Senate Candidates on the Issues
Forward Article to a FriendThe Stanford Review asked Senate candidates to provide a brief summary of their viewpoints on door-to-door distribution and ballot endorsements. Responses from some of the candidates are enumerated below.
Danny Arbeiter
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Door-to-Door Distribution Personally, I think the only policy that would be truly fair for everyone would be an individual opt-out policy. That is, I would like to see a Stanford in which publications are allowed to distribute door-to-door, unless an individual room states that they do not want to receive publications (for instance, through a standardized sticker placed on their door, or through a personal note similar to those that many students have on their doors authorizing FedEx and UPS to leave packages without a signature). Although I believe individual students have a right not to receive publications in their room if they do not want, I also believe that neither ResEd nor Resident Fellows are in a position where they can assess what is best for all residents. I realize that switching to an individual opt-out policy may have implementation challenges that may take a while to work out, but I feel that at the very least, every residence staff should encourage their residents to have a vote at house meeting to determine their house’s distribution policy, in attempt to preserve student rights as much as possible |
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Ballot Endorsements In my opinion, allowing student organizations’ endorsements to appear on the ballot directly next to candidates names encourages students to vote for candidates exclusively based on endorsements, rather than the candidates’ actual opinions on issues and qualifications. I realize that it is unreasonable to ask every voter to talk to every candidate and get to know them personally, but many voters do not realize that every candidate posts a handbook statement that can be accessed by simply clicking their name on the ballot, which provides a summary of all the candidate’s qualifications and how they feel about the issues. Although endorsements can be a useful way for busy Stanford students to get at an at-a-glance view of the candidates, it hardly takes any time for a voter to fully research candidates’ positions and then vote based on the issues one personally feels are important. |
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| A.J. Balance | |
Door-to-Door Distribution I feel that the current policy is a bit too restrictive, and that individual students should be able to decide for themselves whether or not they would like publications delivered to their rooms. It makes sense to prohibit distribution to those students who do not desire it; but for those who do, the University should not impede their ability to receive the desired publications. As long as the publication staff receives a written request for a door-to-door delivery, it should be permitted to destribute to that room. |
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Ballot Endorsements I feel that student organizations should be allowed to endorse candidates, as long as the endorsement meets two conditions: (1) the process of deciding whether to endorse is done in a democratic fashion, and (2) all students in the organization agree to a the specific democratic process for their organization. For example, the democratic process could consist of all members voting, or just a vote of the executive board; either is acceptable as long as all members are in prior agreement of the process. Student organizations should have the right to express their views, as long as the process for determining those views does not trample on the rights of individual members. |
Captain Adam Cohen
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Door-to-Door Distribution Yaar, this reminds me a lot of the time I pillaged a French merchant ship and then tried to sell my take of the bounty in Havana. The Spanish be making rules about who can do what in their ports, and they decided not to allow French wares to be sold at all. Course, after I razed part of the city and destroyed three Spanish Galleons, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted, and the problem went away. I suggest you do the same. |
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Ballot Endorsements Back when I was just getting started in piracy after I left the Royal Navy, I found out that the Spanish had made the piracy of British ships legal...privateering, I believe they called it. Well, I like skinning British sea dogs as much as the next guy, so I started to seek them out. I raided and scuttled eight British merchant vessels in a three month period, and sent their captured flags to the Spanish King. He was so pleased that he endorsed me for my Senate campaign. Of course, a few weeks later I looted a ship from his Armada, and he retracted the endorsement. So it works both ways. I hope that answers your question. Yaaar. |
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Anuraag Chigurupati
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Door-to-Door Distribution As an active debater throughout high school and here at Stanford, I hold protecting speech, particularly political speech, to be paramount. Free speech rights are important in society at large, but even more so at a university, where open dialogue is central to the purpose of learning and advancing knowledge. I am unambiguously in favor of changing current policy to allow publications like the Review and the Progressive to distribute door-to-door in all dorms on campus. The minor inconvenience of having an unwanted newspaper at one’s door pales in comparison to the harms of prohibiting the dissemination of student political views. |
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Ballot Endorsements I agree with the new policy removing endorsements from the ballot and placing them in candidates¹ handbook statements instead. While I respect the place of endorsements in the elections process, moving the endorsements off of the ballot encourages students to give more independent consideration to their votes (at the very least, reading through handbook statements to find endorsements). |
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Tracy Okoroike
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Door-to-Door Distribution I disagree with the University’s prohibition of door-to-door student publications. This policy harms free speech because a large portion of the student population has limited access to the many different student publications. The policy can also be difficult for the publications to deal with as it is not standardized. Individual residences have the option to modify the rules. |
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Ballot Endorsements Endorsements are a good way to let voters know where candidates stand on important issues, however, it is not necessary to have student organizations endorse candidates on the election ballot. Candidates have ample opportunity to publish their endorsements in the election handbook and on campaign advertisements. |
Elijah Rabek
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Door-to-Door Distribution Door-to-door distribution is the only way for many student groups to get their opinions out on campus and have students actually take the time to read them. The problem with door-to-door distribution comes with the overwhelming number of flyers placed in student residences. Instead of forbidding door-to-door distribution, regulations should be placed on the distribution that would allow student groups to get their ideas out to students without overwhelming students with flyers. |
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Ballot Endorsements I believe that student organizations should be allowed to endorse candidates but that the endorsement should only be listed in the Election Handbook and not on the actual ballot. This way the endorsement is seen as an additional qualification for the candidate and not as a key reason to elect that candidate. |
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Nishma Sachedina
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Door-to-Door Distribution Door-to-door distribution of student publications is costly, time-consuming, and often an annoyance to residents. However, I strongly believe that the voices of our student writers should be heard. Seeing as how Stanford’s student government is in place to support students and initiatives such as publications, I think that the ASSU should come up with a more effective way to circulate publications by investing in magazine racks that all publications are free to use in the way that the Daily has done for itself. |
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Ballot Endorsements I see no benefit to keeping endorsements off of Special Election ballots. Realistically, many students will not take the time to review the platform of each candidate, and endorsements and student group affiliations serve as a good guide into how a candidate thinks and what his or her position will be regarding various issues. I think that the Senate should work towards putting endorsements back on the ballot. |
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Brian Truebe
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Door-to-Door Distribution The policy should be left up to the students in the dorm, every dorm should be able to hold a vote in meeting to decide whether or not they want any publication to be delivered. This should be done on a case by case basis. I do not feel that this is an issue of the ASSU, but should be left to the people |
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Ballot Endorsements I don’t see why student groups should be kept from endorsing candidates. I mean, many world politicians are supported by military juntas or major corporations, or both, so why should the ASSU be any different? I see no reason why I shouldn’t have my candidacy supported by a student organization of giant robots powered by gin and wielding flame throwers. Unfortunately the current ASSU policy does not support giant robots. And that is why I am running, to change their discriminating policies. |
