Muller reflects on the 2021 rom-com, “To All the Boys: Always and Forever,” in which protagonist Lara Jean grapples with her Stanford rejection.
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In “Stanford in the Media,” Emma Muller ’28 explores the portrayals and accuracy of Stanford University and Stanford affiliates depicted across books, movies, musicals and other forms of media.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
In high school, my sister and I shared a staple movie series: “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” Whenever one of us had a rough week, we’d binge-watch the trilogy, which follows the high school relationship between sweet introvert Lara Jean Covey and popular jock Peter Kavinsky. Now that I’m at Stanford, I have a new appreciation for the third film — “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” — which focuses on Lara Jean and Peter’s senior year and their goal of attending Stanford together.
At the start of the film, Peter is recruited to Stanford’s Division 1 (D1) lacrosse team on an athletic scholarship. In reality, Stanford only has a club men’s lacrosse team (there is, however, a D1 women’s lacrosse team). After having just reviewed “High School Musical 3,” it felt ironic to see a movie start with the athlete of the couple getting in before the brainiac.
While Lara Jean has not heard from Stanford yet, both she and Peter are certain that she will get in. In fact, Lara Jean is so certain of this outcome that when she opens her Stanford application portal, she imagines a rosy vision of the future: her and Peter going to Stanford, moving into their dorm together, getting married and buying a house.
But when decision day comes, Lara Jean is rejected. Heartbroken, she sees a reversal of the life she had imagined from herself play out. This flash-forward scene is focused on Peter, but it powerfully represents the power that college decisions have on people’s perception of their own future. One seemingly small admissions letter, shorter than a page and universalized to all rejected applicants, causes many applicants’ visions of the future to crumble to dust.
In a painful example of miscommunication, Lara Jean texts Peter that she got in. Peter shows up in his car covered in Stanford stickers and with a speaker, then takes her out for food where he tells the waitress that his girlfriend got into Stanford.
Though Lara Jean is visibly mortified, she waits for days to tell Peter that she didn’t get into Stanford. Her acceptance to UC Berkeley softens the blow — she immediately decides to attend Berkeley so she can be close to Stanford and her relationship with Peter is secure.
However, during a visit to New York University (NYU), Lara Jean falls in love with the city and the school. Notably, NYU has a strong writing program — perfect for an aspiring author. She tells her sister all about NYU after the visit, which reminded me of the conversations I had with my younger sister after I visited colleges in California I was considering applying to. Somehow, she always knew me better than myself and helped me figure out the schools that were a good fit.
In a tense conversation with Peter, Lara Jean breaks the news that she does not want to attend Berkeley and will be choosing NYU instead. The two decide to break up because Peter believes that Lara Jean has chosen distance over him — an accusation I found unfair, considering that he is also unwilling to change his college decision for Lara Jean. Lara Jean is heartbroken, but stays committed to NYU.
Luckily, Peter comes to realize the error of his ways. In a sweet romantic gesture, he goes to Lara Jean’s house with a love letter and apologizes, reaffirming to her that he loves her more than any distance and that he’s supportive of her following her dreams.
In this scene, “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” shows that college decisions shouldn’t be based on proximity to a high school partner, and that if a relationship is true, it can withstand any distance. Lara Jean’s decision to attend NYU over Berkeley demonstrates that even when you don’t get into your first choice, it’s entirely possible to attend a college that aligns with your dreams.
Even if it initially cost her relationship with Peter, I think Lara Jean was rightfully excited to choose NYU. Her relationship with Peter is important, but choosing where to go to college based on a high school romance is a recipe for disaster. Sure, if Lara Jean hated UC Berkeley, she may have still had Peter. But their relationship easily could have soured, given Peter would be happily attending his dream school while Lara Jean would be stuck at a university she didn’t even want in the first place.
“To All the Boys: Always and Forever” powerfully depicts that even if you have the grades, getting into Stanford is never a guarantee. The factors that influence admissions officers are complicated and varied. In certain situations, a star athlete like Peter, can be prized in certain situations over a stellar academic like Lara Jean. You can be assured of your academic excellence, and still not receive a coveted acceptance letter to a selective institution.
Lara Jean’s rejection from Stanford and decision to attend NYU presents a unique yet universal view of Stanford: while all of us on campus received Stanford acceptances, that’s an experience only 3.6% of applicants to the Class of 2028 shared. “To All the Boys: Always and Forever” is a heartwarming film that presents this more realistic view of the Stanford application and decision process.
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Quarter-Life Crisis: Silly, strange and inevitableIn the first installment of her column "Quarter Life Crisis," Hsu defines the term and the beauty of being the punchline to your own joke.
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In the first installment of her column “Quarter-Life Crisis,” Sharis Hsu ’25 defines the term and the beauty of being the punchline to your own joke.
I used to think of a quarter-life crisis as a punchline.
It was the term I pulled out of my back pocket when I changed my major (again) and revoked my pre-med status for the seventh or eighth time in a quarter.
A stereotypical quarter-life crisis looks like panic attacks in office cubicles and reckless spending on plane tickets to “find yourself” in another country. It’s impulsively cutting your hair, breaking up with your partner and deciding you weren’t cut out for corporate America.
Quarter-life crises are theatrically comical.
And then there are the hobbies.
