Resident assistants are raising concerns that their two-week virtual training and contradictory guidance from the University are leaving them underprepared to support student health and well-being during an already unpredictable winter quarter.
Stanford will begin administering a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines to essential health care personnel on Dec. 18. The University expects that the vaccines will be made available to all Stanford Medicine affiliates by the end of January.
Since the very beginning, advocacy has been one of Becerra’s guiding principles, inspiring him to fight for a more equitable and just society for all individuals. His advocacy can be traced back to his formative years as both an undergraduate and law school student at Stanford in the late seventies and early eighties.
Becerra, who attended Stanford as an undergraduate and for law school, was the first in his family to graduate from college. He majored in economics and lived in Casa Zapata, which he said provided him with community and support.
The restrictions, which take effect starting Dec. 6 through Jan. 4, may complicate Stanford’s plan to provide on-campus housing to frosh, sophomores and new transfers during the winter quarter.
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the county and state, Stanford reported 15 positive tests among staff members in the past week and no new student cases. The University has also added an additional 1,000 testing spots.
Stanford’s football and basketball teams will not be allowed to practice or host games on campus as a result of more stringent COVID-19 restrictions issued by Santa Clara County public health officials on Saturday amid a surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
While Stanford has managed to keep the number of positive tests among students and staff relatively low, last week a record-high number of 10 students tested positive for COVID-19.
Along with their fellow transition advisors, the Stanford affiliates were chosen for their “deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government,” according to the Biden-Harris transition team.
Despite rising cases and hospitalizations in the county, Stanford is proceeding with plans to provide on-campus housing to first-year, sophomores and transfer students for the winter quarter, which begins on Jan. 11. On Monday, Provost Persis Drell announced Stanford was moving forward with its plans, citing low prevalence rates of COVID-19 on campus.
Repeated calls for Stanford to reevaluate its relationship with the Hoover Institution have been shut down by administrators who underscore the importance of academic freedom. But Hoover scrutiny has risen to a new level during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Hoover fellow and Trump advisor Scott Atlas at its center.
The IDEAL Provostial Fellows program launched on Oct. 8 will bring four to five early-career scholars of race and ethnicity to Stanford and aims to increase faculty diversity.
Stanford’s class of 2024 is made up of 52% women and 48% men, coming from 56 different countries and representing all 50 U.S. states. In addition, 20.2% of the class are first generation college students and 9.9% hail from abroad.
On the first morning of the Hoover retreat, President Trump proclaimed on Twitter that the virus “was very much under control,” despite a rising case count. He added, “Stock market starting to look very good to me!” Mere hours before the Hoover briefing, Kudlow said on CNBC that the coronavirus threat had been curbed and “it’s pretty close to airtight.”
This report covers a selection of incidents from Oct. 6 to Oct. 11 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) bulletin.
Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was overheard saying that Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution and special advisor to President Donald Trump, has been spreading misinformation to the president about the pandemic.