Stanford Leadership Institute hosted Huang and Khanna to speak on how the U.S. can win the global AI race while increasing public trust.
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The newly founded Stanford Leadership Institute, based at Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), hosted a discussion on practical insights and important questions about leveraging the benefits of AI while addressing its risks on April 9.
The event brought together key voices in technology and national policy, including NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang ‘92 and Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Former National Security Advisor and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution General H.R. McMaster moderated the event alongside its host, GSB Dean Sarah A. Soule.
The conversation gave attention to how the U.S. can maintain a competitive advantage in the AI industry. Huang described the multi-layered infrastructure of AI as a five layer stack: energy, chips, cloud infrastructure, AI factories, AI models and, crucially, AI applications.
To stay ahead, he stressed that the U.S. needs to lead in all of these layers, with the application layer being the most important.
Huang also urged the U.S. to fully capitalize on the AI industrial revolution it helped initiate. Because of this, he pushed for removing barriers to AI adoption and emphasized accelerating both the development of the technology and its applied uses.
Khanna offered another angle on maintaining a competitive edge. He emphasized that the American Dream is still alive, pointing to how the U.S. attracts global talent, creating “magic and innovation.” He also cited that many of the world’s top research universities are based in the U.S., advocating for continued education funding.
Khanna highlighted academic freedom as a key advantage, specifically the ability to question authority and challenge ideas. He emphasized the unique type of collaboration that the government, universities and the private sector have in the U.S.
Khanna argued that offshoring manufacturing was a “colossal mistake,” reflecting on resulting industrial decline in the midwest.
“This idea that we could just be a financial nation, an innovation nation without maintaining an industrial base was a mistake for our national security and for social cohesion,” he said.
The discussion then moved to the democratization of AI and its socioeconomic impacts. Khanna pointed out that many Americans are skeptical of AI, largely due to persistent economic inequality and a lack of trust in institutions. He argued that leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the benefits of AI are shared amongst all citizens.
Khanna wants to increase job creation and discussed the need for an “affirmative jobs agenda” whose purpose is to rebuild communities and restore national purpose.
Huang pushed back on the idea that AI is taking jobs out of Americans’ hands. Referencing radiology, he explained that although AI has automated parts of the work, the demand for radiologists has actually increased. He discerned between the tasks within a job and the purpose of the job itself.
Even though tasks can be automated, “the purpose of your job and the tasks that you perform in your job are related, but not the same,” Haung commented. He used his own experience to illustrate this point, joking that although his job includes both typing and talking, which have been automated by AI, he is “busier than ever”.
Huang claimed that it is more likely that someone who knows how to use AI will take others’ jobs than it is that AI itself will take people’s jobs.
AI regulation and national security became a key focus of the talk. Khanna emphasized the importance of establishing American standards for AI globally, while Huang noted that regulating AI is inherently difficult because of how quick technology evolves, and its interconnectedness with other industries.
General McMaster likened regulating AI to “asking the Wright brothers to first develop the maintenance manual for a 707 before further developing the airplane.”
All speakers emphasized the balance between regulation and innovation, and global competition and cooperation. Huang highlighted the importance of coexisting with other countries, stating, “We’re going to compete with China, but we’re not anti-China.”
He stressed that upholding the American Dream means fostering an environment that is open and welcoming to people from all backgrounds.
Closing with an optimistic outlook, Huang catered towards students attending the event. He believes the AI industry represents an unparalleled opportunity for students, and to consider that every industry is resetting because of it.
“You are exactly at the same place as everyone else. Nobody has a head start on you,” Huang said to students in the audience. He encouraged students to engage with AI, adding that “all of us on the other side are waiting for you, looking forward to working with you to build the future together.”
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GCS hears from StanfordNext, approves housing room selection resolutionStanfordNext's work will align local land use restrictions with the University's construction projects.
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The Graduate Student Council (GSC) listened to a presentation from StanfordNext representatives Kathleen Kavanaugh and Whitney McNair, seeking insight on a proposal to grow housing and academic space on existing campus land during its Thursday meeting.
According to the StanfordNext website, the group’s work will “shape a new General Use Permit (GUP) that is designed to align with state, county and local priorities while ensuring that Stanford remains a global leader in research, education, and innovation.”
Stanford senior associate vice president and StanfordNext project executive Whitney McNair said to the GSC that the group hosted events in recent months on campus and in Palo Alto, soliciting feedback from the Stanford community about issues people want to see addressed as they pull together an application.
McNair, who said StanfordNext hopes to present to the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) in the coming months, shared that the goal is to submit a proposal to Santa Clara County in August 2026. From there, public hearings and an 18-month environmental review of the project would occur, and progress on projects on campus would begin “sometime in the year 2028.”
Following McNair’s presentation, Undergraduate Senator and UGS Chair of Administration and Rules Dan Kubota ’27 spoke to the GSC with UGS Chair David Sengthay ’26. Kubota and Sengthay presented a Joint Resolution to Oppose Housing Room Selection Changes For Students With Documented Office of Accessible Education (OAE) Accommodations.
10 members of the GSC voted in favor of joining the joint resolution, none voted against, and one abstained.
Kubota said that information about new processes for applying for housing accommodations through the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) was not presented to the student body with enough time for students to process decisions that would affect the entirety of the next academic year.
The new OAE housing application process has faced criticism for not allowing students to join or form housing groups.
The goal of the resolution is to “show the university we don’t stand with this decision… [and call] on the administration to meet with the student body and speak with students,” Kubota said. Though it is not written in the resolution, one idea would be for Residential Education (ResEd) to meet with students and hear about their experiences at the Disability Community Space (DisCo), said Kubota.
Council members also heard the Joint Bill on Policy on Proctoring Following the Conclusion of the Academic Integrity Working Group (AIWG) Proctoring Pilot. “[Proctoring] is really an absolute necessity to achieve the learning goals in courses right now,” said Jennifer Poehlmann, faculty co-chair of the AIWG.
The GSC will vote on the joint bill at its April 16 meeting.
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Faculty Senate debates Flock cameras, honors facultyIn its Thursday meeting, members of the Faculty Senate expressed concerns about surveillance by over 40 new Flock cameras on campus.
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Members of the Faculty Senate remembered the legacy of several late faculty members and questioned University President Jonathan Levin ’94 about campus surveillance at its meeting on Thursday.
In lieu of delivering a report, Levin said he was willing to field questions from members of the Senate. Citing concerns of surveillance by over 40 new Flock cameras on campus, biochemistry professor James Ferrell asked, “Does Stanford plan to end its Flock contract?”
Levin claimed that the cameras are not intended to arbitrarily collect data. “My understanding is that the University installed flock cameras… as an overall effort to improve campus safety,” he explained. Levin assured the Senate, “We are looking at the contractual relationship with Flock… to make sure no data is shared with Flock that should not be.”
Provost Jenny Martinez was not present. Furthermore, Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) President Ava Brown ’26, Vice President Will Berriman ’26 and Undergraduate Senate representative Princess Ochweri ’27 were absent from the proceedings.
Engineering professor William Mitch delivered a memorial speech for Richard Luthy, the late Silas H. Palmer professor of civil and environmental engineering. Luthy taught at the University starting in 1999 and passed away in 2025. “He was a leader within the department,” Mitch said.
According to an obituary published by the Stanford Report, Luthy will be remembered for “championing a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to studying … contaminants.” His research produced “significant advancements in environmental quality criteria and cleanup practices.”
Former Chemical Engineering professor Robert Madix was also honored with a memorial resolution. Madix hailed from Champaign, Illinois and served as the former Charles Lee Powell professor before moving to Harvard in 2004 to join his wife, Cynthia Friend.
Engineering professor Raymond Levitt also delivered a memorial speech for Henry Parker, former professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering. Parker, who died at 99 years old, was known for planning several highway and dam construction projects. Professor Levitt said that it was his honor “to lay before the senate and academic council a resolution in memory of professor Henry Parker.”
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GSB appoints former finance executive as operations and financial chiefThe former Charles Schwab Chief of Staff became the GSB's new Chief Operating and Financial Officer last month.
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Mike Canady joined the Graduate School of Business (GSB) as its chief operating and financial officer on March 16.
Canady is the GSB’s first chief operating and financial officer appointed from outside a background in higher education administration. He previously worked at Charles Schwab for 32 years across a range of positions, including as the chief of staff to Charles Schwab M.B.A. ’61 and the bank’s senior vice president of financial planning and analysis.
“[Canady’s previous] roles demanded sound judgment, adaptability, and the ability to earn trust at every level—from a founder to teams spanning geographies and cultures,” GSB Dean Sarah Soule wrote to The Daily.
Despite lacking experience in higher education leadership, Canady said the job specifications were closely aligned with his experience.
“My mentor shared with me the opportunity… it is exactly the type of thing that I was looking for across the board,” he said.
According to Canady, the GSB conducted the recruitment process in collaboration with a recruitment firm. Charles Schwab, who was an alumni of the GSB’s M.B.A. program, was not involved in the process, although Canady claimed he said “good things about Stanford” when they worked together.
Canady’s recruitment follows a growing pattern of diversification in the University’s recruitment of management personnel from outside higher education.
Raj Chellaraj, Canady’s predecessor and former CFO and administrative dean at GSB, served as the assistant secretary of state for George H.W. Bush before joining Stanford. Currently, Chellaraj is serving as senior advisor to the director of the Hoover Institution and to the president of Stanford University on finance and operations.
This type of hire has also occurred outside of GSB. Scott Calvert, senior associate dean for administration at the School of Engineering, was a pilot for 21 years in the U.S. Navy.
According to Calvert, senior management positions in higher education are “mostly people business.” Calvert imagines that Canady “s[aw] a lot of that in his time at Schwab.”
Canady said he sees parallels in corporate and university management structures.
“[At a company] you’ve got your clients, you’ve got employees and you’ve got your shareholders. At Stanford, you have your faculty, your students, your alumni and the whole greater community,” he said.
Canady’s appointment at the GSB marks the completion of a change in the school’s leadership team. Soule became Dean of the GSB in June 2025, replacing Jonathan Levin ’94 after he was appointed University president in 2024.
As a newcomer to the GSB’s management team, Canady said that he was interested in the school’s investment initiatives. On this subject, Canady says he is still in “learning mode,” and frequently has conversations with colleagues.
He said he is currently taking the “30, 60, 90 day approach,” a management science framework that sets employees up in their first three months of a new role. He identified budgeting amid university-wide fiscal constraints and the adoption of artificial intelligence as some of his early priorities.
“I want to make sure I’m not bringing a bias into things,” Canady said. “I want to go with an open mind and just see… what we should be focusing on.”
Canady said the most important reason for his transition to academia is to continue learning, describing himself as a “learner by nature.”
“Part of the reason I’m here is the view that I can continue to learn and grow,” he said. “I felt like this environment — there’s ample opportunities to learn, grow and add value.”
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Ask Your Asian Auntie: I’m frustrated with food on campus…Ask your Asian Auntie about anything that troubles you.
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Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.
Dear Auntie,
After two quarters at Stanford, I’ve gotten frustrated with the food options on campus. I miss home-cooking. The dining halls and fast food vendors can be heavy, greasy and cause me to become bloated and tired… (and struggle with bowel issues). What advice do you have to improvise with the options I have?
— Peckish at Potter
Dear Peckish,
Auntie is very sympathetic to your plight, even though, at Stanford University, the food is already better than many of the other schools in America. Especially whatever they are feeding their students at Yale University — I think it must be why they are sad all of the time. But you are correct. It is not easy to eat “outside food” every day.
Here are some of my suggestions for you, for what to eat when you are missing home.
There is also a better solution to this problem. If you get a job, you will have a salary that you can use to buy food outside Stanford University. You deserve to treat yourself — to nutritionally rich and diverse meals, NOT to Molly Tea. Disposable income will help greatly with your problem. Or, finally get a boyfriend to take you out. (But Auntie sees the BookTok accounts you follow and knows it’s hopeless… she’ll never be great-Auntie.)
Also, please do not forget that Auntie lives in Palo Alto. Go to Hotel Nobu. Ask the nice man at the desk for the elevator code to see your “Auntie”. He will know what to do. I would be happy to meet you for dinner.
If you truly want home food, I can cook — only if you promise to help me wash the dishes afterward.
Good luck. Have some sliced apples (even a dining hall cannot mess this up), and all will be O.K.
Auntie
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Stanford women’s water polo to open MPSF ChampionshipThe reigning NCAA champions kick off their playoff push this Friday in Berkeley against San Jose State.
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The defending NCAA champions will open the MPSF Championship on Friday against San Jose State in Berkeley, kicking off a tournament run that could signal another title march. Stanford is 11-1 overall this season and 5-1 in MPSF play, while San Jose State enters the first-round matchup at 7-15 overall and 0-6 in conference play.
The Cardinal enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed and is chasing a ninth overall MPSF title and fourth in the past five seasons. If Stanford claims another national title this season, it would be the fourth NCAA championship in five seasons and 11th overall. Stanford is in a prime position to come out on top once again, but the path here has not been perfect.
With only one loss on the season, Stanford’s only trouble came on March 22, when it dropped an 11-10 thriller to the USC Trojans at Avery Aquatic Center. The loss snapped a 19-game winning streak dating back to last season and came on a goal with just 10 seconds left in the game. The defeat was especially painful because it was an NCAA title rematch. Even in a loss, however, Stanford displayed its elite talent. Redshirt juniors Juliette Dhalluin and Jenna Flynn each recorded hat tricks against the Trojans, while redshirt sophomore Serena Browne added two goals in the loss.
Stanford predictably bounced back from the loss. To wrap up the regular season, the Cardinal rallied from a 5-2 deficit to beat rival Cal 8-7 on Senior Day, a game that will provide momentum for their playoff run. Flynn once again recorded a hat trick, and junior goalkeeper Christine Carpenter came up with several clutch stops in the final minutes of the game to preserve the win. The win served as a fitting home sendoff for senior Maggie Hawkins and senior Jackie King, two veterans who have led Stanford through one of the program’s most successful recent stretches.
The focus is now on Friday’s matchup, where Stanford will be favored, but they will still have to bring their best game. A win would be an opening step in proving that the Cardinal are capable of becoming back-to-back champs for the second time in the last five years. Friday’s game is set to begin at 11 a.m.
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Strawser | On the Israel Studies Program and fostering a stronger culture of inquiryIn his latest column installment, Strawser writes about the importance of inquiry in the newly established Israel Studies Program.
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Conventional political wisdom in this country suggests that one must never criticize the U.S.-Israel partnership and never rein in the State of Israel. Capitol Police and a U.S. Senator, for instance, broke the arm of a U.S. veteran who peacefully protested military action in Iran alongside Israel. President Trump has repeatedly detained international students over the threats that their pro-Palestine dissent allegedly poses to his U.S.-Israel foreign policy. His ambassador to Israel declared that “It would be fine if they took it all” — an endorsement of Israel occupying land in the Middle East from the Nile River to the Euphrates River.
