to the Jewish community, Kirschner wrote. “Too many students are afraid to express their Jewish identity for fear of harassment and antisemitism,” she wrote.

Students also expressed support for the roundtable participants.

Jewish Student Association (JSA) co-president Kelly Danielpour ’25 expressed that while JSA was “not involved in the recent testimonies to Congress, the nine students who went to D.C. showed incredible courage in telling their stories.”

Both Kirschner and Danielpour agreed that while University efforts to address antisemitism were a step in the right direction, more work was necessary. Recommendations from the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias and implementation will test “the University’s dedication to creating safe and accessible learning and living spaces for Jewish students, and all students,” Kirschner wrote.

This article has been updated to more accurately reflect Rosenthal’s quotes.

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‘A dangerous path’: Indonesian students express concern about recent election https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/05/a-dangerous-path-indonesian-students-express-concern-about-upcoming-election/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/05/a-dangerous-path-indonesian-students-express-concern-about-upcoming-election/#respond Tue, 05 Mar 2024 09:38:44 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1244061 Prabowo Subianto - who has faced accusations of human rights abuse - is the projected winner of Indonesia’s presidential election. Some of Stanford’s Indonesian students worry about what the election’s outcome means for the young democracy.

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A former military general accused of human rights violations is projected to become Indonesia’s next president in the country’s fifth-ever democratic election. Several Indonesian students at Stanford expressed concerns about what this means for the country’s future, but some urged optimism.

Prabowo Subianto, the projected winner with 58% of the vote based on preliminary polling, will replace current President Joko Widodo as leader of the fourth most populous country in the world. Widodo will leave office in October after serving the nation’s two-term limit, with an 80% approval rating from the Indonesian public thanks to policies that people believe paved a path toward steady economic growth.

Though the nation’s current president gave a de facto endorsement of Subianto, who serves as his defense minister, the projected winner’s campaign is tainted by his human rights record. He faces accusations of abuses against pro-democracy activists, with some experts fearing his election would signal the “death of democracy” in Indonesia. 

Indonesian Stanford students traveled to the Indonesian consulate in San Francisco in early February to cast their ballots, joining a queue of eager voters wrapped around the building. Norman Joshua, an Indonesian postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Asia-Pacific Research Center, expressed appreciation for the country’s direct democratic procedure, while admitting he is “worried” about the expected results. 

“Let’s say the election was fair and square, everything is good,” Joshua said. “But… [Prabowo] is still a symbol of the former New Order, [Suharto’s] authoritarian regime. And honestly, as a historian, I just cannot ignore that.”

Like Joshua, Mansur Areif, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab, could not ignore the past, including a candidate’s own historical policies. “I’m trying to look at the track record,” Arief said. “If any of the candidates has corruption history, or something even tangential that leads to corruption, that will affect how I vote.”

In Indonesia, fear of acts of corruption like vote-buying, in which political party workers pay citizens to vote for a certain candidate, looms large. 92% of Indonesians surveyed in 2020 think government corruption is a big problem in the country, according to the Global Corruption Barometer.

“It’s very hard to uproot something that’s already ingrained, already in tradition,” Joshua said about corruption.

Hanif Sulaiman, an Indonesian Ph.D. student in earth system sciences said the country is on “a dangerous path.”

“Threats to [Indonesia’s] democracy…are both, almost equally, represented in both the President and Vice President-to-be,” Sulaiman said.

Subianto’s chosen vice-presidential running mate is 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the son of current president Widodo. Some see his vice presidential candidacy as the manipulation of the law and the beginning of a family dynasty.

For Raka to be deemed eligible to run, the country’s Constitutional Court had to intervene. In October, a 5-4 vote by the court allowed candidates younger than 40 to run for either president or vice president if they have previously been elected into an office, bypassing the constitution’s original threshold of 40. 

Promptly after, Subianto’s party championed Raka as the vice presidential candidate.

The deciding vote was casted by the now-ousted chief justice and Raka’s uncle Anwar Usman, who was removed from the court by an ethics panel shortly after the ruling. Regardless, the ruling still stands, allowing Raka to run alongside Subianto, boosting campaign support among his father’s former voter base.

“We have democracy, our law works, good governance works, but then the problem is the ethics,” Joshua said. “Putting your kid as vice president, and then changing all the things around it to enable that … it’s still unethical.”

However, former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Scot Marciel doubted Subianto’s ability “to take Indonesia off of its democratic course.”

“I don’t see him as having this level of popularity that would allow him to just run roughshod over laws,” Marciel said. “I would expect it would be a pretty strong public reaction if he tried.”

Despite overarching concerns on democracy, most remain optimistic on Indonesia’s future, crediting their growth despite still recovering from colonialism and dictatorship.

“Independent media and the public at large really has… [kept] the pressure on for democracy, transparency, [and] anti-corruption efforts,” Marciel said. While there are some signs of backsliding, like in many other countries, Marciel said “the strong role of civil society and political activists and just ordinary voters is really heartening.”

With results bound to hold reverberations around the world, students said the Indonesian election’s outcome will be key for the young democracy: “The world has no other choice but to pay attention to it,” Sulaiman said.

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Far from family: Some international students miss out on Family Weekend https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/03/far-from-family-some-international-students-miss-out-on-family-weekend/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/03/03/far-from-family-some-international-students-miss-out-on-family-weekend/#respond Mon, 04 Mar 2024 07:54:58 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1243952 Approximately 5,500 Stanford parents came to campus last weekend for the University’s 2024 Family Weekend. But, given flight times and expenses, most international students’ parents were unable to attend. 

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Approximately 5,500 Stanford parents came to campus last weekend for the University’s 2024 Family Weekend. Amidst a packed schedule including events like Q&A sessions with the President and Provost and dining hall lunches, many students were able to provide their families with a look into their lives at Stanford. 

But, given flight times and expenses, most international students’ parents were unable to attend. 

As a student from the San Francisco Area, Brigette Mahoney ’27 was able to show her family around.

“I’ve worked so hard this entire year, and I was able to showcase that to my parents. It was very nice to see them so happy because I’m so happy here and I’m starting to find my place,” Mahoney said.

For many international students, whose parents could not attend, the weekend was a bittersweet reminder of their distance from home. Many of these sentiments were expressed on Fizz, an anonymous social media platform.  

One post, with over 1500 upvotes, read “[Shoutout] To all the international kids whose parents aren’t able to come for family weekend (myself included) 🥲.” 

For Zaydan Kabir Amanullah ’27, whose family lives in Bangladesh, the weekend was “enjoyable but saddening.” 

“There were no events for international students on campus because most of our parents did not come for the weekend,” Amanullah said

There were positives to the weekend, like “beautiful weather” and extra good dining hall food, according to Mariana Gonzalez ’27, a Venezuelan international student from Mexico.

But even sunny skies and fresh produce couldn’t replace sharing her Stanford experience and community with family. 

“ I wish that I could have spent the weekend with the people because of [whom] I am here today,” Gonzalez said. She spoke of the events that she wished she could have attended with her parents, such as a “Latino barbecue” that drew a lot of parents and students. 

Some international students, whose parents were unable to make it to the weekend, still partook in activities. 

“Some of the parents also invite international students to hang out together, grab brunch or dinner, which is a good thing,” said Petch Ounjaroen ’27, an international student from Thailand. Gonzalez said she spent the weekend with other international students.

Charlene Gage, a University spokesperson, wrote to The Daily that “Family Weekend has historically taken place in late February taking into consideration the academic and events calendar, to allow for more participation for students and families alike.” 

However, many international students suggested moving Family Weekend closer to spring break or having more activities specifically geared towards international students during the event. 

Gage also explained the University did make efforts to make some Family Weekend events inclusive. 

“For those who are not able to join in person, a live stream of the welcome event was available on the Family Weekend website and several sessions were recorded. All students are invited to the Weekend’s closing event, the Cardinal Student Showcase and the experience is always evolving to be more inclusive of the needs of our community,” Gage said. 

However, many international students are still unsatisfied.  

“[There should be] more events geared towards international students and getting them together on campus that celebrate our cultural diversity, Amanullah said.” 

Stanford provides mental health and well-being support for international students. The Bechtel International Center for international students recently introduced the SIB mentorship program for international students, where upperclassmen mentor the incoming freshman class.

For Amanullah, more could be done. “We should get more resources allocated to our well-being, an international support system more effective than SIB,” Amanullah said. Gonzalez said, “I think that they could have organized an event with all the parents of the international students. Create a community.”

For many international students’ parents, obtaining a visa is an added barrier in visiting their children. Another was the expense associated with the trip to and from Stanford.

The University wrote to The Daily, “The Stanford Opportunity Fund offers support for some expenses associated with the weekend.”

However, because financial aid is limited by factors like citizenship, many international students cannot take advantage of it. 

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Pro-Palestine students interrupt Family Weekend welcome session https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/24/pro-palestine-protest-family-weekend/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/24/pro-palestine-protest-family-weekend/#respond Sat, 24 Feb 2024 08:09:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1243353 18 students were escorted out by security at the Family Weekend event and cited with misdemeanors.

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Pro-Palestine protestors from the Sit-In to Stop Genocide disrupted President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez’s in Memorial Auditorium today at a welcome session, which commenced Family Weekend events. 

The protestors were escorted out by security and cited for misdemeanors. Martinez said they would also face disciplinary action.

Throughout the panel, protesters stood, shouted and chanted at the panelists. Around 45 minutes into the session, protestors unfurled two banners directly next to the stage and threw slips of paper from the balcony reading “29,000+ Gazans killed,” “Israel bombs, Stanford profits” and “Stanford uses scare tactics on your kids.” 

Protestors disrupted Saller and Martinez with chants like “Palestinian blood is on your hands,” “Free Palestine” and “Up with liberation, down with occupation.” One protestor told the audience her father was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. 

Pro-Palestine students unfurl a banner that reads "Stanford funds apartheid and genocide" next to a stage with administrators.
Student protestors unfurl a banner reading “Stanford funds apartheid and genocide” beside the stage. (Courtesy of Steve Gu)

The protesters were escorted out of the auditorium, some forcibly, by staff and security. They were met outside by the Santa Clara Sheriff’s office, who detained and cited 18 protestors with misdemeanors for interrupting a school event. According to the protestors, they were given April court appearance dates. Cited protestors gathered in front of the auditorium with their banners and continued chanting. 

A sheriff stands next to a student with a Palestine flag wrapped around them.
(Photo: CAYDEN GU/The Stanford Daily)

In addition to Saller and Martinez, the panel included lead administrators like Humanities & Sciences Dean Debra Satz, Lanier Anderson and Samuel Santos, interim vice provost for undergraduate education and associate vice provost for inclusion, community and integrative learning respectively. 

Audience members began booing protestors as the disruptions continued. Many parents shouted back at the protesters, calling them disrespectful.

One parent in the front row stood and faced the audience, asking protestors to stop: “We traveled to learn about programs for our children. To all the students still in the room, we hear you, we care, we care about your pain. Please make an appointment with your administrators.” Resounding applause filled the auditorium.

Katie Eder ’24, a protestor and sit-in representative, said they protested at the event “to vocalize the demands of the student body: for Stanford administration to address their ongoing role in enabling the genocide in Gaza.” 

Other demands include divesting from and boycotting entities and companies “complicit in Israeli war crimes, apartheid, and genocide,” issuing a statement that calls for a ceasefire, providing resources to Palestinian diaspora, Arab and Muslim students, identifying and addressing educational biases against Palestinian and Arab issues and creating five student seats on the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility. 

The sit-in was disassembled last week after 120 days, making it the longest student sit-in in University history. It was removed by the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) and UG2 service workers, following two negotiation meetings between student representatives and Saller and Martinez. 

Following these meetings, Saller agreed to “raise the issue” to the Board of Trustees of investment transparency, divestment from weapons manufacturers and military contractors and the addition of student seats to the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility. 

Sit-in organizers said Saller and Martinez also agreed to “deliberate about coordinating with Palestinian students to release a statement about their experiences over the past four months.” 

The University has yet to release a statement about the negotiations.

“We made it very clear to President Saller and Provost Martinez during their negotiation process with the Sit-In to Stop Genocide that if they were not going to negotiate in good faith with our demands, then we’re going to escalate in our call for the demands. That’s exactly what we have done today,” Eder said. 

At the Friday event, administrators and audience members implored protestors to be respectful and engage in civil discourse. Some sit-in organizers expressed frustration at the request. 

“We had a place where we were having discourse every single day at the Sit-In to Stop Genocide and the administration chose to shut that down in the name of ‘our safety,’” Eder said. 

She criticized the sit-in’s removal ahead of family weekend: “They should have expected this.”

Some parents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, expressed sympathy for the protestors.

One criticized the response from Martinez and other administrators. “I was upset at the way the administration treated the protesting,” they said. “I feel like the students have a right to voice their concerns.”

Another parent in the audience agreed: “University is a place for disagreement. If the students are protesting, that means that the leadership has not listened to various points of view.” 

If the University does not create space for discourse, “disruptions will happen all day long and they should,” they said.

However, many parents seemed averse to the protestors. Some booed, and several applauded administrators’ response. 

Nikhil Chanani, a parent who attended, said “this is an extraordinarily challenging time for University administrators, and I applaud them for their efforts.” 

Other parent attendees said they encouraged free speech and student activism, but not during the parent weekend welcome session.

Arjun Marwha, a student’s family member, said people who wanted to vocalize an opinion to attendees should have done so outside. “It disrupts the 99% of people who were in there just purely trying to listen,” he said.

Eder acknowledged that parents expressed frustration with protestors, but responded that “the reality is we wouldn’t have been inside if not for Stanford’s role in investing in and enabling the genocide that’s happening in Gaza.” 

Sit-in representatives said they intend to advocate throughout Family Weekend. They planned a protest outside Bishop Auditorium at noon on Saturday and Palestinian banners hang in dorm windows, some passed out by sit-in members earlier this week. 

Pro-Palestine students interrupt Family Weekend welcome session
(Photo: JONATHAN SANCHEZ/The Stanford Daily)

Friday afternoon, sit-in members organized a “die-in” in White Plaza next to the bookstore. A symbolic protest to mourn civilians killed in Gaza, demonstrators read names of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Gaza war.

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A latté of love for ‘Love, On Call’ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/20/a-latte-of-love-for-love-on-call/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/20/a-latte-of-love-for-love-on-call/#respond Wed, 21 Feb 2024 07:12:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1243039 The student-run late night café put on a Valentine's themed pop-up at its new location last week, in anticipation of the café's permanent opening in the spring.

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Last Monday and Tuesday night, student-run On Call Café hosted its second pop-up series of the school year. The series, named “Love, On Call” in honor of Valentine’s Day, brought 1,295 students into the café’s new, soon-to-be permanent location on the first floor of Old Union. 

Starting Wednesday, the café will be open serving hot drinks on Monday and Wednesday nights through the end of winter quarter. According to On Call director Peyton Klein ’25, the team hopes to begin full operations at the beginning of spring quarter, meaning the café will be open four nights a week and serve food in addition to drinks. 

Framed as an open love letter to the Stanford community, “Love, On Call” highlighted unique elements of Stanford student life with menu items such as the “12 Units,” the “Full Moon” and the “Week One.” The suggested donations ranged from $3 to $4 for drinks and $5 to $6 for toasts. 

The line was long, with some students waiting over 20 minutes. On Call staff members handed out sample cookies to students in line and asked trivia questions about the café.

“Selfishly, I hope to see fewer people,” Ph.D. candidate David Zhang said jokingly about attending future On Call events. “But, given how good the food is, I doubt that’ll be the case.”

When Meimei Liu ’27 arrived at On Call’s previous pop-up in fall quarter, the café had run out of food. At “Love, On Call,” she was able to try one of the toasts and a drink, both of which she said she enjoyed.

For the past few weeks, students have noticed a growing collection of eclectic paintings and wall decorations in Old Union in advance of the café’s opening.

“I was doing work in this area while they were setting stuff up,” said Kaylee Chan ’27, who attended Monday’s pop-up event. “I saw them put up all the pictures, and it was exciting. They really came through with everything and it looks great.”

Zhang was similarly impressed with the ambiance. “I’m amazed at what they’ve done with the space,” Zhang said. “The string lights, the portraits — it’s really something.”

“I feel warm,” Liu said, calling On Call a “place to chill” in contrast to Late Night at Lakeside, where students are often found working.

In early December, following the original pop-up at the Haas Center, the Undergraduate Senate granted On Call ASSU Service Organization status. As a Service Organization, On Call has been able to secure funding from the University provost and president.

According to Klein, the café plans on charging for their toasts and drinks when they open permanently, instead of the current suggested donations. Student employees, who previously worked as volunteers, will now be paid. Klein said the suggested donations on the recent pop-up menu reflect the pricing that the team is considering for next quarter.

“We want to make sure that we pay [our employees] fair wages, cover the cost of food and make this sustainable,” said Klein.

While On Call’s status as a permanent café will make it somewhat different, the team hopes to retain a sense of spontaneity by collaborating with other student groups and hosting events.

“It’s not going to be the same adrenaline rush and energy of a two night pop-up, but there are other benefits,” Klein said. “It’ll be less like going to an amusement park and more like coming home.”

“I really like the idea of working at a cozy cafe,” Chan said. “I really hope they can provide that space for people to just hang out and vibe.”

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University removes pro-Palestine sit-in following negotiations https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/20/university-removes-pro-palestine-sit-in-following-negotiations/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/20/university-removes-pro-palestine-sit-in-following-negotiations/#respond Tue, 20 Feb 2024 11:31:50 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242965 The University removed the sit-in's tents and student belongings following two negotiation sessions, where they committed to consider several demands.

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The University removed the physical structures that comprised the pro-Palestine Sit-in to Stop Genocide early Saturday morning, while no participants or organizers were present at the sit-in. This removal, carried out by UG2 service workers and Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) officers, followed a week-long reprieve period.

Amid the reprieve, University administrators met with sit-in organizers for two negotiation sessions. The University agreed to four commitments demanded by the sit-in.

Sit-in participants agreed to dismantle tents and other physical structures before 8 p.m. on Friday, per agreements with the University to cease overnight camping following the two negotiation sessions. 

Due to a reported shooting threat on Friday afternoon, sit-in members requested that the University allow them to collect belongings and dismantle tents Saturday morning. The University reaffirmed the 8 p.m. removal deadline, according to email correspondence obtained by The Daily. 

According to sit-in members, University administrators agreed on a phone call that workers would not be sent until late Saturday morning or afternoon. 

Between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Saturday, service workers took down tents and removed the sit-in’s belongings. Several sit-in participants criticized the decision to remove belongings while students were away.

“The sit-in has become something really large, something really important to a lot of people’s lives, so for it to be taken down so unceremoniously, with several very serious miscommunications, was really sad,” said sit-in participant Tobi Bankole ’24. 

The Sit-in to Stop Genocide raised five demands to the University: divesting from and boycotting entities and companies “complicit in Israeli war crimes, apartheid, and genocide,” calling for a ceasefire in a University statement, providing resources to Palestinian diaspora, Arab and Muslim students, identifying and addressing educational biases against Palestinian and Arab issues and creating five student seats on the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility. 