Pottery classes, marathon training, pickleball — these are the hobbies that attract every young adult in the midst of an existential crisis. There’s that one friend who starts baking elaborate sourdough loaves even though they don’t like bread. Another becomes a rock-climbing addict. One goes backpacking across Europe instead of enrolling in classes.
These drastic “quests” seem like the perfect remedy to life becoming stagnant.
Despite my youth, I am no stranger to the quarter-life crisis. See 35-mile bike ride from Stanford back to my childhood home as evidence. It seems oddly inevitable and more chaotic that most coming of age movies make it out to be.
There’s nothing wrong with experiencing a quarter-life crisis.
Perhaps, I will become the first to advocate that this demonized struggle and these strange coping hobbies can be formative (and fun for you friends to witness). It’s the realization that you’re an adult, you can do whatever you want in life and you can keep trying things even in your adult age.
The terrifying quarter-life crisis typically arrives in the early 20s to 30s.
Assuming that Stanford students are also overachieving in this aspect, we’re all going through this crisis together!
From the strange, to the silly, to the nitty gritty, I will be diving into the experience of a quarter-life crisis and the unsuspecting hobbies that spring from it. Whether it’s picking up a random obsession or taking a solo trip abroad, it’s all part of the messy, unpredictable process of growing up.
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Andrea Kitahata Returns for ‘Unfinished Business’Redshirt senior forward Andrea Kitahata forgoes the opportunity to turn pro, instead deciding to return to the Farm for one last shot at winning a national championship.
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Dre’s back.
After four years starring as Stanford’s dynamo in attack, redshirt senior forward Andrea Kitahata has decided to return to the Farm for her final year of eligibility. In doing so, she declined opportunities to turn professional in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and in Europe.
“At the end of the day, Stanford was where I wanted to be for one more year,” Kitahata said. “There’s a lot of unfinished business for me.”
The forward’s decision to stay is a tremendous gain for the Cardinal. On the field, her numbers speak for themselves — in each of her three full seasons on the Farm she has either led or been second on the team in points, with many of her goals coming as game-winners.
Beyond her production, Kitahata also captained the team last season to the College Cup semifinals, and the year before was an integral piece in the Cardinal reaching the national championship game.
“She’s definitely a favorite amongst all the players,” head coach Paul Ratcliffe said. “We all appreciate her and we’re excited for one more season and hopefully we can bring home a championship for her as well.”
Kitahata’s decision to return wasn’t made lightly. Coming off of another remarkable season where she led the Cardinal in goals and assists, and having completed her undergraduate degree in the fall, she wanted to properly evaluate all of her options.
“This was the first [offseason] I considered seriously going pro,” Kitahata said. “I had finished my undergraduate degree, so I wanted to leave the door open for that possibility and take a look at what was out there.”
But to add a twist to an already difficult decision, Kitahata had to navigate a completely different pathway-to-pro process than any college player before her.
Last July, the NWSL agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that broadly granted players greater autonomy over their careers. One change included in the agreement saw the NWSL eliminate the young player draft – a staple of American professional sports. Instead, all youth and collegiate players are now treated as free agents in a model resembling professional soccer leagues overseas. This means that prospective players now have to look for interested teams, meet with coaches and negotiate contracts on their own.
“I thought the new CBA was great. It got me really excited about getting to have more autonomy over where I would end up,” Kitahata said.
With the new CBA taking effect this season, Kitahata was in the first class of players seeking professional opportunities in this new environment.
For her, the process was fast. NWSL teams started their preseasons in mid-January, but Stanford’s deep tournament run meant that she wasn’t available to meet with teams until December. This gave her just over a month to get a contract and make a decision.
Not only was this a new experience for the players, it was also a new experience for the clubs. Front offices had to recalibrate the salaries and contract lengths offered to college players since they no longer owned draft rights.
“It’s a bit of the Wild West out there right now,” Kitahata said. “[Teams] didn’t really know what the typical protocol was, agents didn’t really know what the typical protocol was and people were kinda making it up as they went along.”
While the increased autonomy for players is certainly a step forward for the league, eliminating the draft removes what’s usually a special night of celebration for the college players.
“Everyone looks forward to that big moment where you get your name called and you get to go across the stage, get the scarf and finally say, ‘I’m going pro.’ It is a little sad that that moment is no longer a part of the college-to-pro process, but I think it’s worth its sacrifice: your confetti moment for a little more autonomy over where you go,” Kitahata said.
Through the free agency process, Kitahata was offered a fair multi-year professional contract. But even with an opportunity to fulfill a lifelong dream at her fingertips, there was unfinished business left on the Farm.
“Winning a Natty has always been my goal since I learned what collegiate sports were, and so leaving here without a ring would be a missed opportunity,” Kitahata said. “The team this year is coming out guns blazing and we expect nothing less but to win a national championship.”
Stanford is certainly poised for another shot at the College Cup, having come excruciatingly close to a national championship two years in a row. The Cardinal also fielded a young team last season, featuring multiple freshmen and underclassmen who will benefit from the deep postseason runs.
Ratcliffe expects these experiences to be key for Kitahata and the team as they gear up for the next season, eyes set solely on the top prize.
“I think [Kitahata’s] leadership is going to be invaluable for our team and that’s what I’m most excited about,” Ratcliffe said. “I think she really understands what it takes to get to the College Cup and I also think she knows what it takes to win the championship.”