This is the lens through which I view the recently endowed Israel Studies Program. The program’s website prominently features Israeli President Isaac Herzog — who has denied the very concept of innocent civilians in Gaza and signed bombs that would be dropped on said Gazans — celebrating “the courage, conviction, and moral power that the launch of this program speaks [to].” The Jan Koum Family Foundation, which endowed the program, is a major donor to a U.S.-based nonprofit that financially backs active-duty members of the Israel Defense Forces. Jan Koum has donated millions of dollars to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — the U.S.-Israel partnership’s top lobbyist.
Given the close financial relationship between the academic program and American politics, and between universities and government in general, it is unsurprising that I, among others, are critical of the program’s mission — “to advance student, faculty, and public knowledge of modern Israel” — and its benefit to balanced discourse in light of the surrounding political circumstances. Federal hostility toward humanitarian critics of the U.S.-Israel partnership, the White House’s endorsement of Israeli conquest and the obvious leanings of the program’s biggest backers set a tone that is not conducive to robust questioning of official government narratives. While program affiliates have argued that there is no such chilling effect, their words fall flat in light of the political realities that are hard to ignore. For the Israel Studies Program to be the truly open, rigorous and fair academic endeavor that the Stanford community deserves, we must remember what this great university actually stands for.
University president Jonathan Levin ’94 eloquently characterized Stanford’s academic tradition in calling for “a stronger culture of inquiry” on campus. Such inquiry, as Levin would go on to say at his inauguration, bolsters our academic pursuits “with a sense of openness, possibility and hope that are fundamental to who we are” and motivates us to “wrestle with social and political issues.” Exploring the unknown, debating the taboo and interrogating the conventional are core pillars of the “spirit of openness and possibility” that Stanford prides itself on. That tradition is part of Stanford’s identity as a university. All of its academic endeavors should accordingly go out of their way to follow that tradition, and the Israel Studies Program cannot be an exception.
Contrary to what the branding and associations of the program suggest, honest discussions of Israel’s legal, political and military supremacy over Palestinians is an academic necessity. We ought to follow the example of the American Studies Program, which includes courses that cultivate critical thinking towards America’s racist legal system and the place of gender and sexuality in the nation’s socioeconomic and political power structures. American Studies is a prime example of how the advancement of serious scholarship leaves plenty of room for dissenting approaches. It would be a disservice to the Israel Studies Program’s academic potential if it continued strengthening the conventional line on understanding Israeli society.
To be clear, I welcome the endowment of the program to the extent that it represents a step forward in advancing scholarship and discussion on land that fits into a millennia-spanning story, including but not limited to Jewish religious practice, exile, liberation and genocide — topics critical for all students, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, to understand. At the same time, Stanford’s academic tradition calls for another lens for bold discussion: open inquiry into the challenging, modern-day realities of that story.
By following Stanford’s core academic tradition, the Israel Studies Program can prove to the campus community that it is capable of advancing knowledge of Israel free from the shackles of U.S.-Israel political orthodoxy.
The program should go so far, with a commitment equalling its feature of Israel’s president on its website, as to host public events with Israeli figures who have consistently opposed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and broader Israeli policies. This could include voices against Netanyahu obstructing Palestinian statehood at the cost of propping up the eventual Oct. 7 attackers, or Israel’s death penalty for alleged Palestinian terrorists that excludes Israel’s violent settler-colonists. Such action would elevate bold visions for democracy in the land while highlighting a broader array of opinions from the people living there. It would also be a clear step against the program’s financial and political associations — signalling to the Stanford community that its inquiry tradition can indeed survive while Israeli scholarship flourishes.
Just as I have called for a wholesale defiance of the conventional wisdom surrounding terrorism, free speech and student success, I am calling for a wholesale defiance of the anti-inquiry impression that the Israel Studies Program has given thus far. The U.S. partnership with the State of Israel has, thus far, constituted a free pass for an array of human rights abuses. For the sake of Stanford’s academic tradition and sparking the best engagement possible, the program must prove to us that there is more to Israel than what U.S.-Israel political orthodoxy permits.
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Sexual Assault Awareness Month centers students in healing and communitySHARE hosts events around advocacy for survivors and education on gender-based violence.
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April marks the 25th year of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). At Stanford, students and faculty are honoring SAAM’s history with programming and outreach on sexual assault prevention evolving over the decades.
The Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Education (SHARE) Title IX and Title VI Office has planned student-centered SAAM programming, including queer yoga, a technology and gender-based violence prevention webinar, the annual Take Back the Night (TBTN) rally and march, among others.
“This year, my goal was to keep our signature programming but ensure that we provided opportunities for students to engage with how sexual violence prevention [is] moving with the rapid changes of technology,” said Nina Lee, assistant director and education and outreach manager of SHARE.
Stanford has participated in SAAM in some capacity for all 25 years, according to Lee. However, like other college campuses, Stanford’s TBTN predates its participation in SAAM.
This year’s new webinar on April 16 will focus on how technology opens access to care, information and support for survivors of gender-based violence. One of the panelists, Tracy DeTomasi, consulted with stakeholders on tools like anti-sexual harassment virtual reality training.
SAAM programming this year also included a Day of Action on Thursday, where volunteers made care packages for survivors. SHARE will donate the packages to Next Door Solutions, a domestic violence agency in Santa Clara County.
“Day of Action in years past has just been a simple tabling event in White Plaza that uplifts the events,” Lee said. “But this year, Day of Action actually centers around an act of service.”
Students filled baskets with shampoo, lotion and other personal care items alongside handwritten notes of empowerment. SHARE also provided materials to make posters for TBTN.
“I think raising awareness for sexual assault is incredibly important, especially making people aware that there are resources and support available to them,” said Zuireth Sanchez-Aldape ’28. “Creating these care packages is an important way of showing that, not just saying that.”
Sanchez-Aldape volunteered with the student organization Hermanas de Stanford. Along with Hermanas, SHARE partnered with the Stanford Lambdas to promote the Day of Action.
“I wanted to do something that was direct action, like filling up a care package. It’s very physical, and I like the idea of someone who will receive this and read a letter,” Roberto Ibarra ’28 said.
Denim Day has also expanded, from a tabling event to a resource fair. SHARE, Weiland Health Initiative and Flip the Script, among other local organizations, will be present in White Plaza on April 29.
On Denim Day, SHARE invites Stanford to wear jeans or other denim clothing to “stand in solidarity with survivors and challenge harmful myths about sexual violence.” The worldwide campaign by Peace Over Violence began in 1999 when the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction because the survivor was wearing tight jeans. The ruling determined that the survivor couldn’t have been assaulted because her jeans would have been impossible to remove unless she helped.
“After the judge delivered that judgment, women in the community went to the courtroom wearing jeans to say clothes don’t equal consent, and clothes shouldn’t be a key component of decisions in cases of sexual violence,” Lee said.
SHARE student staff play a major role in planning student-centered SAAM programming. They offered insights into the ideal times and locations for hosting events for students to attend between classes and Greek rush.
On April 14, Marissa Floro, program manager of the Weiland Health Initiative, will host queer yoga.
“Because sexual assault and sexual violence is harm that happens between people, it’s really important that we also create healing opportunities between people,” Floro said.
Yoga classes, she added, create a collective experience that encourages connection to the body, emotions and thoughts. “Hopefully, [this] is really empowering for folks who might not feel very connected to their body. Also, it does provide a space to sit with some difficult things in a structured way,” Floro said.
Floro’s yoga class ties into SAAM’s emphasis this year on reflection and community-building.
“I think it’s more important than ever for people to realize that you’re not alone,” Lee said. “In order to feel connection, we have to be there in person, show up for each other, ask for help, ask for support.”
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What is There Not to Love: ‘Once Upon a Broken Heart’ perpetuates stereotypical female delusionStephanie Garber’s fantasy novel embodies harmful misconceptions about women.
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In “What is There Not to Love,” columnist Ashley Diaz ’29 explores the depiction and perpetuation of gender stereotypes in popular fantasy novels.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
To my sister’s dismay, today’s review critiques one of her favorite novels. Sorry, Leslie, I had to!
“Once Upon a Broken Heart,” Stephanie Garber’s 2021 romantasy book, has garnered praise for its intricate world-building and (allegedly) compelling female protagonist. “Once Upon a Broken Heart” takes place in the fictional Meridian Empire, where 17-year-old Evangeline Fox is conflicted over whether she should stop her true love, Luc, from marrying her step-sister, Marisol.
Evangeline eventually decides to make a deal with a Fate, an evil individual who can grant you any wish, as long as you strike a bargain with them. She colludes with a Fate named the Prince of Hearts (also known as Jacks). Jacks promises to stop the wedding. In exchange, Evangeline owes Jacks three kisses to whomever he desires, at whatever time.
It may seem like three kisses can be given pretty easily, but bargaining with Jacks means Evangeline is tied to him for as long as he desires. Hence, as the novel progresses, Evangeline tries to free herself from Jacks and all the trouble he gets her into. Without spoiling too much, the book closes with Evangeline trying to clear her name after being wrongly accused of murder.
Some may view Evangeline as a strong female character: a resourceful woman who goes after what she wants. I have a different perspective. What disturbs me about Evangeline is that she is unwilling to see that her “true love” never loved her like she did him. After all, if Luc genuinely loved her, he wouldn’t be marrying someone else, much less her step-sister.
“Luc had written her letters, but they were usually brief, like the note she’d found last night,” Evangeline recalls. “He’d never called her his most precious treasure or mentioned his heart beating.”
Evangeline is delusional and unwilling to accept the truth. Fallible women exist in the real world — myself included, all humans are flawed beings. Unfortunately, Garber’s portrayal of Evangeline perpetuates the long-standing conceptualization of women as “silly” creatures. But not every woman is love-sick. Not every woman would conspire to ruin a man’s wedding simply because she can’t accept the truth that he does not love her.
My experience at Stanford only confirms this portrayal is a false one. All my female classmates worked hard to get here, as did I, and I just don’t think we would all be like Evangeline. Therefore, I do not think all women, especially here, would act or think like Evangeline. It’s a narrative that fails to reflect the sensible women of Stanford.
Evangeline later regrets bargaining with Jacks, but only because he plans to turn everyone to stone. Just as Evangeline wished, his actions would stop Luc and Marisol from marrying, as they would not be able to say their vows. Evangeline does not want Luc to turn into stone, however, so she takes his place as a stone statue, clinging on to the hope that her “true love” will save her.
Here, Garber paints her female protagonist as not just foolish, but deceptive. When life returns to normal, the whole town loves Evangeline. They believe she was the one who was selfless and brave in rescuing them all. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It was another Fate who saved the townspeople, and for selfish reasons (He wants to get into the good graces of the crown).
Does Evangeline ever correct them? Disturbingly, she does not. Women are already often portrayed as “evil” and “manipulative,” from how they get ahead in the workforce to how they navigate romance. Do we really need another book reinforcing this idea?
What saddens me is that Marisol, Evangeline’s stepsister, becomes known as the “Cursed Bride,” a title that follows Marisol everywhere she goes. Evangeline witnesses all the pain Marisol feels, but upon learning how society is shaming her step-sister, she remains silent: “[Evangeline] knew she couldn’t tell Marisol the truth, not today. Evangeline had just spent the last six weeks alone as stone. She wasn’t ready to be alone again, but she would be if anyone learned what she’d done.” There’s a lack of female solidarity in the novel, which, if added, would have reminded us of the importance of standing up for each other in crucial times.
Evangeline’s character reminds us that we are all imperfect — evil, selfish and dishonest — but that does not mean every woman is like that. I have never met more selfless people than my aunt, my sister or my female friends. I have never met a woman in my life who was boy-crazy and willing to hurt others because of said boy. Sure, it can happen, but don’t go around thinking every woman you meet will be like Evangeline… including those here at the Farm.
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Hidden Gems From a Black Girl Engineering Major: Seasons of doubt and faithWithers reflects on her journey towards overcoming seasons of doubt.
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Cayla Withers is a Southern Black American woman of faith and an aerospace engineering student at Stanford. In the second volume of her column, “Hidden Gems From a Black Girl Engineering Major,” she documents her Stanford experiences and drops “hidden gems” of wisdom on her way to graduating and fulfilling her lifelong dream.
Across the universe lie billions of stars. Of these stars, the sun is the brightest. Planet Earth races around this bright star at a velocity of about 67,000 miles per hour. And while it races, it begins dancing; its axis tilts, allowing light from the sun to shine upon different hemispheres of Earth. This gives birth to what we know as seasons.
Winter has always been my least favorite season. In my home state of North Carolina, I would endure cold temperatures, icy roads and harsh winds while I waited patiently for May’s flowers and summer’s sun. Though I had never liked winter, when I arrived at Stanford, it became the season when I made one of the most important decisions of my life — choosing what I wanted to major in and pursue as a career path.
It was the winter quarter of 2021 when I decided that I would pursue aerospace engineering (with a minor in African and African American studies). I remember running to my desk in my dorm room that day and opening my laptop, quickly navigating to Axess to choose the major I had always dreamed of. I knew I wanted to be an aerospace engineer after seeing the film “Hidden Figures” at 16, so it was a pretty easy choice. But the truth was that most people rarely stuck with the same major in college, and most people in the aerospace field don’t look like me. In the back of my mind, even though I knew I wanted to pursue aerospace engineering as a major in college, doubt began clouding this dream.
Would this major actually work out for me? Could I major in aerospace engineering even though I came from a school where I didn’t have much exposure to higher-level, STEM-focused classes? Would I have to change the major that I already told everyone I was going to pursue? There aren’t many Black women in aerospace engineering; could I really be one of them? I should just give up on this dream.
I struggled with these thoughts winter after winter at Stanford, unsure if I would truly be successful in this major I chose for myself.
As I moved through college, the self-doubt that had plagued my mind didn’t go away. I had difficulty balancing my health and coursework, before also encountering personal problems that sorely disrupted my life as a college student. After enduring so many of life’s challenges year by year, I didn’t think I could complete this major. At the time, no one around me really believed in me either. I wanted to give up and pursue something easier, but something inside me just couldn’t let go of that dream. Days got harder for me, and my mental health worsened. I knew I needed help, so I wouldn’t have to carry my burdens alone. So, I did something unconventional for me: I went to therapy.
