The ASSU Executive recently announced it has completed over 25 percent of its platform. The announcement came in a campus-wide email ASSU President Michael Cruz ’12 sent on behalf of the Executive on Monday, Oct. 10.
The Startup Kid feeds history, national flavor, cultural quirks, into the same lean-mean-winning-machine as whimsy, romance, spontaneity, gesture, immaturity, joy, personal development — these are sacrificed for ambition presented so wholesomely we often fail to appreciate its ferocity. This certain kind of ambition is, I believe, currently being expressed in the ASSU Executive. This is not to say The Startup Kid is a real person or that he is part of the ASSU — but the attitude is real, and present.
Stanford 2.0 ran on a platform of “Student government as social entrepreneurship.” The aim is to combine an experienced understanding of the current infrastructure with ways to create disruptive change within student government, using the design process as a key ingredient. With the intention to run student government and the ASSU with the attitude of a lean startup, constantly innovating, prototyping and iterating, the Executive aims to get things done.
When Cal does something better than Stanford, there’s something wrong — not just for rivalry’s sake, but also because our bankrupt neighbors should rarely outperform us, given that we are endowed with greater financial resources and blessed with a nimbler administrative structure.
Newly elected ASSU President Michael Cruz ’12 and Vice President Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ’13 took office on Saturday, two weeks after the ASSU spring general election.
More than a week after ASSU election results have been released, we are as relieved as any other students (except perhaps the candidates themselves) to be done with our annual exercise in representative government. Despite our reluctance to protract conversation on such a tired subject, the results of these elections are enormously compelling. In particular, this Board notes the continued dominance of SOCC endorsees, a sharp decline in graduate voter participation and the ambiguity of the ROTC vote. We also urge the next generation of ASSU leaders consider these trends when they enter office, and make good on their campaign promises to improve student engagement and advocacy.
Last Saturday, Stanford students elected Michael Cruz ’12 and Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ’13 as the 2011-12 ASSU Executive. The Daily sat down with Cruz and Macgregor-Dennis to discuss their administration’s plans and interests.
By creating an intersection of experience and engagement, we hope to build a more unified and aware Stanford community. We are Michael Cruz ‘12 and Stewart Macgregor-Dennis ‘13 and we are excited to be running for ASSU Executive.