Following a Nov. 13 announcement that two new university committees would provide recommendations on ways to raise awareness about and mitigate Islamophobia and antisemitism on campus, the sit-in advocated for divestment and other ways for the University to support Palestinian thought and representation. According to organizers, this included an Arab Studies track within the Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity program.

Following two negotiation meetings on Feb. 14 and 16, sit-in organizers told The Daily that President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez agreed to “deliberate about coordinating with Palestinian students to release a statement about their experiences over the past four months.”

According to organizers, Saller agreed to raise concerns around investments to the Board of Trustees, specifically investment transparency, divestment from weapons manufacturers and military contractors and student representation on the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility. 

Sit-in organizers expressed reserved optimism in a statement to The Daily: “While these commitments are a far cry from what is necessary for Stanford to address its institutional complicity in Israel’s crimes of apartheid and genocide, they nevertheless represent another step forward,” they wrote.

Some organizers criticized that demands were not addressed until the sit-in demonstrated. Alisha Service ’26 wrote that administrators were only willing to make commitments on demands tied to support for students. Some examples included accommodations for Palestinian students and a committee focused on discrimination against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students, Service wrote.

“Those are not difficult demands. They should have existed prior to Oct. 20, when we started our protest,” Service wrote.

Sit-in organizers questioned the decision to remove belongings early Saturday morning, especially as participants’ belongings are now held by SUDPS.

The University wrote that students could reclaim property “during normal business hours next week,” in a Feb. 17 update.

Sit-in participants plan to continue demonstrations within the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. time approved by the University. On Saturday night, the sit-in held a vigil to support Palestine, which was planned before tents were removed.

While it was sad to see the tents removed, participants said they were committed to the sit-in’s cause: “At the heart of it is the people who we are here for, who we are standing for at the end of the day — Palestinians on campus, in Gaza, and all around the world,” Bankole said.

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Shooting threat reported at Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/16/shooting-threat-reported-at-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/16/shooting-threat-reported-at-stanford/#respond Fri, 16 Feb 2024 22:02:10 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242837 Some academic departments and student groups canceled events and closed for the remainder of the day in response to a reported shooting threat in the early afternoon.

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At 12:40 p.m. on Friday, an unidentified person called the non-emergency phone at the Palo Alto Police Department stating that “he was at the entrance to campus and intended to commit a shooting,” according to an AlertSU notification sent out at 1:25 p.m.

The Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) responded immediately to the area and “has been evaluating the veracity of the call,” according to the AlertSU. 

The AlertSU was sent to the Stanford community “[o]ut of an abundance of caution.” Community members were not notified to shelter in place.

SUDPS spokesperson Bill Larson wrote in an email to The Daily that the department continues to “actively patrol the campus for any suspicious activity.” 

Larson advised students to immediately report any suspicious activity to 911. 

The SUDPS has “responded to several locations on campus” and “since conducted additional information,” according to an AlertSU notification sent out at 3:14 p.m. 

The department said they had found “no additional information that lends credibility to the threat of a shooting on campus.”

According to Larson, the SUDPS has “not received any information concerning any additional threats.”

Many Stanford groups are exercising additional caution, with some advising students to stay indoors and report suspicious activity immediately.

Resident Assistants at Toyon advised residents to refrain from letting strangers into the dorm.

An email from ​​the Asian American Activities Center announced that the center was closed for the rest of the day. The Roble Arts Gym is also closed for the day.

The anthropology department locked doors, and the political science department canceled an event scheduled for this afternoon.

At around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, SUDPS responded to reports of gunshot sounds on West Campus. According to Larson, the SUDPS found that the reports were unfounded.

This is a developing story and this article will be updated.

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Pro-Palestine sit-in to end at 120 days with University negotiations https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/14/pro-palestine-sit-in-negotiates/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/14/pro-palestine-sit-in-negotiates/#respond Wed, 14 Feb 2024 10:43:01 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242527 The Sit-In to Stop Genocide will end overnight camping Friday after reaching an agreement with the University Monday night. Administrators will participate in two negotiating meetings this week on the sit-in's demands and refrain from initiating legal or disciplinary proceedings until after Friday.

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The pro-Palestine Sit-In to Stop Genocide will end overnight camping on Friday, Feb. 16 after two negotiation meetings with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez, per an agreement reached with the University Monday night. The University will not initiate legal or disciplinary proceedings against students participating in overnight camping until Friday.

The University issued a mandate last Thursday that the sit-in cease its overnight demonstrations and invited participants to a meeting with Saller and Martinez the following Monday, under conditions that they conclude overnight camping by 8 p.m. that night. Sit-in participants refused to comply and instead called for an “emergency mobilization,” drawing hundreds of demonstrators to White Plaza.

Following a second rally Monday night, University administrators granted a request from sit-in representatives to extend the “reprieve period” until this Friday. Administrators also agreed to participate in two one-hour discussions on the sit-in’s demands by Thursday night, wrote Interim Vice Provost for Student Affairs C. Matthew Snipp in a letter sent to sit-in representatives.

Participants will be granted immunity from legal and disciplinary actions during the one-week negotiation period with University administrators.

Administrators will hear from sit-in representatives on demands for the University: to divest from and boycott Israeli ventures and academic institutions, to issue a statement that condemns Israeli war crimes and calls for a ceasefire and to provide resources to Palestinian diaspora, Arab and Muslim students. 

“Should the President and Provost fail to make significant progress towards our demands, we will mobilize again, as we have done for 117 days without pause,” sit-in representatives wrote. “Our ultimate commitment is not to the physical space of the Sit-In but to the fight for Palestinian liberation.”

Prior to the Monday agreement, administrators had preconditioned negotiations with the understanding that the sit-in would first be disassembled, a requirement that sit-in participant Hana Spahia ’26 said was “contradictory to the very essence of the protest.” 

“We understand and appreciate the passionately held beliefs of students who are engaged in advocacy on White Plaza,” the University wrote in the Stanford Report. “Stanford continues to firmly support the peaceful expression of divergent views by members of our community, and we will continue working to provide for the physical safety and well-being of all members of our community.”

Sit-in representatives saw this agreement as a “token of good faith.”

“This represents a massive concession on our part – far beyond what should be required to simply have a seat at the table,” sit-in representatives wrote in a public statement. “But it is a concession we are willing to make if it puts us on a path towards realizing our demands.”

“We will hold them [Saller and Martinez] accountable to clear and tangible progress,” representatives wrote.

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Hundreds remobilize for pro-Palestine sit-in https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/13/hundreds-remobilize-for-pro-palestine-sit-in/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/13/hundreds-remobilize-for-pro-palestine-sit-in/#respond Tue, 13 Feb 2024 09:13:03 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242430 A second emergency rally occurred Monday night following University calls for the demonstration to cease overnight camping by 8 p.m. or face disciplinary action.  

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The Sit-In to Stop Genocide organized a second emergency rally Monday night, following University demands for the demonstration to cease overnight camping by 8 p.m. or face disciplinary or legal action.  

Last Thursday, the Sit-In to Stop Genocide and two other demonstrations — the Blue and White Tent and the newly-established Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia — were mandated by the University to vacate White Plaza between the hours of 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. due to physical safety concerns.

Both the Blue and White Tent and Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia complied by disassembling their demonstrations Thursday evening, but Sit-In to Stop Genocide organizers expressed a commitment to overnight camping until significant progress has been made toward their demands. 

On Friday, the University invited sit-in participants to a meeting with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez on Monday, as long as they promised to disassemble the sit-in that night at 8 p.m. Sit-in participants requested to extend their “reprieve period” to Friday, Feb. 16 at 8 p.m.

Due to participants’ refusal to cease overnight demonstrations by Monday, the meeting with Saller and Martinez has yet to happen.

“The sit-in has maintained that they are willing to voluntarily end the overnight portion of their activities in exchange for satisfactory progress toward their demands,” said sit-in organizer Hana Spahia ’26. 

The University planned to begin submitting the names of students who fail to comply with its mandate to the Office of Community Standards, according to a second letter sent to the sit-in on Saturday. As of 1 a.m. Monday night, no disciplinary action has been taken and there is no evidence that any students’ names have been submitted. 

Members of the now-disassembled Blue and White Tent also expressed frustration with the University’s lack of policy enforcement. 

“We have been compliant with every order that [the University has] given us because we thought that it was going to be fairly enforced across the board,” said Kevin Feigelis, a seventh-year Ph.D. student in physics and organizer with the Blue and White Tent.

“Instead, we have found that the University never intended to enforce their policies, given those back-channel messages with the sit-in.”

A common thread among participants from multiple demonstrations was frustration with the University’s inconsistent messaging.

Stanford “wants to have people who dissent appropriately, but actually, when people dissent and actually show the reality of the situation [in Gaza] … they’re being targeted, they’re being doxxed,” said a Palestinian protester who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation.

“I am really just disappointed with the administration … by the way in which they’ve been engaging with students and directing them.”

Beside those demonstrating in support of the sit-in, a group of pro-Israel demonstrators wearing and waving Israeli flags gathered in White Plaza. 

David Atri-Schuller, a third-year Ph.D. student, said he showed up to White Plaza to “defend the Jewish state.”

“Most Jews and most Israelis are looking for peace and are looking for a prosperous, thriving Palestinian people,” Atri-Schuller said. “It’s very hard to have that conversation and that nuance when there are massive calls for the destruction of Israel and massive calls for the eradication of the Jewish people from their historic homeland.”

Though Monday’s rally was around half the size of the first emergency mobilization last Thursday, many in attendance said they felt the same sense of urgency.

“The sit-in is hoping that tonight’s turnout will once again demonstrate to the University that this is a cause that students are willing to rally behind. They may try to take down the sit-in, but the fight for Palestinian rights is not over,” Spahia said. “Stanford’s campus will continue to protest … until Stanford meets the sit-in’s demands.”

Participants expressed gratitude for the community they found through the sit-in.

“Regardless of how this ends, I’m really grateful for the sit-in, for the community, for the work we’ve done, the people I’ve met,” said Tobi Bankole ’24, a member of the sit-in. “This has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve done with my time at Stanford.”

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Hundreds defend pro-Palestine sit-in in White Plaza protest https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/09/hundreds-defend-pro-palestine-sit-in/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/09/hundreds-defend-pro-palestine-sit-in/#respond Fri, 09 Feb 2024 10:18:12 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242171 Following a University mandate to vacate White Plaza by 8 p.m. on Thursday, the sit-in organized an “emergency mobilization” that drew several hundred community members. The Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia and the Blue and White Tent were dismantled by organizers around 7:30 p.m., with plans to return tomorrow.

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Around 500 people demonstrated in solidarity with the pro-Palestine Sit-In to Stop Genocide Thursday night, after the University’s Office of Student Engagement (OSE) issued a mandate restricting overnight demonstrations in White Plaza. 

The Blue and White Tent and the Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia disassembled their respective signs and tents, while Sit-In to Stop Genocide remains standing. 

The policy requires demonstrations to cease overnight components “based on concerns for the physical safety of [the] community,” according to a letter delivered to demonstration leaders by Director of Operations and Student Unions Jeanette Smith-Laws. Demonstrations were ordered to vacate White Plaza from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night, effective the same day.

Annabelle Davis ’24, an organizer with the sit-in and Stanford Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), criticized the quick turnaround. “This is just an incredibly bad faith moment on the part of the University to throw this at us with such weak justification, with so little time for discussion,” Davis said. 

The University mandated that “any tents, tables, chairs or other similar items” must be removed from White Plaza or else will be removed by the University “for health and safety reasons.”

Policy violations may be referred to the Office of Community Standards (OCS) and students could be cited with trespassing “for failing to comply with a university directive,” the University wrote in the letter.

Despite the mandate, the sit-in expressed commitment to stay in White Plaza overnight until the University met their demands, including endorsing a ceasefire in Gaza and committing to the boycott, divest and sanction movement.

“The Sit-In to Stop Genocide has been standing continuously in White Plaza — continuously occupied by students for 112 days — through winter break, through Christmas, through New Year’s, through that freak storm that we had” Davis said.

The group called for emergency mobilization Thursday afternoon via social media and email. Other student groups, including the Black Student Union, Students for Justice in Palestine, Fossil Free Stanford and more circulated the email. 

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and other community members assembled in White Plaza around 6:30 p.m. to protect the sit-in from removal at 8 p.m.

Three students stand with intertwined arms to demonstrate with the pro-Palestine sit-in.
Students linking arms encircled the sit-in to demonstrate against its removal. (Photo: CAYDEN GU/The Stanford Daily)

The group grew to about 500 people, chanting and singing protest songs. After a brief rally, the group split up. Some linked arms and surrounded the sit-in, while others remained in adjacent areas in White Plaza.

Community members are showing “support for the physical sit-in and the students who are a part of it, but also for our demands for Palestine, for the people who are being slaughtered in Gaza right now,” Davis said. “Our hope is that the University will see that there’s widespread support and they will rescind that demand.”

Sleeping bags surround the sit-in tents.
Dozens of sleeping bags filled the area behind the sit-in as students stayed overnight to prevent its removal. (Photo: JULIA HERNANDEZ/The Stanford Daily)

According to organizers, this is not the University’s first effort to stop the sit-in. 

Rehman Hassan ’27, a participant of the sit-in for the last three months said, “There’s a couple of people who work for OSE who have been trying to shut us down quite extensively.”

The Daily has reached out to the University and the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) for comment.

A sit-in that assembled this week in a place previously taken by a pro-Israel tent, the Sit-in to Stop Islamophobia, previously wrote in a statement to The Daily that they would only cease the overnight component of their demonstration if the Blue and White Tent did so as well. Both demonstrations disassembled before 8 p.m. Saturday.

Hamza El Boudali ’22 M.S. ’24, an organizer with the Sit-in to Stop Islamophobia, said they intend to return from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow, in compliance with University rules. He said they would do so especially if the Blue and White Tent also returns, to provide a counterpoint “wherever they are spreading Islamophobia and what we believe to be hateful rhetoric.”

The Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia is unaffiliated with the other sit-in and advocates for the University to provide more resources and support for Muslim students, divest from governments “committing or at risk of committing genocide against Muslims” and reinstate suspended COLLEGE lecturer Ameer Loggins, according to organizers. They also criticized media who they accused of reproducing Islamophobia, including The Daily’s opinions section.

The Blue and White Tent also intends to continue its presence on campus, which never involved an overnight component.

“We got this order that everyone has to clear out by 8 p.m. and we’re perfectly happy to comply. Some people are not,” said Blue and White Tent participant Aaron Schimmel Ph.D. ’24. 

Schimmel criticized the sit-in’s refusal to acquiesce to University policies: “I find it a shame that the sit-in is biting the hand that feeds them.”

The Daily has reached out to organizers with the pro-Israel tent for comment.

The corner of White Plaza with the blue and white tent next to another tent.
The Blue and White Tent organizers reassembled a tent and signs that were blown earlier this week. A new sit-in was assembled next to the tent. (Photo: CAYDEN GU/The Stanford Daily)

Many community members unaffiliated with any campus organization also attended Thursday to support the sit-in. The “Raging Grannies,” a local activist group, protested in solidarity with the sit-in. They learned about the demonstration from social media, and wore pins from various progressive causes.

“Grannies are old enough to have the perspective of history,” said Ruth Robertson. “We became Raging Grannies in the Bay Area about 22 years ago. The name attracts people, and it describes us.”

“You don’t have to be a biological grandmother, you don’t even have to be a grandmother, you don’t even have to be a woman — you  have to rage,” Robertson said.

Hundreds defend pro-Palestine sit-in in White Plaza protest
Despite University orders to vacate by 8 p.m., the Sit-In to Stop Genocide continues into its 112th night. (Photo: CAYDEN GU/The Stanford Daily)

As of 2 a.m., the sit-in remained in place, and over a hundred people prepared to stay the night, with sleeping bags scattered around White Plaza. Videos shared with The Daily showed participants celebrating in a dance circle.

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Sit-in on Islamophobia replaces pro-Israel tent in White Plaza https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/07/new-sit-in-replaces-pro-israel-tent/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/07/new-sit-in-replaces-pro-israel-tent/#respond Wed, 07 Feb 2024 10:36:28 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1242002 A new demonstration called the Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia started Sunday in a space previously occupied by the Blue and White Tent, which was knocked down by heavy rain. The Sit-In to Stop Genocide continues in White Plaza.

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Two sit-ins now face one another in White Plaza: the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, which continues to demand that the University call for a ceasefire in Gaza and commit to the boycott, divest and sanction movement, and the Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia — a newly-organized demonstration that assembled after heavy rain knocked down the Blue and White Tent on Sunday.

Organizers created the pro-Israel tent in November to disseminate information about the Israel-Gaza war and provide a safe refuge for Jewish and Israeli students.

According to Kevin Feigelis, who is a tent organizer, organizers intend to reassemble the Blue and White Tent as soon as possible. They were asked by University grounds staff to remove the fallen tents temporarily, Feigelis said. 

“It’s unfortunate that Mother Nature had to do what Stanford was unwilling to do,” wrote Annabelle Davis ’24, an organizer with the Sit-In to Stop Genocide and Stanford Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP).

Feigelis criticized campus reactions as unnecessarily harsh. “The Jewish people have had to endure far worse — a tent falling down is nothing they can’t handle,” he said.

Shortly after Blue and White Tent debris was removed by organizers and service workers on Sunday, a new demonstration started in the space it previously occupied.

The demonstration, called the “Sit-in to Stop Islamophobia,” hopes to combat Islamophobia and teach “people the truth about Islam,” organizers told The Daily. Participants primarily include Muslim undergraduate and graduate students.

The new sit-in is unaffiliated with the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, the Blue and White Tent or any campus student groups.

Hamza El Boudali ’22 M.S. ’24, an organizer, said “anytime a terrorist attack happens, or some geopolitical event happens that involves Muslims and violence, there is a spike in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment.” 

“There’s a lot of misinformation about what Islam really says,” including Islamic positions on sharia or jihad, El Boudali said. 

The Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia has four demands for the University. One calls for an official acknowledgment of Islamophobia, especially when it is exacerbated by politicians and media. 

Organizers also called for Stanford’s divestment from governments “committing or at risk of committing genocide against Muslims,” in particular China, India and Israel. 

A third demand is to reinstate COLLEGE lecturer Ameer Loggins, who was suspended over reports of identity-based targeting last quarter. Fourth, they called for more on-campus resources and support for Muslim students.

According to El Boudali, there is insufficient space on campus for the growing Muslim community. “We don’t even have enough space for our weekly Friday prayers,” El Boudali said. “We’re looking for a space where we can host our prayers, our Ramadan Iftars and other social events.”

Organizers were motivated by doxxing and a hit and run under investigation as a hate crime.

“A kid got hit by a car here,” El Boudali said. “I don’t know what more [the University] need[s] to meet with us and talk about this and start making progress toward something concrete.”

Apart from the University, sit-in organizers criticized Daily opinion section policies and called for revisions, specifically around anonymous authorship.

“It’s hard because a lot of people are scared of doxxing, and they’re trying to be anonymous,” El Boudali said. “The news section has respect for that and tries to keep people anonymous. The opinions section enforces that there be a name on the piece.”

The Daily’s opinions section policies provide that authors “will not be granted anonymity to protect from reprisal for making certain claims or statements, but only to protect from danger arising from exposure of personal information about them.”

