The ASSU Undergraduate Senate sent Hoover Institution Distinguished Visiting Fellow Donald Rumsfeld an invitation on Saturday, asking him to speak at a campuswide forum and giving the former Secretary of Defense 30 days to respond.

The invitation, the product of a bill passed by the Undergraduate Senate on Jan. 23, was the culmination of a movement in the works since the Hoover Institution announced Rumsfeld’s appointment in September. After a bill expressing opposition to the appointment failed in November, the Senate has struggled to find an acceptable way to weigh in on the matter, a process that has frustrated some student activists.

“We got a lot of people to show up in support of the bill,” recalled Adam Hudson ‘10, a leader of Stanford Says No, an anti-war student group opposed to the Rumsfeld appointment. “All of us were very disappointed.”

After five weeks of deliberation, that bill fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the resolution in an 8-5 vote with two senators abstaining. Many senators at the time questioned whether the Undergraduate Senate was the appropriate venue to express opposition to Rumsfeld, a position that drew the ire of activists like Hudson.

“If not the ASSU, how else?” Hudson asked. “We elected them to do something, not just sit there. They should represent our voice.”

Over 4,300 students, faculty, staff and alumni signed an online petition objecting to the appointment.

For senators seeking to speak out on the Rumsfeld issue, it was back to square one. The second bill, passed in January, was an effort by the Senate to finally make its mark on the Rumsfeld debate, and assuage the student activists who had vigorously lobbied for the previous resolution.

“I think that when the first bill didn’t pass, it gave the impression that the ASSU does not support political activism,” said Senator Sarah Golabek-Goldman ‘10, author of the bill. “If we can’t make a stand, we wanted to show our support, and wanted to make a tangible impact on this issue.”

The bill passed 14-1.

If Rumsfeld fails to respond by Mar. 10, the given deadline, Golabek-Goldman said yesterday the Senate would consider other guests for the forum, including Hoover Director John Raisian. Such a format would likely mimic Raisian’s appearance before the Faculty Senate on Nov. 9, in which he steadfastly defended the appointment, while admitting some tactical errors.

“This experience is unexpected, as naive as that sounds.” Raisian said at the time, referring to the controversy brewing around the appointment.

Senators expressed cautious optimism that Rumsfeld would respond to the invitation, which was sent via email to one of the former defense secretary’s assistants.

If the experience of the Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (CJME) is any indication, however, optimism may not be enough. CJME, which has taken a neutral stance on Rumsfeld’s appointment, attempted to invite the former defense secretary to a forum in October but did not receive a response.

“As far as we know, he was made aware of the invitation but we never heard back,” CJME President Tim Gregory ‘09 said. “We kind of expected that he’d say no, but it would have been nice to get a formal ‘No, thank you.’”

Raisian said last week that he had not been contacted regarding Rumsfeld’s invitation. Rumsfeld, who was appointed to serve on a task force on terrorism, national security and ideology, has not visited Stanford since the appointment, and it is not clear, when — if ever — he will.

“I can tell you that I have not spoken to Rumsfeld about this matter whatsoever,” Raisian, on a trip to New York, wrote in an email to The Daily. “And, as you might imagine, Rumsfeld is not in residence at the moment, nor is he scheduled to be in residence at any specified time.”

“But I think this whole matter of invitation has rolled out questionably,” he added, “and since no one has officially contacted me and asked me to participate in some way, I am not about to volunteer to do something otherwise.”