Interview with Elizabeth Heng and Lauren Graham
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Luukas Ilves recently sat down with Elizabeth Heng (left) and Lauren Graham (right), newly elected ASSU President and Vice president, to discuss their transition into office and the tasks that await them.
SR: First of all, Congratulations again on your victory. Have you experienced any particular difficulties in transitioning into the job of executive?
EH: I don’t think so. Lauren and I have come in very well prepared. We knew what we were getting ourselves in to. I would not say it’s a glamorous position. I’m not taking a summer internship and we’re going to be in here working forty hours a week. During the school year, we’ll be in here 20 to 30 hours a week, on top of being students.
SR: Is there anything Kannokada or Okonkwo did that you want to improve on or do differently?
EH: We want to continue building on outreach to the student body through newsletters, the website…
LG: more office hours, more face time, so that they can ask direct questions. We’re user friendly.
SR: Is there one greatest challenge for next year?
Both, in unison: Getting Dead week dead.
SR: How are you going to do that? It seems to be a decision that tends to be made by professors.
EH: We are working with Greg Boardman on how to strategize approaching certain faculty members, what were currently trying to do to take to the faculty senate. If they make a decision that dead week will be dead, it will be dead.
LG: We’re not trying to make a difficult quarter into a truncated quarter; we’re trying to strategize as to what’s the best thing that we can balance out for students that doesn’t put professors at a disadvantage, but also doesn’t put students at a disadvantage, which is where a lot of students feel we currently are. We are going to ask for a stop to having more material. This is a fundamentally academic argument as to what students need to succeed.
Beyond surveys filled out at the end of a class, you don’t really have a way to express what would help you academically achieve. This is a complicated process that involves the registrar, scheduling and so many branches that it’s bigger than our term, we’re laying the foundation for having a progressive commitment from our university to look at how we can make this into something that will stay and expand.
SR: You also talked about bringing back the mausoleum party. Melanie Kannokada and Aneto Okonwo tried to resurrect it but were ultimately unsuccessful.
EH: They were this close to bringing it back (Elizabeth indicates a very small amount with her fingers). Some of the logistical problems a month before the event caused a problem. It was primarily a date conflict. Currently what we’re working on is securing the funding for Absolute Fun to fund the FMOTQ and the mausoleum party, and we’re working with dining so that we get lots of food. All the stakes will be in place this summer. Mausoleum party is a definite go! We just have to make sure the security and noise ordinances are in order. We want a graduate and undergraduate Halloween party. I looked up dates this morning. Friday is the 27th [of October].
SR: Recently, Students of Color Coalition (SOCC) endorsements in the ASSU elections caused a big stir.
(Silence)
LG: Race is an issue nationally, and how it intersects with demographics, economics and politics. Looking at Stanford as a microcosm of the country, race is a discussion point, a salient factor, whether or not you like it. The elections are open to all who want to participate and run. I didn’t think it played any role in the election process, but what the controversy does show is that there is room and desire for dialogue around issues of race. The focus is not about the election, maybe there are other open dialogue discussions that need to happen to get the issues that people have out in the open. It shows that there is a need, but not the right forum.
SR: How do you plan to deal with special fees refunds impacting student groups’ budgets?
EH: One of the things I want to do on the website, is to have students read for something to sort of educate them before they get their refund. If they still want the refund, go ahead! But first they should educate themselves before they just click and get ninety dollars.
LG: The system wasn’t built to let you click and get a nice dinner.
SR: What are your feelings on door-to-door distribution? In particular, should students be able to vote on it in their dorms?
LG: What we’ve spoken to Dean Boardman is one, we’ve established we need to change the policy, two that door-to-door distribution isn’t voted on within the dorms they decide. Yes, we want this; it needs to be done on an individual basis so it’s democratically done and as transparent as possible. What we’re looking at right now is logistically, how would we set that up. From our ASSU perspective representing student groups, it’s a shame if student money and time goes into [publications], but because distribution problems it never gets down the pipeline. We look at door-to-door to make sure that student work is actually being utilized. It’s wasted money otherwise. The other problem is that sometimes you have door-to-door and see publications being used as doorstops, because they aren’t maybe in the right strategic locations. So what we’ve talked about is… how can we just think creatively about where to put publications in strategic locations so that as many students read it as possible and then so when it comes time for voting in special fees, you can say “this publication is adding some intrinsic value to Stanford as a community.” One possibility was having mailboxes installed in all the dorms, so that if you’re not interested you can just put it in a recycling bin. One of the problems is that there is not as much visibility for publications as we would like. When you vote on something democratically, some win and some lose. Our goal is not to pacify everyone – you can’t make everyone happy. We’re trying to make sure to have on a dorm level a democratic process and if they don’t want it [door-to-door], then make sure it is readily available for students. Not all publications want to put in all the time to get publications door-to-door. We’re looking at a situation where at least the visibility is equal.