Kitahata’s ambitions on the Farm also extend beyond the soccer pitch. By staying an extra year, she will continue her education and obtain a Master’s degree.
“It’s tough to rush out of here… and not get the whole experience. I think there’s a lot that can be done at this school, both on the field and in the classroom and with the people here. I really think it’s a special place,” Kitahata said.
When asked about the impact staying may have on professional opportunities in the future, Kitahata displayed the same signature confidence and focus that makes her such a dynamic player on the pitch, and an icon on campus.
“I am a firm believer that everything else will work itself out and the opportunities that are meant for me will come,” Kitahata said. “So all my time and energy is going into having an incredible season and winning a national championship with these girls”
Thus, it all just seemed right to come back for one last dance.
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Daily Diminutive #043 (Mar. 14, 2025)Click to play today's 5x5 mini crossword. The Daily produces mini crosswords three times a week and a full-size crossword biweekly.
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Q&A: Josh Constine on power shifts in journalism and the rise of independent mediaSignalFire partner and former TechCrunch Editor-At-Large Josh Constine reflected on his journey from tech journalist to VC partner in this interview with The Daily.
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SignalFire venture partner and former TechCrunch Editor-At-Large Josh Constine ’07 M.A. ’09 sat down with The Daily on Wednesday to explore how technology is reshaping the media world, shifting power from editors to writers and enabling new connections between reporters and readers.
At TechCrunch, Constine wrote over 3,500 blog posts, covering social tech giants like Facebook and Snapchat as the #1 most cited tech journalist from 2016 to 2020. At SignalFire, Constine invests in consumer social and leads SignalFire’s PR and fundraising advisory program for portfolio companies.
Constine stressed the importance of building a personal brand for journalists, speculated on how AI could reshape journalism and identified a curious link between Stanford parties and leading alumni in tech.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
The Stanford Daily (TSD): You started out your career in tech journalism and are now an investor. Could you walk us through your motivation for the transition?
Josh Constine (JC): I asked myself where the steepest learning curve was. After 4,000 articles, I wanted to see the other side of companies. As a journalist, you learn about the team, the product, the market but not the finances and real struggles that differentiate success and failure at startups. Going to SignalFire would teach me investing, and I could teach them about storytelling.
TSD: How has your experience in tech journalism informed your approach in venture capital? You mentioned storytelling earlier as something you contribute, but is there anything else that transferred?
JC: As AI makes engineering and operations leaner for startups, the true differentiator is storytelling and distribution. I love being able to help thousands of companies share their message for the first time. There’s something so special about seeing a technical founder have that ‘eureka’ moment on finding their story that gets people to lean in instead of falling asleep when they talk.
A lot of it is moving from feature-focused messaging to solutions-based messaging. As a journalist, you learn it’s not about what the company does but what the reader cares about from that company. Founders can become so close to their product that they think of it as a stack of features they spend all their time building, but the story that people want to read is a new concept or a massive problem that’s getting solved. That’s what will help you go viral and earn you that opportunity to tell the business story.
Another thing is both investigative journalism and deep due diligence on a potential investment require calling tons of sources, pushing past politeness and finding out what the real problems are. We’ve seen companies we considered investing in that revealed issues after investigative work done by me and my teammates and scuttled those deals.
TSD: Your newsletter on Substack, Moving Product, seems to be on hiatus. How much of your time currently do you still spend writing?
JC: Certainly, I would love to spend more time writing. The biggest change is that now I have two kids, and so any Saturday morning I might have spent writing a newsletter is spent building Legos or playing guitar with them or taking them to a dance party. That, to me, is the most fulfilling thing in the world.
While the time for personal writing does get squeezed, I love getting to help our portfolio founders at SignalFire or our fellow investors share insights on things that they are much deeper experts on than I.
One of the biggest issues with writing is that the authorship can get lost. Once you roll past the byline, who’s to say who wrote those words? People don’t just remember a great idea, they remember who shared it with them. So, when they see their next great company, they know who to send it to.
When you watch one of my LinkedIn videos or Reels, you can’t get rid of me. I am embedded directly into the content. I think every journalist should be thinking on how they can build more of their identity into their work, which allows them to build a community, which is a funnel to getting amazing stories.
TSD: What can you share about the changes in the field of journalism and technology in journalism?
JC: Power is shifting from publishers to individuals and from editors to writers. Historically, limited access to journalism made us reliant on editors to curate news, but the web has created an explosion of independent journalism, making us the editors of our own information diet. We build relationships directly with the reporters rather than the editors in the masthead of a publisher. Along with that, there is also audience portability which enables the community to move with reporters to their next publication, whereas previously, nobody would know where to find you if you left your newspaper.
Meanwhile, people also want relatable figures they can trust. Organizations are less trusted than individuals when you can’t put a face on it. Similar to how we’ve seen the rise of the creator economy, independent journalism allows you to connect with niche influencers that speak to the subcultures that you care about and can make inside jokes that only you understand, which is more fun and creates a deeper and longer-lasting relationship than “one size fits none” celebrities.
Whether you want to become a journalist or you’re using it as receipts for job applications, there’s immense power in writing in public to prove that you’ve been analyzing the space and making bets.
TSD: How do you think AI will impact journalism?