When I first went to therapy, I was too afraid to open up. But eventually I did, and it truly changed my life. In therapy, I was finally able to challenge negative thoughts I had, get help with my goals and surround myself with a team of professionals who cared for and believed in me. Day by day, my belief in myself grew stronger, and the doubt that I had struggled with for so long began to disappear. Having supportive people who had faith in me and told me all about the greatness they saw in me really inspired me to believe in myself. Through working with my team in therapy, I was able to see that I was more intelligent than I knew, that I could do anything I put my mind to and that I would eventually go on to change the world. My team also helped me to understand that the only person who could stop me from pursuing my goals is me. Then the seasons of doubt that mimicked those harsh winter winds turned into beautiful days, full of hope, joy and gratitude, and I started to truly believe that I could be an aerospace engineer.
This is finally when I saw a magnificent garden sprout from the tears that I sowed in my earlier years of college. During the fall quarter of 2025, I worked toward designing and building my second high-power rocket. I tried an electrical engineering class, where I got to build an electrocardiogram, electrical circuits and games with Arduino. I tried things outside of my major, like sports broadcasting and rapping. I also knew that I was going to finish my major and be successful in the aerospace field. Most importantly, I had faith in myself that just couldn’t be moved.
Though I struggled with doubt through many different seasons in my life, the truth was that the winter would always change, and the seasons of doubt would eventually transition into seasons of faith and seasons where I finally believed in myself. Not one single tough season in my life lasted. And yes, the harsh winds and rain came. But the flowers, the rainbows and the dew of joy came after it. After experiencing many cold and dark seasons in my life, I am finally in seasons where I am sure of myself — where the career path I chose as an unsure 18-year-old is finally working out, where I see all the fruits of my labor and where the things I manifested and dreamed of are coming into fruition. Yes, winter must come again in the future. But this time, I am prepared for the cold. I won’t be overcome by those winds.
– The Rocket Queen <3
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Stanfordle #109Enjoy Stanfordle, the newest addition to The Daily's Games section. The Daily produces Stanfordles on weekdays.
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Stanfordle #108Enjoy Stanfordle, the newest addition to The Daily's Games section. The Daily produces Stanfordles on weekdays.
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Stanfordle #107Enjoy Stanfordle, the newest addition to The Daily's Games section. The Daily produces Stanfordles on weekdays.
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Daily Diminutive #139Click to play today's 5x5 mini crossword. The Daily produces mini crosswords on weekdays and a full-size crossword biweekly.
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Editor’s note: This puzzle debuted in the Winter Quarter Crossword Puzzle Tournament
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Glue smells goodOh boy do I have a story for you please read my article in The Daily about how much I'm enjoying my time smelling glue I love you
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Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.
Well, I was trying to write something but I had serious writer’s block, so I decided to take a break and build some model airplanes which is my hobby of choice outside of writing for The Daily which is a hobby because I don’t get paid but I still put it on my resume, but anyway, I fell asleep next to the open glue bottle and now I’m realizing that it smells really good and that I have lots to write about, for example, most public transportation is just variations of the bus because a train is a rail bus and a plane is a flying bus and a submarine is an underwater bus, so why don’t we build an omnibus that just does everything on that topic how much pickle juice is safe to consume because I just ate an entire jar of pickles and I wanted more so I drank the juice and now I feel bad, and speaking of bad: it’s pretty weird that David Duke is out there just hanging around New Orleans and pounding beignets, I mean Timothy Camelot is in the news for dissing ballet but David Duke gets to live in peace—am I making sense, am I a good writer, my editor thinks I’m alright but then again nobody who employs me can be said to have good taste oh man that’s a weird shape in my closet, is that the devil, I mean it could be that’s friggin’ terrifying why is he here, is he here for my soul is he trying to make me a good humor writer in exchange for my soul because how can you write well without a soul hey, wait, I haven’t used a period in a while that’s pretty strange — wait does that mean I’m pregnant, I can’t have a kid now I have to graduate eventually oh man, the devil is here for my first born child so if I have twins I’ll lose at least 50 percent of my children just like Thanos wanted, NO DEAL SATAN, I’ll be a terrible writer today and tomorrow and for the entirety of the life of my children: Chameleon and Cherry Garcia, we’re gonna take the omni bus to Atlanta and then to New Orleans and then we’re gonna kick David Duke’s wizard ass and then when he comes back as David Duke the whiter we’ll do it again, anyways, I should probably find my way out of this Home Depot because I bought some new paint for my planes and already it tastes so good!
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Stanford Law and GSB claim top spots in U.S. News rankingsBoth programs rose to No. 1 as a methodology shift now emphasizes employment outcomes over traditional admissions metrics.
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Stanford has claimed the top position in two major graduate school rankings published this week by U.S. News & World Report, with both Stanford Law School and Stanford Graduate School of Business rising to No. 1 in their respective categories.
The simultaneous achievement marks a notable moment for the University, though both U.S. News and Stanford officials emphasized that the rankings represent narrow margins at the top and fluctuating data rather than fundamental shifts in program quality.
According to Eric Brooks, director of education data analysis at U.S. News, the movements were driven primarily by changes in employment data rather than revised methodology.
“Slight changes in underlying metrics can result in movement of one or more spaces in the final rankings,” Brooks said in a statement to The Daily. “In this edition of Best Law Schools, Yale’s employment outcomes were slightly lower than in past years.”
For the business school, Stanford’s rise was “driven by an increase in their three-month employment rate, alongside a slight dip in that same metric for the previously top-ranked school,” Brooks said. He noted that Stanford GSB has been ranked No. 1 several times in the past, and that “the tight margins at the top reflect just how competitive that tier is.”
Brooks confirmed that no methodological changes were made for this year’s rankings. “Movement in this year’s rankings reflects changes in underlying data, not methodology,” he said. “All disciplines had the same ranking factors and weights as the prior edition.”
U.S. News indicated that Stanford’s performance across multiple graduate rankings may reflect the University’s overall research strength. The organization’s Best Global Universities rankings placed Stanford third overall worldwide for research and academic reputation.
“A school cannot place that high unless it is productive across many different fields, which explains Stanford’s strength across multiple graduate program rankings,” Brooks said.
In a statement to The Daily, Kristin Harlan, a spokesperson for the GSB Dean office, emphasized that rankings provide only a limited view of the school’s value.
“Rankings provide a snapshot, shaped by different and evolving methodologies, which is why results can fluctuate,” Harlan said. “We want prospective students to understand the full Stanford GSB experience and community — where learning is deeply collaborative, ideas are rigorously challenged, and students are supported to grow as leaders and as people. That experience goes beyond what can be captured in a ranking.”
The Daily has reached out to Stanford Law School for comment.
Brooks acknowledged that graduate school rankings have become more volatile in recent years, but attributed this to a deliberate shift in methodology.
“A few years ago, U.S. News updated its methodology to emphasize outcome measures — like employment rates and salaries — over inputs like acceptance rates,” he said. “That shift caused larger-than-usual year-to-year movement at the time. The rankings have largely stabilized since then.”
Brooks suggested that perceptions of instability may stem from comparing current rankings to pre-methodology-change results rather than year-over-year changes. He also noted that “because post-graduate outcomes naturally fluctuate more than admissions data, some degree of annual variation is to be expected.”
Responding to criticism about rankings influencing institutional behavior and student choices, Brooks said that U.S. News views its rankings as “one component in a prospective student’s decision-making process.”
The rankings have faced sustained criticism from educators and researchers who posit that they incentivize schools to prioritize metrics that can be easily measured over educational quality, and that they perpetuate existing hierarchies while creating pressure to manipulate reported data.
Several law schools, including Yale and Harvard, withdrew from U.S. News rankings participation in 2022, though U.S. News continued to rank them using publicly available data. Some have since returned to formal participation under revised methodologies.
“The aim of our U.S. News’ Best Graduate Schools rankings is to comparatively measure institutions on metrics that are important to students — primarily outcome measures, including graduation rates,” Brooks said. “We’re confident that prospective students are able to discern for themselves what school is the best fit.”
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Incoming Graduate Workers’ Union leadership aims to address healthcare, Ph.D. fundingThe Daily explores the 2026-27 Local Executive Board's platform and goals for the upcoming year.
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For the newly formed Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU), ratifying a contract with the University in 2024 was a victory. However, the union’s recently-elected 2026-27 Local Executive Board has no plans to stop there.
The majority of the elected leadership ran on a campaign titled “Resist. Inform. Strengthen. Empower” (RISE). The platform mainly focuses on consistent quality of medical care under the University’s new health insurance plan, more concrete language guaranteeing five years of funding for Ph.D. students and protections for international graduate students. The team will be sworn in at the SGWU’s general membership meeting on April 9.
In tackling these issues, the board aims to build a strong foundation for upcoming contract negotiations with the University in 2027. According to SGWU president Liam Sherman, a third year Ph.D. student, the union hopes to strengthen its platform and coordinate strong organizing efforts ahead of the bargaining sessions.
“As president, my main goal… is to make sure that every area is built up with the capacity to organize, build up steward networks and set up area meetings so that the executive board can put its whole power behind these initiatives and issues,” Sherman said.
The incoming board’s platform promises to fight for a “continued quality of care” clause in future contract negotiations, which they claim would ensure greater consistency in graduate students’ health benefits during provider changes.
Sherman said the University’s decision to switch Cardinal Care providers from Aetna to Wellfleet in September raised insurance co-pays and caused “a cascade of issues” regarding continued medical coverage. Sherman said these range from large issues — like the inability to afford the same medicine or visit the same doctor — to small, bureaucratic inefficiencies.
According to the new insurance plan, students must obtain a referral from Vaden for any medical care received within 25 miles of Stanford’s campus. Sherman says that this presents a complicated ordeal for graduate students who may live outside the area, like in Oakland or San Francisco.
Incoming financial officer and second year Ph.D. student Molly Corr said explicit contract language protecting consistent health insurance would allow the union to take action on behalf of those struggling to obtain medical care. Corr cited an instance in which a student’s insulin prescription became prohibitively expensive under the new health insurance, making the cost a “significant percentage” of the individual’s income.
“Health care costs are increasing nationally and in the Bay Area; it is unfortunately a widespread phenomenon,” University spokesperson Angie Davis wrote to The Daily. “Stanford invests significant financial resources to keep prices lower than they otherwise would be for students.”
However, for the nearly 72% of graduate students who are enrolled in Cardinal Care, Sherman says the University’s “lack of clarity” regarding the new plan has caused confusion and an increase in reported grievances.
“I think what we’d really like to see in the next contract is more recognition that grad workers are workers — we need health insurance, and some of us have families and kids,” Sherman said.
The SGWU aims to win more concrete protections for graduate workers’ job security by clarifying the five-year funding guarantee, a protection enumerated in a side letter to the 2024 contract. The letter states that enrolled PhD students in “good academic standing” are entitled to 12 months of continuous funding during the first five years of their degree program.
However, according to Sherman, there is no base definition of academic good standing and “different departments stretch academic good standing… to mean whatever they need it to mean to not fund grad workers.” He said that union leadership has heard “a number of grievances,” many of which claim that the University has used the clause to cut off funding for Ph.D. students while they are changing advisors.
Incoming Vice President for Membership and second year Ph.D. student Nick Snyder objected to Stanford’s “shifting definition” of what constitutes academic good standing — which may exclude students who are temporarily without advisors.
Graduate students often lean on the five-year guarantee if they need to change advisors, or if they are a first-year and can’t immediately find an advisor, according to Snyder. The University’s refusal to cover this transition funding, Snyder said, “kind of defeats the purpose of having a five-year funding guarantee.”
Davis wrote that the five-year funding commitment predates graduate workers’ unionization, including the stipulation that doctoral students must have an advisor to be considered in “good academic standing.”
In a section titled “Meeting the Moment,” the RISE platform denounces police violence and aggressive federal immigration enforcement. The platform pledges to increase organizing efforts to protect international graduate students whose visas may be threatened by government policies.
“We [SGWU elected leadership] want to make sure the union is a space where we can listen to the needs of the international grad workers and respond accordingly,” Sherman said. To do this, Sherman said he and other members of the board hope to expand resources for international graduate students.
“Broadly, I think we want to make sure the union is a place where workers can organize for their betterment, including international workers facing these specific exigent threats from the federal government,” Sherman said.
Both Sherman and Snyder cited the expansion of SGWU’s steward network as a central goal for the 2026-27 leadership board. In Sherman’s view, this diffusion of union leadership across departments would allow SGWU to present a united front during negotiations with the University.
“We want everyone to be at the same level, and anyone to feel like they have the agency to be able to raise issues with anybody,” Snyder said. “And that means we need to have stewards in each area that people feel comfortable talking to or coming to with issues.”
Current SGWU president and fifth year Ph.D. student Orisa Coombs said the union’s specific goal was to reduce the ratio of union members to area stewards from 40:1 to 20:1. Area stewards each serve a subset of union members, providing a point of contact to workers in various academic sectors.
Coombs said that as the first local executive board, the current administration aimed to build a foundation that allows future leaders to pursue more ambitious goals. “I really want to see [the new leadership] shoot for the stars now that all that administrative groundwork has been laid,” she said.
Underlying these goals is a strong community sentiment expressed by union leadership.
“I think in order for [Stanford] to be the best that it can be, it needs to be the best it can be for its graduate workers,” Snyder said.
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Well-to-do protestors open defiant brunch spot: ‘No Kings Coffee and Tea Emporium’Santa Clara County community organizers announced No Kings Coffee and Tea to hit back at the Trump Administration.
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Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.
Community activists in Santa Clara County have banded together to deal another devastating blow to the Trump administration. After months of planning, organizers from Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Atherton announced on Wednesday that they will open the No Kings Coffee & Tea Emporium to counter “the unprecedented lies from the con-mander in chief.” The Daily sat down for an interview with Sharon J. Walker ‘85, a co-founder of No Kings C&T.
The Stanford Daily: “What led you to become a community organizer? How do you feel you fit into the community here?”
Sharon Walker: “I have been a pillar of the community in the county since I was captain of my middle school tennis team. When I would play at Stanford with the Arrillagas, my parents would point out construction workers and landscapers to remind me why I needed to get so good at tennis: to get into college and avoid degrading physical labor. That really gave me a connection to the struggles of marginalized communities.
When I got to The Farm in the Fall of ‘81, I majored in philosophy and found a lot of empathy for human suffering. The rest is history. I organized my daughter’s dress code protest at Harker in ‘98, I led a die-in to protect local bee populations and I started an ‘Impeach the Peach’ email chain in 2017. I guess you could say the opportunity to serve reaches out to me.”
TSD: “What made you turn from community organizing to entrepreneurship?”
SW: “I think the new restaurant organizes the community just as much as my Facebook account: ‘The Cheeto Lies.’ The best way to get through crazy times like these is to laugh in the face of the people who want to see us miserable. By opening No Kings in downtown Palo Alto, we’re showing that, when they go low, we go high and we won’t stand by while our country is under attack. Overall, I don’t really view No Kings as an entrepreneurial venture. It’s just one of the ways I’m sticking it to the MAGAts in the White House.”
