The last several months have seen a colorful array of issues shake the Stanford community. The Campus Climate Survey, meant to address sexual assault at Stanford, quickly drew criticism from campus activists over the survey’s unclear results. Stanford’s announcement that Marc Tessier-Lavigne would succeed John Hennessy as its president stoked discussion about diversity within university faculty and leadership. The Stanford Review’s Western Civilization petition was met with both approval and scorn, setting the stage for several months of debate over the humanities’ place at Stanford.

For ASSU Executives John-Lancaster Finley ’16 and Brandon Hill ’16, facilitating these campus-wide conversations was all in a day’s work. With their term drawing to a close and the upcoming election to choose their successors, the Executives reflected on the work that they were proud to have accomplished and imparted words of wisdom for next year’s leaders.

“I wanted to commit to figuring out ways that I could leave this university in better condition than I arrived at it in,” said Finley. “Committing to self-care, committing to making sure that, as a community, we’re taking care of each other — these are things I kept in mind the whole time we were campaigning.”

Indeed, the word “COMMIT” served as a handy acronym for the Executives’ goals: connecting students to programs, organizing cabinet members, motivating the student body, mobilizing student groups, initiating institutional change, and tailgating to celebrate action.

The Finley/Hill platform addressed a number of issues, continuing the push for better mental health set in motion by the previous Executives and taking a hard stance against sexual assault. Over their tenure, the Executives worked with CAPS to address student mental health needs, proposed a new Title IX investigation and hearing process and oversaw the passage of a resolution that hopes to rename university properties named after Junípero Serra.

On the latter, Hill lauded “Stanford’s commitment to diversity and inclusion,” citing the fact that Stanford occupies Muwekma Ohlone land, as well as Hennessy’s announcement late last quarter of a new naming committee comprised of students and faculty.

“We’re not sure if it has a peer; it might be a precedent,” Hill added.

The broader theme of diversity at Stanford preoccupied Finley for much of his term.

“We looked at the Engaging Diversity WAYS requirement, and Vice Provost Harry Elam gave a presentation to the Faculty Senate about how way too few students are taking that in their freshman and sophomore year,” Finley said. “We should be addressing this head-on and really educationally pioneering the conversation around diversity.”

Leading the charge to end sexual assault

However, no issue was more “salient or troubling” than sexual violence and what should be done to stop it. The Finley/Hill platform was vocal in its opposition to sexual assault, decrying it as a “scourge on our campus” and supporting expulsion as a punishment for perpetrators. The Executives are currently discussing with the Graduate Student Council and Undergraduate Senate about whether to implement a new Campus Climate Survey, but they have also been hard at work on a weekly, mandatory, in-residence program for first-year students that will critically discuss issues surrounding sexual assault.

“You are talking with your dormmates about issues of gender identity, how rape culture is perpetrated through media, masculinity, femininity, misogyny — how these things are really ground zero for sexual violence prevention, and addressing them in the residence is something that could be very, very valuable,” Finley said.

Finley added that there has been resistance to the prevention policies that he and Hill intended to pass, but that such resistance was made with “the best of intentions.”

“Everybody who comes to the table on trying to prevent sexual violence on campus has the same exact goal that there should be no sexual violence on campus,” Finley said. “There’s been friction between students, student leaders and also between us and administration at times, but we’re confident that friction only further strengthens the idea that everybody is so committed to seeing this problem go away.”

Hill recalled the climate of last year’s campaign, with national arguments about matters such as Title IX and Black Lives Matter sparking campus-wide conversations — and creating a rift in the student body.

“We always talk about Stanford as a bubble, this idea of Stanford as insulated from the general sociopolitical ecosystem around it,” Hill said. “When we were elected, we were in a period where the bubble was being burst.”

In that period, Hill added, he saw an opportunity “to raise consciousness, to elevate conversations, to make change and to leverage that gravity to really make a difference.”

Though some would criticize the tone of recent campaigns by student activists, Finley commended their efforts, stating that “the ASSU would not be able to do what it has been doing without the work of campus activists on this issue.”

“Survivors, activists and allies around this issue are some of the bravest people on campus,” Hill praised.

Looking ahead

In between their collective five years of experience — Finley as a two-term undergraduate senator, Hill as a sophomore class president, both as Frosh Council members — the Executives quickly fit into their roles and established good working relationships with both the Undergraduate Senate and the Graduate Student Council.

“We have a really strong relationship with the members of the Undergraduate Senate [and] the members of Graduate Student Council,” Finley said. “Everybody is elected to these things in their own right, and we certainly don’t have any more authority to say what is the best thing to do than any other student who is elected to lead on behalf of their respective population.”

With their graduation looming ahead, the Executives shared their plans for the future. Hill intends to work on a startup — an “education technology venture” — with some friends. Finley will take a year off doing nonprofit work before applying to law school.

Finley and Hill also shared what they had learned as ASSU Executives, hoping that their successors could make use of their advice, as they faced issues both familiar and unforeseen.

“The biggest thing I can say is to take care of yourself,” Finley said. “I say this because it’s an extraordinarily taxing job… we are also full-time students, and so finding time to make sure you’re taking care of yourself and holding onto your own identity as you go through this is really important.”

“Leadership is not authority — leadership is influence, and as Martin Luther King said, real leadership is service; the greatest leaders are the greatest servants,” Hill said. “We want to serve students, and as such we have been doing a lot of listening, a lot of collaborating and a lot of following.”

Hill encouraged his fellow students to work with each other and the administration, and to cooperate in the interest of making the university a better place.

“Activists want to make a difference, and they express that in a certain way; certain administrators care about the university, and they express it in ways that their roles demand,” Hill said. “We’ve grown to appreciate that and learn how to work with that, and so we’re extremely collaborative of everybody that has made our journey possible.”

Contact Jacob Nierenberg at jhn2017 ‘at’ stanford.edu.