According to El Boudali, The Daily’s opinions section is the only medium through which he and other organizers “can get [their] opinions out there.” 

“The Review is not going to talk to us. I’ve tried to talk to them; I’ve exhausted all options,” El Boudali said. 

He believes The Daily has failed its “journalistic duty to try and get diverse perspectives.”

Organizers set up the Sit-in to Stop Islamophobia on the White Plaza lawn — a space previously occupied by the Blue and White Tent. Tent organizers told The Daily they made an indefinite reservation through Cardinal Engage. 

According to Feigelis, University administration told the Sit-In to Stop Islamophobia that the space was reserved for the Blue and White Tent. He said as long as the sit-in refuses to relocate, the tent cannot reassemble.

The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.

“We did not move your stuff — the wind destroyed it, you cleaned it up. We saw an open space, we set up here, we’re happy to coexist.” El Boudali said. He added that organizers set up in White Plaza due to its high traffic.

The Blue and White Tent intends to return to campus soon, Feigelis said. 

Paridhi Bhatia contributed reporting. 

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Storms knock down Blue and White Tent https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/06/storms-knock-down-pro-israel-tent/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/06/storms-knock-down-pro-israel-tent/#respond Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:37:15 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241861 The Blue and White Tent was knocked down by storms on Sunday. Organizers did not respond to questions about plans to reassemble but during the three months it stood at the center of White Plaza, its organizers said they hoped to incentivize healthy discourse on the Israel-Gaza war.

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A collection of four tents at the center of White Plaza with the stated goal of disseminating information about the ongoing Israel-Gaza War and providing a safe refuge for Jewish and Israeli students, according to organizers, was knocked down by storms on Sunday.

Severe weather conditions due to a Pacific storm caused heavy rainfall and winds, allegedly knocking down the tents. However, the organizers said they are requesting camera footage from the Stanford Bookstore to assess if there was foul play. 

Though organizers did not respond to a request to comment following the storm about plans to reassemble the tents, The Daily previously spoke to organizers about their goals and plans.

In the three months it stood at White Plaza, the Blue and White Tent, as its organizers referred to it, evolved from just one table to four tents with televisions and banners. It was set up across the Sit-In to Stop Genocide by the Jewish and Israeli community on Nov. 13 and hoped to “stop the polarized conversation” on the Israel-Gaza war and incentivize healthy dissemination of information on both sides of the spectrum, organizers said.

Kevin Feigelis, a seventh-year physics Ph.D. student and a member of the Blue and White Tent, told The Daily in December that “Stanford is not doing enough to combat antisemitism on campus.” He said education on antisemitism on campus is either “incorrect” or insufficient.

“I think it’s been very clear to us as Jewish and Israeli students that the education students are getting is almost wrong,” Feigelis said.

Though the ‘Sit-in to Stop Genocide’ has been sleeping overnight in tents, organizers of the Blue and White Tent did not sleep overnight at the venue.

According to organizers, the initiative is a way for Stanford community members to learn about the Jewish and Israeli perspective on the conflict and to feel for both sides of the Israel-Gaza War.

“I personally believe that there’s tragedy on both sides,” said Michelle Karlsberg ’24, another member of the tent. “We continue to have empathy for both sides. That’s what I believe Stanford stands for, not discriminating on the basis of ethnicity or religion.” 

Karlsberg said she believed everyone should have freedom of speech at any time or place, “as long as it’s not hate speech.” 

“We are here to make our voices heard,” she said. 

Some sit-in participants said they were “offended” by some of the rhetoric and signage of the Blue and White Tent.

“Most of our interactions with the tent have frankly not adhered to the communication norms that we try to uphold as a sit-in,” said Hana Spahia ’26, a sit-in organizer. 

Referring to signs depicting “dark-skinned assailants attacking these helpless white victims” or comparing Palestinian militants to wolves, Spahia said some of the tent’s messaging plays into “racist tropes.” 

“The dehumanization that is being perpetuated in order to manufacture consent for the continuation of a genocide is frankly disgusting,” Spahia said.

To Feigelis, the messaging at the Tent is not intended to be about race. 

“The depiction of the art has nothing to do with race, it has nothing to do with Palestinian civilians,” he said. “People who are conflating Palestinian civilians with Hamas confuse me. Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

Some students who passed by the tent said they found it to be impactful. Brennan Nick ’24, a passerby who said he is a “big supporter” of political discourse, said he thought “people having the courage to talk about their views … is very good.” 

Organizers said many community members have stopped by, volunteered to be a part of the tent’s efforts and even made donations to the initiative. The Blue and White Tent has also set up a GoFundMe page for supporters to donate to, through which they have raised $26,294 as of Feb. 5. 

Tent organizers also held a Dec. 5 panel on military and international law with two former members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) legal team. They also partnered with the Stanford Hindu Students Association (HSA) to host a Hindu-Jewish solidarity event.

Karlsberg said it was most important for the Jewish community to be with their families, and urged them to reach out to Hillel for emotional support.

“I think the most valuable thing for all of us is community and being together for Palestinians, for Israelis and for Jews,” he said. “I wish we could support those students right now. I wish we could support all students all the time.”

Both Feigelis and Karlsberg said they encouraged students to reach out to them or to Hillel for support. “There is a lot of support out there,” Feigelis said.

In response to a request for comment, the University directed The Daily toward its Nov. 13 statement announcing the creation of the Antisemitism, Bias and Communication Subcommittee.

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Inside UG2 at Stanford: Surveillance, favoritism, intimidation https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/02/inside-ug2-at-stanford-surveillance-favoritism-intimidation/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/02/02/inside-ug2-at-stanford-surveillance-favoritism-intimidation/#respond Fri, 02 Feb 2024 09:49:24 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241621 Custodial workers subcontracted by UG2 said their supervisors instilled a culture of intimidation and denied disability accommodations. "They don't have to treat us like animals — we're humans," said one night shift worker.

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Leer en español (Itzel Luna, Jacqueline Munis y Sofia Gonzalez-Rodriguez).

Nine sources included in this story have asked to remain anonymous for fear of professional repercussions. Pseudonyms have been used to improve readability. As most of these sources are currently subcontracted under UG2, The Daily is also withholding specific dates, instead using general timeframes, to protect their identities. 

Adriana, who has worked the night shift as a custodial worker on campus for nearly 20 years, said she was given additional work with no explanation from her supervisors last year. Her cleaning area was expanded to include a kitchen on a separate floor from the one she had been assigned to for years. 

Adriana said she always felt pride working at Stanford and “knows all the buildings” across campus. However, she and other workers described a culture of surveillance, intimidation, favoritism and discrimination by their subcontractor, UG2, that made their job “impossible.” 

“I used to work very well with [the supervisors]. I’ve always told them, ‘I like working with you guys. Help me and I’ll help you,’” Adriana said. “But, lately…we have had some very bad experiences.”

In interviews with The Daily, multiple custodial workers said UG2 has used intimidation tactics for years to isolate and instill a sense of job vulnerability among workers. They also said their union has been negligent to their concerns and ignores their calls for better working conditions.

To improve working conditions, workers said supervisor Citlali Bracamontes and manager of operations Victor Hugo Cuevas must be fired.

Cuevas declined to comment. Bracamontes could not be reached for comment. 

“What I want is that all of Stanford, the Stanford president, I want him to know what they are doing with me and the rest of my coworkers. That it’s enough — enough with this company,” said Carmen, a night shift employee who has worked at Stanford for over 10 years. 

Custodial workers are subcontracted to clean academic buildings and community spaces, through UG2, a national property services subcontracting company. Over the past 15 years, Stanford has changed their subcontracting company three times, but the same company leaders have transferred over.    

UG2 became the University’s main janitorial subcontractor in 2019, but most of these employees have worked at Stanford for decades. There are around 180 custodial workers subcontracted under UG2 on campus, according to Grover Brown, the associate vice president of operations, West Coast who is based at Stanford. Although he declined to give an exact number, Brown estimated that 75 work in the day and 105 work at night. 

The employees’ grievances are not new. Workers have shared concerns about overwork for more than a decade. Student activists have also long criticized the University’s cost-cutting practice of subcontracting, saying it creates inequitable work environments.  

“Clients like Stanford would be expected to minimize the gap in wages between positions, such as janitorial staff and more highly paid employees. The same pressure does not exist for contractors,” said Zofia Trexler ’25, a member of Stanford Students for Workers’ Rights (SWR). 

Subcontracted workers are often paid lower and given less time off compared to workers directly hired by the University, activists said. This has remained true at Stanford, where UG2 subcontracted workers were the first to be laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and struggled to get pay continuation by the University, according to activists.   

‘We are not animals’: The grueling night shift

The night shift, which starts at 6 p.m. and ends at 2:30 a.m., can be grueling, and employees who work it said they face the brunt of the cleaning load. 

“I’m always killing myself there … I can’t even walk but I’m doing the work here the best I can,” said Manuel, who has worked the night shift for almost 10 years.

Several workers called the amount of work they are given each night “impossible” to complete. 

Martina, who works the night shift, said she is expected to clean all the restrooms, showers, conference rooms, offices, cubicle spaces, kitchens, break rooms and common areas in a five-floor building that is open 24/7 by herself. Another employee who works the night shift said they are in charge of cleaning three different buildings on campus. 

Workers said they regularly have to skip lunch and breaks during 8-hour shifts because they feel they can’t finish the areas assigned to them on time. Some also said mandatory work meetings were scheduled during their lunch breaks. 

“They always intimidate us and, to be honest, we need the work,” said Camila, who has worked at Stanford for over 10 years. “We’re not here just for pleasure. We’re all here for necessity. So they don’t have to treat us like animals — we’re humans.”

Workers said their UG2 supervisors always blame the University when concerns are raised regarding the demanding standards and new regulations.

“All the time, Stanford is the one at fault. They say, ‘We have nothing to do with it because Stanford is asking for this and Stanford is demanding this,’” Carmen said. 

But the workers, some of whom have been working at the University for over a decade, said they doubt this is true.

“I don’t think Stanford is the one saying, ‘Talk rudely to the people.’ Stanford is not going to tell them to treat us badly,” Camila said.

Both UG2 and the University confirmed that the University has no say in the employment or supervision of UG2 staff. University spokesperson Luisa Rapport said UG2 is solely responsible “for employing and supervising their custodial workers, including evaluating employee performance.”

But according to Brown, the University is allowed to both inspect buildings and hire third parties to do so. “Stanford has an obligation to make sure any vendor is working and providing as necessary,” he wrote, adding that UG2 normally does joint inspections with the University. 

UG2 and workers’ union reject disability accommodations

Multiple employees have requested accommodations for disabilities that were mandated by their doctors, according to documents reviewed by The Daily. They say their requests were denied, and they were told to either go on disability leave or quit. 

One worker, Elena, said she was forced into disability leave without any explanation or guidance last November, after working at UG2 since 2016. She has been out of work for nearly three months. 

“It’s a lot of stress because, at night, I wake up and to be honest, I can’t sleep,” Elena said. 

Four years ago, Elena was first put on disability leave for 10 months after undergoing surgery. When she returned to work, Elena was given a new cleaning assignment that didn’t include stairwells to comply with her disability accommodations. 

But in November, UG2 supervisors unexpectedly added multiple flights of stairs to her assignment. Elena said she reminded them about her disability accommodations the next day. A letter sent from her doctor to UG2, reviewed by The Daily, said Elena was not allowed to climb stairs or work at a height.

But Elena was informed that the company could not accommodate her disability. They told her to go home without explaining if she was being put on disability leave or fired, she said.  

Since being sent home, Elena said no one from UG2 has contacted her despite multiple office visits and calls to supervisors. After a month, she received a letter from UG2 in the mail stating her accommodation request was denied.

“And that’s how they left me,” Elena said. “I feel discriminated against because since that day, my life has changed. Because it was for no reason. I’ve never had a complaint or any report of something bad I’ve done. Nothing.”

Carmen, another night shift worker, said she has faced months of disability-based discrimination. 

When she developed a neurological condition last year, Carmen’s doctor imposed restrictions on her job responsibilities. But when Carmen requested those accommodations, UG2 declined and told her to take a three-month disability leave.

“I cried… I cried because of impotence. I told them this was discrimination. They are discriminating against me for my illness. I have to pay rent. I have to pay for insurance. I have to pay for everything. What do I do?” Carmen said.

She did not work for three months — the maximum amount of yearly disability leave — before having to return to her job in violation of her doctor’s orders, she said.

“What they want is for me to leave, that I just leave on my own, but I need to work,” Carmen said. Carmen’s job supports both herself and her husband, and the disability pay was less than her income from working for the company. 

Carmen said when she spoke to Cuevas about accommodating her disability, he asked her, “Why don’t you go back to Mexico, instead?”

Cuevas declined to comment. Edgar Colon, a vice president at UG2, said UG2 is not legally required to create a new position or reassign tasks to accommodate a worker. He said he does not recall any incident where UG2 fired an employee due to not being able to meet a disability accommodation, but “employers at that point, if there are no other solutions, may result in that.” 

“It’s not a decision that we make on the fly. It’s a very detailed process … we always factor the law and the safety and wellbeing,” Colon said. 

While some workers’ disability accommodations are denied, others are given preferential treatment, some say. Workers said supervisors play favorites when it comes to assigning shifts, consistently denying some requests to change shifts and approving others.

Workers said they felt that Marlen Gonzalez Hernandez, a UG2 human resources and operations coordinator, gives preferential treatment to her family members who work at the company.

Gonzalez Hernandez could not be reached directly for comment. Colon denied any preferential treatment and said Gonzalez Hernandez has “zero oversight, zero autonomy, to provide any sort of operational direction.”

A UG2 spokesperson confirmed it is company policy that family members are not allowed to supervise their relatives. The contract between the workers’ union and UG2, obtained by The Daily, states that “all forms of favoritism” are prohibited. 

‘We’re paying, for what?’: Workers find little support from union

Workers say they have been complaining about this poor workplace culture for years, but that when they turn to the union for support, it has offered them little.

Multiple employees told The Daily that their union, United Service Workers West (USWW), has denied multiple grievance requests filed against UG2 on the grounds of discrimination, harassment and overwork. 

Their union organizer, Abigail Amador, frequently ignores the grievances they file with the union about their workplace conditions and is “on the side” of UG2, workers said. 

“Instead of coming to help us, she [Amador] comes to finish demolishing us.” Camila said. “In front of the company, she told us that we should be grateful that we have our job.” Another worker said that Amador also told them they should be grateful for their job “even if they’re overworked.”

USWW spokesperson Stephen Boardman declined to answer questions related to specific employees or incidents. Amador declined to comment.

Several workers said they feel unrepresented by their union, leaving them unsupported in advocating for themselves against UG2. 

“So, we’re paying union membership for what? For nothing, because we’re just paying to pay. They don’t come to hold meetings. They don’t come to see what problems we have,” Camila said. 

Carmen said she asked Amador to file a grievance to UG2 through the union, which was denied. Elena’s request to file a grievance was also denied, according to documents reviewed by The Daily. When grievances are denied by the union, workers have little recourse. 

“I don’t know anyone who can guide me. Money? Well, I don’t have money to pay for a lawyer. How am I going to pay for a lawyer?” Carmen said. 

Boardman did not respond to questions about the specific circumstances that can lead to the approval or denial of grievances, or what the grievance process looks like.

“If there are specific issues that our members have with an organizer, they can take them up with the union directly,” he wrote.

Boardman wrote that members can also stop by the SEIU-USWW office or call to file a grievance. The office is in San José, 23 miles away from Stanford’s campus – about a 30 minute drive. He noted that “if a member reported a violation of the CBA or the law, a grievance will be filed.” 

In October, workers said they sent a letter to the company asking them to remove Amador, which the union denied. 

A system of surveillance 

UG2 uses a point system for citations, which they give in the form of tickets. Workers said that as they understood it, the first point is a verbal warning, the second is a written citation and the third is grounds for termination. 

But workers said this system is exploited by supervisors to instill intimidation among staff. Manuel said that if a worker said they could not complete their cleaning assignment, “they’ll give you a strike because you talked back to a supervisor.”  

Colon said workers can accrue up to 11 points a year before termination is considered, adding that the point system was only implemented at Stanford in 2019.

“This is essential for maintaining operational efficiency and respecting our team’s commitments. We ensure every new employee receives a comprehensive briefing on these policies to foster understanding and adherence,” he said. 

Workers, however, said the point system creates additional stress. “They’re putting a lot of pressure on people. They scold them. For anything they want to give a warning. They want to give tickets and keep giving them, because with enough tickets, they will let you go,” UG2 worker Rafael said. 

“You already know that every day, there will be something. You come to work thinking, ‘Oh, let’s see what they come up with today,’” Camila said. “They ask for too much and offer too little. They demand too much and don’t give us anything.” 

On Nov. 20, several workers said they were told by supervisors “the state” was coming to do inspections and so they could no longer store their personal belongings in supply closets. Some workers resolved to hide their belongings in closets and cabinets around the buildings they work in. 

Brown denied hearing about or announcing a state visit. He said that in general, it is company policy that employees cannot store their belongings in closets.

When asked where workers could store their personal belongings, Brown said workers often put them in their cars and could also put their meals near breakrooms in the buildings they work at. However, several employees told The Daily they carpool, get rides from family or take public transportation to work. 

In the same interview, Brown later said employees actually are allowed to keep their belongings in supply closets but must take them out when their shift ends. Employees told The Daily as recently as December that they were still told they cannot store their belongings in supply closets.

UG2 workers look for student and Stanford support

Workers said they have more support from students and faculty than their own company. 

SWR member Kyra Dorado Teigen ’24 said that as students, who are “the main people who the University purports to serve,” they should feel responsible for creating and maintaining relationships with community members like UG2 workers — “the people who [really] run this campus.” 

University spokesperson Luisa Rapport wrote Stanford has a “zero-tolerance policy toward discriminatory or harassing conduct in the workplace.”

“We expect UG2 to address the concerns of its employees who work at Stanford in a fair and prompt manner. UG2 has assured us in the past that they share that commitment and have procedures in place to protect employees from discrimination and harassment,” Rapport wrote.

The University did not respond to multiple requests for comment about specific incidents or questions about University facilities. 

“We need help from the students,” Camila said. “See, it feels so nice that the people from our buildings support us … My people in my building are such good people. They always say thank you for your work, thank you.”

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Stanford leadership clarifies free speech boundaries https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/30/stanford-leadership-clarifies-free-speech-boundaries/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/30/stanford-leadership-clarifies-free-speech-boundaries/#respond Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:45:21 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241380 University leadership clarified Stanford’s free speech, neutrality and academic freedom policies at this quarter's first Faculty Senate meeting. President Richard Saller also addressed a recent antisemitism panel that was disrupted by protestors.

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University President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez addressed disruptions to classes from protests, leadership responsibilities amid the Israel-Gaza war and the Protected Identity Harm (PIH) reporting process at the Faculty Senate’s first meeting of the quarter Thursday.

In a statement on campus discourse around Israel-Gaza war, Saller said he was focused on “protecting academic freedom and the autonomy of the University.”

“I am not going to issue statements about international affairs or national affairs except insofar as they may have a direct impact on the University and its mission,” Saller said.

Jonathan Levin, dean of the Graduate School of Business, expressed support for Saller’s position. The University should not rush to release statements as it “models the wrong thing for students,” Levin said.

