King of Hearts / WikiCommons
This Spring, the Stanford Political Journal staff collectively decided on the top 10 most influential political figures on campus for the past academic year. Here are the students we chose.
Highlighting the growing prevalence of collective leadership, this year we decided to include collective bios among multiple individuals affiliated with a project in cases when responsibility and leadership were shared equally between the individuals and when it would have been inaccurate to highlight only one individual.
As a non-partisan publication, SPJ does not endorse any particular agenda held by any of the Politicos.
Sophomore Harry Elliott has undoubtedly been an influential figure in campus politics and dialogue the past year. An accomplished competitive debater, Elliott is no stranger to confrontation. As editor-in-chief of the controversial, right-leaning campus publication, The Stanford Review, Elliott publicly debated the grounds for removal of the name Serra from campus properties; he contributed to reporting of the FLIP, SSE, and Gabe Knight campus controversies; and he led the charge in a nationally-covered, though ultimately unsuccessful, effort to reinstate a Western Civilization requirement in the undergraduate curriculum at Stanford.
Under Elliott’s leadership, The Review has been unabashedly provocative, particularly when challenging campus activist movements. In late March, The Review published a satire of the list of demands of Who’s Teaching Us. Elliott then co-wrote an op-ed titled “Who’s Teaching Stanford?” for The National Review that decried campus radicals and leftist orthodoxy.
Although Elliott has attracted many supporters, he has also faced plenty of critics. Nevertheless, Harry Elliott earns the top spot in this year’s list for bringing greater attention to a set of contrarian, right perspectives that might otherwise have been drowned out on our largely left college campus — and having nearly become a household name for doing so.
Sophie Harrison, Yari Greaney, and Michael Peñuelas are part of the founding class of Fossil Free Stanford, and have helped lead multiple Fossil Free Stanford efforts this year. Peñuelas and Greaney are coterminal master’s students in Earth Systems, and Harrison is a Senior in Economics. The Fossil Free Stanford campaign start`ed calling on the university to divest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry in the fall of 2012. They have since argued that it is unconscionable for Stanford to continue betting on the success of and funding its education with the profits of an industry that is actively driving climate destruction while working against solutions. Since 2012, they have mobilized the ASSU, Graduate Student Council, 75% of the undergraduate student body, over 450 faculty, and hundreds more alumni to call on the Board of Trustees to fully divest from the top 200 coal, oil and gas companies. This year, they wrote a letter signed by over 450 faculty, organized a week-long sit-in with over 100 students, and created a pledge by more than 500 students to withhold all donations until Stanford divests. A joint letter from both this and next year’s ASSU executives in early May has made clear how the campus community has united around the conviction that Stanford needs to draw a hard line at profiting off of climate change and environmental destruction and speaks to the continually growing influence of Fossil Free Stanford.
In the 2015–2016 school year, the student coalition “Who’s Teaching Us” burst into the forefront of student action, politics, and discussion both on and off campus. Founded in 2014 after the denial of tenure to English professor Stephen Hong Sohn, one of students’ most beloved and admired professors, students formed Who’s Teaching Us? to change the fact that 73% of Stanford’s faculty is white and 73% of Stanford’s faculty is male. Who’s Teaching Us? argues that Stanford’s faculty should reflect the Stanford student body demographics more accurately, not only as an issue of student need but also as an issue of social justice in higher education. WTU also seeks to increase support for marginalized studies and community centers on campus. As senior Urban Studies major, Jazlyn Patricio-Archer has worked alongside Colin Kimzey, Co Tran, Yeji Jung, Maya Odei, Dan Brown, Phuntso Wangdra, and the rest of the WTU coalition to spearhead rallies, teach-ins, demonstrations, social media awareness campaigns, and presented the Stanford administration with a list of 25 demands for Stanford’s policies to move toward a more inclusive and qualified faculty body. Currently, Who’s Teaching Us focuses on solidarity work with other schools, from San Francisco State University to Dartmouth, and have supported the efforts of students protesting the denial of tenure to Professor Aishwary Kumar, an assistant professor of history whose scholarship challenges implicit biases regarding the status of non-Western thought. Thanks to WTU’s work, Stanford students now actively discuss and pursue various types of diversity in higher education as a facet of education itself.