TSD: “How do you respond to those who say you are misusing your position and making performative moves to boost your ego?”
SW: “When someone like me has such a big impact on the course of our nation’s politics, we get haters online. I’m not turned off by that. I saw a sign at a protest on Facebook that said ‘If Kamala were President, we’d all be at brunch!’ That was just so inspiring for me. That’s why I’m committing to defiance and running the most American restaurant on the block. Take that TACO Don!”
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From the Community | The real reason 40% of Stanford students are “disabled”Lindsey Meservey argues that Stanford's restrictive housing system forces students to claim disabilities for basic accommodations.
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Lindsey Meservey is a sixth-year Biology PhD student. She has lived in Stanford graduate housing since 2019.
Stanford has recently been in the news for having over 40% of its undergraduates claim a disability. It started with an article in The Atlantic, then another in Fortune, a sensationalist response by student Elsa Johnson in The Times and recently another in The San Francisco Chronicle. The media has seized on the idea that disabilities are the new way for students to paint themselves as victims and cheat the system.
This idea is starkly different from the hard-working Stanford undergraduate population I know, who always seem to be asking what more they can do rather than less. While I do not doubt a few students may seek unneeded academic accommodations, the media frenzy misses the real, far more bureaucratic story. The vast majority of disability claims are not about getting extra time on tests — they are about navigating a uniquely restrictive housing system.
Nationally, about 16% of undergraduate students live on campus. This number is higher for private universities (43%) and lower for community colleges (a mere 1.5%). Most state schools I know provide first-year dorms and then leave upperclass housing to the free market. Students can live in furnished university housing, an unfurnished apartment down the street, a nearby relative’s house or a cardboard box so long as it has a mailing address. Students can sign up for a full meal plan at the university dining hall, or a partial one or none at all. Medically motivated housing accommodations are mostly limited to emotional support animals and are usually worked out with the landlord, not the school itself. While this state school structure gives room for class disparity, it also provides greater flexibility and autonomy.
Stanford, however, operates on a different model: Residential & Dining Enterprise (R&DE) guarantees four years of on-campus housing to undergraduate students. 98% of undergrads accept this offer due to a combination of convenience, social benefits and subsidized cost means.
Students living on campus generally need a medical reason for any changes from the default in housing and dining, including upgrading the mattress or desk to something more comfortable, running the AC during triple-digit heat waves, living in a private room, eating home-cooked meals and keeping a pet. Schools with similarly high disability rates, like Hampshire College, also have extremely high rates of students living on-campus. I would guess their accommodation system works similarly.
Stanford’s system does not encourage students to claim disabilities to get “hidden perks”; it forces them to claim disabilities to gain basic comfort and autonomy. At most other U.S. universities, a student wishing for a private room can just sign a contract for a private room. No endometriosis diagnosis needed! A student wishing to cook their own food could, without converting to Jainism!
My own experience in graduate student housing illustrates this phenomenon. For the past seven years, my family and I have lived in graduate student housing. For the most part, we have loved it. But I have been consistently exasperated by the bureaucracy of on-campus housing. I learned soon after my son was born that being three weeks old during a triple-digit heat wave is not, in the R&DE’s mind, grounds for installing a portable AC unit. Yet when we submitted documentation of my son’s eczema, our request was quickly approved.
Stanford undergrads encounter similar frustrations, and they use their smarts and social capital to work through them. They use real, if manageable, medical conditions to justify accommodations that would just be options at nearly any other university. A student with a food sensitivity registers with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) because they want more variety in their diet than the standard meal plan offers. A student with occasional migraines registers with OAE because they want privacy. A student with dust allergies registers with OAE because they want a more comfortable mattress.
These types of students hardly consider themselves “disabled” the way the media imagines. Nor are they trying to gain an unfair academic advantage over their classmates. The 40% figure isn’t a sign of moral decay; it’s an artifact of institutional design. It reflects a generation of students cleverly navigating a system that has turned basic life choices into medical hurdles.
In his op-ed responding to Elsa Johnson, Rob Henderson praises an injured Air Force veteran who refused to claim disability, asserting the virtue of self-determination. The irony is that Stanford students must do the very opposite for the same reason: to gain self-determination within Stanford’s housing system — the ability to choose a private room, cook their own meals, or run an AC — students must leverage medical diagnoses. In other words, Stanford students must surrender their self-sufficiency on paper to achieve it in practice.
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Stanford Medicine unveils new facility offering proton therapyThe facility will expand access to a form of radiotherapy for patients in the Bay Area.
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Stanford Medicine opened a facility on Tuesday providing proton therapy to cancer patients. The treatment offers a new radiotherapy option previously unavailable in Northern California.
Proton therapy is a noninvasive form of radiation therapy that uses positively charged particles instead of X-rays to destroy tumor cells, minimizing damage to healthy neighboring cells.
Existing Stanford Medicine facilities lacked the space to hold traditional proton therapy machines, which are typically housed in multi-story buildings. Radiation oncology professor and co-director of particle therapy at Stanford Medicine, Billy Loo, and his team had to look outside of existing options.
“Necessity was the mother of invention,” Loo wrote in an email to The Daily. Mevion Medical Systems created a more compact cyclotron, dramatically reducing the size of the machine to that of around half a basketball court. Leo Cancer Care Inc. saved space by developing a system in which patients sit upright during radiotherapy treatments.
Combining the ideas led to the development of the new machine, the MEVION S250-FIT Proton Therapy System. It sits at just 1,200 square feet, located inside the Stanford Medicine Cancer Center. According to Loo, the new model sits at a similar size to conventional high-energy X-ray systems that are used in 99% of cancer radiotherapy, making it easier than ever to incorporate proton therapy into existing facilities.
The advantage of proton therapy is clear to Loo. “For our patients, the key is being able to eliminate their cancer without causing unacceptable collateral damage,” he told Stanford Medicine.
“The main benefit of proton therapy is in the properties of the beam,” wrote Yuan James Rao, associate professor of radiation oncology, in an email to The Daily. Proton therapy, by stopping at a desired distance in the body, does not have an “exit dose” like other radiotherapies, reducing radiation exposure to the body.
At the same time, the precision of proton therapy helps minimize damage to neighboring cells, which is especially important when treating tumors near key organs such as the brain or heart. This approach is also important in treating children, who are more sensitive to the effects of radiation.
“Over 80% of children with cancer are cured of their disease and have many decades of life after completion of radiation therapy, giving them a longer time to potentially develop and experience side effects of radiation therapy,” wrote Susan Hiniker, associate professor of radiation oncology and pediatric radiation oncologist, in a statement to The Daily. The potential side effects make it especially important to minimize their radiation exposure.
Although proton therapy is a significant innovation and often helpful, it’s not a universal fit for every treatment.
“Depending on the location of the tumor and nearby organs and dose constraints, in some cases, other forms of radiation therapy may be better,” Hiniker wrote. The medical center offers a suite of treatment techniques, offering the “latest equipment and treatment techniques for a wide variety of cancers.”
In the event that it is the best option, though, patients will no longer need to travel to receive care.
“By having proton therapy at Stanford, we are able to create a more level playing field in access to this technology for those patients who we think are likely to benefit from it, irrespective of their ability to travel long distances to access it,” wrote Hiniker.
Radiation therapy treatments can last up to two months, and long-term stays 7-8 hours away from home pose a significant financial and emotional burden on families.
Looking forward, Stanford Medicine hopes to continue to advance the technology. One example is “arc” therapy, where the proton beam is delivered while rotating the therapy. The rotation was made possible by delivering radiation therapy sitting up, as it “becomes very easy to rotate the patient to bring beams from many different angles to focus the radiotherapy on tumors,” wrote Loo.
“This allows us to use the advantages of more beam angles to optimize where the dose is delivered,” wrote Rao.
Another innovation that is being explored in proton therapy is FLASH, where radiotherapy is delivered in a fraction of a second instead of over several minutes. Loo, who studies the technique in his lab, wrote that studies have shown that FLASH can reduce injury to normal organs without compromising tumor killing.
“Some proton therapy systems can be used to bring FLASH clinical trials to patients in selected scenarios, and we are working to do so with our new system,” he wrote.
To Loo and his colleagues, the future seems bright. Nine other hospitals are installing the new system even before the first patient has been treated. With radiotherapy benefiting about two-thirds of patients, “anything we can do to substantially improve radiotherapy is a big gain for cancer therapy overall,” Loo told the Stanford Report.
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Daily Diminutive #140Click to play today's 5x5 mini crossword. The Daily produces mini crosswords daily and a full-size crossword biweekly.
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Stanfordle #106Enjoy Stanfordle, the newest addition to The Daily's Games section. The Daily produces Stanfordles on weekdays.
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UGS hears presentation from Academic Integrity Working Group, passes new housing billThe Undergraduate Senate passed a bill calling for students with OAE accommodations to be allowed to form housing groups.
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At its Wednesday meeting, the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) passed the Joint Resolution to Oppose Housing Room Selection Changes For Students With Documented Office of Accessible Education (OAE) Accommodations.
The bill calls on Residential Education (ResEd) to reverse their new policy prohibiting students with OAE housing accommodations from forming housing groups, and to improve communication timelines for major housing changes in the future.
Chair of Administration and Rules Dan Kubota ’27 said that the timing of the new housing policy announcement was one of the UGS’ major issues with the policy. It was announced via email three days before the deadline for the Housing Accommodation Request Form (HARF), which is submitted to the OAE office, and ten days before the deadline for students with OAE accommodations to submit a housing application to ResEd for an accessible housing assignment.
Kubota added that she believes this policy is ineffective at solving the issue it aims to address — people taking advantage of OAE housing accommodations for preferred assignments. Instead, she said, it mostly incentivizes students with OAE accommodations to get singles, and prevents students with documented disabilities from having the same access to services as students without disabilities.
“Hopefully [this bill] sparks conversation with the faculty senate and other people with Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) to get talking about other solutions in conversation with students, both those who have accommodations and those who do not,” said Kubota.
The UGS also heard a presentation from the Academic Integrity Working Group (AIWG) on their work for the past two and a half academic years, including their main findings and their requests from the UGS. Xavier Arturo Millan ’26, student co-chair of the AIWG and one of the presenters, explained that one of the group’s main goals was to carry out a multi-year study to determine fair and effective exam proctoring practices.
Jennifer Schwartz Poehlmann Ph.D. ’08, faculty co-chair of the AIWG, said one of the main takeaways of the study was that both students and faculty believe proctoring is helpful in creating a more fair assessment environment. Poehlmann added that many students even wanted to extend proctoring to classes that weren’t within the pilot program, showing how “really open to [proctoring]” students are.
Citing faculty feedback, Poehlmann said that some who participated in the pilot found proctoring “an absolute necessity to achieving learning goals in their classes.” Millan also added that the AIWG has been working on developing proctoring guidelines with feedback from instructors, teaching assistants and students, which will be incorporated into the potential expansion of the proctoring process. These guidelines include adding proctoring to alternative exams administrations and a proctor training course.
Poehlmann said that she believes now is an appropriate time for the pilot proctoring program to be expanded, adding that the AIWG will continue for another year to aid with the transition. The presenters requested the UGS’ support for measures to formalize the University’s proctoring policy, which will allow proctoring in any in-person assessment, and to provide the Board on Conduct Affairs (BCA) the power to establish and oversee proctoring policy.
“I think we are all very aware that technology, AI, access to screens during exams is quite tempting without a proctor present — because this policy is not mandating proctoring, but creating best practices for proctoring… to me this is a common sense move,” said UGS Chair David Sengthay ’26.
The UGS also passed the Joint Bill to Recommend a Nominee to Fill a Vacancy on the Board of Conduct Affairs, Spring 2026 and the Joint Bill to Reform the Nominations Commission and Adopt the Nominations Commission Guidelines.
These bills, which were already passed by the Graduate Student Council (GSC), confirm undergraduate senator Yoanna Hoskins ’27 to the Board on Conduct Affairs (BCA) and reform the bylaws of the Nominations Commission respectively.
The senate introduced the Joint Bill to Establish the ASSU Red Shepards. This bill seeks to create an agency within the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) to provide trained student advocates for students going through the Office of Community Standards (OCS) process.
“The difference between winning and losing a case can be as easy as just having a competent advocate,” said GSC Chair and sixth-year Ph.D. student Rory O’Dwyer, who was one of the bill’s co-authors.
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Four days, four dancers: Stanford returns to American College Dance AssociationStudents joined over two dozen colleges and universities in performances, classes and collaborations.
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Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
I am still taking in my four-day experience of being surrounded by hundreds of other college and university dance students and faculty at the American College Dance Association Conference from Feb. 4 to Feb. 7.
On Feb. 4, Denise Robinson ’27, a junior dance minor peer advisor and organizer of our trip, called me at 4:30 a.m. to make sure I was awake and ready to head to SFO with Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS) senior lecturer Aleta Hayes and three other dancers from the Stanford Dance Commune, a VSO that helps students pursue dance professionally.
It was refreshing to arrive at California State University, Long Beach, and to be welcomed by dozens of other schools who were happy to see Stanford return to the ACDA.
Attending ACDA for the first time exposed me to the range of choreography other students across the country are creating, which was truly inspiring. I got to attend four adjudication concerts that each had 15 performances, culminating in a gala experience.
Every performance I saw and every conversation I heard came from a place of deep care for each other and the many struggles our communities are facing. Seeing how people showed up and supported each other throughout the conference created a ripple effect of meaningful conversations about the importance of preserving and promoting dance programs across the country.
In “When They Come For Us,” students from Rio Hondo College danced to a poem that was suddenly interrupted by the knocking sound of ICE agents at their door, while they continued to create formations, ending with yelling “We will not be quiet” in unison.
Another piece titled “The Take,” by students from Modesto Junior College, had a spotlight in the center, where dancers were continuously thrown across the stage into each other’s arms with striking partnering techniques. “Boots, Bluegrass & Blues” from Loyola Marymount University had girls dancing around cowboy boots, blending Beyoncé’s polarizing country music with the power of dance. The range and relevance of the works were moving.
The audience immediately gave a standing ovation for Andy Vaca, ACDA Regional Director, while he was presented with an award for his contributions to the conference. He began to tear up as he described his first time performing on an ACDA stage as an undergraduate to the current honor he feels in representing its legacy. I realized I was at much more than a dance conference — I was now a part of a very impactful community.
Some conversations I overheard were about how dance helps us fearlessly figure out the crazy world we are living in. Dance is open to everyone and everything through compassion and collaboration. Dancers research and teach with embodied empathy, something we need more of in academia. During meals, everyone was still freestyling together, cheering each other on. There were spontaneous flash mobs and cyphers all around us that made it feel like a constant celebration of dance and community.