“It sends a message to our students that the world is simple, you can make judgments quickly, everything is clear and very unambiguous,” Levin said. “I want them to think slow, to hear from different people and to weigh these things carefully.”

Saller also addressed his and Martinez’s attendance at a panel on antisemitism hosted by the Blue and White Tent last Wednesday. The panel was disrupted by protestors, who criticized panelist Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Israeli Special Envoy for Antisemitism, for equating antisemitism with anti-Zionism and for representing “a government actively committing genocide.” 

Saller said their attendance was not an “endorsement” of Cotler-Wunsh’s views, and that while he did not agree with Cotler-Wunsh’s position, “the value of academic freedom is precisely to be able to bring different points of view together in debate.”

The Senate steering committee also reviewed a petition from faculty members over concerns that the Protected Identity Harm (PIH) reporting process has a negative effect on academic freedom and free speech. Provost Jenny Martinez announced the appointment of a committee to revise the reporting process. 

The PIH system was updated in 2021 and collects data, sometimes anonymously, on instances of identity-based harm. Martinez acknowledged that the process had initially “generated confusion” in the community about its goals and protocol.

Martinez also clarified Stanford’s policy against speech that disrupts University activities, in light of student protests that interrupted Engineering School classes at the beginning of the quarter. She encouraged students to “use their free speech rights in designated times and places,” like White Plaza.

When asked by ASSU representative Divya Ganesan ’25 about the progress of a search committee to replace Office of Community Standards (OCS) leadership, Martinez said she could not provide any updates but would “circle back.”

Bernadette Meyler, the associate dean for research at Stanford Law School and chair of the ad hoc Committee on University Speech, raised results from an interim report on community opinions of University free speech policies.

The committee, established last February after controversies surrounding the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI), was created to assess whether constraints on academic freedom and speech existed in the University.

The committee aims to “suggest policies for improving protections on academic speech” while strengthening “faculty’s role in preserving it.”

Meyler described the committee’s “three main buckets of concern” surrounding University free speech: processes and initiatives at Stanford, protocol on public statements and the targeting and harassment of faculty and students.

“There has been a breakdown in trust around the University with regards to questions of speech, and that there is an urgent need to repair that trust,” Meyler said.

She said that a majority of the Stanford community remains “unclear” about “what speech is protected and what is not, and how the University decides that question.” 

Processes and initiatives like the PIHR and EHLI, as well as the OSC’s implementation of Stanford’s fundamental standard, continue to “insufficiently protect speech, or at least do not adequately articulate how they are protecting speech,” Meyler said.

This confusion persists in concerns over Stanford’s statements on national and international political events, she added.

Based on the committee’s current findings, Meyler said many community members “worry that the University’s decision to speak, or not, signals a preference for some over others.”

Though Meyler said the principle of neutrality was also followed by peer institutions like Brown University, the University of Chicago and the University of California system, individual faculty members are not subject to this standard of neutrality.

“Institutional neutrality does not prevent faculty members from articulating any of their own positions,” Meyler said. “Rather, it prevents University leaders from stating an official position on behalf of the university.”

Among the suggestions Meyler proposed were articulating clear University principles for protecting speech, increasing training on these principles and updating the statement on academic freedom, originally adopted in 1974, to address “the hard challenges posed by the surrounding environment of social media and polarization.”

“Our committee is working on recommendations … that would distinguish the public square, most popularly represented by White Plaza, from the classroom and from the dorm,” Meyler said.

Moving forward, Meyler said the committee will assess other institutions’ policies and continue to converse with students and faculty and free speech. It will also be in communication with the recently-created committees on antisemitism and anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias.

Meyler said the committee intends to strengthen anti-doxxing policies in response to increased concerns from students and faculty. 

The committee is set to report on its final findings and recommendations to the Faculty Senate late spring quarter.

Aside from discussing University free speech policies, the Faculty Senate also heard from Grant Parker, vice chair of the steering committee, who said the committee had implemented recommendations from the 2020 external review of sexual misconduct practices that will likely be revisited after the government releases new Title IX regulations.

The steering committee also reviewed petitions from the ASSU on undergraduate STEM courses and adoption of the long-range planning report on postdocs.

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Faculty debate undue foreign influence in research https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/30/faculty-debate-undue-foreign-influence-in-research/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/30/faculty-debate-undue-foreign-influence-in-research/#respond Tue, 30 Jan 2024 11:13:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241375 University leadership described tension between Stanford's research policies and increased federal concern over undue foreign influence.

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The Faculty Senate scrutinized policies on undue foreign influence on research during its first meeting of winter quarter Thursday.

David Studdert, the vice provost and dean of research (VPDoR), George Triantis, the senior associate vice provost for research and Jessa Albertson, the senior director of research security presented on the University’s plan to comply with government requirements without compromising academic freedom.

The presentation followed a $1.9 million settlement between Stanford and the Department of Justice in October. The deal settled allegations that the University knowingly failed to disclose faculty members’ sources of “foreign support” on grant proposals to federal agencies. The federal government has recently moved toward a crackdown on foreign influence in scientific research, particularly from China.

Some professors, including several whose grants the government publicly cited, previously voiced criticism of the University’s communication during the settlement process and concerns about unfair reputational harm.

Members of the Senate questioned the University’s handling of the settlement. Some asked about Stanford’s advocacy for federal requirements that respect academic freedom, beyond compliance with existing ones.

Studdert proposed strengthening Stanford’s research security program and instituting a “pragmatic” strategy for dealing with compliance issues as they arose. Albertson and Triantis outlined the government’s national security concerns and implications for research at Stanford.

Studdert said this approach entailed working with researchers and the government case by case to “see if there is a way through.” The University would explore exceptions or workarounds to federal requirements where permitted, he noted.

Studdert also set forth “high-level” plans to address undue foreign influence and compliance issues. First, he called for a well-resourced research security office that could better respond to government requests, “because they are getting more common and more complicated.”

Second, Studdert said the Global Engagement Review Program — a group of faculty “experienced in international affairs” — would provide recommendations to researchers who encounter “difficult engagements” over issues of foreign influence.

Next, Studdert said a VPDoR initiative was underway to “increase the quality and efficiency” of disclosures of foreign affiliations, which he said are “areas that the government is very interested in right now.”

Finally, Studdert said the University was working to “shape the debate” on government requirements through conversations with federal agencies and regulators to advise them on international engagement’s importance in research.

“How do we maintain and protect global engagement?” Studdert asked. “Should Stanford revisit its openness and nondiscrimination policies to strike a balance between access to funding and our values?”

Faculty members and representatives met Studdert’s questions with their own.

Lawrence Berg, a fifth-year Ph.D. student and the at-large student representative, brought up “an elephant in the room,” referring to the settlement deal and government allegations that faculty failed to disclose foreign affiliations. 

“What is the University doing to actively evaluate current faculty members to make sure they’re compliant with these rules?” he asked.

Studdert said he wouldn’t “go into details of individual cases,” but noted that the settlement involved “allegations, not proven facts.”

“We worked very closely with the faculty every step of the way through this process,” Studdert said.

Computer science professor James Landay — whose grant numbers were cited in a DOJ press release about the settlement — expressed frustration that professors were only notified, and not consulted, during the process.

“That was very wrong,” Landay said. “As faculty, the main thing we have is our reputation … Our reputation was harmed by that settlement, when the Department of Justice put out [a] press release that [made] us look like frauds.”

Computer science professor Philip Levis asked whether the VPDoR differentiated gifts from “sponsored” research. Critics of the settlement deal previously raised a similar point, saying rules for disclosing gifts were unclear.

“This is an area we’re looking at,” Studdert said. “They are quite different … Issues of academic freedom are more closely connected to sponsored research than to gifts.”

Triantis described a potential chilling effect on research during his remarks: “International cooperation is essential to the production of knowledge.”

Although Triantis acknowledged research findings at Stanford are public, he cited the government’s fear that foreign entities could gain access to unpublished work practices and data or scientific discoveries during a “window of vulnerability” before publication.

“Knowing a result six months before the world does gives you a huge advantage,” he said.

Professors could face long periods of review from federal agencies before publication and might have to screen their “personnel for associations with countries of concern” in light of the government’s priorities, Triantis said. Scientists and their employees could even be excluded from participating in projects based on their nationality, whether because of federal mandates or researchers’ anxieties about hiring a foreigner.

Triantis concluded that federal policies might “impinge” on Stanford’s fundamental research principles. He cited Stanford’s policy of non-discrimination in research, highlighting protections against discrimination based on nationality.

“We see a collision, or a tension, between some of our key policies and what we’re seeing in these grant forms,” Studdert agreed.

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Fossil fuels fund Doerr School of Sustainability research, data shows https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/29/doerr-funding/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/29/doerr-funding/#respond Mon, 29 Jan 2024 10:35:39 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241161 Fossil fuel companies — including industry giants like Shell, ExxonMobil and BP — contributed tens of millions of dollars to research tied to Doerr since 2011.

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Between 2011 and 2023, fossil fuel companies contributed over $68 million — about one dollar for every five dollars of total funding — to sponsored research in departments housed in the Doerr School of Sustainability, according to data retrieved on Jan. 11 from the Stanford electronic Research Administration System (SeRA), the University-mandated system to disclose funding for sponsored research projects.

Across all fossil fuel company contributions, Big Oil companies — the top six publicly traded oil and gas corporations globally: ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalEnergies, BP, Chevron and Eni — accounted for more than $48 million.

Research funding can come from several sources including federal and state governments, corporations, nonprofits and institutional funds.

Yannai Kashtan, a fourth-year earth systems Ph.D. student and organizer with the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability, criticized the dependence on fossil fuel funding. It is “certainly an eminently solvable problem” for the University, whose endowment numbers in the billions, Kashtan said.

According to them, “it seems like a very small price to pay” compared to the downsides.

By accepting fossil fuel funding, Kashtan said the University accepted branding and research integrity risks.

“These companies … have continued to sow disinformation and stall climate change positive branding,” Kashtan said.

Doerr spokesperson Amy Adams wrote that decisions made about accepting funding “are made by the University, not at the school level.”

The federal government provides the most external research funding across the University. For 2021-2022, about 78% of all externally funded projects were sponsored by federal government agencies, like the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Doerr School of Sustainability, which officially launched on Sept. 1, 2022, has faced criticism from Stanford community members for its continued acceptance of funding for research from fossil fuel companies.

From 2011-2023, about $380 million was allocated for sponsored research projects in departments now housed in Doerr. Fossil fuel industry contributions accounted for about 17.9%, or about one of every five dollars funded.

While research activities began before this period, these figures are based on research projects in the current system of record, which went live in 2011. According to Tim Leung, the director of client advocacy and education at the Office of Research Administration, in legacy systems used prior, a project’s financial records were removed after a period of time — typically five years — after the submission of a final financial report, so data before then is incomplete.

Some of the top fossil fuel company contributors included TotalEnergies, which contributed about $20 million, ExxonMobil with about $12 million and Aramco with over $9 million in contributions to sponsored research projects.

Besides sponsoring specific research projects, companies also support institutional research activities through Industrial Affiliates Programs. A company becomes an industrial affiliate by paying a membership fee, which is treated as unrestricted income for research or administrative costs.

While research relationships through these programs are typically less structured, companies may receive other benefits depending on the membership tier, like access to research results, invitations to Stanford research symposia and workshops and roles on governance boards that help establish research priorities.

Earth and planetary sciences professor Jef Caers directs Mineral-X, an affiliate program that refuses fossil fuel funding. “I’m all for collaborating with the industry, and I’m all for the kinds of partnerships that we do in the Industrial Affiliate Programs,” Caers said.

But when it came to fossil fuel companies, he said he decided to step away from fossil fuel funding due to moral concerns.

“This idea of academic freedom has to come with some kind of responsibility and morality. That morality is not of an individual. It’s of a community of which you’re a part of,” Caers said.

Data recently released by Doerr for fiscal year 2022 showed that only one affiliate program out of 14 did not receive support from a fossil fuel company. (This data excludes Mineral-X, which was not founded until 2023.)

The other 13, like the Natural Gas Initiative, received support from fossil fuel companies. A consortium of more than 40 Stanford research groups working “to generate the knowledge needed to use natural gas to its greatest social, economic and environmental benefit,” the Natural Gas Initiative’s affiliates include top oil companies like ExxonMobil, BP and ConocoPhillips.

SUPRI-Tides, an affiliate program that studies tidal behavior to understand the earth’s physical properties, was the only Doerr School affiliate program in 2022 with no fossil fuel companies providing funding.

During fiscal year 2022, affiliate programs across the Doerr School received about $9.7 million in funding. About $5.5 million — more than 55% — came from fossil fuel companies, with many companies contributing to multiple affiliate programs. Chevron, for instance, was a member in 10 affiliate programs, contributing $695,000 in fiscal year 2022 alone.

Not included in this data were gifts — donated to support University research activities but handled separately from affiliate programs and sponsored research projects involving grants and contracts.

In an open letter, Doerr Dean Arun Majumdar committed to ensuring the compliance of Industry Affiliates Programs with University guidelines. Majumdar published the letter in October, in response to a piece by six graduate researchers about adopting standards for research funding accepted by affiliates programs.

He emphasized the core institutional value of academic freedom, which Majumdar wrote “allows faculty to pursue research they feel is worthy of their scholarship and engage with organizations that they deem worthwhile.”

Doerr recently made financial information for affiliate programs and associated research projects available online. Adams wrote that they will “continue to update our website throughout this year, and then yearly, to increase transparency and provide the most current information.”

A University Committee on Funding for Energy Research and Education (CFERE) formed in December 2022. CFERE has been charged with evaluating research funding from fossil fuel companies, although its report is yet to be released.

A previous version of this article misstated the percentage of Doerr research funding provided by fossil fuel companies as 21.4% instead of 17.9%. The Daily regrets this error.

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Jewish protestor disrupts Saller, Martinez panel on antisemitism https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/26/protestors-disrupt-saller-martinez-panel-on-antisemitism/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/26/protestors-disrupt-saller-martinez-panel-on-antisemitism/#respond Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:03:02 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1241059 Amid protests from anti-Zionist students, President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez addressed how Stanford is responding to antisemitism on campus at a public panel hosted by the Blue and White Tent Wednesday.

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President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez spoke to the importance of free speech and addressed the University’s response to antisemitism on campus during a panel hosted by pro-Israel student organizers Wednesday evening. Saller and Martinez were joined by Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism.

The fireside chat, titled “Combating Antisemitism at Stanford,” took place in the Tresidder Oak Lounge and was attended by around 200 students, alumni and administrators. The Blue and White Tent organized the panel. Set up across from the “Sit-In to Stop Genocide” in November, the tent aimed to create peaceful discourse on the Israel-Gaza war, its organizers said. The tent is surrounded by pro-Israel posters and Israeli flags.

Tuesday night, before the event, the anti-Zionist student group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) posted a statement on Instagram condemning Saller and Martinez for sharing the stage with Cotler-Wunsh. They argued that the special envoy represents “a government actively committing genocide, … one who personally expresses explicitly genocidal rhetoric.” 

Annabelle Davis ’24, a JVP member and sit-in participant, said Saller “should not have been participating in an event hosted by the Blue and White Tent.”

The event was moderated by Larry Diamond ’75 M.A. ’78 Ph.D. ’80, a political science professor, who co-chairs the Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias. The group was formed by the University in November alongside the Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Communities Committee in response to rising reports of hate crimes on campus.

Kevin Feigelis, a seventh-year physics Ph.D. student and a Blue and White Tent organizer, and Jafi Lipson, a clinical associate professor at the School of Medicine, were also panelists.

“The president’s participation in a portion of last evening’s events does not reflect an endorsement of any particular participant, group or viewpoint,” wrote University spokesperson Dee Mostofi in a statement to The Daily. 

The JVP post was accompanied by a screenshot of a statement made by Cotler-Wunsh on X, formerly Twitter, in which she wrote “Israel opened up the casket for the world to see what happened on 10/7. A war of barbarism vs civilization.”

A screenshot that includes a JVP statement criticizing Saller's decision to share the stage with Colter-Wunsh.
A screenshot of the Instagram post from JVP’s account.

Around 30 protesters stood outside the event and held up signs including tweets from Cotler-Wunsh. According to Draper Dayton ’25, the signs were confiscated before students were admitted. Dayton, a Jewish student who identifies as anti-Zionist, is active in pro-Palestine campus organizing.

Wednesday’s panel and protests occurred amid Global Strike Week, events promoted by the sit-in including daily demonstrations and advocacy for a ceasefire at a Palo Alto City Council meeting. The protest was not included in scheduled events.

Dayton, who attended the panel, said the protesters submitted around 30 questions through the RSVP form, none of which were asked in the Q&A portion. 

As a result, Dayton interrupted Cotler-Wunsh’s response to the last question in the panel and asked why questions from anti-Zionist students were not addressed. 

“Am I antisemitic because I am not a Zionist?” Dayton said, according to an audio transcript reviewed by The Daily.

Saller said during the panel that he would not define antisemitism as University president. Rather, he hopes “all of the communities on campus get the respect that they deserve,” Saller said.

Mostofi wrote that “Stanford’s leadership recognizes and respects the wide diversity of viewpoints in our community related to the Israel-Hamas war, and they remain focused on supporting civil discourse.”

Another unidentified student disrupted the event, repeatedly shouting “Ceasefire now!” A video with the chant was posted by the sit-in on Instagram. 

“Hamas murders babies [and] children,” an audience member said in response.

Dayton and the other disruptor were escorted out of the event. The disruption was spontaneous and “not a JVP action,” Dayton said.

There are no structured spaces on campus for Jewish students who are anti-Zionist and non-Zionist, Dayton said. “This is why the only option is to stand up and yell.”

JVP’s post hoped to emphasize the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, Davis said. Davis, and other organizers affiliated with the sit-in, interpreted a prior email from Saller as concurrence with this view.

“I am glad that you and others are insisting on the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,” Saller wrote in a Dec. 9 email to sit-in members.

JVP and sit-in organizers criticized Saller’s decision to participate in the panel, saying it contradicted his previous statement. The panelists are “weaponizing the very real reality of antisemitism,” Davis said. “For Saller to implicitly condone this framework that is just not true — and that he has expressed that he knows is not true — is just ridiculous.”

Jewish protestor disrupts Saller, Martinez panel on antisemitism
(Photo: HANNAH SHU/The Stanford Daily)

When asked about free speech on the panel, Martinez pointed to controversies arising from conservative judge Kyle Duncan’s visit to the law school last March, which was protested by law students. 

“I’ve been a defender of free speech on this campus on multiple fronts in the past,” Martinez said. “I stood up for the right of that speaker to be in the Law School, for the importance of trying to hear voices that you disagree with.”

In California, the Leonard Law prohibits private universities, like Stanford, from disciplining students for speech that is protected by the First Amendment.

Martinez expressed support for the Leonard Law and the First Amendment: “I don’t think that administrators like me should get to decide to censor or cancel speech they don’t like, and I’ve said that many times in defense of a lot of different kinds of speech.”

However, Martinez said she hoped Stanford community members would “aspire to … real and substantive engagement that can inform [on topics] in which there’s very heated disagreement.”