Emma Hartung, Cenobio Hernandez, and Rocio Hernandez are active members of the Student and Labor Alliance (SALA). Hartung, the longest standing active member, is a Junior majoring in African and African American Studies, R. Hernandez is a Sophomore majoring in Urban Studies, and C. Hernandez is a Sophomore majoring in Mechanical Engineering. SALA, founded in 1998, aims to provide support to labor on campus in order to improve their work conditions and their overall quality of life. By leveraging the various involved parties such as Stanford administration, the labor union representing workers, and the workers themselves, SALA aims to elevate the needs of workers. SALA’s agenda is largely determined by worker needs and the best way to amplify their voices and give credence to the difficulties they experience on the job. Their work is a recognition of the understanding that workers on campus are part of the Stanford community and deserve to be treated as such. This year, SALA’s largest public event on campus was a rally held a couple of weeks ago to garner support for and show solidarity with campus workers. They presented worker quotes on their experiences as a powerful way to both acknowledge the work our workers do that goes unappreciated as well as demonstrate that Stanford students care about the wellbeing of our workers. In addition to this rally, they also held two worker forums this year and interviewed C&W janitors for them to share their stories with students with the opportunity to then have their profile shared with the Stanford community. In part thanks to their efforts, C&W and other subcontracted janitors in the Bay ratified an acceptable contract on 5/2, and C&W and on-campus workers are still agreeing on an additional wages and benefits package here at Stanford.
An honorable mention from last year’s list, sophomore ASSU Senator Matthew Cohen certainly made the splash predicted by Joe Bourdage. Notably, Cohen was behind a large pushback against the Campus Climate Survey for using narrow definition of sexual assault and suspiciously low sexual assault numbers. This push included writing the resolution that was passed by the ASSU Senate, proposing changes to the Faculty Senate, conversing with national news outlets such as the Huffington Post and heavily pushing for the referendum in the student body vote this spring. In addition to his work on sexual assault reporting, Cohen authored bills aimed at increasing student government transparency. As a result of these bills, all votes in the ASSU Senate are now recorded and published online. As a double major in Political Science and Earth Systems, Cohen also worked with Stanford Dining and People for Animal Welfare (PAW) to create a sustainably-themed dining hall, which will serve less meat. Cohen is one of five returning senators serving in the 2016–2017 ASSU Senate.
As an ASSU senator, Leo John Bird spearheaded the resolution requesting the removal of Father Juníperro Serra — one of the founders of the California mission system that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Native people — from campus edifices. In response to Bird’s call to action, which sparked campus-wide and national debate, the university president and provost established a committee to initiate a process for investigating the controversial legacies of campus buildings and streets’ namesakes. Bird’s efforts to elevate indigenous narratives extends beyond the Serra issue. A junior double majoring in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Native American Studies, Bird co-curated the Cantor’s recent exhibit on “Contemporary Indigenous Perspectives of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.” Bird, a member of the Amskapii Piikanii and Haida-Tlingit tribes, is an active and highly respected member of the Stanford American Indian Organization and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. After graduation, Bird hopes to continue serving as a powerful, unwavering advocate for Native peoples. His political hero is Denise Juneau, who if elected in November, will be the first indigenous woman in in Congress.
Measha Ferguson-Smith, a third year majoring in African American Studies, is one of the leading figures for social justice on Stanford’s campus. She is not only a role model for Stanford students, especially those who seek to become better holistic social justice activists, but is an integral voice in racial justice and bringing race-focused conversations to the Stanford campus. Her involvement in the Stanford National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Black Student Union (BSU), and the First Generation Low-Income Partnership were the beginnings of her work on Stanford’s campus. During her second year, Ferguson-Smith was a key organizer in Silicon Shutdown, the organizing body which brought much-needed attention to issues of state violence following the August 9, 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Recently, Ferguson-Smith offered her time and energy to engage in a public dialogue with the editor of the Stanford Review at an event entitled “Courageous Conversations” which sought to address the pain inflicted upon marginalized communities on campus by articles in the conservative Stanford Review. Currently, Ferguson-Smith is co-leader of Black and Queer at Stanford and co-founder of Stanford Black Feminist Collective. Both organizations work toward developing responses to violence that do not depend on interlocking systems of oppression, and contributing to the spirit and vitality of affected Black communities on campus and in the Bay Area.