Not only did we witness new works, but we also got to participate in daily workshops. For example, I attended a lecture on how dance meets entrepreneurship, designed by Nicole Predki, the co-director of the dance program at Metropolitan State University of Denver, highlighting the incredible transferability of dance skills.
Practicing the Bartenieff Fundamentals, a part of the Laban System of Movement Analysis, consisted of an introduction to the science behind child movement development, and helped me re-pattern my neuromuscular connections through improvisation. I also took a workshop on the Cunningham technique from our own Gary Champi ’12, and indulged in countless stories from Diane Frank, former faculty member of the Dance Division, who shared that “every conference is a revelation.”
It was wonderful getting to truly bond with my own peers and professors over the course of the weekend.
As ACDA describes, dance truly is a “home” where “students, faculty, and artists come together to celebrate, share, and deepen their commitment to the art of dance.” After attending the conference, my artistry, desire for experimentation, knowledge of dance techniques and history grew immensely.
I found a sense of connection that inspired change within me and left a spark of creativity that is even brighter now that I have returned to campus. I had not realized the true history and importance of gathering these young voices from across the nation and world. I hope to see us continue to proudly represent Stanford at ACDA for many years to come, with even more students and department support. I am still moving with gratitude.
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A busy morning with the Stanford Breakfast ClubThe Stanford Breakfast Club is a student organization that works to provide those in need with freshly cooked meals.
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Waking up at 6 a.m. on Friday was not in the cards for Felicity Chang ’27 and Roberto Andrade ’27 when they first arrived at Stanford. But these days, early mornings are routine for the pair, who lead the Stanford Breakfast Club (SBC).
Every Friday, SBC cooks and serves warm meals to local populations facing food insecurity. The group of early-rising volunteers prepares about 100 meals, serving roughly 3,000 breakfasts annually to individuals in need. A volunteer student organization, SBC is affiliated with Stanford’s Haas Center For Public Service.
Chang and Andrade, this year’s co-presidents, said the club began as a one-man show, run by a compassionate student who cooked meals at a local church on his own dime. A group of friends and eventually the University would step in to support his efforts, forming a club called “Stanford Servant Breakfast.”
The exact year the club was founded remains a mystery, but it was at least 15 years ago, according to Matthew Onadeko ’26, the club’s former president. Stanford Servant Breakfast operated until former president Emily Wong ’22 renamed the club to “The Stanford Breakfast Club,” said Onadeko.
The club’s GroupMe boasts 1,229 members, but the weekly breakfast program is supported by around two dozen dedicated regulars and first-timers.
Last Friday, SBC’s fleet of vehicles set out from campus at 6:45 a.m. on the dot. A few lucky volunteers rode in Andrade’s sleek white Dodge, while the rest loaded into the Haas Center van and other volunteers’ cars.
Upon arriving at the Presbyterian Menlo Church, volunteers gathered to hear Chang and Andrade’s instructions. Within minutes, a mass production line took shape — flipping pancakes, slicing fruit and assembling sandwiches.
Andrade said his first time volunteering with SBC was daunting. He was thrown into the fire, literally, after an older volunteer accidentally burned him with a biscuit tin. “No one gets burnt anymore… [and] a first aid kit is available on site,” Chang quickly clarified.
In the kitchen, Zainab Al-Atya ’28’s laughter could be heard from the frying station as Esmeralda Mejia ’29 cracked eggs — and jokes. While Christopher Ward ’27 hummed along to a Kali Uchis song emanating from Andrade’s speaker, Chang and Alex Kang ’29 concentrated on carving their pineapple sculptures.
“I learned how to [cut pineapple] working in food service growing up. I never knew that I would use that for any other purpose, but I showed up… I could contribute,” said Chang. The pineapple’s sweetness was mellowed by a subtle note of onion from a well-used cutting board.
The sound of sizzling pancakes was a backdrop to clanging and banging from the isolated dishwashing area — perhaps a distress signal from those banished to dishwashing duty.
When asked how she decides who’s on dish duty, Chang said: “If you make a mess, you clean up the mess.”
After cooking and cleaning, the volunteers gather together in a circle and answer the day’s check-in question: “Would you rather have a cat-sized dinosaur or a dinosaur-sized cat?” Andrade said the closing meeting and question of the day are important club traditions.
“The question of the day just gets me going… it’s such a silly part of my life that always brings me more than anybody could expect,” said Andrade.
Wrapping up the group meeting, a dozen volunteers headed to the Palo Alto Opportunity Center, located outside Palo Alto’s Town & Country plaza, to serve the food. After setting up, the volunteers began serving the meals at around 9:00 a.m. to a consistent stream of “clients.”
Volunteers refer to the individuals they serve meals to as “clients” to “be very active and intentional about respecting them as human beings,” Andrade told The Daily.
From bacon biscuits to fresh berries, SBC’s menu rivaled that of the famed Florence Moore’s weekend breakfast. Volunteers and Opportunity Center staff agreed that the meals SBC serves are the best breakfasts clients eat each week.
Juse Reyes, a retired local, joked that Stanford’s Breakfast Club should monetize their cooking skills. “You all should sell it on Stanford’s campus!” he said, laughing.
After every client has received a first and second meal, Breakfast Club members are allowed to eat the remaining food on one condition: they must eat with the clients.
“I don’t think there should ever be an us-versus-them mentality when we’re engaging in acts of service. By sitting with the clients while eating, we get to know them beyond the brief interactions at the serving window,” Chang said.
Mejia, a regular volunteer, enjoys talking to clients, especially those who only speak Spanish. “I’m able to communicate with them in Spanish — I think that’s really beautiful, because being able to talk to someone in their native language is more comfortable.”
With a bacon, egg and cheese in hand, Kang immediately walked over to one of the center’s main dining tables, catching up with Reyes, who has been waiting for housing support.
Reyes explained that in Palo Alto, it’s hard for the average worker to get by. Having worked multiple jobs throughout his life, Reyes said he has struggled to find independent housing in the area, so he has looked to the Opportunity Center for meals and support.
“You never know — look at me, I’m retired. I got two grandkids. I went to the Air Force, I was an UPS driver, I used to work for Atari,” he said.
“I’ve known [Stanford Breakfast Club] for months, but I feel like I’ve known them for 20 years. They’re good people,” he said, smiling.
Reyes’ experience isn’t unique. Food insecurity and housing affordability issues have persisted in Palo Alto. In 2025, the number of homeless individuals in Santa Clara County reached an all-time high of 10,711.
“It grounds me — like, this is reality. People can’t afford the housing here because it is so expensive,” Mejia said.
Al-Atya agreed. “At Stanford, we talk a lot of talk, and we’re always talking about doing good for the community, but it’s really nice to actually do that in person and see the effects of it,” she said.
Various SBC volunteers reported a drop in the number of clients showing up — from around 100 last year to 40 on average this year — despite rising homelessness in the wider county.
The Opportunity Center’s program director, Stephanie Settoe, noted that though a drop in clients might mean fewer meals served on paper, the decline is evidence that a local housing project, Homekey Palo Alto, is working.
“It’s positive… a lot of the folks that used to come here have entered into an interim supportive housing space,” explained Settoe.
Andrade affirmed that it’s important that the Stanford Breakfast Club’s work continues. “It’s not about filling the chairs, it’s about providing the room,” he said.
Chang recounted an encounter with a first-time client named Christie. “She seemed very overwhelmed… it [was] her first week being unhoused,” Chang said. “I remember at the end of our conversation, she said ‘I would love to see you guys again next week because this interaction made me feel human, but if you don’t see me next week, it means I got temporary housing.’”
Chang didn’t see Christie the following week.
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Women’s basketball season ends in exodus, multiple players enter transfer portalSix players entered the transfer portal.
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What started as a rough season for the Cardinal (21-14, 8-10 ACC) is ending with six players in the transfer portal. The Cardinal struggled in its second year in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), suffering losses to conference opponents including UC Berkeley, Notre Dame and Virginia Tech.
Six Cardinal players have announced their intentions to enter the transfer portal in the last week. Sunaja “Nunu” Agara, the star junior forward who’s been selected to the All-ACC second team twice, was among the first to announce that she’d be entering the portal on Instagram. Agara averaged 15.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 29 games, missing some time during the season after an injury suffered against Cal on Jan. 25.
Freshman Lara Somfai also took to Instagram to announce her intentions to leave Stanford on April 5th. The 6’3” forward was a five-star recruit and lived up to the hype — she was named ACC Rookie of the Week four times, and was ultimately selected to the ACC All-Freshman Team. She averaged 10.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 32 games played.
Somfai has since committed to the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs, following in the footsteps of former Stanford guard Agnes Emma-Nnopu. TCU’s program that has shot up in the rankings in the last three seasons after acquiring players like Hailey Van Lith and Olivia Miles. Somfai will join the top team in the Big 12 and try to carry on the legacy Miles has left.
On April 7, junior Courtney Ogden informed On3 that she will be moving on from The Farm as well. Ogden took on a much larger role this year, skyrocketing from 18.8 minutes per game to 30.8. The 6’1” forward averaged 12.9 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game and was named ACC Co-Player of the Week in December.
Among the other players leaving the Cardinal are freshman Carly Amborn, sophomore Harper Peterson and junior transfer Mary Ashley Stevenson.
In her Instagram post, Peterson expressed “hopes of finding a home that will challenge me on and off the court while valuing me for who I am.” None of the players saw the floor very much, despite Stevenson being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year for Purdue University in 2024.
The portal doesn’t close until the 24th.
These announcements come on the back of a season unfortunately cut short for the Cardinal. The team suffered a nail-biter overtime loss in the ACC tournament to the University of Miami, extinguishing hopes of a postseason run in the NCAA tournament. The team subsequently played in the WBIT tournament, making it to the quarterfinal before losing 76-61 to Brigham Young University. The team was notably without Somfai during the tournament.
Head coach Kate Paye enters this postseason with large gaps on both sides of the ball to fill. Agara and Somfai led the team in points and rebounds per game respectively, and in future matchups against tough ACC opponents like Duke and NC State, the scrappiness and production they brought will be greatly missed.
Assuming she stays with the team, the Cardinal will most likely look to junior guard Chloe Clardy to assume these responsibilities. Clardy averaged 12.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game on 31.8 minutes, cashing in an impressive 50 three-pointers on the season. Clardy will assume a leadership role during the 2026-27 season as a senior and will have the opportunity to continue to show her value as a scorer in the absence of Agara.
ACC All-Freshman selectionee Hailee Swain and sophomore Kennedy Umeh — former five and four stars respectively — will also play important roles for the Cardinal as the team looks to rebound from a less-than-stellar campaign and drastic roster changes.
Among other things, the team will undoubtedly need to fix its turnover problem to see more success next season. This year, the Cardinal turned the ball over 14.4 times per game. Opponents averaged 14.0 turnovers a game, and while the difference seems minimal, those points in transition add up.
The team also seemed to struggle to bring its first-quarter momentum to the rest of its games, with its cumulative point differential dropping from 126 points in the first to 56, 35 and 46 points each in subsequent periods. The Cardinal was outscored by eight points in overtimes.
Paye has yet to provide comments to the media regarding the portal news.
Despite these upcoming challenges for Paye and the rest of Stanford women’s basketball, fans should remain hopeful for the program. The team won five more games this season than it did the previous year, and with a recruiting class made of incoming four-star freshmen Jordyn Wheeler and Elyse Ngenda, the Cardinal could very well have a bounce-back season next year.
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Award-winning novelist Karen Russell to teach first Stanford workshop this springThe newest English faculty member will start leading creative writing classes for both undergraduate and graduate students.
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Karen Russell, the New York Times best-selling author of six novels and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was named a tenured English professor on Jan. 1. This quarter, she is teaching ENGLISH 390: Graduate Fiction Workshop, a course open to fellows in the Wallace Stegner program, which funds biannual cohorts of writers in fiction and poetry.
Russell was previously the visiting professor in the MFA program at the University of California, Irvine, before joining the Stanford faculty this year. Her first novel, “Swamplandia!,” was one of three finalists in an unconventional tie for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and follows a young girl whose family runs a failing theme park in the Everglades.
Russell’s latest novel, “The Antidote,” a historical-fiction and fantasy novel about a prairie witch who stores memories, was a finalist for the National Book Award and is currently long-listed for the 2026 National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN America Jean Stein Book Award.
Russell, whose honors also include a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, said in an interview with The Daily that she hopes to help students at Stanford understand their own idiosyncrasies.
Russell cited Potawatomi botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer, who “has this beautiful quote about how an educated person knows what their gifts are and how to give them to the world.”
“And Stanford seems like a place that’s really built to help people identify what their gifts are and how to give them to the world,” Russell told The Daily.
Russell’s distinct literary voice, according to faculty members in the English department, made her a familiar figure for Stanford faculty before she arrived on campus.
“I knew [Russell] as a voice on the page, a dazzling, fantastical storyteller… that uses language at once fiery and subtle to probe into realms of experience that plainer, realist prose could never access,” English professor Nicholas Jenkins wrote in an email to The Daily.
During her evaluation for the professorship, Russell visited an undergraduate creative writing workshop taught by assistant English professor Molly Antopol.
Antopol’s class of writers, who were also engineers, visual artists and pre-med students, represented Stanford’s particular “intellectual biodiversity,” bringing together people with “very idiosyncratic, utterly singular ways of seeing and moving through this reality,” Russell said.
Russell also led a workshop for Stegner Fellows, which other English professors attended as part of her evaluation.
“To be a lucky fly on the wall of a class given by Professor Russell… is to feel like you have alighted for a moment in a brighter world,” Jenkins wrote to the Daily. “She combined wild intellectual power with patience and humility, extraordinary off-the-cuff metaphorical insights with a deep, gentle empathy for the struggle of a fellow writer to articulate their vision.”
Since her first three months in the English department, Russell has already “thrown herself headlong into community life” at Stanford, according to English department chair and Creative Writing Program director Gavin Jones. She has introduced Stein Visiting Writer C Pam Zhang for the Lane Lecture Series, learned the bureaucratic complexities of department committees and planned undergraduate courses.
Having taught creative writing and literature at Columbia University, Williams College, Bryn Mawr College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Russell sees the act of instruction as one of guiding students towards self-realization.
“A writer I really admire, George Saunders, talks about teaching creative writing as helping someone to learn more about what kind of writer they are,” Russell said. “It’s helping people learn what is idiosyncratic and singular about their own consciousness… instead of trying to push people into any kind of mold of expressing themselves.”