“Just because you have the right to say something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea,” Martinez said. “We want to aim for something higher.”

Davis called on Saller and other leadership to move beyond ambiguous statements. By supporting both sides, “and by attending events hosted by organizations like the Blue and White Tent, he’s actually doing harm,” Davis said.

The Daily has reached out to Feigelis and Lipson for comment.

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Stanford scholars analyze South Africa’s case against Israel https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/25/stanford-scholars-analyze-south-africas-case-against-israel/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/25/stanford-scholars-analyze-south-africas-case-against-israel/#respond Thu, 25 Jan 2024 10:14:14 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240989 South Africa filed a case before the International Court of Justice late December that accused Israel of a "pattern of genocidal conduct" in Gaza. Legal experts and community members at Stanford discussed the impact of this case and what it means for the Israel-Gaza war.

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The world — and Stanford — watched closely as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) heard South Africa’s case against Israel earlier this month, which accused Israel of a “pattern of genocidal conduct” against Palestinians in Gaza.

South Africa’s claims were advanced in an 84-page document that, citing international law, argued genocidal intent can be inferred from statements made by Israeli government officials and the nature and conduct of military operations. It pointed to the 21,100 Palestinians dead, 55,243 wounded and 1.9 million displaced in the Gaza Strip, as reported at the time by the Palestinian Health Ministry. The country urged the Court to implement emergency measures to halt all Israeli military operations and provide humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel strongly denied the allegations: During a defense hearing, Israeli legal advisor Tal Becker said that South Africa’s case was an attempt “to thwart Israel’s inherent right to defend itself” after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.

“From the Israeli perspective, Oct. 7 was just traumatically different,” said Allen Weiner J.D. ’89, director of the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation and senior lecturer at Stanford Law School. “The scale of the harm that Hamas was able to inflict on Israel was, I think it’s fair to say, unprecedented in terms of Israel’s conflict with Hamas.”

Joel Beinin, emeritus professor of Middle East history, said the harm Hamas inflicted was two-fold: both the lives lost on Oct. 7, and also the exclusion of the militant group’s involvement in any talks on an international solution.

“They undertook this action in which they committed serious atrocities, violations of international law and war crimes,” Beinin said. “Oct. 7 meant that Hamas won’t be part of any kind of international effort to resolve the question of Palestine.”

During South Africa’s testimony, which lasted three hours, lawyers and legal experts argued that Israel’s military campaign was more than just a war against Hamas. 

“The level of Israel’s killing is so extensive that nowhere is safe in Gaza,” said South African lawyer Adila Hassim in court. “This killing is nothing short of destruction of Palestinian life.”

Weiner found the case “unusual,” given that South Africa is not directly involved in the conflict.

“It’s not as if Israel is allegedly perpetrating genocide against South Africa,” Weiner said. “Any state could have brought this claim.”

Beinin, on the other hand, said South Africa’s role in the case was “not surprising,” considering that “South Africa is a longtime ally of the Palestinian Liberation Movement that goes all the way back to the days of Apartheid.” He added that only countries are able to bring cases to the ICJ, “not individuals, not even political parties and social movements like Hamas.”

Alisha Service ’26, a participant in the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, found South Africa’s case to be a “source of inspiration” given its history with apartheid.

“This country knows its history and they see its history somewhere else,” Service said. “I think that’s why so many South Africans are so ardent in their criticisms against Israel.”

During the testimony, South Africa’s delegation presented alleged evidence of intent, what Beinin called the “most difficult part of proving that a genocide has happened.” They argued that both the military campaign in Gaza and various quotes from Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, showed “genocidal intent” toward Palestinians.

What the Court has to decide, Beinin said, is if there is “a direct connection between those statements of genocidal intent … and the actions that the Israeli army has done in the Gaza strip.”

In the Court, the Israeli defense team denied the accusations. Becker said that South Africa’s case was “a profoundly distorted factual and legal picture,” deliberately excluding the role of Hamas behind Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.

Andrei Mandelshtam ’25, co-president of the Stanford Israel Association, echoed the idea that the accusations were baseless.

“I think it’s a very perverse definition of genocide that they’re using to launch the court case,” Mandelshtam said. “The intent of the decision to launch the court case is more so a form of Holocaust inversion, blaming Jews for the epitome of crimes committed against them.”

While preliminary hearings were completed earlier this month, the case is still within its provisional measures phase. Weiner said it could take “many years” for the full case to be briefed and ruled on in the ICJ’s “complex” litigation process.

“Whatever decision we get in response to the provisional measures application … is unlikely to produce any definitive answer to the basic question at the heart of South Africa’s case, which is whether Israel is perpetrating genocide in Gaza,” Weiner said.

Even if a provisional emergency measure is granted for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, Service said she has “minimal faith that Israel will comply.” Weiner said that no matter the outcome, the power lies in the United Nations Security Council, which has the authority to enforce the ICJ’s measures and will likely rule in Israel’s favor.

“We have to recognize that if the Court were to rule against Israel in some kind of way … the Security Council would not enforce it because the United States would veto any proposed resolution,” Weiner said.

Mandelshtam said South Africa’s disregard for international law in the past, such as failing to abide by the International Criminal Court’s calls to arrest visiting former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2015, shows there are external interests at play.

“If we look at South Africa, they’ve launched the court case, but they haven’t even valued the Court’s opinions in the past,” Mandelshtam said. 

Though the legal gravity of the ICJ case may be contested, Beinin said, the public scale of the processions has an impact on how the world will view the conflict moving forward.

“Legal arguments are going to be made, evidence is going to be presented, all of that is going to be available for public consumption,” Beinin said. “It becomes another venue for the argument — but a very high-profile venue that governments, legal scholars and others in the world are going to pay attention to.”

On Friday, the ICJ is expected to deliver an interim ruling, possibly in favor or against a ceasefire.

A previous version of this article misstated the name of the Stanford Israel Association. The Daily regrets this error. 

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Sit-In to Stop Genocide pushes for Palo Alto City Council ceasefire resolution https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/24/sit-in-to-stop-genocide-pushes-for-palo-alto-city-council-ceasefire-resolution/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/24/sit-in-to-stop-genocide-pushes-for-palo-alto-city-council-ceasefire-resolution/#respond Wed, 24 Jan 2024 11:02:40 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240850 Stanford and Palo Alto community members gathered at a city council meeting for nearly five and a half hours Monday to speak for and against agendizing an Israel-Gaza ceasefire resolution. Stanford students, many affiliated with the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, held up signs and banners throughout the city council meeting.

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Around a dozen Stanford students raised signs and banners at the Palo Alto City Council meeting Monday evening, calling on council members to add a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza to their agenda. 

Around 90 people attended the meeting, which lasted nearly five and a half hours. People supporting and opposing a ceasefire resolution raised signs in the audience. One banner in the aisle read “Israel bombed every university in Gaza. What if it was us?” Others lifted posters with the pictures of Israeli hostages, with the words “Kidnapped. Bring them home.”

Protesters, many of whom are involved in the Sit-In to Stop Genocide, attended as part of the Global Strike Week organized by the sit-in. The efforts call for Stanford community members to partake in their peaceful demonstrations and to “walk out of class and/or work whenever possible to join us.”

At the Jan. 15 city council meeting a week prior, 10 Stanford students attended to speak publicly to the council members about putting a discussion around a ceasefire resolution on the council’s agenda. Pam Martinez ’25 attended both weeks’ city council meetings.

“My hope is that every week, we’re just gonna remind them that women, children and also Palestinian men are suffering because this state is heavily militarized. The U.S. is supporting the Israeli state,” she told the Daily.

As part of the public comment section of the meeting, over 50 people stood at the podium and addressed the city council regarding a potential resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Several speeches were followed by heavy clapping and whistles, after which Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone reminded the public to refrain from making noise during the public comments.

In one instance, a speaker was interrupted by loud interjections, after which Stone threatened to remove those not observing the chamber’s rules.

Among those who advocated for an agenda item on the ceasefire was Sabah, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), who did not share her full name during public comment.

“Two weeks ago, I listened to community members objecting against a ceasefire resolution, as that would cause division within our community,” Sabah said during public comment.

However, objecting to a resolution under the guise that it will cause more division “is willfully ignorant and manipulative,” Sabah said. “This division already exists.”

Other community members said that Palo Alto should have no role in the Israel-Gaza war.

Twenty-two-year Palo Alto resident Avivit, who did not identify their last name, said during the meeting that “while the Palo Alto city council has no real influence on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a resolution regarding the war would have a negative impact on our local community [and] increase hate, extremism and violence, as it has in other cities around the Bay.”

A community member who identified themselves as Lori M. addressed the city council during public comments and concurred: “We all mourn the loss of innocent life in Israel and Gaza, but ceasefire resolutions make things worse.”

Lori then quoted San Francisco Mayor London Breed’s Friday letter regarding her decision not to sign the ceasefire resolution. 

“Since the Board of Supervisors introduced their Gaza ceasefire resolution, and certainly since they passed it last week, our city has been angrier, more divided and less safe,” Breed wrote. “Sadly, that may have been the point. Their exercise was never about bringing people together; it was about choosing a side.”

Martinez argued that a ceasefire resolution is necessary for Palo Alto.

The Sit-In to Stop Genocide seeks to “get acknowledgement from the city,” Martinez said. She believes that it could pressure Stanford to push for divestment, adding that she plans to continue appearing at weekly city council meetings for “as long as the energy of my body [allows].”

After the initial round of public comment, Stone asked the audience to either stand up or raise a hand to signify their support or opposition to a ceasefire, causing mixed reactions from the audience.

Council Member Julie Lythcott-Haims ’89, former dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising at Stanford and now a congressional candidate, responded to the commenters.

“I am on the record, in writing and orally in this chamber at the Human Relations Commission, asking for a bilateral humanitarian ceasefire,” she said.

Other council members did not directly address the public comments regarding a ceasefire resolution.

This article was updated to reflect how an attendee introduced themselves while speaking during the public comment period of the city council meeting.

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‘I should be in prison or dead’: Cameron Black on his journey from cult to campus https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/23/i-should-be-in-prison-or-dead-cameron-black-on-going-from-cult-to-campus/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/23/i-should-be-in-prison-or-dead-cameron-black-on-going-from-cult-to-campus/#respond Tue, 23 Jan 2024 10:16:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240763 Cameron Black '25 survived child abuse while in a cult led by his father. Later in life, he developed a heroin addiction and found himself in harmful recovery centers.

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Content warning: This article contains references to child abuse, sexual assault and suicide.

“Based on what I’ve been through, I should be in prison or dead,” Cameron Black ’25 said.

Born into a cult led by his father, who proclaimed himself to be God, Black’s early life in Sedona, Ariz. was anything but ordinary. This familial cult consisted of nine people and operated under unconventional religious and sexual practices, deeply entangled in manipulation and abuse, Black said.

“Don’t try to make sense of it because it doesn’t make sense,” he said as he explained the cult’s philosophy. “It’s like my father combined the Bible, sci-fi books and ‘The Matrix’ into one big ball of crazy.”

Describing his childhood, Black recounts harrowing experiences of physical and psychological torture at the hands of his father.

“Starting at 7 years old, for a few years, I would wake up at 2 a.m. to my father standing over me with a 45 caliber pistol or his machete, and he would ‘fake’ kill me,” Black said.

Black’s childhood was a continuous battle for survival. His father’s abuse included being left outside naked in below freezing temperatures for hours, forced to exclusively eat smoothies made up of food from the trash and being routinely drowned starting at age 4.

During periods of forced starvation and isolation, Black would escape into other worlds through books. He would reread scenes where food was described in vivid detail, imagining himself eating the meals and becoming full.

“I didn’t know any different, but I knew something was wrong,” Black said.

Black and other members of the cult he was in sit on the floor of a living room, surrounding his father.
A portrait of Black’s familial cult in 2011. Black is on the far right and his father is sitting beside him in orange. (Courtesy of Cameron Black)

Amid this terrifying chaos, Black recounts fleeting moments of normalcy — mountain biking, Fleetwood Mac playing in the house and large home-cooked family dinners.

“It’s human for us to remember the bad things. Cuts leave scars, but kisses don’t,” Black said. 

His father used to read the children bedtime stories and take them to Gap to buy clothes. But after Black turned 5 or 6 years old, he recalls a change in his father that never went away.

After being isolated from the outside world, Black was allowed to attend school for the first time in eighth grade. “I had no social skills, I was failing my classes, getting bullied and became addicted to cigarettes and weed,” Black said.

In the same year, when Black was 13 years old, he and his mother were told to leave the cult amid mounting legal pressures on his father. They signed a contract promising never to return in exchange for a truck and some cash.

Just a few months later, Black’s father committed suicide.

Black had great difficulty adjusting to the outside world. He found himself homeless and involved with men who ended up being part of the international gang MS-13.

“They kept me fed, and they kept me high. Even though they were dangerous, they were really funny and nice to me,” Black said. While with them, he became addicted to heroin. As he was 13 years old and would not arouse suspicion, Black was used by members to transfer powdered heroin for their drug deals.

A 13-year-old Black stands outside in a yellow winter jacket with it's lining cut open to conceal heroin.
13-year-old Black, dressed in a yellow winter jacket with its lining cut open, modified for concealing and transporting heroin. (Courtesy of Cameron Black)

At 14, Black was placed in a therapeutic boarding school where his therapist repeatedly sexually abused him. 

Black was admitted to this facility by his extended family, who had no involvement in the cult, to help him recover from the unhealthy sexual behaviors and violence he was exposed to growing up. However, Black said, “it made me even more confused and brought me a lot of shame.”

After this, Black was shuffled between eight residential treatment centers (RTCs) for youth. He was expelled from each for various reasons, including hypersexuality, involvement in bullying or being bullied and instances of self-harm, including a suicide attempt.

At one RTC in Utah, Black was exposed to equine therapy. “Horses were one of the few things that saved my life. I learned how to groom, rope and train them, and it brought me a sense of calm,” Black said.

Black’s biological uncle, Adam Whizin, and his wife, Kate Maloney, started supporting Black when he was 20 years old. He refers to them as his “chosen father” and “Soul Mama.”

Black never formally graduated high school, but Maloney encouraged him to get his GED and enroll in community college. 

“Cameron had been called worthless his entire life, so the biggest challenge was making him believe that an education was possible for him,” Maloney said.

With time and support, Black excelled at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) both in his academics and extracurriculars. Black found out he was accepted to Stanford as a transfer student right before his SBCC graduation — a moment he said he will remember forever. 

At Stanford, Black is a Resident Assistant (RA) for the substance-free Well House, a coordinator for Cardinal Recovery, a driver for 5-SURE and the Executive Director of Transfer Advocacy for the ASSU.

“I am at my best when I am serving others and have healthy structure in my life,” Black said, reflecting on how he manages all his roles on campus.

Black’s commitment to his Well House residents goes beyond official duties, offering support as a caring friend. 

“One night, I experienced a panic attack that badly affected the muscles in my back. Cameron offered to draw a bath for me and it helped both physically and mentally,” wrote Lydia Goedert ’24, one of Black’s residents.

Black stands in between his "chosen father" and "Soul Mama," all three of them wearing Stanford hats.
Black with his “chosen father” and “Soul Mama.” When he’s not at Stanford, he lives with his chosen parents in Hawai’i. (Courtesy of Cameron Black)

“Cameron is shedding the old labels he was repeatedly given: troublemaker, liar, stealer,” Maloney said. “He’s embracing his new identity as a loving person who is passionate about making a difference.”

Black hopes to create a comprehensive program for child abuse prevention and trauma recovery, where every individual, regardless of their circumstances, has access to therapeutic, psychiatric and wellness resources.

“Hurt people hurt people… If we take into account the shame and social stigmatization of being an abuser, it’s almost impossible to reach out for help,” Black said in a TEDxStanford talk.

He aims to break the cycle of intergenerational violence by transforming shame and stigma into a paradigm of education, healing and compassion. 

“I’m grateful for the people in my life who have stuck with me and saw something in me that I wasn’t able to see in myself,” Black said.

His message to society is one of understanding and love — to recognize the underlying causes of abuse and to extend support to those who suffer.

Black stands on stage at a TEDxStanford event.
(Courtesy of Cameron Black)

Support is available for students through Stanford’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) 24/7 at (650) 723-3785. The Graduate Life Office (GLO) is available 24/7 via the Stanford operator at (650) 723-7288, pager 25085 and during office hours at (650) 736-7078. The Bridge Peer Counseling Center offers counseling by trained students 24/7 at (650) 723-3392. The Faculty Staff Help Center, located in Kingscote Gardens, offers confidential help for Stanford faculty and staff.

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Sit-in reaches 94 days, marks longest in Stanford history https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/23/sit-in-reaches-94-days-marks-longest-in-stanford-history/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/23/sit-in-reaches-94-days-marks-longest-in-stanford-history/#respond Tue, 23 Jan 2024 09:34:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240757 The Sit-In to Stop Genocide has remained in White Plaza since October, advocating for the University to support a ceasefire in Gaza and to divest from companies supporting Israeli troops, among other demands.

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For the past 94 days, the Sit-In to Stop Genocide has occupied the center of White Plaza. It has officially broken the record for the longest sit-in in University history — previously held by a month-long “Stanford Out of South Africa” demonstration in the mid-1980s.

While students were initially focused on meeting with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez — a goal they accomplished on Dec. 6 — they are now focused on other demands, like calling on the University to endorse a ceasefire in Gaza and commit to the boycott, divest and sanction movement.

“We knew that we wanted to keep going because bombs have not stopped,” participant Pamela Martinez MFA ’25 told The Daily. 

The sit-in participants continued their demonstration as weather worsened over break. Time away from classes provided the time for renovations, though, when a tent broke down from the rain, Martinez said.

She and others who stayed at the sit-in over break spent their downtime repairing and renovating the space, Martinez said.

Other sit-in participants concurred that the quieter campus allowed them to focus on improving the physical space, including developing new rain drainage systems and increasing supplies like blankets and lamps. 

“We had a lot of time to fix the signs, fix the tents and all that. Winter break was much needed for the sit-in itself,” said one participant who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation. According to this participant, the upgrades would not be possible if they were constantly caught up in conversations with passersby “and worrying about safety and security.”

“We recognize that we’re living with a lot of privilege,” Martinez said. “We have heated blankets and we have electricity, something that people in Gaza [do not have].”

Sit-in participants said various University administrators, including Saller, Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life Tiffany Steinwert and Director of Operations and Student Unions Jeanette Smith-Laws, stopped by over break to check on the students’ well-being.

As students return for winter quarter, participants at the sit-in, along with some other student groups, are continuing to call on University administration and the Board of Trustees to divest from and boycott Israeli ventures and academic institutions.

“Student groups who are interested in human rights and the rights of Palestinians … are joining us in a coalition to apply pressure to Stanford to divest from companies complicit in apartheid and companies who are actually providing weaponry and funding for the genocide,” said Kavya Varkey ’23 M.S. ’25, a participant and organizer with the sit-in. 

Varkey said divestment is important and not unprecedented, “especially given Stanford’s history of participating in divestment during the Darfur genocide.” Varkey pointed to Stanford divesting from coal and from apartheid in South Africa as other examples of successful divestment campaigns. 

“We feel that [Gaza] is yet another situation where we can call on Stanford to uphold moral values, uphold international law and prove that it does care about its students,” Varkey said.

