Friends, I ask you today to fight for a dream. A dream that India dared to have 70 years ago. A dream that reinvented what was possible for humanity. Fighting for this dream entails fighting for secular democracy, fighting against discrimination and violence, and fighting for a radical concept of equality unlike anything the world has ever seen.

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I’ve been truly shocked by the experiences I have witnessed at Stanford regarding mental health. Whereas I typically encourage my friends to seek mental health care, I hesitate to do so when these friends are Stanford students on Cardinal Care, because I know that, more often than not, they will have to expend immense time, financial, and emotional resources without being able to actually obtain therapy.\][

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Recognizing that people of color and marginalized groups are underrepresented within the global environmental conversation, yet often most acutely impacted by climate change, we strove to center these voices through our choice of a speaker. Dr. Shiva has received global recognition for her work to diversify the historically exclusive environmental community. Not unexpectedly, our invitation generated some controversy, including a letter of protest by a group of agricultural scientists. Their letter was also published in “European Scientist”.

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Almost three years after joining, I realize that staying in the sorority was also a mistake. By convincing myself that the system itself could be changed, I helped perpetuate a system that hurts people. I was a diversity token to display every year at the presentations to administrators on why my Greek organization should remain on campus. Meanwhile, new women entered the system under the false pretense that there were “diversity efforts” only to experience the same racism and classism, except maybe a little better concealed.

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I use “we” and “our” here, since I’m referring to the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) and Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE). The ASSU has existed since 1891, and that’s pretty amazing—we’re almost 130 years old! Since its foundation, the ASSU has spent its time influencing positive change on campus, and providing over $3 million in annual funding for student groups so that everyone can find communities they belong to. Fast forward to 1995—we became financially independent from the University and thus founded SSE. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of SSE’s founding and the ASSU’s financial independence, we’ve gone through some rebranding.

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This is a key moment – for India, for the US, for a world that is (rightly so) in a state of panic, about economic precarity, about climate disasters. We’ve seen the rise of authoritarian right-wing leaders here and there, and everywhere in between. But this is a key moment to change that narrative. We could be on the cusp of a big change. And this is what is most inspiring about this moment.

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In light of current events and ongoing conversations on campus, we, the student members of the Board on Judicial Affairs (BJA), would like to offer some clarification around why the BJA has pushed for and supported the formation of the 2019 Judicial Charter Committee of Ten (C-10).

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The goal of thoughtlessness in design stems from understanding how we interact with the world. This observation was discussed extensively by Heidegger. He noted how, when using a hammer, we treat it as a nail-hitting thing. We don’t consider its function as a lever, nor how the weighted end has the advantage of accelerating the hammer’s descent, and that on contact it can propel its target forward. Instead, we need to hit nails, and immediately, without thought, we use the nail-hitting thing.

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The recent political upheavals in Chile noted in the Jan. 7 article in The Stanford Daily have led the government to rethink decades of policy and call for a Constituent Assembly to replace Chile’s current controversial Constitution imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship. Perhaps this period of great reform in Chile should be accompanied by a reciprocal…

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Editor’s note: The Senate has since retracted its members’ allegations against Sam Schimmel. Read The Daily’s coverage here. At the 16th meeting of the Undergraduate Senate on Tuesday, a bill to impeach Senator Sam Schimmel ’22 was introduced by a concerned fellow Senator based on three private testimonies from undergraduate women of the Stanford community.…

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“What if I end up in the ER?” “What if I need surgery?” “What if I catch a terrible infection?” These were the questions rushing through my mind as I filled out my application to study in Florence in winter quarter in 2018-2019. They helped me find a living situation that fit my needs, my OAE accommodations were applied and honored without a hitch, and—in a country where food is king but my diet is limited—they ensured that I could eat at every single Stanford event, from drop-in lunches to the formal Bing dinners.