In addition to her values in allowing mentees to grow in their writing style, Russell exhibits writing versatility, according to Jones. He noted that the department’s decision to select Russell for the role stemmed not only from her abilities as a writer and a professor but also for her capacity to work across genres and disciplines — an instructor who would embody the values the department aims to cultivate in students through its new Critical-Creative Studies initiative, which is aimed at combining students’ creative interests and academic potentials.
“Karen Russell exemplifies this fusion in the way her work romps through the upper reaches of the imagination but is then also grounded in historical research and in a critical sensibility,” Jones wrote in an email to the Daily. “I can see Karen teaching both creative courses, and literary courses — and, more [importantly], combining the two. I have a secret desire to team teach a course with her, but don’t tell her that!”
Apart from the genre-bending style that has characterized much of her celebrated writing, Russell is also known for her collaborations with performing artists. She has worked with composers, choreographers and directors to deliver ballets and operas; her latest collaboration with Mazzoli and Vavrek, an original opera named “The Galloping Cure,” will debut in the San Francisco Opera next year. Russell hopes to collaborate with other faculty members, such as English and theater and performance studies professor Peggy Phelan, to create ekphrastic learning experiences for undergraduates.
English professor Aracelis Girmay wrote in an email to the Daily that not only was Russell’s work “daring, alive and transdisciplinary,” citing the “political imagination and wing(time)span” of Russell’s novels and her collaborations of the stage, but also that Russell’s regard for the “intellectual lives of others is so apparent in [their] encounters and, more generally, the way she moves in the world.”
Jenkins and Jones similarly cited Russell’s warmth and generosity as uniquely engaging students from across disciplines. Humor, Russell said, is also a big component of her teaching philosophy.
“I never think of playfulness and seriousness as separate in any way. There’s a real interplay there, and it’s always good to laugh in a classroom,” Russell said. “With writing, especially, a certain kind of stakes needs to be reduced so that you can create a safe environment for people to take risks.”
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Russell has introduced Stein Visiting Writing C Pam Zhang, not Viet Thanh Nguyen. The Daily regrets this error.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that Russell is the only instructor of ENGLISH 390, not a co-instructor. The Daily regrets this error.
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No More Excuses: Strolling through the sculpture gardenD'Souza takes a contemplative stroll through the Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden.
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These first few weeks of spring quarter are strange. We’re in a window where everything feels still, suspended before the inevitable whirlwind of events. And while I’m looking forward to the stretch of perpetual fun ahead, I’d like to make the most of this pause.
Now that spring has sprung, it feels like a crime to keep biking between classes when I could be walking, soaking in the sun and fresh air. After quarantining myself in Green Library for the entirety of winter finals week, I think I deserve some time to reconnect with nature.
In search of an outdoor attraction, I thought: where to this time?
With the Arizona Cactus Garden on the opposite side of campus and the Rodin Sculpture Garden closed, I settled for somewhere simpler: the Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden. I had passed it countless times on my walk back to West Lag, but never stopped by.
This sculpture garden sits on the corner of Santa Teresa Street and Lomita Drive, tucked away near Roble Hall. It’s slightly removed from the usual flow of campus, so walking through feels very intentional. You have to choose to enter. So I did.
The garden immediately enveloped me. A forest hidden between concrete roads and brick buildings. Tall wooden posts rose from the ground, each carved with intricate figures that drew my attention piece by piece. I moved slowly from one to the next, taking them in fragments rather than all at once. Animals, tricksters and vague forms layered together in ways I couldn’t quite make sense of. I traced the lines with my eyes, trying to understand how the characters connected. What story were they telling?
A nearby plaque offered a brief explanation, but it felt incomplete. I kept reading, then looking back up, then reading again. After a while, I stopped trying to fully understand it. It felt like enough to just look, making the most of my own perception.
The garden was created in 1994 by a group of 10 artists from Papua New Guinea. A plaque explained that they left behind not only their work, but “a rich collection of memories and friendships.” I tried to imagine these artists carving these massive posts together, embedding pieces of their culture into a place so far from home. Standing there, it felt like the opposite of everything else on campus — something made slowly and without urgency.
My attention drifted upward. The trees stretched endlessly, their branches dissolving into the sky. It’s the first time this year I’ve felt so small.
Not insignificant, just not responsible for everything.
I let my thoughts dull. The background noise softened and time slowed. Every so often, the stillness broke as people passed through.
This surprised me. I had expected the garden to be empty, but over the thirty minutes, there was a steady stream of people coming and going. Most of them didn’t stop. They were on their way somewhere else — to Roble, to class, to wherever came next. One person, on a phone call, paced along the path, looping the same route again and again. Others walked through quickly, barely glancing at the sculptures around them.
And yet, they had all made the same small decision: they chose this path. When there was a sidewalk that led directly to their destination, they chose the winding path. Even if only for a few minutes, they stepped into something quieter.
I realized I don’t usually make that choice.
I move through things quickly. From one task to the next. One responsibility to another. I’m always trying to get somewhere. But standing there, I started to wonder where I was actually headed, not that same night but years from now.
There isn’t one place I need to be. I want to soak in the world — friendships, history, art, innovation — but none of these point toward a single destination. So why am I rushing through life, always looking for the straight path?
There’s little benefit in reaching this imagined endpoint sooner. But there’s so much more to gain from choosing the path with room for something else — to think, to learn, to grow, even if it takes time.
The quarter will pick up soon. It always does. The stillness will give way to deadlines, routines and the familiar rush of trying to keep up.
But this time, I don’t want to treat that rush as something to outrun. I want to move through it differently, making room for detours and pauses, for the unexpected moments that make me more present, more aware, and able to think and grow.
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Police Blotter: Hanging noose reported as terrorism, aggravated assaults and burglary of student residencesThis report covers incidents from March 24 to April 5 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) bulletin.
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This report covers incidents from March 24 to April 5 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) bulletin. Learn more about the Clery Act and how The Daily approaches reporting on crime and safety here.
Tuesday, March 24
Wednesday, March 25
Thursday, March 26
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the aggravated assault.
Saturday, March 28
Sunday, March 29
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the aggravated assault.
Monday, March 30
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the first-degree burglaries, the possession of a firearm, the violation of a domestic violence court order and the aggravated battery.
Tuesday, March 31
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the arrests and reporting of a false crimes.
Wednesday, April 1
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the reported terrorism and hate violence.
Thursday, April 2
Friday, April 3
Saturday, April 4
Sunday, April 5
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the reported sodomy by force.
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Langshaw | Why America needs birthright citizenshipIn his latest column, Langshaw defends the 14th Amendment as a declaration of America's identity.
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My mother came to this country from England when she was eight. My father came from Jamaica when he was two. Their parents brought them here with nothing except the belief that America would let their children become something. It did. I grew up in a majority-immigrant community in South Florida surrounded by families who had made the same bet from every direction. All of our stories began the same way: someone crossed an ocean, a child was born on American soil and that child belonged.
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order denying birthright citizenship to children born in the United States if their mothers were undocumented or on temporary visas. Though courts blocked it immediately, the case ultimately reached the Supreme Court as Trump v. Barbara. Trump attended oral arguments in person, the first sitting president in history to do so, then left partway through and posted on Truth Social: “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”
He is right about that fact. Most of the world does not do this. He is wrong about the adjective.
There is a statue in New York Harbor that faces outward, towards the ocean and towards the arriving. She does not ask where you came from. There is a bridge in San Francisco whose orange towers disappear into the fog each morning and reappear each afternoon, the city beneath built by the children of Chinese immigrants. There is a document in the National Archives that begins with a radical proposition: that those governed by a nation’s laws deserve equal standing within it. The men who signed it lived on this soil, were taxed by its British government and demanded independent governance accordingly. Most nations are founded on a tribe, a tongue or a territory held long enough to legitimize a claim of ownership. America was founded on the principle that location, not lineage, determines belonging. Birthright citizenship is what that principle looks like in law.
The United States has practiced jus soli, right of the soil, since 1868. Before that, the law was Dred Scott v. Sandford, in which Chief Justice Taney held that Black Americans could never be citizens regardless of where they were born. The men and women subject to that ruling had cleared the forests of Maryland and built the columns of the Capitol. They planted and harvested cotton, the foundation of the Southern economy, which in turn made Northern textile mills run. They nursed the children of the families who enslaved them, cooked the food those families ate and, when they died, were buried in the same soil they had spent their lives working. Yet the highest court in the land decided these contributions did not entitle them to citizenship — that they could build this country but never belong to it as equals. Today, many immigrants ask the same question: if we uphold this country, are we entitled to citizenship?
The Civil War was fought over the question of freedom and citizenship for Black Americans. 600,000 Americans died. In the Reconstruction that followed, the 14th Amendment established a new foundation for citizenship. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” It was decided, once and for all, that belonging in America would be a matter of soil, not of blood.
That has remained a national principle for 157 years. Last week, Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that America is an “outlier among modern nations.” Justice Kavanaugh reminded the courtroom that “we try to interpret American law with American precedent based on American history.” We are not the United Kingdom or Germany, neither of which grants unrestricted birthright citizenship.
We have always been outliers. We were outliers when we built a republic on popular sovereignty while Europe bowed to kings. We were outliers when we constitutionalized free expression so broadly that it protects speech most democracies would criminalize. We are outliers in how aggressively we protect criminal defendants, in our refusal to establish a state church and in our insistence on people’s right to bear arms. The “American experiment” has never been about following the consensus of other nations. It tests whether a country organized around ideas instead of ancestry can endure. Jus soli is the constitutional expression of that test.
And like any experiment, it is imperfect. A child born on American soil to undocumented parents is a citizen entitled to public services, usually a fiscal weight borne by states rather than the federal government. The pull factor is real too: automatic citizenship for children born on American soil draws families across the border illegally or encourages them to overstay visas. Birth tourism, including operations tied to Chinese government officials and facilitated by an industry of maternity businesses, has produced hundreds of thousands of American citizens who have never lived here yet retain full voting and entitlement rights. These are legitimate concerns, and dismissing them as nativist chatter does nothing to solve them.
While ending birthright citizenship is an easy answer to these problems, it is the wrong one. Birth tourism ought to be treated as a visa enforcement failure; consular officers already have the legal authority to deny applications where it is the evident purpose. The costs to states are substantial, which obliges the federal government to fund these services and streamline the immigration system to hold residents accountable based on their status in a timely manner.
None of this is simple or easy to fix. Congress has failed to pass comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. But the difficulty of this solution does not justify gutting a constitutional principle. We do not rewrite the First Amendment because someone abuses free speech. We do not abolish the Fourth Amendment because it sometimes lets a guilty person walk. And we must not dismantle the Fourteenth Amendment because our immigration system is broken.
America has never been a country that does things because they are easy. The correct path is enforcement reform, congressional action and the slow, unglamorous work of building an immigration system worthy of the country it serves. It is worth taking the harder course to preserve what makes this nation unlike any other.
The President calls birthright citizenship stupid. Lady Liberty, standing watch over New York, carries an inscription that cries out: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She was not built to welcome the well-documented. She was built to welcome all who arrived. For over a century and a half, the 14th Amendment has done just that. America is not foolish for honoring birthright citizenship. America is America because of it.
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Sophomore Rintaro Sasaki pioneers Japanese baseball cultureSasaki has forged an unconventional path, trading NPB stardom for collegiate baseball and an American education.
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If you walk in the vicinity of Sunken Diamond, you might hear the loud crack of a metal bat before you see it. There’s a good chance that’s sophomore Rintaro Sasaki obliterating a baseball.
Last week at Virginia Tech, the Stanford baseball first baseman and leadoff hitter drove a ball during batting practice that traveled so far Statcast would not have been able to register the distance. The ball punched a clean hole between the T and E of “Tech” on the Hokies’ scoreboard.
In the actual series, the Japanese phenom went 4-for-11 (.364) with two home runs totaling 750 feet, three RBIs and five walks, good for a .563 OBP, helping the Cardinal secure their first ACC series win of the season.
Regarding the start of his second season of college ball, Sasaki told The Daily, “I think I’m doing well compared to last year.” At the end of his freshman year, he told The Japan Times that he would grade his academic and baseball performance as a three out of 10.
Not only was Sasaki navigating his first season in collegiate baseball last year, but this was his first time living in an entirely new country. Why did he, and many in the baseball world, have such high expectations for a 19-year-old?
In high school, Sasaki hit 140 home runs for Hanamaki Higashi High School, surpassing the record previously held by fellow alum and global sensation Shohei Ohtani. Sasaki’s own father, Hiroshi Sasaki, is the coach at Hanamaki Higashi who molded Ohtani into a two-way player and developed Los Angeles Angels pitcher Yusei Kikuchi. Kikuchi considers Rintaro Sasaki his younger brother — he even babysat Sasaki when he was just three years old.
The traditional path for a player with Sasaki’s profile was relatively straightforward: first be drafted by the NPB and eventually enter the MLB. At the age of 18, Ohtani made his debut for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters before coming to the Major League, where he eventually signed the largest contract in professional sports history at the time, for $700 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kikuchi played in the NPB out of high school for seven years before his successful MLB career.
If Sasaki opted to go this route, he would have likely been drafted No. 1 overall in the NPB and earned six figures a year, with media endorsements on top of it all. So when the Japanese phenom decided to forgo this orthodox path, it was a contrarian decision, to say the least.
In choosing to play collegiate baseball for the Cardinal and pass up prestigious SEC programs along the way, Sasaki faced immense pressure and skepticism for delaying his professional career. He was not driven by monetary incentives, nor enticing eligibility pathways to the MLB. He sought a new adventure, one that blended Division I baseball with an American education.
“I came here since it would be a good experience for me. That’s how I feel,” Sasaki told ESPN.
Sasaki collected countless preseason accolades, finding himself on Baseball America, D1Baseball and ACC lists before even arriving to the college baseball scene. If you watched a game at Sunken Diamond last season, you might have noticed a small media crew with extensive film equipment roaming the stadium — they were already capturing footage in preparation for a future documentary on Sasaki.
At the time, he had also just started learning English.
Most Japanese players who reach the majors rely on interpreters, helping them navigate the press, media and clubhouse. Sasaki made a deliberate choice to go without one.
“If you ask him a question in English, he wants to answer it in English,” said Stanford baseball communications director Tyler Geivett. “When he came over, he’s learning English by going to class, talking to the team in the clubhouse.”
Sasaki’s goal is to be the first Japanese MLB player who doesn’t use an interpreter. Still, navigating a new language while simultaneously transitioning to the student-athlete lifestyle has not been an easy task.
“Last year, everything was a challenge,” Sasaki said. “Stanford life, my first year in the United States. I’m not speaking English. Classes, general conversation, everything has been hard.”
He started all 52 games as a freshman, slashing .269/.377/.413 with seven home runs and 41 RBIs, a strong debut for any player in their first year. For Sasaki, this was not up to his own standards. But he is firmly committed to challenging himself, both on and off the field, and far from oblivious to the lifestyle he has chosen.