During winter quarter, the sit-in intends to collaborate with other student organizations on community education and coalition building. 

Varkey said the sit-in has previously organized a volunteer student organization town hall and a teach-in with the Black Student Union that “focused on Black and Palestinian liberation and solidarity.” They held traveling teach-ins about divestment and Palestinian solidarity at each ethnic theme dorm.

“We’ve been working on using education as a way to broaden our base and build a coalition between existing student groups and the sit-in to work toward a campaign and to raise awareness of the issues at hand,” Varkey said.

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Tara VanDerveer becomes winningest coach in college basketball https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/22/tara-vanderveer-becomes-winningest-coach-in-college-basketball/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/22/tara-vanderveer-becomes-winningest-coach-in-college-basketball/#respond Mon, 22 Jan 2024 08:08:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240671 In front of a packed house at Maples Pavilion, Stanford defeated the Oregon State Beavers, even with Cameron Brink on the bench. Stanford alumni in the WNBA attended to celebrate the historical night for head coach Tara VanDerveer.

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For Tara VanDerveer, it was another home game in the Pac-12. But for the crowds at Maples Pavilion there was a huge elephant in the room: she was about to surpass Mike Krzyzewski’s all-time wins record for a college basketball coach.

In front of a packed house, Stanford women’s basketball (17-2, 6-1 Pac-12) defeated the Oregon State Beavers (15-3, 4-3 Pac-12), even without the assistance of star senior forward Cameron Brink.

After she achieved the record with 1,203 career wins, the 70-year old head coach, who is known to put the team first, tried to avert attention from herself to the performance of her players. 

“How about Kiki?” VanDerveer exclaimed post-game to the crowd, in reference to the junior forward offensive explosion during the game. 

Without Brink, the chance of VanDerveer breaking Krzyzewski’s record at home felt up in the air. However, the Cardinal found stability by leaning on their other star forward: Kiki Iriafen.

Iriafen had her work cut out for her matching up against Beavers star forward Raegan Beers. While Beers put up a respectable 18 points and 10 rebounds, Iriafen stole the show: the Los Angeles product put up 36 points on an efficient 16-of-26 shooting to help pace Stanford for four quarters. 

It was a back-and-forth first half. With both offenses struggling from the field, neither team could pull comfortably ahead. The Cardinal came out of the gates sluggish, at one point missing 10 consecutive shots, but a 3-pointer from junior forward Brooke Demetre finally ended the scoring drought, and the game was tied 10-10 at the end of one quarter.

The game remained close during the second, but Iriafen’s offensive dominance and key defensive plays from the Cardinal allowed them to build a lead. Redshirt sophomore guard Jzaniya Harriel had a steal followed by a breakaway layup at the 4:44 mark to give the Cardinal a 20-18 lead. Iriafen’s 14 first half points helped the Cardinal extend that lead to 28-22 at the half. 

Oregon State got off to a hot start in the second half, with a layup from Beers and a 3-pointer from junior guard AJ Marotte giving the Beavers a 29-28 lead. The Cardinal’s offense, however, began to pick up some steam.

Sophomore guard Talana Lepolo hit back-to-back 3-pointers. Later in the quarter, Iriafen, zero for two in 3-pointers on the season, nailed back-to-back corner threes to the delight of Stanford’s bench. The Cardinal dropped 22 points in the quarter on their way to a 50-43 lead heading into the final quarter.

A Stanford guard rushes past an Oregon defender.
Sophomore guard Talana Lepolo, who hit back-to-back 3-pointers. (Photo: TYLER WONG/The Stanford Daily)

Iriafen continued to produce baskets, and the Beavers were never able to threaten Stanford’s lead. With the game clock winding down, shouts of “Tara!” echoed throughout Maples.

The historic 65-56 win over Oregon State was not just witnessed by Stanford fans, but also many most successful alumni from the program.   

WNBA stars Chiney Ogwumike ’14, Jayne Appel-Marinelli ’10 and Jennifer Azzi ’90 were all in attendance. Former Stanford quarterback and former NFL No. 1 overall pick Andrew Luck also made an appearance. 

A postgame ceremony was held with former players to celebrate VanDerveer’s historic career. Speakers included ESPN broadcasters Ogumike and Ros Gold-Onwude ‘10, along with Azzi. 

All three speakers shared stories about how VanDerveer affected their lives on and off the basketball court. Ogumike told a story about how VanDerveer encouraged her to study abroad in order to complete her international relations major, a choice that other head coaches would have likely deterred.

Azzi told the crowd that after an unsuccessful frosh season on the Farm, VanDerveer asked her to imagine winning a national championship during her senior season. And, she turned the vision into a reality. The Cardinal cut down the nets during the 1990 season, Azzi’s senior season and VanDerveer’s first of three career championship victories. 

In her post game press conference, the 70-year old head coach shrugged off her historic feat while looking ahead this season.

“I’m more interested in seeing what our team can do. I’d like to build on this and get better,” VanDerveer said. 

Next up, Stanford goes back on the road to face Arizona State (9-10, 1-6 Pac-12) at 5 p.m. on Friday. VanDerveer will look to add yet another win to her legendary career. 

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Petition seeks reinstatement of suspended COLLEGE lecturer https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/12/petition-seeks-reinstatement-of-suspended-college-lecturer/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/12/petition-seeks-reinstatement-of-suspended-college-lecturer/#respond Fri, 12 Jan 2024 09:49:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240089 Some students have circulated a petition to reinstate COLLEGE 101 lecturer Ameer Loggins, who was suspended over reports of identity-based targeting. Others expressed concerns over the petition's efforts.

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A petition circulated by students demands the reinstatement of COLLEGE 101 lecturer Ameer Loggins, who was suspended after reports of identity-based targeting last fall.

Stanford opened an investigation following reports that Loggins targeted Jewish students based on their identity during two Oct. 10 class sections, following the Hamas attack on Israel three days prior. University president Richard Saller said at a Graduate Student Council (GSC) meeting last December that Stanford has hired external counsel for the investigation.

Over 1,700 people have signed the petition as of Jan. 10, according to Jaeden Clark ’26, one of the students leading the effort. Clark said he was not formally one of Loggins’s students but has previously sat in on his lectures. Loggins did not respond to a request for comment.

A press release from the petitioners states that Loggins’s suspension was precipitated by misrepresentations of the incident, and the petition itself states that several news stories contain “dangerous misinformation.” The incident was covered by The Daily, The San Francisco Chronicle and CNN and discussed in a New York Times opinion piece.

The Daily obtained a roster of one of the sections in which the incidents occurred and reached out to the 17 students listed, but was unable to get comments from any.

Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez wrote in an Oct. 11 statement that the University had received a report of the incident and that Loggins was “not currently teaching while the university works to ascertain the facts of the situation.” Saller declined to share details of the investigation at the December GSC meeting.

University spokesperson Luisa Rapport wrote in an email to The Daily that, “The investigation, through an outside investigator, remains ongoing.”

Ji Qi Ni ’27, a student in Loggins’s section who was present during the incident, said he was “shocked” by the media representations of the incident, which he called “thrown out of proportion.”

Loggins facilitated a classroom demonstration in which he led a student through orders, including to stand by the wall. The demonstration drew criticism, but Ni said it was meant to shed light on the Israel-Gaza war and, as he remembers, the student who was chosen for the demonstration in his section was not Jewish.

Clark, who said he spoke with several students from the class, said some students’ impression was that Loggins addressed Jewish students to invite them to share their input and to provide a trigger warning before discussing sensitive topics. 

Others felt that accounts of the incident failed to elevate Jewish students’ perspectives.

Kelly Danielpour ’25, a co-president of the Jewish Student Association who spoke with several Jewish students from the class and was involved in reporting the incident, wrote that the “only students who can speak to whether Loggins created an environment where they felt singled out, targeted, and pressured based on a power dynamic are the Jewish students in his class.”

Danielpour wrote that much of the discourse around the incident has focused on the claim that Loggins asked Jewish students for consent during the classroom discussion and demonstrations, overlooking classroom power dynamics.

“Even if that student gave verbal consent to Loggins to be used as an example,” Danielpour wrote, “you can imagine how that student would have felt pressured to say yes to the lecturer who decides their grades.”

Students supporting the petition describe Loggins as someone who fostered tough but important conversations, created safe spaces for marginalized students and treated students like family.

Like Clark, Milo Golding ’26 is involved in the petition effort and previously sat in on Loggins’s lectures. He described Loggins as someone who created space for students to exchange different views on important societal issues. 

Golding said the media representations included “a lot of cherry picking” and portrayed Loggins as someone who forced his views upon students.

Ni, who concurred, said Loggins made it clear “the first day that he’s here to just have conversations,” and that Loggins told students it was “okay” to have “two different perspectives” on the Israel-Gaza war.

Some students criticized the petitioners’ claims, arguing that discussions of the incident should center the voices of the Jewish students who felt targeted.

Joshua Jankelow ’24, a former president of the Stanford Israel Association, wrote that having Jewish students “identify themselves is enough to single them out” in the context of the community’s “massive loss in the form of a brutal massacre two days before” the incident.

“If a student feels embarrassed, then they were embarrassed,” Jankelow wrote. “While there are ways to criticize Israel without being antisemitic, embarrassing Jewish students in front of their peers is certainly not one of them.”

Lee Rosenthal ’25, a former president of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, wrote in an email to The Daily that while he supports “students voicing their opinions on standing up for justice in the Middle East,” he “cannot support the call to reinstate a professor who singled out and targeted Jewish students in a classroom setting.” Rosenthal and Jankelow wrote in separate statements that they spoke with at least one Jewish student from the class.

The Daily was unable to speak directly with Jewish students from the class.

“I sympathize with the students who felt uncomfortable,” Golding said. 

However, Golding argued, Loggins tried to help students understand the people and communities impacted by issues raised in the classroom.

Golding said Loggins’s teaching style reflects his experiences growing up with a marginalized, low-income background and going “unheard.”

Echoing Golding, Clark said “the void that was created through [Loggins’s] absence was felt almost immediately by myself and other community members.”

“Stanford doesn’t do a great job of providing faculty that look like us or are from socioeconomic backgrounds that are similar to us,” Clark said.

In addition to reinstatement, the petition demands “restorative” actions that include the “development of a plan for a permanent role” for Loggins at Stanford and an apology from University administrators for their handling of his suspension. Students said the University responded more punitively to the incident involving Loggins — who is Black and Muslim — than to other instances of alleged misconduct by faculty members.

The University declined to answer questions about the other incidents.

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Neighborhoods no longer restrict housing draw https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/12/frosh-no-longer-restricted-to-assigned-neighborhoods/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/12/frosh-no-longer-restricted-to-assigned-neighborhoods/#respond Fri, 12 Jan 2024 09:30:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240135 As per suggestions from the Neighborhoods Task Force, students will no longer be required to stay in their neighborhood after their first year, Stanford Report announced Thursday.

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The neighborhood system is undergoing changes yet again.

Students will no longer have to stay in their assigned neighborhoods following their frosh year, and the Row and Wilbur Hall will merge into their own respective neighborhoods, the Stanford Report announced Thursday morning.

These shifts — among others — arrived following recommendations from the Neighborhoods Task Force, a committee of students, faculty and staff members created in May 2023 to consider long-term improvements to the neighborhood system. These changes will be implemented starting with the 2024-2025 housing process. 

“I am very happy with how we took in student voices and concerns and made a neighborhood system that is more fit for students,” said ASSU Senator Ivy Chen ’26, one of the six undergraduate students on the task force. 

Mirrielees, an apartment-style dormitory, will also join the Wisteria neighborhood under the new changes. The number of undergraduate spots in EVGR-A will additionally decrease until the buildingis phased out entirely for undergraduates as a housing option. Finally, sophomores will now live in “sophomore-priority spaces” — mainly one-room doubles and other shared room configurations — to ensure more juniors and seniors have access to singles, two-room doubles and spots on the Row, Chen said.

“There should not be juniors in sophomore housing,” said Evan Sing ’26. 

The neighborhood system had been previously criticized for restricting undergraduates to houses within their neighborhoods, and limiting students’ abilities to live with peers from others. Now, upperclassmen will be able to live in any residence regardless of their original neighborhood. 

“This just equals the playing field out for a lot of people,” Sing said. “It’s not like you are condemned to either GovCo, or this house on the Row or EVGR.”

Students had also condemned the lack of geographical contiguity in the previous division of neighborhoods. To address this, the Stanford Report said, the Row will become a separate neighborhood — with the exception of Muwekma-Tah-Ruk and the Well House, which will be in Olive. 

According to Chen, the neighborhood comprising the Row will receive a new name. Sequoia and Hyperion, the two neighborhoods that made up Wilbur Hall, will also merge and adopt either “Sequoia” or “Hyperion” as their final name.

“I like [the new system] because nobody’s told me why it’s bad yet,” Sing said. 

The Neighborhood Task Force, led by English professor Elaine Treharne and former Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole, began meeting during spring quarter of last year, Chen said. Meetings intensified in frequency and length when students returned to campus in the fall, with Chen participating in three-hour meetings thrice a month. 

In these meetings, members of the task force discussed student input from a community survey sent out in late 2023. According to Stanford communications director Luisa Rapport, the survey received 1,523 responses from students “across all class years and neighborhoods.” 

“It was really amazing seeing that students were really passionate about this issue and set the time out of their day to fill it out and express their interests, their opinions and their views about the current neighborhood system,” Chen said about the survey.  

The task force submitted their report prior to winter break. Now that the changes to the neighborhood system were approved, Chen says the task force’s work is done. 

“By no means is any housing system and any university perfect, but I think we are moving toward the right step with the changes we enacted,” Chen said. 

While many students support the recent developments to the neighborhood system, others seem confused by the role each neighborhood will play in the coming years.

“Why are they keeping them at all?” asked Ishani Mukherjee ’26. 

Since its creation, the main goal of the neighborhood system has been to foster continuity and community, according to ResEd’s initial neighborhood system proposal from 2018. However, since its adoption in 2021, the neighborhood system has been an unpopular addition to the Stanford residential experience. Neighborhood events, though flush with funds, saw little support from students during the 2022-2023 school year. 

Although several popular events and the new crop of frosh seemed to sway public sentiment, what many perceived as a stressful housing process this past summer did little to change the neighborhood system’s stubborn reputation. 

But Thursday’s announcements led to an outpouring of support on Fizz, indicating that the recent changes have finally improved students’ perceptions of the neighborhood system. 

Screenshots of celebratory Fizz posts on a purple background.
Fizz users celebrated the changes to the neighborhood system. (Graphic: ANANYA UDAYGIRI/The Stanford Daily)

“The neighborhood system has changed. Yay!” Chen said. “It just makes me so happy that we’re doing things for the students, by the students.”

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Paul Brest named new interim law school dean https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/10/paul-brest-named-new-interim-law-school-dean/ https://stanforddaily.com/2024/01/10/paul-brest-named-new-interim-law-school-dean/#respond Wed, 10 Jan 2024 09:51:32 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1240002 Robert Weisberg J.D. '79 is stepping down from the position to address health issues.

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Former Stanford Law School (SLS) Dean Paul Brest temporarily will return to the post following Robert Weisberg J.D. ’79 stepping down as interim dean to address health issues, according to a Monday announcement from University Provost Jenny Martinez.

Martinez, the previous dean, became provost on Oct. 1 after Persis Drell announced her resignation last fall. The search for a permanent SLS dean remains ongoing.

The position is among many open administrative roles in a year of turnovers in the Stanford administration, including the resignation of Stanford’s former president and provost. Susie Brubaker-Cole and Sarah Church also resigned as vice provost for student affairs and vice provost for undergraduate education, respectively, at the end of fall quarter.

Brest, currently a professor emeritus, served as SLS dean from 1987 to 1999, after joining SLS faculty in 1969. He was previously the president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000 to 2012. 

Weisberg became interim dean in October after Martinez was appointed 14th provost of Stanford University. Following his resignation, he will remain a member of SLS faculty, where he currently serves as Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law. 

“I am grateful to [Weisberg] for his time as interim dean, which has built on an extraordinary career of scholarship and service at SLS, and I completely support his decision to put his health first,” Martinez told the Stanford Report. “I am deeply appreciative that [Brest] has agreed to step into the role while our search wraps up.”

According to the Stanford Report, Weisberg will work alongside Brest to advise faculty and staff, and expects that the change in leadership will cause minimal disruptions.

The Daily has reached out to Martinez, Brest and SLS for comment. Weisberg declined to participate in an interview. 

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Blockbuster Alzheimer’s paper retracted by former Stanford president after a decade of resistance https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/31/blockbuster-alzheimers-paper-retracted-by-former-stanford-president-after-a-decade-of-resistance/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/31/blockbuster-alzheimers-paper-retracted-by-former-stanford-president-after-a-decade-of-resistance/#respond Sun, 31 Dec 2023 19:08:00 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239751 A 2009 study, cited as a “key scientific discovery” by Genentech as it sought a higher valuation, has now been retracted by former University head Marc Tessier-Lavigne. It is his fourth retraction in as many months.

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Marc Tessier-Lavigne told shareholders in 2009 that his research would “turn our current understanding of Alzheimer’s upside down.” Now, the former Stanford president and his co-authors have retracted the paper he once heralded, conceding they do not have confidence in its data.

The prominent journal Nature announced the retraction in a Dec. 18 note signed by all four co-authors. The note acknowledged a number of image anomalies and biostatistical errors, but denied that the study had included falsified data. Tessier-Lavigne was first urged to retract the paper over a decade ago but maintained as recently as July that he would not.

“As with all of my papers, at the time of publication of Nature 2009, I believed the results in the paper were correct and accurately presented,” Tessier-Lavigne wrote in a statement to The Daily last week. “I absolutely believe that there are no falsified data in the paper,” he wrote in a subsequent email.

This retraction is Tessier-Lavigne’s fourth in as many months, a stunning turn of events for a researcher of his stature. A wealthy and influential neuroscientist, Tessier-Lavigne served as chief scientific officer at Genentech and president of Rockefeller University before he assumed the presidency of Stanford. He resigned as president this summer after a Stanford-sponsored investigation confirmed a pattern of falsified research emerging from labs he ran. 

Tessier-Lavigne has not been accused of manipulating data himself or directly encouraging falsification. But the Stanford investigation found that he failed to correct the scientific record on various occasions when falsification was brought to his attention across three different labs and two decades.

Retractions remain exceedingly rare for scientific papers: Just eight out of every 10,000 are retracted, according to a Retraction Watch database. Two of Tessier-Lavigne’s influential neurodevelopment papers published in Science and a third published in Cell were withdrawn earlier this fall after they were found to contain manipulated images. Another Tessier-Lavigne paper published in Nature was issued an expression of concern over “manipulation of research data” this month, implying it will likely face correction or retraction.

But the 2009 paper, which garnered a towering 816 citations according to Clarivate’s Web of Science, was one of the most significant papers Tessier-Lavigne had published. It claimed to have found the cause of Alzheimer’s and suggested a potential course for treating the deadly disease.

As early as 2008, the year before the paper was published, experiments conducted at Genentech suggested that its central finding, a binding between two specific proteins, was at best unreliable.