JC: AI will be extremely powerful for finding who to talk to and not necessarily what to write about. We see the same thing in venture capital. SignalFire builds AI in-house to assist with sourcing investments. It doesn’t tell us who to invest in, and we shouldn’t trust it to tell us who to invest in, but it can tell us who we should talk to, because they’re hiring amazing talent, or they have great founder market fit or their team’s GitHub rank is skyrocketing. Similarly, I think the ability to find incredible sources, new stories and topics to write about will be a powerful way to assist journalists.
AI could make the kinds of journalism where you have to be so fast and precise, such as covering earnings releases, much more efficient. A tiny mistake can move the market, cause financial havoc and hurt your reputation, so I think there’s some of that work [AI can complete] of just filling numbers that’s going to make journalism more efficient and accurate, while allowing the human element of the opinion to shine.
TSD: You designed your own master’s degree [at Stanford] in cybersociology to study meme popularity cycles, social networks and anonymous trolling. What was the process like to assemble this custom degree, and what did you come out learning?
JC: Facebook launched my freshman year, which is really dating me, but it swept across campus and immediately was uprooting sociological theory. I majored in sociology in my undergrad and I knew I wanted to study social networks, but there were no courses specifically about them. I went to the sociology department and said, “Social networks are either uprooting or proving true all of the classical sociological theory. Let me cobble together courses across psychology, science, technology and society, communication [and] sociology into this cybersociology degree because I want to study social networks.”
At that time, they asked whether social networks were even really a thing and if I could study something moving so fast. I said, “Trust me, it’s going to be a big thing, and we’ve got to start studying them now.”
I think these are principles of sociology that we needed to explore. I was really impressed that Stanford had the flexibility to say, “We don’t know every major that should exist, but we are going to look to our students who are so close to that edge of the future to see what should be a new discipline from study.”
TSD: Were there any particularly memorable stories at Stanford that you wanted to share?
JC: When I was at Stanford, social life was much less regulated, and houses could throw massive all campus parties with thousands of people, and what that did was it gave essentially Series B stage management experience to 22-year-olds. If you were the social manager or president of a row house or a fraternity, you were organizing mechanical engineers to build stages and design majors to make flyers and MS&E majors to do all the operations and logistics to put together these massive events.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the founders of Snapchat, Instagram and Robinhood were social managers of houses and threw massive parties on campus that Stanford no longer allows to happen. I hope the University recognizes that empowering students to create culture and social life for their peers not only makes Stanford a place students want to go, but it also mints future leaders.
It’s funny that when I was in college, the most prestigious job was investment banking, but now it’s increasingly becoming being a product manager at a big tech company, working at a VC or founding your own startup, and I think education on campus needs to adapt to what soft skills are necessary to succeed – how to fundraise, choose investors and recruit. That is the difference between a killer individual contributor and a world-changing founder.
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New software allows faculty to detect AI use in research before publicationStanford Libraries recently adopted iThenticate, a program that detects AI-generated text in research papers and manuscripts, to help Stanford faculty members check work before publication.
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Stanford Libraries’ Office of Scholarly Communications recently implemented iThenticate, a service that can detect the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research papers, to help faculty review their work before publication and ensure it meets publishers’ guidelines.
iThenticate compares scholarly writings such as manuscripts, grant proposals and papers against a database of published content to check originality and detect the inclusion of AI-generated text. The program, invented in 2002 by Turnitin as a plagiarism detection tool, may be used by Stanford faculty to review their own work before publication.
iThenticate’s implementation comes several months after Stanford communications professor and social media researcher Jeff Hancock admitted to using fabricated AI-generated citations to draft a court statement. Hancock’s statement, written as expert testimony to support a Minnesota law banning AI deepfakes in elections, was found to contain several AI “hallucinations” in the form of fake citations.
After work is submitted to the iThenticate web interface, the program generates a similarity report, highlighting text in the work that matches text in iThenticate’s database. It also detects word patterns characteristic of AI-generated text and flags content that may have been created by a chatbot.
Support for the tool was coordinated by Stanford’s Office of Scholarly Communications, a unit of the library that offers “guidance on the complexities of academic publishing,” per the office’s website.
“I think that we’re in a period of what I would call the Wild West, where people are doing a bunch of stuff [with AI] and instructors are not being clear and can’t even decide what their policies [on AI] are,” said Russ Altman, M.D ’90 Ph.D. ’89, a bioengineering professor who heads Stanford’s AI advisory committee.
“iThenticate came to Stanford now because all these issues around research integrity and publication integrity have been so high-profile over the past few years,” Rochelle Lundy, director of the Office of Scholarly Communications, told The Daily. Lundy added that plagiarism accusations and retractions of published research have increased in frequency and received greater national attention in the past few years..
Stanford’s former president Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned from his post in Aug. 2023 and retracted or corrected five scientific papers following a University investigation which concluded that research he oversaw contained manipulated data.
Former Harvard president Claudine Gay also resigned in Dec. 2023 amid investigations into her research and dissertation over accusations of plagiarism and inadequate citations.
“We know that our researchers are interested in protecting their reputation and making sure that any work they put out there is in line with what they want to produce,” Lundy said regarding the University’s reasons for implementing the tool.
Stanford’s libraries and the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research received a number of inquiries about a tool that would help researchers check their work before distributing it outside of the University, Lundy added.
