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NewsvinePRESIDENT, SAGAR DOSHI '09: Junior class president, former ASSU Director of Marketing and Outreach 2006-2007, former Daily columnist and editorial board member, former captain of Hindi Film Dance team, Sanskriti member.
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VICE PRESIDENT, PHILLIP HON'10: ASSU Chair of Academic and Career Initiatives, member of the Acts of Intolerance Protocol Committee, program assistant with the OSA, Asian American Student Association liaison of Sanskriti Core, Frosh Council 2006-2007.
The Stanford Daily (TSD): You have both spent time within the Executive branch of the ASSU. How would this shape your tenure as president and vice president?
Sagar Doshi (SD): The best way to frame this is to recognize the problem the ASSU has — the issue of institutional memory. We and anyone else who is running are essentially in office for one year. That’s a short period of time . . . You get a lot of repetition, just because you don’t know what’s happened in the past. Given what we have done, we won’t have to go over some of that same ground. For long-term projects like diversity, we can just keep things going.
Phillip Hon (PH): We know what has already happened, and we know what has failed. We know the ASSU hasn’t done its best job in being transparent and reaching out to students . . . A lot of people we talked to don’t even know what the ASSU is, and it’s really big for us to go out and hear people’s concerns and let them know how we are serving them.
SD: It’s a perennial problem. But to be honest, it’s not a huge problem. It means that students are busy with other things, to help make this campus better. When people don’t have to worry about how their needs are being met — that means their needs are being met. But there is always room for improvement.
TSD: How will you help graduate students?
SD: Last quarter I lived in Crothers . . . Housing costs went up 25 percent for grads, and no one heard about it. Graduate issues get put on the back burner. It’s 8,000 to 6,000 — they are the vast majority on campus. They are less involved with student groups, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have needs that need to be met. We want to have a really strong graduate focus.
TSD: How will your graduate focus compete with that of the Gobaud-Goldgof slate, both of whom are co-terminal students?
SD: If you’re interested and motivated, you can’t be dissuaded by someone else who also is motivated and ready for the job. If we don’t go into office and they do, we hope they will support the same things we do. Its not Democrats versus Republicans, we aren’t fighting. These are all the same issues. Everyone wants sustainability, everyone wants diversity. The difference is can they do them, and do them well.
TSD: You seem to be running on a platform of ASSU experience. How can you compete with Priyanka Sharma, the Undergraduate Senate Chair, in that respect?
SD: There is not one position in the ASSU that will provide you with the best amount of experience. There is an extraordinary difference between Exec and Senate. The ASSU is an umbrella organization; you need knowledge about the different parts. We have the experience with the Executive.
TSD: How is your platform different from the other executive platforms?
SD: Broadly, it’s supporting students and student groups because that’s why we are here . . . Graduate issues are really important to us, because we are reaching out to a community that hasn’t traditionally been reached out to. Old Union — we can get a place that’s not just a study place. Student groups have a very tough time just trying to reserve space. We want to make a universal reservation system.
These are the same ideas people are going to hear throughout the campaign. But that points to a good thing — that means that a lot of us are here for the same reason: to make this place better. The fact that that is the case is something that reflects really well on the people that are here. The only way you can distinguish people is how feasible their ideas are, and if they have the leadership to make [their ideas] possible.