John-Lancaster Finley ’16, currently a member of the Undergraduate Senate, is the newly elected Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) President-elect. The Daily sat down with Finley to discuss campus culture and his plans as ASSU Executive.

The Stanford Daily (TSD): What would you are say are some of your first things you are planning on doing as Executive?

John-Lancaster Finley (JLF): So right now we’re talking about our cabinet, structuring our cabinet — how that’s going to look. Obviously, the biggest issue we want to take on is mental health, and so we’ll be reaching out to people, especially to senators who have said they want to make it a priority for their term, too.

We already sent out an email to all the elected senators — just trying to touch base — saying “hey, congratulations on being elected.” Once we identify our cabinet, we’re trying to have an all-ASSU mixer. I think that the first thing you have to do is kind of figure out, who else are the players in what you are trying to do? — and get on the same page with all the other students who really want to see positive changes here… We have to figure out who is on our team, and we have to figure out what are people’s strengths and how we can use them to the best of our ability in order to make something actually happen.

We know who the appropriate administrators are, but we have to start building those relationships now. So there will be a lot of feeling out how this is going to play out — getting to know the right people and getting everybody in the same room and talking about the issues that are important.

TSD: What is your take on Provost John Etchemendy’s letter to the student body?

JLF: My take on it is, I think the University took notice, too, in the same way that we all did, that this election was particularly charged, and that it felt like all year it was one issue after the other. Everything was at the highest of emotions it could possibly be, and I think Stanford is used to keeping things pretty pristine and keeping people calm. And that’s why I’m not upset at what the Provost said, like a lot of other students are. I think what he said reflects how the university feels about what’s going on here.

He said in his letter that we had forgotten how to have true discourse, and while I disagree with him [on] that on any of the particular issues that he raised — he mentioned Black Lives Matter, sexual assault — I don’t think our campus has ever had true discourse on these issues. But I think that what does ring true is that we seem to forget to recognize the humanity and legitimacy of our fellow students. When everything is a fight, oftentimes you forget to view the other side if you have to view it that way, as someone who is also just a student. You have a community: every single person who attends the school. I don’t think we’ve forgotten how to have discourse; I think we’ve forgotten to recognize that we are all just students, and we are all here together at Stanford, and that we have to value this place and share it.

I think that’s really what he was trying to say, and while I disagree with the way he said it, I can see where he is coming from, and I think this is a moment where we have to be cognizant of the things that people are feeling. We have to be cognizant of our fellow students… I wish his message had reflected that a little more.

TSD: Do you have any concerns about the elections process, the power of endorsements, anything of that sort?

JLF: I don’t. For me personally, I’ve been endorsed by multiple groups over my time in the ASSU… Well actually, I will caveat. Never until divestment had an endorsement group ever told me how to vote. Which, obviously — the Jewish Students Association reached out to all of us who are endorsed by JSA to tell us how to vote on divestment. That was the only instance in two years in which any endorsing group had ever told me how to vote. And so I don’t think that endorsements really control senators in the way people seem to be thinking they do. I think we’re all individually minded people, and there’s nothing stopping us from voting how we want to vote on any particular issue or any given funding application, as in a Senate role.

I will say, though, that it seems like what people are worried about — and this is an argument that has come up time and again over the past couple of years — is people saying that the Students of Color Coalition (SOCC) has too much power in the endorsement process. To me, it’s entertaining because any given student group could from a coalition and could rally and campaign if they cared about the issues. I think SOCC demonstrates that this is something that’s hugely important to our communities, and because it’s hugely important, yeah they’re going to rally, and yeah they’re going to campaign, and they run effective campaigns and get their individuals elected.

I’m not worried about the endorsement process.

I think one thing that could be beneficial, and we’ve been brainstorming this, is if we would figure out some sort of districting for the Undergraduate Senate. Right now, we do have an upperclass district, technically, and that consists of three senators who are supposed to be upperclassmen. The Graduate Student Council does this, and that’s how they‘re able to get the opinions of everybody in the graduate student population — because they have somebody representing every school. For us on the undergrad side, if we could figure out a way to make sure that every single section of campus or something has a representative, that would be the best way to do it. It’s difficult to figure out how to do that though.

Thinking back to divestment, it would have been so much easier if you had known who your constituents are when you are voting on an issue that affects everybody. Saying “everyone is my constituent,” well, when people disagree, it’s impossible to sort that out. So yeah, I think it would be good if we could find some way to do that. I think that would be a more constructive conversation to have than trying to eliminate the endorsement process.

 

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Contact Caleb Smith at caleb17 ‘at’ stanford.edu.