According to Lundy, Stanford opted in to the generative AI (gen-AI) detection tool due to increasing restrictions imposed by publishers about the use of gen-AI in scholarly writing.
Altman, however, urged people to experiment with AI and learn how it works, so that “they become familiar with what it’s good at… and when it’s appropriate to use.”
Although iThenticate cannot currently be used to detect AI-generated text in student coursework, Altman said he would support this in the future.
French professor Dan Edelstein, who sits on the Faculty Senate, believes that students should be able to exercise discretion regarding the use of AI in their own coursework.
“Students are really aware of the threat that [generative AI] poses to their own education and to the development of critical thinking skills and communication skills,” Edelstein said.
Edelstein said he could not gauge whether or not faculty are using gen-AI. Within humanities departments, “it’s not something that people see as really all that helpful, at least for research,” Edelstein said. Edelstein expressed greater concern over student use of AI.
“It feels like gen-AI has now gotten to the point where it’s such a temptation; it’s at your fingertips. In light of these changes, it would be worth having a broader conversation about [AI and] the honor code,” he said.
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UGS passes annual grant package, approves additional Frost Fest fundingThe UGS approved $4.5 million worth of grants out of the $8 million that various Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs) requested.
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The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) voted unanimously to pass the 2025-26 Annual Grant Package — meeting only $4.5 million worth of annual grants out of the $8 million that Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs) requested — in a special Wednesday meeting over Zoom.
“It really does suck that we can’t fund it all,” Appropriations Chair David Sengthay ’26 said. “If it was a perfect world, we’d give the $8 million. I wish we could, but, simply put, if we go over $4.5 million, it’s just fiscally irresponsible.”
If the student body votes in favor during the upcoming spring election, the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) will increase the ASSU Student Activities Fee, which is included in Stanford’s cost of attendance, to $245 per quarter, an $18 increase from its current level. The fee increase will support grant funding for student initiatives, allowing the ASSU to raise its approved annual grant funding from $4.2 million to $4.5 million.
To prevent added costs for the the student body, the ASSU could not meet the full request, Sengthay said. The activities fee would double if ASSU were to fund all $8 million worth of grants, Sengthay said. Sengthay added that if this occurred, many students would waive the fee and ASSU would be left with less money regardless.
Sengthay said he worked with professional accountants hired by the ASSU to identify the cuts. “We tried to be as fair as possible,” Sengthay said.
This was the first year that the ASSU mandated consideration of clubs’ reserve accounts while deciding whether to approve their grants.
ASSU President Diego Kagurabadza ’25 also presented the Bill to Authorize Reserve Spending for Frost Fest 2025, which the UGS approved unanimously. The bill requested that $6,000 from the Undergraduate Programming Board Reserve be allocated to the upcoming Frost Fest, where rapper Doechii will headline on April 12.
Kagurabadza drafted the bill in response to a request from the Stanford Concert Network to cover the increased cost of artist fees due to Doechii’s recent win at the 2025 Grammys for Best Rap Album.
The Reserve is largely made up of unused funds from previous years’ grants.
“The purpose of this fund is to provide reserves for emergency and unprecedented situations, like the one I think we have on our hands coming up in a few weeks,” Kagurabadza said, referring to Doechii’s performance.
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Strawser | Dear ASSU: Be the leaders the Trump era calls forStrawser argues that the ASSU, more than ever, must take its kiddy gloves off to be the leaders that students need in the Trump era.
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I believe that the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) is capable of doing great things. It funded On Call Café, advocated for student athletes and held necessary conversations on alcohol policy reform. I’ve long trusted our senators to take student advocacy seriously.
However, on the issue of immigration, the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) has abdicated the responsibility of centering student needs, and my trust had regressed into disdain. The UGS unanimously removed a resolution that would’ve declared Stanford a sanctuary campus from its docket. This came after the UGS tabled the resolution, which would’ve opposed Stanford’s cooperation with non-court mandated immigration efforts. The purported reasons for backpedaling their opposition to an immigration agenda that puts their undocumented and international constituents at risk? Institutional neutrality and Graduate Student Council (GSC) concerns that the issue would become “highly publicized.”
The Faculty Senate passed the institutional neutrality policy based on the work of the 2023-24 AdHoc Committee on University Speech, which had zero student voters for the entirety of its work. As for the 2024-25 Committee, the votes of faculty outnumbered the votes of students six-to-one. The irony should not be lost on us that students’ elected representatives are bending the knee (on matters putting student safety at risk, no less) to the very university leaders that relegate the student body to second-class status on university governance. We must realize that the UGS is defending a fundamentally anti-student process.
As for concerns that, in their capacity as students’ elected representatives, pressuring the University would make things “highly publicized,” I would argue that making noise and grabbing attention is exactly what President Donald Trump’s era calls for.
The president has said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and has investigated members of congress for merely providing Know Your Rights trainings. These things should prompt the UGS and GSC into being a thorn in the side of Stanford’s leadership until leadership signals — in words and in meaningful action — that negative press and political ire are a small price to pay for students’ safe, joyous experience on campus.
The ASSU has tacitly handed their fellow students — constituents, classmates, roommates and friends — over to an administration repeatedly signaling Nazi-adjacence. Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) exemplifies the dangers of the ASSU’s institutional surrender.
