For ASSU Senate: Alon Elhanan

Name two goals that you will have accomplished by the end of your Senate term. Please be specific with your policy recommendations.
Creating straightforward policies that will make life easier on the farm academically, socially, and extracurricularly. Academically, I want to create forums where all students can effectively communicate their opinions to the University’s “Study on Undergraduate Education”. Socially, I will help simplify the sometimes unnecessarily tedious process of throwing and securing an event. And extracurricularly, I want to significantly simplify the club fair by creating a “club fair map” that would be distributed before the event.

Changing the Standard of Proof for Sexual Harassment/Violence punishments to “preponderance of evidence” from “beyond a reasonable doubt.” This university strives to be a community in which everyone feels completely safe and comfortable, therefore Stanford should not simply abide by U.S. criminal law, but should have a lower standard of proof which would only be used to decide whether a student could be suspended, expelled, or otherwise reprimanded.

Which two current ASSU initiatives or programs would you push to eliminate? Why?
While I understand that some past ASSU initiatives (e.g. Wellness Room, Shuttle Service) were over-budgeted or unnecessary, I find this specific question to be off the mark. My goal as an ASSU senator will be to care for the money given to the ASSU to fund student initiatives on campus. If that means that some initiatives must be eliminated, then they will be, and if not, then they won’t. I am running for the ASSU in order to make Stanford the best it can be. The way we can best achieve this goal will be implemented.

In what ways would you seek to work on the following policy areas within the Senate?

1. Free speech
   One of my main goals is to simplify processes on campus that will make it easier for all students to get involved, and this includes Free Speech. My belief in Free Speech, that every student has the right to respectfully communicate their opinion in this environment, is currently being hampered by bureaucracy. I want to create a form, distributed in a school-wide email at the beginning of the school-year, that will outline a simple step by step process one has to take in order to be able to demonstrate freely in White Plaza.

2. Wellness
   We, Stanford students, who are so lucky to be here, should not merely be surviving, but thriving. Therefore, Student Wellness should be a priority for all of us on an individual and institutional level. However, when dealing with Wellness on an institutional level, simply throwing ideas out there and hoping something works is not good enough. We must put more emphasis on quantitative analysis of our initiatives, to be able to implement the things that will best help our student body thrive. Quantitative analysis is important in order to have an intricate knowledge of the current situation when it comes to wellness and how it can be improved.

3. Appropriations policy
   My main responsibility as an ASSU Senator is to care for the money given to the ASSU to distribute out to the various wonderful student groups on campus. Fiscal responsibility is a shared endeavor between student groups and the Senate. Individual groups must make sure that they spend wisely and do not spend more than they are capable of, and the Senate must hold all student groups accountable and assure that the ASSU as a whole does not go over budget. However, at the end of the day it is the Senate that has overall budgetary controls over the money, and therefore it should ultimately be held accountable.

4. Academic life
   There is no doubt that we attend one of the best Universities in the world. However, this university is not perfect. There are improvements that can be made, and in my opinion no one is better equipped to improve Stanford than the students currently comprising it. However, in this regard the student voice has been overshadowed. One of my main priorities if elected is to create a forum in which students could submit their opinions on undergraduate education and assure that their voices are heard by the administration and the faculty senate.

5. Diversity
   Diversity is the thing, above all else, that creates a sense of community on this campus. The fact that we strive to create a campus where everyone, regardless of their socio-economic, religious or political background can both feel free to be themselves and feel compelled to learn from others around them is nothing short of remarkable. As an ASSU senator, I will do everything in my power to maintain this community and create an atmosphere in which everyone wants to belong and to grow.