“Prior to publication of the paper, employees other than the authors performed binding experiments that showed inconsistent results,” Genentech said in an April statement. “Senior leaders at Genentech including Dr. Tessier-Lavigne knew of the inconsistent binding results,” it continued in the next paragraph. Evidence that the binding was inconsistent was not included in the paper nor publicly mentioned by Tessier-Lavigne.

Tessier-Lavigne told Stanford investigators that “despite being the Principal Investigator, he had never previously been provided with the full set of inconsistent binding results and, had he known their extent, he would have engaged in additional investigative experimentation.” In a statement last week, he reiterated that he had not been aware prior to publication that the central binding in his research could not be reliably replicated. Genentech declined to elaborate on its readout.

Despite the internal uncertainty, Genentech’s public rollout lauded the study as a long-awaited breakthrough in combating Alzheimer’s. “Because of this research,” Genentech’s 2009 annual letter to shareholders read, the company was working to create novel treatments that would “help the millions of people who currently suffer from this devastating disease.” Within Genentech, there was speculation that the research could win a Nobel Prize, and Tessier-Lavigne went on a media tour to promote the paper.

A power point slide titled "Introducing Marc-Tessier-Lavigne" with "Media Headlines from 2/14/09 - 2/28/09" in smaller text below. Title in white on a blue background with a DNA image to the side. Slide shows screenshots from many news articles including headlines and the newspapers.
A slide used in a Genentech investor presentation arguing for a higher valuation of the company. The slide showcased the since-retracted research and introduced Marc Tessier-Lavigne. (Courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commission)

Top executives, including Tessier-Lavigne, also used the paper as part of a campaign to raise the purchase price that pharmaceutical giant Roche would pay to acquire Genentech, a negotiation ongoing at the time. According to a transcript of a March 2009 shareholder presentation, Tessier-Lavigne made the case that “when we decide to enter an area, we enter in full force with the aim of making a difference very rapidly.” His research, he said, was an example of that.

On a slide listing the company’s “key scientific discoveries,” only this research appeared highlighted in blue.

A power point slide titled "Changing the Lives of Patients..." with "Some of Genetech's Key Scientific Discoveries" in smaller italicized text below. Title in white on a blue background with a DNA image to the side. Slide includes discovers in bullet points. The final bullet point "New model for the basis of Alzheimer's disease" is highlighted in blue.
Caption: A slide used in a Genentech investor presentation arguing for a higher valuation of the company. The slide showcased key scientific discoveries with a reference to the Alzheimer’s paper highlighted in blue. (Courtesy of the Securities and Exchange Commission)

Genentech’s campaign successfully convinced investors that the biotech company was undervalued. Roche’s offer increased from $86.50 to $95 a share, a difference of roughly $4 billion. It remains unclear exactly how much the now-retracted Alzheimer’s paper factored into Roche’s calculus; one high-ranking Genentech executive told The Daily that “the information circle was small,” though sticking points were said to include Avastin, a cancer drug going through a trial at the time, according to another senior figure at Genentech.

Genentech declined to comment last week on negotiations with Roche.

By 2012, it had become clear to researchers both inside Genentech and at rival pharmaceutical companies that the research in the Tessier-Lavigne paper was not reproducible. Genentech’s Research Review Committee, a group of top-level executives at the company, authorized attempts to reassess the program and ultimately decided to cease further research.

According to eight prominent researchers and executives with knowledge of the review, executives at the company were convinced that the research had been based on falsified data. The “rising star” researcher who had spearheaded the study, Anatoly Nikolaev, abruptly left the field of bioscience to attend community college in Michigan. Tessier-Lavigne, Genentech and Nikolaev deny that there was ever discussion of fraud in the paper.

Tessier-Lavigne was urged to retract the paper amid the 2012 review, Genentech confirmed in April. Sources The Daily interviewed said at least four senior figures within the company had urged withdrawal. Tessier-Lavigne chose not to, instead publishing subsequent papers that walked back several of the claims. He continued to cite the paper in grant applications, according to National Institutes of Health filings reviewed by The Daily. Tessier-Lavigne declined to answer questions last week about why he did not retract the paper in 2012.

The Stanford-sponsored report on Tessier-Lavigne’s research stated in mid-July that “allegations of fraud related to the paper appear to be mistaken.” Investigators speculated that a separate instance in 2010 of research misconduct in Tessier-Lavigne’s lab had been conflated with the 2009 study. Genentech insiders who spoke to The Daily denied that they had confused the two, and identified three separate episodes of alleged research misconduct in Tessier-Lavigne’s lab. The Stanford report did not address the third episode, which was brought to the University’s attention in correspondence obtained by The Daily in March.

It has since emerged that key sources declined to speak to Stanford’s investigators because they were not promised anonymity despite non-disclosure agreements.

Despite not finding fraud, the Stanford investigation concluded the 2009 paper “fell below accepted scientific practices, let alone Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s self-described standard of scientific excellence.”

At the time the Stanford report was released, Tessier-Lavigne acknowledged flaws but did not intend to retract the paper. On a public lab website at that time, he wrote that he wanted to make clear to Nature readers that aspects of the paper had not held up and that certain data were unreliable. “I intend to issue such a correction as soon as possible,” he wrote.

It is unclear exactly what led him to retract the paper entirely rather than correcting only certain parts. Editors at Nature did not respond to a request for comment and Tessier-Lavigne said only that the decision was “based on our assessment of how to proceed given the new anomalies that only came to light this past year,” referring to duplicate images in the study.

Stephen Neal, the chairman emeritus of Cooley LLP who has served as Tessier-Lavigne’s lawyer, wrote in February that “Dr. Tessier-Lavigne’s later papers did not repudiate the Paper’s primary findings and a correction or retraction of those findings would have been unwarranted and inappropriate.” Neal also wrote that “the Paper’s original results were accurately reported.” 

But in this week’s retraction note, Tessier-Lavigne and the other authors acknowledged that “our subsequent research showed that certain specific claims in the original article were not correct.” The paper’s central theory, about a protein bind that the authors said was hijacked by Alzheimer’s and triggered a process that caused neurons to prune themselves, was inaccurate in several ways.

The retraction notice also acknowledged that four panels appeared to have been reused to represent different experiments, and a fifth panel appeared to contain a blot partially duplicated from a sixth panel. There were also unspecified errors in “certain biostatistical calculations underlying some figures,” the notice said.

Concerns about Tessier-Lavigne’s research first emerged in 2015 on a scientific forum called PubPeer. They were resurfaced in a Daily report last year that addressed four Tessier-Lavigne papers, though the 2009 Nature paper only came under public scrutiny after a Feb. 17 Daily article detailed the recollections of four senior scientists and executives at Genentech.

According to Gene Sykes, chair of the search committee to find a permanent replacement for Tessier-Lavigne, the committee has “plans to do due diligence in a way that it was not done in the previous search.” Stanford has declined to specify those plans.

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‘Fight the fight’: Sit-in to continue over break after meeting with Saller, Martinez https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/08/fight-the-fight-sit-in-to-continue-over-break-after-meeting-with-saller-martinez/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/08/fight-the-fight-sit-in-to-continue-over-break-after-meeting-with-saller-martinez/#respond Fri, 08 Dec 2023 13:47:20 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239601 Participants plan to break the record for the longest sit-in in university history, seeking University actions like divestment and the establishment of an Arab Studies track within the comparative studies in race and ethnicity program.

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Demonstrators with the “Sit-In to Stop Genocide” in White Plaza met with President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez Wednesday to discuss their demands, calling on the University to divest from and boycott Israeli ventures and academic institutions as well as issue a statement that condemns Israeli war crimes and calls for a ceasefire. The sit-in will continue over winter break as participants seek more action from the University.

Participants of the sit-in previously said that until a meeting with Saller and Martinez was granted, they were prepared to stay in White Plaza for “as long as it takes” to make progress on their demands. The University had previously refused to meet with representatives of the sit-in until the overnight portion ended. 

Under pressure from alumni and student groups, including the sit-in, Saller and Martinez announced two new committees on Nov. 13 that are tasked with providing recommendations on ways to educate the community about and mitigate acts of Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Following the committees’ announcement and the recent meeting with administrators, protesters at the sit-in have since focused on divestment and other ways the University can support Palestinian thought and representation beyond resources for students. This includes advocating for the establishment of an Arab Studies track within the comparative studies in race and ethnicity program.

At the meeting with Saller and Martinez, members of the sit-in asked the administration to join them in calling on the Board of Trustees to divest from companies “enabling Israeli violence in occupied Palestine,” said Farah Tantawy ’26, a participant and organizer with the sit-in.

“The University asserts that their sole obligation amid the genocide in Gaza is ensuring student safety on campus. While this is crucial, they must also confront their active involvement in enabling Israel’s violence through research, investments and rhetoric,” said Katie Eder ’24, another participant and organizer with the sit-in. “The sit-in will persist until tangible measures are taken to acknowledge and rectify their complicity.” 

According to Eder, Stanford funds companies “actively contributing to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” including aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, which provides fighter jets and other military equipment to the Israeli military

Saller and Martinez met with sit-in participants as part of broader engagement with “many different groups, including meetings with Jewish students and with Palestinian students and their allies,” wrote University spokesperson Mara Vandlik in a statement to The Daily.

“The University is continuing to work to support the safety and wellbeing of everyone in our community as the Israel-Hamas war continues,” Vandlik wrote.

Though the sit-in and the University have opened dialogue, the group plans on continuing their protest throughout winter break. 

Tantawy said the meeting with Saller and Martinez was “just the first step into creating institutional change at Stanford.”

Echoing Tantawy, Eder said that they are “continuing the sit-in to ensure that what’s happening in Gaza is visible to the Stanford community and Stanford administration. We’ll continue to be visible and be disruptive until we see action from the administration.”

To ensure the success of the sit-in over break, the group plans to rely on graduate students, whose student housing does not close over break. 

Over winter break, the sit-in is slated to become the longest sit-in in Stanford history, beating a 53-day-long sit-in calling on the University to divest from apartheid South Africa in 1985. 

Organizers with the sit-in are drawing on past successful student divestment campaigns, including ones that called on the University to divest from Sudanese ventures supporting the genocide in Darfur, coal mining initiatives and ventures that supported and contributed to South African apartheid

In previous student protest moments, “the push for divestment, the threat of actual economic consequences is what led to the fall of the apartheid regime and its replacement with a democratic regime,” said Hana Spahia ’26, another sit-in organizer.

The sit-in’s demands are not new — students have been calling on the University to divest from Israeli ventures since 2015, when a coalition of student activist groups named Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) petitioned the University to divest. SOOP successfully campaigned for the Undergraduate Senate to vote in favor of divestment after a petition garnered over 1,000 student signatures. 

According to Spahia, the University has a moral imperative to divest: ”The Board of Trustees’ Document for Investment Responsibility says explicitly that divestment must be considered in cases of apartheid and genocide,” Spahia said. 

“Being here for winter break represents the fact that we’re willing to fight the fight even when it’s not convenient,” Tantawy said. “Our presence on campus is meant to be a disturbance. It’s meant to make sure that people know business cannot go on as usual.”

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Stanford condemns calls for genocide of Jews https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/08/stanford-condemns-calls-for-genocide-of-jews/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/08/stanford-condemns-calls-for-genocide-of-jews/#respond Fri, 08 Dec 2023 13:39:54 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239612 The University released statements on social media unequivocally condemning calls for genocide of Jews or any people, and affirming that such statements would violate the Fundamental Standard.

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Stanford “unequivocally” condemned “calls for the genocide of Jews or any peoples,” in a statement released through social media posts on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) Thursday night.

The University wrote that such statements “would clearly violate Stanford’s Fundamental Standard, the code of conduct for all students of the University.” 

The statement opened with acknowledgment of “the context of national discourse,” amid national controversy over a Wednesday congressional hearing where the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania appeared to evade questions on disciplining students who called for the genocide of Jewish people. 

Pointing to chants for an “intifada” by protesters on their campus, New York representative Elise Stefanik asked the university presidents whether calling for the genocide of Jews would constitute bullying or harassment under their codes of conduct.

“It depends on the context,” said Harvard President Claudine Gay ’92. 

Since the hearing, all three presidents — MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Penn President Elizabeth Magill having also said disciplinary action depended on the context  — have faced calls to resign. On Thursday, a Congressional committee opened an investigation into the three universities for failing to address “rampant antisemitism.” Alumni of the three universities have also threatened to withdraw donations.

Yale president Peter Salovey ’80 M.A. ’80 issued a statement earlier on Thursday “forcefully” rejecting discrimination and prejudice on its campus.

Stanford administration previously faced criticism for University statements and responses to antisemitism on campus. President Richard Saller met with Jewish alumni on Nov. 16, following an Oct. 24 letter with 2,600 signatures that threatened to withdraw donations if Stanford did not immediately condemn Hamas and antisemitism on campus.

To provide support for communities on campus affected by the Israel-Hamas war, Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez introduced two campus initiatives on Nov. 13: an Antisemitism, Bias and Communication Subcommittee and a new Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Communities Committee. 

Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) criticized Stanford’s social media post: “For an institution to dare issue a condemnation of genocide without explicitly including Palestinians in that statement is a deliberate erasure of the ongoing suffering in Gaza,” they wrote.

The Daily has reached out to the University for comment.

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Janine Zacharia on covering Israel and Palestine amid the ‘fog of war’ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/07/janine-zacharia-on-covering-israel-and-palestine-amid-the-fog-of-war/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/07/janine-zacharia-on-covering-israel-and-palestine-amid-the-fog-of-war/#respond Fri, 08 Dec 2023 07:44:38 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239388 Communications lecturer Janine Zacharia reflected on her time as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East and discussed the intricacies of covering the Israel-Hamas war.

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Communications lecturer Janine Zacharia spoke about lessons learned from almost two decades spent as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East to around 50 Stanford community members at McClatchy Hall on Monday.

During the public discussion, titled “The Fog of War,” Zacharia described the intricacies of covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a journalist. The panel was moderated by communications professor and department chair James Hamilton and attended by many University affiliates, including former Stanford president John Hennessy, political science professor Scott Sagan and law professor Allen Weiner.

Zacharia spent nearly two decades reporting on Israel, the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy for various publications, including The Washington Post. The discussion comes amid ongoing war in Israel and Gaza, in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise assault on Israel. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis and 17,000 Palestinians.

Hamilton wrote that he hoped students would “come away appreciating how complex the challenges of covering the war are, how reporters invest in learning about history and context when they report from abroad and how they hope that readers will judge them by their work rather than their backgrounds,” in an email to The Daily.

Zacharia began the event by asking audience members traits they considered essential for foreign correspondents. She then illustrated each trait with an experience from her own life. For “resourcefulness,” for instance, she spoke about needing to file a story after the internet had been shut off during the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. After receiving a call from her father, Zacharia asked him to call the Post, who she was reporting for at the time, and dictated to him the entire article “like it was 1970 or something,” she said.

When asked about the greatest challenge in covering the conflict, Zacharia said it was difficult to obtain the truth amid a set of “dueling victim narratives.” She raised the recent breakdown of a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas as an example, pointing to how Israel and Hamas each accused the other of firing first to break the truce. The truce, which had been negotiated to facilitate negotiations between the two sides, ended Nov. 30.

“Whose version are you going to lead with?” Zacharia said. “Unfortunately, the only way to do it is to give both versions.”

As a Jewish reporter, Zacharia said her identity had come under increased scrutiny during her time as a foreign correspondent. Zacharia said she frequently had to obscure her identity while meeting with Muslim leaders, who questioned whether she was capable of reporting on the issues fairly.

Amid the current Israel-Hamas war, Zacharia said she had received many messages, some threatening, questioning whether she could objectively cover the conflict given her identity.

Zacharia said when she was hired to cover the Middle East by the Post in 2009, she was clearly qualified for the job given her wealth of experience. 

“Now, in 2023, am I going to be rejected because I’m Jewish?” she said.

An audience member asked her to speak on Stanford’s statements on the conflict. The University’s policy of neutrality had previously been criticized in an open letter signed by over 1,800 Stanford affiliates, who urged the University to directly condemn Hamas’ actions. Zacharia redirected the question to Hennessy, who said that “it’s not the job of the University to take political positions.”

“I would put out a statement saying we empathize with the pain on both sides, and that innocent people have been killed,” Hennessy said. “There are people in our community whose families and friends are in danger, and it’s for them you’re making that statement.”

Zacharia said she agreed with Hennessy, and spoke about a meeting she had with a “beleaguered” President Richard Saller after the Oct. 7 attack.

Zacharia advised Saller that his “job is to make the students feel safe. The students have to feel safe here and we need to provide a safe learning environment for them.”

Ray Ostil ’25, a communications student who attended the event, wrote that he appreciated how the discussion reemphasized that “accuracy is of greater importance” than speed and that there were many difficulties associated with potentially “humanizing a (supposed) villainous character.”

 “I immediately felt the sincerity from Janine,” Ostil wrote. “I can think of no better way to think critically about journalistic integrity, than to hear about the thin line she walked as a journalist living in Israel constantly covering Palestine.”

Toward the end of her talk, Zacharia spoke about Anthony Shadid, a war correspondent who suffered a fatal asthma attack in 2012 while reporting in Syria. Zacharia said Shadid’s death exemplified the “kind of risks that foreign correspondents take to do this kind of work, especially in the Middle East.”

Hamilton wrote he was particularly inspired by Zacharia’s ending remarks, where she spoke about “how the next generation of reporters, the students in the audience, can have an impact on the world through accurate and transparent public affairs reporting.”

“I was so lucky, and now I get to train you guys to do it,” Zacharia said. “You just have to have thick skin for the trolls, man — the trolls are fierce.”

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Saller addresses campus tensions around Israel-Gaza at GSC https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/07/saller-addresses-campus-tensions-around-israel-gaza-at-gsc/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/07/saller-addresses-campus-tensions-around-israel-gaza-at-gsc/#respond Thu, 07 Dec 2023 10:12:53 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239321 Saller expressed concern for the safety of student protestors and advocated for free speech protections at a GSC meeting. While he shared that Stanford hired outside counsel to investigate reports of identity-based targeting by a COLLEGE 101 lecturer, he declined to comment further on the ongoing investigation.

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University President Richard Saller joined the Graduate Student Council (GSC) Tuesday to address concerns around campus discourse about the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, as well as increasing tuition rates.

Fireside chat with Saller

Saller invited the GSC to ask him about any issues, prefacing with an explanation of his responsibilities and the Provost’s separate management of budget, capital planning and academic activities. 

Kristen Jackson, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in education and out-going GSC co-chair, brought up academic freedom and the funding of research topics, specifically around the GSC’s particular goal of fossil fuel divestment. Saller referenced the Kalven Report, a University of Chicago report advocating institutional neutrality on public issues, and expressed overall support for academic freedom.  

“I am very much a proponent of the idea that we need to have an open forum for debate and I would hope that it would be respectful and based on research, not just voicing opinions,” Saller said. “That, of course, is coming to the floor in a very painful way right now, not with fossil fuels so much as with the war in Israel and Gaza.”

Saller also iterated that his role as president for an interim term was to ensure “continuity” to the best of his ability — including the progression of the fossil fuel committee, created by former President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, which reviews fossil fuel company-funded research projects.  