Trump’s Department of Education has threatened to strip schools like Stanford of their federal funds over their use of DEI in not just admissions but administrative support, housing “and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”
Alongside the horror of his administration’s immigration agenda, Trump’s anti-DEI crusade has allowed DEI bans formerly reserved for red states to go national. This, for instance, gives a greater platform to the Florida ban which forced the University of North Florida to close its Intercultural Center, Interfaith Center, LGBTQ Center, Women’s Center and Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Without question, this leaves indispensable Stanford institutions like ethnic theme houses, community centers and Stanford’s antisemitism and Islamophobia committees vulnerable to complete erasure. Were Stanford to adhere to these threats, students would lose access to crucial resources and opportunities, therefore surrendering the University’s educational excellence and communal vibrancy.
The ASSU must realize that, while AdHoc Committee member and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Eugene Volokh attempts to distance the University’s actions from President Trump, the threats to students’ rights and existence are indisputable. We face an administration that writes transgender people out of existence and abandons civil rights litigation, demanding that we purify our campuses of any acknowledgement of marginalized peoples’ pleas for joy and justice. The time is now for the ASSU to abandon its de facto acceptance of the Trump agenda.
ASSU, you can provide all the funding you want to groups like L’chaim Club, Hermanas and the Cambodian Student Association. But with Stanford’s Trump-aligned neutrality amounting to complicity in an anti-immigrant, anti-free speech and anti-DEI massacre, you must put defending our diverse student body ahead of self-imposed restraints.
You have your tools, such as bringing the confirmation of students to campus conduct panels to a screeching halt, using the Faculty Senate as a venue to highlight Stanford’s institutional spinelessness amidst attacks on its educational mission and threatening a vote of no confidence in University president Jonathan Levin ’94, Provost Jenny Martinez and the Faculty Senate. Use them.
California, as one of the UGS co-chairs noted to excuse the retraction of the sanctuary university resolution, is already a sanctuary state. However, that is no excuse when confronted with the reality of both the Trump administration and Stanford being a clear and present danger to the cherished rights and values at issue. To stop this resurgence of hatred and authoritarianism dead in its tracks, the ASSU should send a strong message by, without delay, passing its sanctuary university resolution and demanding equal AdHoc Committee representation.
History reminds us of the horrors that arise when we fail to stop hate dead in its tracks. Justice demands that the ASSU lead by example, showing other schools across the nation how to put students first. Students elected leaders, and it’s time those leaders lived up to their title.
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A nectarineA poem on nectarines from the the most passionate consumer of fruit on this campus.
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I ate a nectarine last night
when crouching on the kitchen tiles.
It likely was (it must’ve been),
the sweetest thing around for miles.
Its perfect shape, the gentle curve
of cradled arms and opened lips.
The smell of it intoxicates!
My very own apocalypse.
To be so drunk and all alone —
No, wait! — I had my nectarine.
So not alone: I had my gift
of nectar sweet and fresh and clean.
And what a fruit, I have to say,
I’ll never find an equal piece.
And it was mine! Yes, mine alone.
I ate it with such sweet release.
So do not ask me to regret
my holy act in kitchen light.
You questioned why I did not call,
forgive me, dear, I will not fight.
I was busy, late last night.
And you are not a nectarine.
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Senior theater capstone ‘bed’ explores dreamscapes through multimedia, experimental approach“bed,” a senior theater capstone by Sid Zhang '25, explores dreams and intimacy through physicality, multimedia elements and evocative choreography, blurring the lines between dream and reality.
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Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
The stage is dark and the soft, comforting sounds of rain echo through the theater. Two performers slowly emerge into the light and stare out towards the audience, picking apart flowers and letting the pieces drift to the floor.
This was the opening to “bed,” Sid Zhang’s ’25 theater capstone project, which premiered March 6 in the Nitery and played through March 15. A physical, multimedia, one-hour performance, “bed” explored themes of dreams, intimacy and gardening through a combination of unique, experimental elements.
The show took place on a single bed; as the only prop, the bed took up nearly the entire stage. The lack of extraneous set design and constant minimalism throughout the show placed even greater emphasis on the performers: their stories, emotions and narrative arcs enabled intimate exploration of universal themes of the human experience, including longing, fear and what it feels like to dream.
Without any actual dialogue, the actors — Iman Monnoo ’28 and Clément Dieulesaint ’22 M.S. ’24 — expressed emotion without uttering a single word. Zhang narrated poetically and sporadically throughout the show. Her musings related to nature and growth, as well as broader, almost metacognitive reflections and questions about storytelling.
The barebones set design also highlighted the show’s physicality. The actors had to be creative with their representations: they went from digging a hole for a tree in the sheets to pillow-fighting to gently falling asleep. The use of physicality as the main form of communication created images that transcended words and left a lasting impression.
One standout feature was the choreography, which was characterized by its fluidity and emotional intensity. Performers eloquently conveyed every emotion, from the vulnerability of sleep to the chaos and wonder of dreams and nightmares. Watching the show, each movement felt intentional, lending a meaningful, seamless feeling to the piece’s narrative flow.
Alongside movement, visual storytelling and an evocative soundscape also shaped the thought-provoking experience. The fusion of immersive, comforting sound and movement invited viewers to not only watch but feel as if they were in a dream state themselves.
