Undergraduate senators do not typically stick around. Not a single member of the Ninth Undergraduate Senate was a member of the Eighth Undergraduate Senate. But this year, three current senators, Stuart Baimel ‘09, Patrick Cordova ‘09 and Luukas Ilves ‘09, are seeking re-election.

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White Plaza has been decked out with banners supporting ASSU candidates since the start of campaigns last week. Elections will be held on Wednesday and Thursday. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8831
Mae Ryan

White Plaza has been decked out with banners supporting ASSU candidates since the start of campaigns last week. Elections will be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

This may be a reaction to what several senators have cited as a major problem for the Senate — a lack of continuity.

“One of the greatest problems [with the ASSU] is a lack of institutional memory,” Baimel said. “Senators come in and it takes them three or four months to learn how to do things, and they are only really effective four or five months.”

“The Senate term is one year, and administrators are not on that one-year schedule,” added Senator Jonathan Kass ‘10, who is instead running for Junior Class President this year. “Returning senators is a very good idea. These particular senators will be able to work on projects that first-time senators would not be able to work on, like reforming appropriation policies.”

Ilves hopes to work on the finer details of ASSU rules and policies in a second term.

“I’m running for re-election so I can work on relatively un-sexy issues,” Ilves said, “like how the bylaws and constitution work and how we exercise oversight over particular processes like nomination committee appointments.”

Ilves, along with the other senators seeking re-election, argued that executing these types of specialized ASSU reforms would only be possible for a second-term senator.

“The things you focus on as a returning senator are very different from what you do as a first-term senator,” Ilves said.

Baimel plans a different focus for his second term.

“I want to focus on advocacy projects,” Baimel said. “For example, the price of birth control has gone up, and an important aspect of being senator is advocating for students to administrators, and that’s an issue the ASSU should take up.”

According to Cordova, one year just is not enough to fully deliver on an ambitious campaign platform. Cordova said that as his Senate term progressed, he stumbled upon even more things that needed to be done to further his agenda of promoting sexual and mental health across campus.

“I would argue that I need 10 more years in the Senate to do everything,” Cordova said. “Being a student takes a lot of time, and there are certain things I couldn’t accomplish. As a naive incoming senator, I told myself I would change Stanford, but it’s a complex place.”

“The returning senators will work on a lot of things that, if we don’t do them, won’t get done,” Ilves added. “And of course, we had fun [in this year’s Senate]. We work for students. We help students out."