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John Shen

Brett and Lakshmi: Brett Hammon and Lakshmi Karra

Brett Hammon ’08: Junior Class President, Sophomore Class President, ASSU Executive Aid, Fleet Street Singers, Ram’s Head, Queer/Straight Alliance

Lakshmi Karra ’08: Junior Class Executive Cabinet, Sophomore Class Exeuctive Cabinet, Frosh Council Representative, Basmati Raas Dance Team

Goals: Increase graduate and faculty diversity and include LGBT issues in diversity discourse, reform the draw, more flexible meal plans, more 24-hour study spaces, increase healthcare for graduate students, revive Row Block Party, add a student advisory panel to the OSA, more resources for victims of sexual harassment, grad/undergrad mentoring, updates in The Daily about the ASSU

The Daily: How is your campaign going?

Lakshmi Karra: We think it’s been going well. We’re having a lot of fun doing it. We’ve been in White Plaza every day, going around to dining halls, singing our song. And so we’ve been enjoying it a lot.

TD: I’ve seen your flyers on the dining halls on the table tents and there on the back of the Avula/Jones flyers, and if you compare them, yours has a lot fewer bullet points, and theirs is very extensive. Do you think that this is a strength or a weakness?

Brett Hammon: I definitely think it’s a strength. Both slates are promising similar things. And they’re promising a lot of things. It’s impossible for two people to accomplish half of the things that they’re promising. So, it’s going to come down to the cabinet and the ASSU as a whole, and we have a set of concrete goals that we know we can and will accomplish with this motivated cabinet. It’s like Lakshmi said, we’ve built an army of people who are not usually involved in ASSU stuff, but they’re out there and they care about it and those are the kind of people we look forward to working with next year to accomplish those things that are on our flyer.

TD: What concrete objectives are your biggest priorities in the coming year?

LK: We want to make the ASSU very transparent for students, and I think that by having a very large cabinent of very motivated people, a large percentage of Stanford students are going to be like, “I know someone on the cabinet.” That automatically gives you a sense of power or ownership, or at least identification with the ASSU. So, that’s one of our big goals. Other things we want to see happen: We want the Mausoleum Party and we want the draw to be fixed.

BH: OSA reform.

LK: OSA reform, absolutely.

BH: Instead of saying that we’re going to change the rules and beat up Nanci Howe, we have our concrete things we’re going to do that are going to help alleviate the situation. I know Nancy Howe. I know how she works. The administration in general is not just going to back down, and Nancy Howe is not going to say, ‘Okay, Darren Frannich, you win.’ If we work with her and show her how changing some of these arbitrary rules make sense, then she’s very reasonable. It will happen.

TD: What do you think is the most important issue in this race and also perhaps the most divisive issue in this race?

LK: The two platforms are very similar. So, I guess what you have to go to then is, who are the people who are running? The other slate has a lot of Senate experience. Brett and I come from a very different background, and I think that making sure that people know the background we come from is by no means less qualified but, in fact, more qualified as the voice of the student body. I think that’s what it kind of boils down to.