Another dream-like element of the show were projections of the two characters seemingly walking further and further into the distance near the end of the show. Zhang said she originally did not like the idea of projections in theater, but she thought it was an interesting opportunity to bring the outdoors to the indoors metaphorically and in a way that smoothly enhanced the narrative.
Zhang said the projections spoke to the “mechanism of dreaming: you don’t know where it comes from. You just know it’s on you, and you cannot really trace its source,” she said. “When you’re dreaming, it’s something irretrievable, it’s something inaccessible from the self when awake.”
Zhang also said she wants to treat “bed” as a work-in-progress. In the future, she may return to the concept of “bed” and explore aspects of the uncanny, intimacy and the symbolism of a bed through a slightly different lens.
By the end of the show, and even now, I am not completely sure what to take away from “bed.” However, I think that’s part of what makes it so interesting and thought-provoking. I fully felt what Zhang described as one of her goals for the production: “to put the audience into some kind of a dream state and to make it hard to tell the dream part of theater and the reality part of theater apart.”
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Stanford @ Louisville: Men’s Basketball’s First Season in the ACCThe Cardinal reflected on their first season in the ACC after Stanford men’s basketball took on the Louisville Cardinals in their last regular season game.
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After Stanford men’s basketball took on the Louisville Cardinals in their last regular season game, the Cardinal reflected on their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
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Mic’d Up | Stanford Men’s Basketball — #11 Ryan AgarwalWatch Stanford Men's Basketball guard Ryan Agarwal get "Mic'd Up" during the warmup for the Stanford vs. University of Louisville game on Saturday, March 8th.
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Watch Stanford Men’s Basketball guard Ryan Agarwal get “Mic’d Up” during the warmup for the Stanford vs. University of Louisville game at the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday, March 8th.
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From the periodic table to the food we eat: Chemistry in the Kitchen draws students inIn the Introductory Seminar CHEM 29N: Chemistry in the Kitchen. students learn about the chemical makeup of food.
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For professor of chemistry and physics Richard Zare, the goal for CHEM 29N: Chemistry in the Kitchen is not to make students into great cooks or chemistry majors. Instead, he hopes students “take this course and never look at food quite the same again,” Zare said.
CHEM 29N is an introductory seminar offered every winter quarter. After developing a foundation in the periodic table, students learn about the different chemical reactions in the food they eat. According to the course description, “A high-school chemistry background is assumed; bring to class a good appetite and a healthy curiosity.”
Zare taught chemistry for many years until he was offered the opportunity to teach anything he wanted. He decided that he wanted to explore more on the chemistry of food and proposed the course Chemistry in the Kitchen.
“I wanted people to not only understand the intimate relationship with food and chemistry, but to cook — and eat what they cook — to have the best appreciation of food,” Zare said.
When Zare approached the department with the idea, he was initially shot down because food is prohibited in chemistry labs. Zare agreed with the department but proposed an alternative idea: to convert the staff room on the second floor of the Sapp Center for Science Teaching and Learning Center to a kitchen.
CHEM 29N has been taught since 2020 and has been popular ever since, with about 300 students applying to the class annually, according to Zare. Initially, Zare could only admit 12 students per section, so he expanded the course to five sections.
Ivan Jimbangan ’25, a course development advisor (CDA) for the course, discovered the course as a freshman. “I saw a photo of [Zare] and the students in the lab, and they all seemed like they were having a lot of fun, and I decided to apply,” Jimbangan said.
Having been a CDA for three years ever since taking the course in his sophomore year, Jimbangan hopes the class continues as long as it can.
“This class is really special and draws in people who have never done chemistry.” Jimbangan said.
Students this year found the class exciting. The class features a diverse cohort of students, some who have participated in Science Olympiad competitions, some with families who own restaurants and some who have never cooked or studied chemistry.
“I previously found the sciences boring. But taking this class with cooking made me enjoy chemistry a lot more,” said Amy Cao ’28.
Haein Shim ’28 found this class after many students in the upperclassmen and transfer community suggested it. “I used to wash dishes in high school, and I was selling food on the streets. I knew nothing about chemistry, but I would love to learn,” Shim said.
Shim experienced a taste of what chemistry is like at Stanford. “It gives me the confidence to think ‘maybe I can do this too.’” she said.
Alicia Peng ’28 heard about the course from a tour guide before even coming to Stanford.
Peng was grateful for the experiences the class has offered her, she said. “The professor offers us wonderful opportunities like for us to have dinner at his home and inviting guest lecturers,” Peng said.
Many students appreciated the heavy integration of chemistry in the class.
Joseph Ho ’28 felt the class allowed him to apply the chemistry he was learning in CHEM 33: Structure and Reactivity of Carbon-Based Molecules, he told The Daily.
CHEM 29N has brought many students from multiple disciplines and backgrounds to collaboratively work to investigate the chemistry in the food students eat.
“Some people eat to live, others live to eat. I accept all,” Zare said.
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Mainstream & Margins: Why hasn’t South Asian music gone global?The power dynamics of Indian entertainment might reveal why South Asian music hasn’t gone global yet — and how modern South Asian artists might be taking the right steps.
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In his column “Mainstream & Margins,” Rishi Jeyamurthy ’28 tackles high-profile events and the overlooked stories reshaping the music industry.