Calling himself a free speech advocate, Saller said speech that is unprotected would have to entail a threat of physical violence against a particular individual along with a realistic possibility of carrying out the threat, per the Leonard Law.

Saller said he is currently meeting with both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel groups, though he will not issue a statement endorsing one side or the other of the war.

“What we’re trying to do is first of all protect the safety of the community and secondly, express sympathy with the very real pain that both sides are feeling because of the violence,” Saller said. “Statements from the University are not going to settle the war, unfortunately.” 

According to Saller, Stanford has hired an outside, neutral counsel to investigate Ameer Hasan Loggins, a COLLEGE 101 lecturer who was suspended due to reports of identity-based targeting of Jewish and Israeli students in October. The investigative council spoke with Loggins and students from the class. Saller declined to share any details of the investigation while it is ongoing.

Emmit Pert, fourth-year chemistry Ph.D. student and incoming co-chair of GSC, reintroduced a 2008 Stanford proposal of wanting to significantly increase enrollment. Councilors also raised concerns about rising tuition rates.

“We charge hefty tuition, but we also give half of it back in the form of scholarships,” Saller said.

“In the wake of the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action … the more immediate issue is what we’re going to commit in financial resources to try to … maintain a diverse undergraduate student body.” The effects of the affirmative action decision will be felt throughout undergraduate, graduate admissions and graduate fellowships, Saller said. 

Saller also attributed the increase in tuition to the increase in scale of University resources. He noted that they have committed a lot of resources to student counseling and mental health as well as for legal and safety precautions. 

“We’re caught up in a lot of legal fees,” Saller said. “We’ve had to bring in an outside security firm to make sure that the protesters in White Plaza are safe.”

“The last thing I want to see, on my watch, is any kind of physical harm done to that group,” Saller said.  

Funding

The GSC voted to approve the UGS Funding Bill, which was drafted to align with the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) funding policies and to grant the GSC more freedom in funding allocation. The bill recommends funding amounts for each voluntary student organization, with a hard cap of $7,000 for each organization. 

Jackson also called for the implementation of hourly paid, lower time commitment jobs reserved for master’s students. 

“A lot of master’s students are like, ‘I just want something I can do a couple hours a week’ … a little bit mindless but wanting to gain experience,” Jackson said, highlighting that this could improve affordability for students.

Other ideas brought up were to expand the running times of the Shopping Express and to create more airport shuttle options by funding Students for a Sustainable Stanford. A new initiative introduced may pilot a late night shuttle option. 

“Better access to [San Francisco], San Jose and Oakland, given the disconnect between here and Caltrain, could be worth partnering for,” Jackson said. She reiterated that partnership for transportation off campus would be beneficial for both graduates and undergraduates.

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Students reflect on professor Steve Sano’s impact on Stanford https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/05/students-reflect-on-professor-steve-sanos-impact-on-stanford/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/05/students-reflect-on-professor-steve-sanos-impact-on-stanford/#respond Wed, 06 Dec 2023 06:15:16 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1239083 Steve Sano, a monumental figure within Stanford’s music scene, has transformed the lives of countless student musicians through his mentorship, guidance and compassion.

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Light streams through the open door of Room 120, a cozy office tucked into a hallway at the heart of Braun Music Center. Professor Stephen M. Sano M.A. ’91 DMA ’94 sits typing away at his desktop computer. In this room, at the far east end of the Stanford campus, Sano has been quietly making a wide-ranging impact within the Stanford community.

Sano, a professor of music at Stanford since 1992, has served as co-advisor to Stanford Taiko and director of Stanford Chamber Chorale, two of the most well-known arts programs on campus. During this time, he has personally guided hundreds of students toward careers in music and served as a stalwart fixture of Stanford’s music department.

The Daily spoke with students who shared stories of Sano’s kindness, gentle leadership and willingness to be there when they most needed him. Sano’s impact on his students can be seen most poignantly in the potpourri of gifts — a beautiful family of origami cranes among them — from former students, which he always keeps next to his windows.

“It wouldn’t be an over-exaggeration to say that it was truly one of the biggest blessings of my life to have met him,” said Julia Kwak ’22 M.S. ’23, a coterminal computer science major who has been part of Chamber Chorale for the past six years. 

Sano’s role models and rise

Three role models defined Sano’s childhood in Palo Alto: his father, his mother and conductor Seiji Ozawa. “My parents’ really expansive and holistic worldview did a lot to shape who I am,” he said.

While his peers “lived in households where they were encouraged to keep [their heads] down,” Sano said his parents were different. For instance, they frequently took him to marches against the Vietnam War. 

When Sano expressed his interest in music at an early age, his parents were nothing but supportive. They took him to piano lessons and encouraged his trips to the San Francisco Symphony, where he met his third role model, Seiji Ozawa.

Sano was captivated by Ozawa, a conductor born in Japan who spent his career making music in the U.S. He was a “real pillar” of the Asian American community, Sano said, “not just in ability and stature, but in how innately musical his physicality was.”

Sano graduated from San Jose State University in 1981 with a degree in piano performance and music theory. After spending five years in his second passion, mountaineering, Sano returned to the Bay Area in 1986 to serve as executive director for the Peninsula Symphony, where he did “everything but perform and everything but conduct.”

As soon as he began the job, he realized that he had found his calling in life. “I’d sit there and watch the conductor going, ‘I could be doing that,’” he said.

Sano went back to college and pursued graduate degrees in choral and orchestral conducting from Stanford. Here, he met his wife, Linda Uyechi ’79 M.S. ’81 Ph.D. ’95, who took his music to the next level.

“You know how when you date somebody you start listening to their music and everything?” he said, chuckling. Uyechi, he said, introduced him to slack-key guitar and taiko — which, along with choral conducting, would form the three pillars of his musical career.

Sano in Stanford Taiko

As co-advisor for Stanford Taiko, Sano said that he and his wife and co-advisor Uyechi serve as “institutional memory,” providing a sense of continuity in a space where students often graduate within four years.

Uyechi, who also teaches an academic seminar on North American taiko, told The Daily that she and Sano love spending time with Taiko members. “Every spring when they do their spring concert, we spend about a week together” in Bing Concert Hall, Uyechi said. There, she and Sano would listen and give advice to Taiko members before their most important concert.

Kimi Shirai ’25, the director of communications for Taiko, said that at the beginning of each year, Sano and Uyechi host a dinner at their home where they teach members the history and traditions of taiko. Shirai credited Sano and Uyechi with allowing the group to run independently while simultaneously playing such a critical part in its success.

Uyechi added that she and Sano had often received invitations to the weddings of former Taiko members — “really, really special” moments where Sano would bring his slack-key guitar and perform to the guests.

Sano as conductor, educator and mentor

Perhaps Sano’s most significant impact at Stanford comes from his role as director of the Stanford Chamber Chorale, a position in which he has served for over three decades. Under Sano’s lead, the Chamber Chorale has released several Grammy-listed albums, hosted yearly performances in Bing Concert Hall and Memorial Church and toured across countries like Thailand, Wales and China.

Students said Chamber Chorale is a tight-knit group. Toby Bell ’19 M.S. ’21 Ph.D. ’28, who has been part of Chamber Chorale for almost a decade, said that Sano always starts and ends every practice exactly on time. This respect for his students’ time allows Chorale members to bring their all to every rehearsal, Bell said.

“He’s the person I most would like to model myself after if I were in a position of leadership,” he said. Bell currently serves as one of the choreographers for the Viennese Ball Opening Ceremony at Stanford, and sees many parallels between his role and Sano’s in Chamber Chorale.

“There have been plenty times … when I’ve asked myself, ‘What would Steve do in this situation?’” Bell said.

Eric Tuan ’12, now a composer at the helm of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, where he once sang as a child, said that Chamber Chorale was “one of the formative experiences” of his time at Stanford. Tuan recalled how Sano gave him opportunities to work as a collaborative pianist and to compose pieces for the group, and how after his graduation, Sano extended a helping hand by offering him a part-time job in Stanford’s choral studies program.

“I learned so much from Steve, not only as an instructor, but as a mentor,” Tuan said.

Students also recalled that Sano cared deeply about their well-being. Kwak, who has been with Chamber Chorale for over five years, still remembers the pure isolation she felt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During such a difficult time, Kwak said that Sano was there for her. “We had regular calls and he would just listen to everything that I was going through, and be so empathetic,” she said. “I think I’ve become a much more self-assured person through him.”

As members of Chamber Chorale reflected on their myriad unforgettable experiences, Sano remained the center of each story. Tuan recalled dumpling-making parties in Sano’s home and the ghost stories Sano shared after a concert in Hawai’i.

Kwak described occassions when Sano performed the slack-key guitar to members. “Every time he plays, we cry, because it’s so beautiful,” she said.

Sano’s impact

Sano’s musical endeavors go further than his leadership in Stanford Taiko and Stanford Chamber Chorale — his slack-key guitar recording of “Songs from the Taro Patch,” for instance, appeared on the preliminary ballot for the 2008 Grammys.

But Sano said that his biggest motivation for waking up in the morning has been the connections he forms with students. “What I’m really happiest about,” he said, “are those lifelong continuing relationships that you build with students who become former students who become friends,” he said. Sano said he cherished seeing students he once taught surpass him in the arts.

Over a decade later, Tuan still remembers his 2011 trip to Hiroshima, Japan with Chamber Chorale. For the trip, Sano had asked Tuan to arrange a collection of Japanese folk songs that Chorale would later perform. As a composer, Tuan said, the opportunities Sano had granted him had transformed his life and career.

“I can’t think of anybody who doesn’t have the deepest respect for Steve,” Tuan said. “The university is so incredibly lucky to have him.”

A previous version of this article inaccurately stated the years Sano spent mountaineering as well as the year and organization that Sano served as executive director of after returning to the Bay Area. The Daily regrets these errors.

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Constructive criticism on campus building projects https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/04/constructive-criticism-on-campus-building-projects/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/04/constructive-criticism-on-campus-building-projects/#respond Mon, 04 Dec 2023 08:52:56 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1238890 The new Data Science and Computation Complex is set to be completed in December 2024, while renovations and additions to the Graduate School of Education will not be completed until May 2025.

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For many students, it may feel like construction has become a perennial tradition, one that cannot go unnoticed around Main Quad where massive building projects are a fixture in the sights (and sounds) of the campus landscape.

In the heart of campus, two major construction projects are underway; renovations and additions to the Graduate School of Education and the construction of the new Data Science and Computation Complex.

While some students may view the construction as a daily inconvenience, some look at it more optimistically. It represents “a physical manifestation of the progress being made at Stanford,” said Sofia Irlando ’27. 

Renovations are in progress to the Graduate School of Education (GSE), marking the first time a renovation has occurred since the building was originally constructed in 1938.

Alongside updates, a new building under construction will “complement the current Education Building,” according to a Stanford Report press release. The renovation and the new building are set to be completed by May 30, 2025, after construction resumed in December 2022. 

The GSE renovation and new building project include “extensive improvements to the existing Education/Cubberley Building (referred to as the North Building)” along with “construction of a new four-story South Building,” wrote University spokesperson Luisa Rapport.

These projects are taking place in between Green Library and Main Quad, which is a daily route for many students. The area also includes a roundabout known as the “Circle of Death,” notoriously one of campus’s busiest biking intersections.

Many students expressed concerns about getting to class on time while navigating the construction. 

“I appreciate how the school sees value in making upgrades and improvements to our campus, however it doesn’t take away from the fact that it inconveniences us as we try to get around, especially to classes,” said Kendal Murray ’25.

Other students, like Carter Dessommes ’27, were more blunt: “I hate it, I hate construction. It makes me late to class all the time.”

Arusha Sahai ’27 said she was especially impacted by the construction since her main transportation on campus is walking. “I have to go through Green Library to get to the Main Quad on foot, and if Green Library is closed I have to take a big detour to get to class,” Sahai said.

The Data Science and Computation Complex is being built at the end of the intersection of Jane Stanford Way and Via Crespi, across from the Northwest corner of Main Quad, near William R. Hewlett Teaching Center. The construction, which has not obstructed pathways or direct routes, is slated to be finished by Dec. 31, 2024 after starting in February 2022.

Rapport wrote that Herrin Hall and Herrin Lab, the buildings which previously occupied the land the Data Science and Computation Complex is being built on, “were older lab facilities and most of the occupants have moved to the new Bass biology building.” 

Some students questioned the necessity of the construction.

“I feel the constant construction is a tell-tale sign of elite institutions competing with each other to have the best things while not prioritizing practical usage,” said Mahalia Morgan ’27. 

Other students see this competition as a benefit to students of the future, and many students anticipated the eventual completion.

“Construction is always ongoing so I am excited about the final result,” said Uchenna Abba ’27. 

In response to questions on the project’s funding, Rapport wrote that, ”Most construction projects are planned capital expenses, funded through school reserves and/or gifts.”

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Protests mark South Korean president and Japanese prime minister’s Stanford visit https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/01/protests-mark-south-korean-president-and-japanese-prime-ministers-stanford-visit/ https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/01/protests-mark-south-korean-president-and-japanese-prime-ministers-stanford-visit/#respond Fri, 01 Dec 2023 10:37:48 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1238291 The two world leaders’ discussion centered around cooperation between the nations and the future of science and technology. Outside the auditorium, anti-APEC protesters voiced opposition to the summit and expressed disapproval of the two leaders.

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Donning red baseball caps with the Stanford logo, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol stood on stage with fists to the air beside former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. 

“I heard tomorrow is the Big Game,” Yoon said. “Go, Stanford!”

The summit of world leaders, held at the Hoover Institution on Nov. 17, spoke to the importance of cooperation between the Republic of Korea, Japan and the U.S. for the future of science and technology.

Outside the building, “No to APEC” protesters gathered near the guest entrance, voicing opposition to the summit and U.S. involvement in the Pacific. “Stanford will frame the trilateral summit as promoting ‘peace and prosperity in the region,’ omitting and obscuring the warlike posturing, land dispossession … and collusion with genocide engendered by … summit participants,” read a public statement.

The “No to APEC” coalition has previously interrupted similar APEC seminars held at Stanford. During the annual APEC summit the previous day, where Yoon and Kishida had met briefly with U.S. President Joe Biden, protesters also blockaded the Fifth and Mission streets in San Francisco. 

During the discussion, Kishida and Yoon sat on either side of Rice, director of the Hoover Institution and the moderator of the event, who opened the discussion on climate change, carbon neutrality and quantum technology. 

A group of three people stand in a row. The person in the middle (Rice) claps while Kishida and Yoon raise a fist while wearing red Stanford baseball caps.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol were presented with red Stanford baseball caps at the Nov. 17 talk. (Courtesy of Rod Searcey)

Kishida praised Stanford for its innovations that, according to him, have contributed to global technological progress. He said that innovations from “a global ecosystem of start-ups” are particularly needed to address problems like climate change. 

Yoon said “game-changer” innovations like AI, quantum science and 6G are “changing the future of mankind,” but cautioned of privacy and safety threats like potential breaches of encrypted data. 

Kishida and Yoon concurred that the Camp David trilateral summit with Biden in August strengthened the alliance between the three states, which they described as critical amid security threats from China and North Korea.

Japan-Korea relations have since expanded to include cooperation on challenges introduced by advancements in science and technology, like supply chain and security issues, Yoon said. The trilateral summit between Biden, Kishida and Yoon was the first-ever stand-alone summit between the leaders of the U.S., Japan and South Korea.

“Cooperation between allies and like-minded nations is more important than ever,” Kishida said. 

Among the audience were professors, entrepreneurs, delegates from both countries and a limited number of invited students.

Ryota Sato ’25, one of 15 Stanford students invited to a private meeting with Kishida before the summit, described the prime minister as “a very friendly figure.” 

It was “like a conversation I would have with my uncle,” Sato said. 

For Alex Ravel ’26, Kishida’s humor about ChatGPT writing his opening remarks and Yoon’s support for the Stanford football team in advance of Big Game livened the summit.

Protestors gathered outside Main Quad, carrying a banner for the Stanford Asian American Action Committee.
“Say No to APEC” protesters gathered outside the summit at Hoover on Nov. 17. (Photo: LEO GLIKBARG/The Stanford Daily)

Just outside the Hoover Institution, around 50 “No to APEC” protesters hoisted signs, chanted slogans and beat makeshift drums. Beneath the rain, they wore plastic ponchos. 

Contrasting the optimistic perspective that the world leaders inside took on Camp David, several speakers at the protest disapproved of and criticized the trilateral summit. 

Yungsu Kim ’25, a member of the Stanford Asian American Action Committee (SAAAC) who spoke at the protest, said the summit led to collective military escalation in the Pacific by the U.S., Japan and South Korea, “increasing tensions in an area that already seems like it’s on the brink of war.” 

“The only real demand[s] we’re echoing … [are] divestment calls already being made by other students on campus,” Kim said, referring to similar protests at previous APEC events at Stanford.

Some protesters said they felt the trilateral summit to be part of American efforts to increase control over the Pacific and elevate U.S. interests over those of regional peoples. Chants from the crowd called Yoon a “U.S. puppet” and “traitor.”

The protest drew communities from beyond campus too, including an activist group from Los Angeles that raised environmental concerns related to radioactive wastewater in the Pacific. Holding signs reading, “No Dumping Fukushima’s Radioactive Water!” they chanted, “Stop ocean dumping now!” 

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a nuclear meltdown after a magnitude 9.1 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in 2011, recently released a third batch of radioactive water into the sea, sparking protests from fishing groups and demonstrations in South Korea.

Other protesters criticized the U.S.’ historical presence in the Pacific, including the use of inhabited islands as bomb testing sites

“I grew up hearing stories of our islands being colonized for ‘strategic’ reasons and how a lot of the Indigenous peoples were assimilated and murdered,” said David Apineru ’27, a native of American Samoa.

“Our islands were used as bomb testing sites where [the U.S.] just dropped bombs on our islands, [and] we still feel the effects,” Apineru said. “Hearing about the nuclear waste dumping into the Pacific infuriated me.”

Kim said that today, the expansion of U.S. bases in the region continues to hurt the Indigenous people of those lands. 

Protesters said victims of escalating militarism also included “comfort women,” or women forcibly trafficked to Japanese military brothels during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. They held a grieving ceremony that included Korean shaman-inspired dancing.

The public statement condemns “the historical denialism enforced by summit participants that forbids comfort women, forced laborers and all other victims of US and Japanese war crimes from seeking proper justice.”

The protesters voiced strong criticism of current and previous U.S. leaders for their support of American military presence in both the Pacific and elsewhere, using expletives against Biden, Rice, former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

Yells of “From Okinawa to Korea to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine!” resounded through nearly all three hours of the demonstration, which lasted until the heads of state left.

Demonstrators also condemned the gathering countries’ involvement in arms trade and security cooperation with Israel amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict. The group repeatedly called for “Ceasefire now!”

Around halfway through the summit, the group paraded around Main Quad, briefly stopping on the steps facing the Oval to hear speeches from students attending the event. The march proceeded through the center of Main Quad before returning to the front of the Hoover Institution shortly before the event ended.

Junah Jang ’25, a protest organizer who led many chants, said the demonstrators’ goal was to “raise visibility around the fact that there is a very active opposition to this alliance.” 

“We hope to use this momentum to start building a coalition around these types of issues in the Asia-Pacific region,” she said.

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