“I took risks in going to Stanford. Baseball is top level and I am challenged in academics too. It is hard, but I want to do that… that’s what I choose,” he said. “I keep showing up, even if I have a bad or great day, I try to be the same guy.”
Sasaki also did his due diligence before his long-anticipated decision to play collegiate baseball. On his recruiting visit to Stanford, he met with Nico Hoerner — now the Cubs’ second baseman — and spent 20 to 30 minutes asking him about the balance between athletics and academics. He talked with Ohtani and Kikuchi, with whom he continues to message over text.
“[Ohtani and Kikuchi] gave me advice about U.S. life, U.S. baseball and what I should expect of American baseball,” Sasaki said. “I think they were the biggest reason for why I decided to go to the U.S.”
As for his own team, he credits junior catcher Luke Lavin with helping him adjust to this new life, along with the entire staff.
“I want to say thank you and appreciate the whole baseball team and coaches. Everyone’s so kind,” Sasaki said.
Now, two years after moving 5,150 miles from home, Sasaki is settled in and embracing the American college experience.
“I’m just trying to be a student-athlete,” he said.
His baseball idols are Barry Bonds and Shohei Ohtani, while his favorite restaurants are Gott’s and In-N-Out. “Double-Double, every time. Animal fries. Milkshake. That’s my routine for In-N-Out,” he said.
Sasaki remains undecided on a major but loves exploring what Stanford has to offer. He took a favorite psychology and sports class last quarter, along with a few economics and human biology courses. He also loves the West Coast, California weather and the proximity to Japanese culture in the Bay Area.
“Asian towns, Japan towns… We can get our culture [in California],” Sasaki said.
Above all, Sasaki hasn’t lost sight of the unusual path he decided to take.
“As baseball culture in high school in Japan, nobody gets to Division I baseball after high school… It’s a pioneer thing, what I’m doing right now,” he said.
Despite the constant limelight, he’s unbothered, focusing on the day-to-day and doing things his own understated way.
“Now I’m here, so that means I’m kind of doing well.”
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“A win-win”: Student-led EMT group cares for campus peersStEMS is a first point of contact for patients in need at campus events.
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Every weekend, members of the student-run Stanford Emergency Medical Services (StEMS) dedicate their time to staffing parties and events on The Row. The current team of 62 registered Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) work to ensure necessary emergency medical services for their peers.
“It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy what we do, and take real pride in what we do,” said John Corso ’27, StEMS’ director of operations.
The organization has recently undergone changes to help the team keep up with “a cadence that is much more rapid and significant than [what] we’ve operated in the past,” said Corso. “We’ve expanded the scope of our services a lot.”
StEMS is nearing its 20th year of service, having started from a small group of students in 2007. They now operate under the oversight of the Stanford Department of Emergency Medicine EMS Division. While they previously worked with the Stanford Department of Public Safety (SUDPS), the group changed partners this summer due to its growth.
StEMS is also working to digitize their medical records, modernize their medical equipment and update their uniforms — changes made possible by the Stanford Department of Emergency Medicine.
“At some of the events that we work, we are some of the first people to make contact with the patient when they are in, sometimes, one of the worst moments of their life,” said Julia Vu ’26, president of StEMS. “Being able to assist with that, whether it’s through certain interventions, even just providing reassurance … I think is a really big part in what drew a lot of people like me to StEMS.”
Eva Matentsian ’27, vice president of StEMS, said the common ground between the patient population and EMS allows “students [to] have more trust or feel more comfortable with [the EMT]. It’s not like we’re an authoritative figure, coming down on them,” she said.
“It’s a win-win situation, where we have people on campus that need medical services, and we can accomplish that at a very low cost … compared to going outside,” said program director Eric Marxmiller, a lecturer in the Department of Emergency Medicine. “The students actually get a huge benefit out of it, because they develop leadership skills, medical knowledge and training for them to take outside of the University or bring it back in.”
This year, StEMS is expecting to staff over 100 events. During spring quarter, they will work the BTS concert and Stanford Powwow, among other large campus gatherings.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about BTS. I now listen to BTS,” said Marxmiller. “There’s a lot of BTS planning.”
Corso said that StEMS’ work at large gatherings helps maximize efficiency in medical emergencies. Along with other EMS services, the group can serve as a first response to assess situations and relieve 911 calls from overstressed medical services.
StEMS is a Basic Life Support (BLS) service rather than an Advanced Life Support (ALS) service. They are also non-transporting. At large concerts and sports games, they work in conjunction with other emergency services like the Palo Alto Fire Department to provide a full range of care to patients.
Marxmiller also oversees Stanford’s EMT program, which provides EMT-certified students for StEMS to hire. The program helps students acquire a certification over the course of two quarters. Many members of StEMS are alumni of the program and return to help as Teaching Assistants (TAs).
“StEMS is genuinely a highlight of my Stanford experience. It’s such an awesome opportunity for students to really be involved on campus,” said Matentsian.
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Frost Fest excitement builds at student DJ showcaseStudent DJs took over On Call Café as a preview for one of Stanford’s biggest traditions.
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The Stanford Concert Network (SCN) hosted a student DJ showcase at On Call Café on Monday, drawing the community for a night of music ahead of Frost Fest at Frost Amphitheater this Saturday. This year’s festival, an annual effort by SCN, will feature electronic artist Barry Can’t Swim alongside Frost Children and Between Friends.
This year’s show follows Doechii’s landmark performance at Frost Fest in 2025.
The Monday showcase featured three student DJ groups, along with complimentary On Call Café drinks and merchandise for attendees who showed proof of Frost Fest ticket purchases.
The event was part of a recurring effort by SCN to generate excitement ahead of Frost Fest by pairing a smaller, student-focused event with the larger festival.
Austin Konig ’26, one of SCN’s directors, said the showcase was a “teaser” for Frost Fest. It also gave student DJs a chance to “showcase their skills, and what better place than On Call?” he told The Daily.
As in previous years, a student DJ is expected to open the concert at Frost Amphitheater, reinforcing SCN’s commitment to platform student performers.
That emphasis was evident from the selection of tracks performed at On Call Café throughout the night. Each student DJ brought their own style, leaning into recognizable pop hits and high-energy party tracks to keep the crowd engaged.
Khadija Hanif M.S. ’26, who has been DJing for a year and a half, described her approach as rooted in a mix of global sounds and influences. “A lot of multicultural [styles] … that’s like my whole shebang,” Hanif said.
For many attendees, the On Call Café showcase continued momentum from last year’s concert.
Ayana Mulla ’29 said the excitement surrounding Frost Fest reflected both the lineup and the timing of the event. “I feel like [Frost] could be a really cool event,” Mulla said. “I heard they had Doechii last year and I’m excited. It’s a good way to engage with music and arts and just have a good time, especially with spring quarter coming up.”
With Frost Fest nearing, the On Call Café takeover offered an early glimpse of the festival’s energy, bringing student artists and audiences together in anticipation of the weekend’s main event.
Tickets for the festival are available online.
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Snippets & Sketches: Notes on being homeZou reflects on the strangeness of being home for spring break.
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In her column “Snippets & Sketches,” Lily Zou reflects on what it means to live a beautiful life.
“I’m back!” I shout. My mom wraps me in a hug, my sister is right by her, all of us prancing from foot to foot with happiness. The longer I’ve been away, the more delightful the moment of homecoming is. I wolf down a home-cooked dinner, beaming at every face. My words tumble past each other in my eagerness.
The next morning, the house is subdued and I feel strange. I am at a loss of what to do without the pressure of a deadline. By force of habit, I am drawn to the routines of high school, even though they make no sense now.
In the following days, the strangeness is always there. This is because, ironically, everything is exactly the same. The furniture, each person’s routine, the backyard — unchanged since childhood. A powerful sensation of the past rises up through the pores of my house, and my mind whirls slightly. I could be ten, I could be sixteen, surely I am not nineteen?
It is remarkable how people and places affect the course of one’s thoughts. Since being at Stanford I felt I had grown far from my past mind. My life here is thrown on a bigger scale — I worry about my career and place in the world; I interact daily with people who had wildly different upbringings from my own; I glimpse the center of power and progress. But being home for two days has collapsed that distance. My thoughts settle easily into the grooves worn from high school.
That is why I feel strange. These two places hold separate selves, and there is no continuity between them. When I walk into my home, I slide into place with an almost audible click. The same occurs when I walk into my dorm after a break. There is Lily-at-home, with a particular set of mental patterns, routines and occupations; and there is Lily-at-school, with a different set. There is no continuity between them.
I do not think this is good. If, at home, I settle into a past state, all my growth has been for nought. Moreover, that ossifies my relationships with my family. I joke with my siblings as we did when we were little. It is delightful and wholesome, but if that is the only way I can talk with them — if I cannot talk about my present concerns and inquire after theirs — our relationship is stuck in a rut. That is how true communication dies.
My parents recognize that growing up means growing apart, and they have said as much. The fault is mine. The old patterns are so comfortable, and I miss the years so recently passed. But to lapse completely into them is to regress.
Stanford is a big and loud place. The rush of people, events and values leaves me dazzled. I am too busy surviving to process each day. Each impression, rather than being transmuted into part of my growing self, simply piles onto the mental backlog, a vague fog about my head. My self is unchanged and suspended. That is why my apparent growth so easily collapses — it is not rooted; it is no more than a confusion of ideas and anxieties that I passively absorbed.
What would be good is to have continuity of self, which is continuity of consciousness. Then I could grow and act naturally. At Stanford, I would remember who I am and be aware of myself throughout the day. When I have the time and space, I would think quietly about certain events, or people, or conversations that struck me, and slowly mold my tastes and principles from this material. That is what personal growth is. At home, I would be myself: far different from my sixteen-year-old self, perhaps not as mentally close to my parents and siblings, but all the more loving for it.
This is only possible by maintaining continuity of consciousness. If I am unconscious at school, all these wondrous scenes have no effect on me; if I am unconscious at home, I am suspended in the past; in either case I do not evolve.
How can I preserve continuity of consciousness? The answer, I think, is to be conscious. There is no further explanation; no detailed process. Certain activities, like journaling or going on walks, may or may not stimulate consciousness, but the essential thing is a purely mental shift, like switching on a light of awareness.
It helps if one can notice the quality of one’s mental state. Signs of consciousness include equanimity, frequent observations about life and an urge to write these thoughts down. Signs of unconsciousness include anxiety, mental tunnel vision and acting out of habit or guilt instead of genuine motivation. Being conscious, I’ve noticed, feels a lot like being happy.
This, then, is my resolution: to be continuously conscious, no matter where I am, so I can grow in a natural and rooted way.
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Nanoword #6The Daily produces nanowords whenever we feel like it, along with mini crosswords three times a week and a full-size crossword biweekly. It’s a 1×1 grid, solvable for even our most AI-dependent readers.
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Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine, and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.
The Daily produces nanowords whenever we feel like it, along with mini crosswords three times a week and a full-size crossword biweekly. It’s a 1×1 grid, solvable for even our most AI-dependent readers.
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Escondido Village residents call for communication, compensation amid campus construction projectsResidents claim construction and power system updates pose challenges to residential life.
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Construction projects to repave roads and update power systems have been met with complaints from residents in family housing, who note challenges from closed parking lots and power outages. While the University provides advanced notice of scheduled work and expected impacts, as well as resources to mitigate disruptions, residents express disappointment with the impacts to daily life.
“I can hardly think of a one-week period for the past two and a half years I have been living in this residence that there was no construction,” said Kasra Naftchi Ph.D. ’24. Naftchi lives in Escondido Village’s (EV) Hulme mid-rises with his wife and two kids.
Temporarily limited parking, power outages and worksite noise are among the impacts of construction to improve campus infrastructure. Last month, Land, Buildings and Real Estate repaved and restriped Serra Street and Olmstead Road near EV, limiting access and parking areas adjacent to five EV buildings from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on March 23. Vehicles could remain parked, but the repaving blocked them from leaving during the workday.
“There are construction activities that take away parking spaces for a limited time, but we work closely with our contractor to use spaces only when necessary,” Senior Civil Project Manager Brian Schultze wrote in an email to The Daily.
According to Naftchi, parking near his residence a few months ago was restricted for weeks. “Each time, you have to load the stroller, and if you’re going grocery shopping, you have groceries, you have a kid to hold in your arm – it’s a pain,” he said.
Naftchi said that residents still pay the full parking rate, despite having to search for spaces elsewhere when their lot is closed. “It becomes a competition for parking. I think the least they could do would be offering some sort of prorated discount for parking permits,” Naftchi said.
Construction materials and sharp debris has also led to flat tires, according to Carol, a 10th-year Ph.D. student who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from the University. She also noted that construction has pushed rodents into residential spaces.
“Multiple residents, including us, have had rodents enter cars, causing costly internal damage,” she said. “This is a direct consequence of construction disrupting existing ecosystems without adequate mitigation.”
Carol has lived in Hulme Mid-Rises with her partner and teenage child for about six years and said that ongoing construction has impacted her family’s finances and daily functioning. She expressed safety concerns of family housing conditions, including open electrical panels, fallen trees and unauthorized access to residential areas.
“Between noise, access limitations and repeated infrastructure interruptions, the environment has become difficult to live in, especially for families balancing work, school and caregiving,” Carol said.
The University has been keeping residents informed about construction progress. Kennedy Housing Service Center, which serves EV, emailed residents to notify them of landscape restoration, power outages and road work planned for March and April.
The emails included project details, safety guidelines and information on respite areas. The Graduate Community Center and Escondido Village Graduate Residences, for example, are offering meeting rooms on a first-come, first-served basis for residents to reserve a quiet space away from project noise.
The planned power outages in EV are part of Stanford’s Electrical Reliability Improvement (ERI) Project. According to the project page, about 60% of the University’s electrical system is “outdated and no longer reliable.” ERI is part of Stanford’s Climate Action Plan and will take place in phases over the next 12-16 years to replace old equipment and modernize the campus utility system.
The project includes upgrading to electric stoves, adding electric vehicle charging stations and converting buildings to electric heating. These changes are part of Stanford’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Many residents were not informed that they may be eligible for meal support during power outages, according to Carol. An email sent about a month before a planned power outage advised residents to start consolidating perishable food items in their freezer.
“During outages, families may depend on electricity for essential needs such as storing breast milk or temperature-sensitive medications, yet there is little transparency around backup power or contingency planning for residential units,” Carol said.
“We understand that shutoffs are a disruption and appreciate our community’s flexibility while this necessary work is being performed,” Schultze said. “R&DE provides tailored resources to support residents, including where refrigerated medication or breastmilk can be stored safely and accessibly during the work window.”