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In Aotearoa we have a proverb (or whakataukī) that goes, “He aha te mea nui o te Ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata” which translates to, “What is the most important thing in the world? The people, the people, the people." During my short stay at Stanford I have met so many wonderful people, and that proverb has certainly rung true for me. A large number of these people that have I been lucky enough to meet and get to know have been those within the Native American community here on campus, both staff and students.

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I truly didn’t think that I was going to have anything to do with Stanford after I graduated. Due to a mix of personal burnout and disillusionment with the place I’d called home for years, I was more than happy never to set foot on the campus ever again once I’d left it for good. Still, when I was asked to consider joining Stanford’s Outreach Volunteer Alumni Link, I accepted the invitation.

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Stanford, time is up. It’s far past time to reckon with the prevalence of sexual violence and harassment at every level of our institutional hierarchy. We are graduate students appalled by the prevalence of sexual violence on our campus. Watching the recent reports of druggings across campus roll into our emails is alarming each time. We have seen not only an uptick in the number of reported druggings of students (nine, recently) but disturbing results in the recent AAU campus survey regarding sexual violence. Even more disconcerting is the knowledge of what is not publicly known.

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All that I had heard about the study abroad experience was how great it is and how it changes the lives of those who have the resources and desire to participate. But no one ever really talks about how these colonizer countries and their respective environments can be extremely difficult to adjust to, especially as a Native person internalizing an environment that once deemed Indigenous people uncivilized savages in need of salvation. This was Spain’s mission upon contact with my people and many other nations. The Spanish attempted to colonize Diné people through Christianizing, enslaving and committing violence and murder.

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Broadly, Sills is writing to share his experience as a Marxist-turned-conservative, and arguing that his family heritage is consonant with conservative values. He builds on this to argue that the left is afraid that other people in his position may be exposed to conservative ideas that they happen to agree with, and switch positions just like he did. In this response, I take each of his arguments on, showing that he has simply misunderstood the ideologies he is now strongly opposed to, and is unfairly mischaracterizing the positions of the Left.

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The very fact that as FLI Latinx students we are even able to exist in this type of space is incredible, a testament not just to our capabilities, but also to those of the countless people in our communities who have supported us on this journey. This is why targeted attacks such as those conducted by SCR are so hurtful. At an institution that’s supposed to represent the best of the best, we find more of the same thing we have found all of our lives: racist and ignorant people. The only difference is that those at Stanford hide behind “free speech” as an excuse to promote their hate speech.

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As medical students at Stanford, we feel deeply concerned about the University’s health insurance policies towards the spouses and children of its graduate students. Over the past six years, dependent health care coverage costs increased by 80 percent. As a result, Stanford graduate students with dependents face a catch-22: pay $893.69 per month for their dependents’ coverage or risk the consequences of no coverage at all.

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There is a difference between investigative journalism and a sensationalist scandal sheet, and once again, FoHo has crossed the line.

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We were disheartened to hear about Stanford’s withdrawal of its application to obtain a General Use Permit with Santa Clara County. We urge the University to ensure that it includes the over 1250 on-campus service and technical workers represented by SEIU Local 2007 as part of its engagement of local communities.

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As a Stanford graduate of the sixties and the appreciative father of two recently graduated Cardinal students 2015 and 2017, I find the unwillingness of the University to respond to the sober requests from students and faculty to divest its ownership of fossil fuel holdings appalling.

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Health is not a partisan issue. It should not be up for debate. Health is a human right.

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We are deeply concerned that Stanford — which has spent years falsely claiming that Miller’s words are dangerous and triggering — now intends to place a second plaque interpreting Miller’s words. We believe that Stanford should let Miller speak for herself as the University originally agreed three years ago.

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We, as representatives of our communities, insist that you explain in full why you find it acceptable to, in the name of our university, renege on Stanford’s promise to Chanel Miller and ignore three elected bodies plus 2,200 members of the Stanford community who have made a reasoned and informed request that you honor that agreement.

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