Madeleine Lippey, a sophomore studying English, is one of Stanford strongest voices on the issue of sexual assault. She launched the the NO MORE campaign at Stanford, an initiative sponsored by Joyful Heart that works to identify toxic justifications for violence and victim-blaming language that they’ve heard around campus, including phrases like “boys will be boys” or “but I was just drunk”, visiting every housed fraternity, particularly to engage men in what has historically been seen as a “women’s issue.” This spring, she organized the Fearless Conference, a day long conference that brought together speakers and students from all different backgrounds to talk about the issue of sexual assault. In the summer, she will be serving as an intern at the White House, operating in the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs and working at the Council on Women and Girls. Her favorite political leader is Aung San Suu Kyi.
This past year, Robert Chun served as chair of Stanford in Government, one of campus’ largest political organizations. Under Robert’s leadership, SIG hosted more than 40 policy events across campus including talks with Senator Cory Booker and former Speaker of the House John Boehner and registered hundreds of students to vote. In addition, the group will provide funds, through stipends and fellowships, to over 60 students who will participate in various public policy internships this summer. Robert also led the way for SIG’s involvement in the creation of Cardinal Service, a new program in which SIG partners with the Haas Center for Public Service to “elevate and expand service as a distinctive feature of a Stanford education.” Outside of SIG, Robert served as the only student on the Presidential Search Committee and thus had a hand in choosing Stanford’s next president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne. As a testament to Robert’s outstanding commitment to service, the alumni association will be awarding him the J.E. Wallace Sterling Award for service to the University. After he graduates at the end of the year, Robert will be moving to Boston, where he’ll be working as an associate consultant at the Bridgespan Group.
John-Lancaster Finley and Brandon Hill have become household names on campus since being elected the ASSU executive representatives for 2015–16. Endorsed by Stanford First-Generation Low Income Partnership (FLIP), Stanford Students of Color Coalition, Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS), Fossil Free Stanford (FFS) and many, many other groups, Finley and Hill worked hard on mental health issues, sustainability, sexual assault prevention and much more during their time in office. The pair has been known for their charismatic energy and were both involved in student government before they became the faces of the ASSU. Finley and Hill had a controversial year but emerged having made progress in every area of their platform aside from fossil fuel divestment, an issue that still remains at the heart of campus politics. The two seniors will be graduating this spring with degrees in political science. Finley and Hill have been some of the most influential voices on campus during their four years and have left a significant legacy.
A senior majoring in Earth Systems, Jonathan Fisk has stimulated immense campus political discussion and debate through his own activism and outreach. In addition to writing for publications like Static, Fisk is notable for his presence on social media — the significance of which is certainly immense and which actually began during his freshman year. Fisk has continually spent energy providing resources to his fellow peers in order for them to have tools to educate themselves, engage in discussion, or support a debate. A staff member in Ujamaa this year, Fisk’s experiences in Stanford NAACP, Who’s Teaching Us, Stanford Powwow, and SAIO, as well as the Stanford Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, the First Generation Low Income Partnership (FLIP), and the Black Student Union (BSU), have inspired his actions and direction on campus. Thanks to Fisk’s courageous activism, students — especially those not previously pushed to do so — have engaged on a broader and deeper scale with social justice movements that center on racial justice, economic justice, and more.
Senior Religious Studies major Molly Horwitz is perhaps Stanford’s best known opponent of anti-semitism. An ASSU senator during the past year, Molly was the architect of the controversial anti-semitism resolution that roiled the student senate in April. The debate over the resolution was widely publicized, with some students groups, such as Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP), voicing objections to the bill’s definition of anti-semitism. Discussion surrounding the resolution also included the widely condemned remarks of former senator Gabe Knight, who ended his reelection campaign due to the scandal. Yet despite the rancorous debate, Molly prevailed in passing a modified version of the resolution, which is the strongest statement the senate has made against anti-semitism to date. Outside of the senate, Molly serves as Vice-President for Cardinal for Israel, and has helped facilitate educational sessions on anti-semitism. She is a supporter of Hillary Clinton, who she plans to volunteer for in advance of the California Democratic primary.
Profiles written, respectively, by Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna, Truman Chen, Micaela Suminski, Chen, Ada Statler-Throckmorton, Sarah Sadlier, Suminski, Jake Dow, Lucas Rodriguez, Kayla Guillory, Suminski, and Brett Parker.
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