ERI’s anticipated schedule is available on the project page, and more direct updates are shared with residents well in advance of scheduled work, Schultze told The Daily.
“As with any construction project, unforeseen circumstances arise that may extend the timing of shutdowns or cause additional impacts. When that happens, we work with R&DE to communicate this information to affected residents as soon as possible,” Schultze said.
The project page includes an interactive map with information on when and where construction activity and disruptions may take place. LBRE also produces the HeadsUp newsletter that provides similar information.
“Planning decisions should reflect the realities of people living in these spaces,” Carol said. “At a minimum, improvements should include clear, high-priority communication about disruptions [and] proactive compensation and support.”
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ASSU kicks off student government election cycle at the ArborThe Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Elections Commission introduced students to the various candidates Monday.
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The student government election season began this Monday with the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Elections Commission’s campaign kick-off.
The event drew over 50 people who came to mingle and meet the students running for ASSU positions at The Arbor. Candidates campaigning for senate, class president and executive branches introduced their platforms and heard from students on their hopes for the upcoming year.
The event is the first of many to come in the following weeks for candidates to explain platforms and students to inform themselves ahead of the April 16 election.
“We want students to start to get as many opportunities as possible to meet the candidates that want to lead them and shape Stanford’s future,” said Charlie Schumer J.D. ’28, the deputy commissioner for the elections commission. “We want to facilitate a ton of opportunities for that, whether it’s the candidates themselves having events, or the few events that we have as well for the students to meet the candidates.”
Candidates left the event feeling a sense of unity after discussing the changes they hope to see implemented in the coming academic year with fellow students.
“It was a great turnout,” said second-year Ph.D. candidate and Daily contributor Angikar Ghosal, who is running for ASSU executive vice president alongside Jake Hofman ’27 as executive president.
“I think people are excited and the overall environment is very amicable and friendly… it’s good to get the feedback [on the] policies that me, Jake and a bunch of our friends collectively came up with,” Ghosal said.
Hofman performed a few card and magic tricks for students at the event. ASSU also provided food for students and candidates as they exchanged platform and policy ideas with one another.
Jared Hammerstrom ’27 and Celeste Vargas ’27, who are also running for ASSU executive president and vice president, were excited to hear from students about what they are looking forward to throughout the Stanford journey.
“Being able to talk to so many students, hear what they have to say, and hear…how we’re able to continue to make a difference, to positively impact the student body, that really excites us,” Hammerstrom said.
“We’re really excited to keep continuing conversations with students and exploring how we can make Stanford the best place it can be,” Vargas said.
Eva Lacy ’27, who is running for ASSU executive vice president alongside Madhav Prakash as executive president, appreciated the strong turnout of freshmen at the event. “Madhav and I both were talking about the fact that we felt so invigorated as frosh…so it was really exciting to get to meet so many excited frosh who share that vision,” she said.
Lacy highlighted the feeling of community at the event, as candidates expressed their visions to improve Stanford. “This was such a positive and ‘For Stanford’ event. It was exciting to get to meet other candidates and hear what they care about and share what we care about.”
Dilan Gohill contributed reporting.
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From the Community | Stanford must stop supporting the surveillance stateTim MacKenzie argues that Stanford's use of Flock undermines the public safety of community members.
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Tim MacKenzie, Chemistry Ph.D. ‘19, worked as a postdoc in the genetics department at Stanford. He is currently on the Steering Committee for the Silicon Valley Democratic Socialists of America.
Cameras tracking your every movement. Data centers storing your location over the past month down to the very moment. The government accessing that information with AI-powered searches without a judicial warrant. These are not dystopian tropes from Orwell’s “1984“ or Yevgeniy Zamyatin’s “We,” but the reality we currently inhabit.
Flock Safety is a private company that sells automated license plate readers (ALPRs) and boasts that over 5,000 communities make more than 20 billion observations each month. Stanford University has multiple Flock cameras on campus. According to deflock.org, there are 40 cameras on campus, including the Stanford Shopping Center, which is the subject of a lawsuit. I believe that Stanford must remove the cameras and cease supporting the surveillance state.
ALPRs are tools of mass surveillance, indiscriminately capturing images of every vehicle that drives past them and storing the data for up to a month or more. It is equivalent to placing a GPS tracking device on each driver’s vehicle, providing time-stamped location data that can be used in warrantless searches to reconstruct your movements as you go about your lives. In California, it has been illegal to share ALPR data with out-of-state agencies since 2016. However, technology users and the companies that purvey these devices have consistently violated these policies. The City of Mountain View tried to protect residents’ data with a strictly crafted data use policy, requiring written approval from the Police Chief and agreement to the city’s policies before access was granted. Even with those safeguards in place, federal agencies and unapproved police departments across the state gained unauthorized access to local data. From August 2024 to December 2025, the Mountain View Police Department (MVPD) performed approximately 25,000 searches of local ALPR data, while outside agencies performed over 3,000,000 searches. In other words, 99.2% of searches were from outside agencies and had nothing to do with preventing crime locally, like proponents of data collection claim.
As an educational institution, Stanford has an obligation to protect the members of its community, including students, staff and visitors. Since Stanford is also essentially its own city, the university must also provide municipal services like policing as laid out in the General Use Permit granted by Santa Clara County. Some may claim installation of ALPRs supports this mission of public safety. After all, didn’t ALPRs help crack the case in the Brown University mass shooting last year? The sobering reality is that more cameras do not prevent violence, or the shooting would never have occurred in the first place. Furthermore, a tip from a person, not an automated camera, was the more critical break in the Brown case. An earlier tip from a campus worker about a suspicious person who turned out to be the shooter was ignored, demonstrating that it is the people who make up the university that keep each other safe, not overreliance on tools of questionable efficacy. Swapping license plates is enough to fool surveillance cameras, which allowed the shooter to murder a professor from MIT the next day. Even after the traumatic experience last winter, members of the Brown community recognize the inefficacy of mass surveillance and are resisting calls for its expansion.
These tools of mass surveillance put public safety at risk. Women seeking healthcare have been tracked by ALPRs in states where abortion has been outlawed. Police have used ALPR data to surveil protestors engaged in protected First Amendment activities. There are repeated instances of faulty AI-powered ALPRs mistakenly flagging vehicles and causing innocent people to be held at gunpoint. These mistakes have left to situations where a 12-year-old was handcuffed or a Black man was mauled by a police dog.
ALPR cameras can facilitate the extralegal overreach currently pursued by the government. There are countless examples of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection gaining access to ALPR data. Marimar Martinez, a woman shot five times by ICE, was tracked with historical ALPR data to try to find support for the baseless claim that she was a domestic terrorist. At Columbia University, ICE entered student residences under false pretenses and detained a student. Stanford is no longer flying under the radar of the Trump administration, and must prepare for intrusion into its educational and administrative policies. Utilizing tools that federal agencies have repeatedly abused is irresponsible and a dereliction of Stanford’s duty to protect its community members.
Luckily, the tide is turning against the surveillance state here in the Bay Area. Both San Jose and Oakland are facing lawsuits for warrantless searches of ALPR data. Santa Cruz became the first city in California to cancel their Flock contract in January, followed soon after by Los Altos Hills. The Mountain View City Council unanimously decided to cancel their Flock contract and not seek other ALPR vendors. Most relevant for Stanford, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently updated its Surveillance Use Policy to forbid the County Sheriff from utilizing Flock ALPRs. This is particularly important because par t of Stanford sits on unincorporated County land and is governed by policies set by the Board of Supervisors. Stanford University Department of Public Safety (SUDPS) derives its authority from a Memorandum of Understanding with the County Sheriff. All campus police officers are “classified as a Santa Clara County Reserve Deputy Sheriff” and therefore must abide by the policies set by the Board of Supervisors.
Continuing to operate Flock cameras on Stanford’s campus is not just a threat to the safety of students and workers the university has an obligation to protect. It is also a violation of law and policy governing the policing power of SUDPS. Stanford must cease operating ALPRs, terminate its contract with Flock Safety and remove the cameras from campus.
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No. 25 Stanford stuns No. 3 Wake Forest, edges out No. 23 NC StateFreshman Jagger Leach came back from a deficit to clinch the upset over defending NCAA champions, Wake Forest.
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Down 5-2 in his third set, Stanford freshman Jagger Leach needed to win three-straight games on Friday night just to keep his match alive against Wake Forest’s Joaquin Guilleme.
By the time Leach reached 5-5, every other match had finished. With No. 25 Stanford men’s tennis (15-7, 8-4 ACC) tied 3-3 with No. 3 Wake Forest (26-3, 11-1 ACC), all eyes turned to the deciding match on court six, where Leach had the chance to pull off the season’s biggest upset.
For Wake Forest, Friday night was like any other night, having blown past conference opponents all season. For Stanford, it was a chance for redemption after last year’s NCAA semifinal loss to the Demon Deacons – and to deliver a statement win on opening day of the new Arrillaga Tennis Center in front of a raucous crowd.
Both Leach and Guilleme held serve to force a tiebreaker at 6-6, but Leach surged ahead 7-4 in the final game to clinch the upset. Teammates and coaches all rushed the court to celebrate the heroic performance.
“The most courageous, boldest, bravest effort I’ve ever seen,” Stanford head coach Paul Goldstein told Rivals.
Ending the night 4-3, the Deacs lost in conference play for the first time in two years.
Stanford had initially trailed 3-0 in the match, dropping the tightly contested doubles point and suffering quick losses on courts one and three. However, consecutive wins from sophomore Alex Razeghi, graduate student Alex Chang and junior Hudson Rivera swung the momentum back to the Cardinal and set the stage for Leach.
Razeghi won in straight sets (7-6 (5), 7-6 (2)) while Chang (4-6, 6-2, 6-4) and Rivera (6-3, 4-6, 6-2) both fought through three sets.
The match was the Cardinal’s first time playing in the Arrillaga Tennis Center, the new home for both the men’s and women’s tennis programs. The two-story facility opened Friday after two years of construction. It replaces the old Taube Tennis Center and offers full viewing of 12 courts, with a seating capacity of 1,005. Last season, the Arrillaga Tennis Center-Taube Pavillion across the street served as the interim venue for the two teams.
Stanford returned to the Arrillaga Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon to take on No. 23 NC State (16-5, 8-4 ACC). Leach, on court five, once again played in a tightly contested match that would help break the 3-3 tie between the two teams. This time, however, he held the lead throughout the third set to seal the win, 7-6 (3), 6-7 (6), 6-4.
Razeghi and Rivera both won in straight sets, with Razeghi topping the No. 21 player in the division, Martin Borisiouk, on court one for the highest ranked win of his career.
Stanford men’s tennis will face its rivals Cal (14-10, 6-5 ACC) on Saturday, April 11 for its final match before the ACC Championships. Last season, the Cardinal won the conference championship with an upset over then-No. 6 Virginia.
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Text and the City: ‘Speak’ is a psychological sketch of the silent woman"Speak" explores silence as a corrosive behavior that promotes submission to institutional demands.
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In “Text and the City,” Melisa Guleryuz ’27 reviews books through a lens of modern femininity.
Content warning: This article contains descriptions of sexual assault.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
There is a particular kind of girl Stanford knows how to make. She is articulate at career fairs and composed in seminars. She has, through years of practice, become very good at what Melinda Sordino, the protagonist of Laurie Halsey Anderson’s “Speak,” calls the “performance of wellness.”
“I am getting better at smiling when people expect it,” Melinda remarked.
If you’ve ever forced yourself to laugh with friends in the dining hall or have held yourself together through office hours while quietly falling apart, you already know her. You might already be her.
One of the most challenged books in American schools, “Speak” dissects a specific kind of silence every woman is taught early on. It’s one that keeps her safe — or at least, less emotionally exposed. The novel follows Melinda through her freshman year of high school after she is raped at a summer party by a popular older student, Andy Evans. She called the police that night. Everyone blamed her for the party getting busted.
By September, she is the school’s social pariah: mocked in hallways, abandoned by friends, invisible to teachers and unable to voice what happened to her.
Anderson, who has spoken publicly about her own sexual assault experience, does not soften this. And 27 years after publication, “Speak” remains one of the most realistic books I have read about why survivors don’t come forward. They don’t lack courage; institutions around them have trained them not to speak.
Instead of writing exclusively on the transgressions of rape and the need for perpetrators to face justice, Anderson’s feminist argument of “Speak” is that systems devised to protect survivors actually encourage their silence. Melinda’s school is not a den of obvious villainy. Her teachers are distracted, not cruel in their overlooking of Melinda’s silence. Her parents are exhausted, not malicious when they don’t strive to understand her. But collectively, these familial and academic institutions teach a traumatized 14-year-old that her pain is not worth the disruption of naming it.
“All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie,” Melinda thinks. “Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” As a Stanford student, that passage hit me differently reading it than it might have in high school. Here, we are surrounded by people who ostensibly want to hear what we have to say. Yet the structural pressure to exhibit competence, to never let fractures show, to file the right paperwork with the SHARE office and move on smoothly, is not so different from Merryweather High’s indifference to Melinda’s deterioration.
Our protagonist doesn’t remain silent due to her weakness, but because speaking has already cost her everything. She has no reason to believe that speaking more will cost her any less. “IT happened,” Melinda thinks. “There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding.” “IT” is both the rape and the knowledge of it, a fact that lives in her body regardless of whether her mouth consents to acknowledging it.
Art is Melinda’s salvation: specifically, a year-long assignment to draw a tree. Melinda’s art teacher, Mr. Freeman, is the one adult who nearly gets her to speak up. He tells his students, “This [assignment] is where you can find your soul if you dare. Where you can touch that part of you that you’ve never dared look at before.” While other teachers drill outcomes and merit into Melinda’s mind, Mr. Freeman asks Melinda to go somewhere uncomfortable and make something true of it.
What begins as a flat sketch of dead, winter-stripped stump slowly becomes something capable of surviving damage without being destroyed by it. Melinda’s final project (a three-dimensional sculpture) symbolizes her surviving her own traumatic experience. When Melinda finally confronts Andy Evans and speaks — actually speaks — it’s a staggering relief, an embodiment of that inner strength.
However, I want to be clear about what I think this book asks of its readers, particularly its female ones. It is not asking us to admire Melinda’s resilience, which is the sentimental reading — and I think, the wrong one. Resilience is what we celebrate when we don’t want to change the conditions that require it. Instead, “Speak” beckons us to confront a silence we have accepted as normal, to notice whose comfort it protects and to ask ourselves whether the institutions we inhabit — Stanford included — have created the conditions under which a girl like Melinda could speak safely.
“When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time,” Anderson says through Melinda. “Speak” matters at Stanford because it introduces a question we don’t ask enough: In a place that celebrates voice, who still feels like they can’t use theirs? And maybe more importantly, why?
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