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.
Senate Endorsements. This year, the necessity of endorsements evinced itself as never before, with only one unendorsed candidate winning a Senate seat. While this newspaper has already noted that several campus organizations elected all of their Senate endorsees, we are most impressed by SOCC’s continued dominance in absolute terms. Of 15 senators, 12 will be SOCC-affiliated next year, the greatest number of co-affiliated senators in recent ASSU history. This is surely to SOCC’s credit: no other group even approaches its ability to organize, communicate and get out the vote. However, we consider the dominance of any one party troubling, and hope that next year’s Senate will consider the interests of all students. We also urge other endorsing groups to look to SOCC as a model for fighting general voter apathy.
Graduate Apathy. In a lively election year that included the contentious Measure A and resulted in a nearly 8 percent increase in undergraduate voter participation, it is remarkable that the number of graduate students who participated in voting actually dropped by a whopping 28 percent. Even more staggeringly, candidates for Graduate Student Council elections were so sparse that a few spots even went to write-in candidates who unwittingly won a handful of votes. We believe that the absence of a grad student candidate for Exec is the only reasonable explanation for this sudden drop-off in interest. While Gobaud-de la Torre and Peacock-Bakke both promised grad student representation in the ASSU Executive, this year’s race only saw undergraduate candidates.
Measure A: ROTC. After a vehement debate about Measure A that included a constitutional appeal and an extensive “Campaign to Abstain,” more students voted “yes” than “no” or “abstain,” passing by a margin of more than 2:1. However, when also considering the number of students who voted to abstain on the measure, fewer than 50 percent of students voted in favor of ROTC’s return. If anything, we believe that these results demonstrate that students are eager to defer the ROTC matter to the University.
Lessons for the New ASSU. Though endorsement groups now wield a more potent influence than they ever have, we challenge the 13th Undergraduate Senate to grow together as a whole and move forward with initiatives that benefit the entire student body. If they are to disabuse the electorate of their superfluity, the new Senate must find ways to publicize their work and resist the temptation to grandstand or become ensnared in internal fiddling. Close collaboration with the Executive team is also necessary for a cohesive and effective ASSU.
Likewise, we congratulate the new Executives and challenge them to identify and articulate what students care about most passionately. Amidst their platform of more than 100 initiatives and goals, President Cruz and Vice President Macgregor-Dennis would do well to focus their energies on a core set of priorities.
As ASSU leaders, the Executive is granted the privilege of regular access to high-level University administrators. Throughout their tenure, the new Executives should find ways to ensure that the restoration of VPSA and VPUE budgets to pre-recession levels be on the forefront of the minds of administrators who shape Stanford’s annual budget. Our campus has felt the loss of these frontline staff — those in Student Affairs and Undergraduate Advising and Research, who previously worked with students every day — and every student would benefit from bringing them back.
Furthermore, the Executive needs to find ways to use their team and position to engage the more than 2,000 undergraduates who did not vote in a year that saw the highest undergraduate turnout since voting records have been kept. Even more importantly, the new ASSU must collaborate with the Graduate Student Council to deliver initiatives and events that are pertinent to the entire student population, lest grad students lose faith in the ASSU permanently.
The Cruz-Macgregor-Dennis team is uniquely positioned to enact substantive change. Their Stanford 2.0 campaign featured an impressive technical platform with sophistication that may far exceed what past candidates have accomplished on the Farm. During their campaign, Cruz and Macgregor-Dennis emphasized that this part of their platform has three consequences: (1) incorporating technology and a social entrepreneurship mindset, (2) bringing more students from these communities into the ASSU and (3) gathering consistent feedback from the entire student body. These are promising strategies, and we look forward to their implementation in the next academic year with the goal of increasing the ASSU’s engagement, accountability and efficiency.