The globalization of contemporary media is important not only to artistic innovation, but representation as well. South Asian creators have recently made great strides across mainstream film, TV and comedy, yet South Asian music has noticeably fallen through the cracks.
South Asian music possesses immense potential for globalization. After all, one of Bollywood’s most iconic songs, “Chammak Challo” was sung by R&B artist Akon. So how have artists from other regions — BTS from South Korea, Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico and Italy’s Måneskin — achieved acclaim internationally and in the West, while South Asian artists haven’t? The answer lies in the power dynamics of Indian art systems. Indian entertainment institutions have prevented South Asian music from establishing a lasting impression in the West, and deep structural adjustments must take place to make change. The good news is we might already be on the right path.
In India, music consumption is inherently tied to film. Because Indian films are predominantly musicals, consumers are largely exposed to music in movie theaters and through soundtracks. Thus, film production companies in India hold immense power over the creation, distribution and evolution of music.
In the last installment of “Mainstream & Margins,” I discussed the control exerted by the Big Three major record companies (Sony, Universal and Warner). A similar oligopoly exists in Bollywood (the Hindi film industry) between companies like Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions, T-Series and Viacom18 Studios.
This highly concentrated power dynamic has led to repetition in Bollywood films. Since Bollywood music largely exists to cater to the narrative needs of a film, there is little incentive for film companies to innovate in their music, and Indian musicians are awarded comparatively less recognition than their Western peers. Musicians often find themselves at the whims of a film’s needs — making it harder for artists to separate themselves and their art from Bollywood. Take playback singer and lyricist Shruti Pathak, for instance, who once remarked that working on Bollywood music held her back from “achieving creative satisfaction.” Indian music industry journalist Amit Gurbaxani wrote that this lack of artistic evolution in recent Bollywood music has played a significant role in restricting India’s presence in the Western music market. The music film companies distribute is what becomes popular, but because that music has gone stale, it has become harder for Indian music to attain global appreciation. Thus, a solution to Indian music’s globalization lies in enabling innovative music truly independent of the film industry.
While major Indian film companies hold substantial control of the Indian music industry, the rise of independent distribution and online streaming companies like Spotify has enabled independent artistry. Now, Indian musicians like Mitraz, Badshah, Diljit Dosanjh and AP Dhillon create cross-cultural art for both standalone releases and film soundtracks — accumulating hundreds of millions of streams and revealing an avenue for South Asian musicians to act separately from Bollywood. These artists represent a trend in Indian music where musicians emerge from the shadows as their own entities.
As a result, they’re already having more success with international audiences. Dosanjh made his U.S. late night TV debut on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in June 2024. That same year, his show in Vancouver drew over 54,000 attendants, making it the largest Punjabi concert outside India in history. Dosanjh also recently appeared onstage alongside Ed Sheeran, who later performed with Indian artists Armaan Malik and Arjit Singh as part of his Mathematics Tour, synthesizing Western and Indian artistry in a great step towards globalization.
What’s important here is the shift in power away from Indian film companies and towards the artists, who are now able to establish names for themselves and better build fan bases around their likeness — not a soundtrack.
Granted, not everybody necessarily likes the idea of globalization. In the Netflix documentary “The Romantics,” actors Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan expressed resentment towards the near involvement of Hollywood companies in 1990s Bollywood. While Bollywood stakeholders may be hesitant to globalize film in the name of cultural preservation, Indian music still deserves to exist as its own art form detached from conservative institutions. Instead of being forced to succumb to Bollywood, musicians should be able to chart their own paths. Establishing a global space in contemporary music for India transcends a capitalist objective. The Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, and appealing to South Asian audiences across the planet with cross-cultural art is key to making art more inclusive and encouraging artistry in generations to come.
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Students rally in White Plaza to protest Columbia student detention“[We rallied] to show the Trump administration that we are here and we are going to build a collective power to stand our ground for what is pro-Palestine and pro-immigration,” said a protest organizer.
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Dozens of Stanford community members rallied in White Plaza on Tuesday in support of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University and legal permanent resident whom federal immigration agents arrested Saturday for his role in leading protests on Columbia’s campus. Khalil faces possible deportation.
Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine organized the rally, which began at 2 p.m. The protest was one of many held across the country on college campuses in support of Kahlil, who is reportedly being held in a federal immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
The rally featured speakers from Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine, the Asian American Action Committee, activist and novelist Hilton Obenzinger Ph.D. ’97 and history professor Mikael Wolfe.
Attendees started at White Plaza and moved down Panama Mall to the Doerr School, where a faculty speaker with the Stanford Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine received a phone call ordering the rally to disperse.
Another faculty member — who was not involved with the protest but was following from a distance — also told the organizers to disperse or face disciplinary actions if they refused. The rally then attempted to move into Main Quad, but encountered blocked entrances and moved back to White Plaza.
Sheriff’s deputies and administrative staff, including director of operations and student unions Jeanette Smith-Laws, followed the protest closely. As the rally moved into Main Quad, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputies detained one of the rally’s organizers during the protests, but released them after asking them to show a student ID, rally organizers said. Police cited trespassing and noise complaints as the reason for stopping the student.
Speaking to The Daily before the rally, Wolfe called for community members to “mobilize and speak up against this outrage,” referring to Khalil’s arrest.
“Using the case of a legal resident exercising his first amendment rights to protest something that anybody should be able to protest, and to use immigration authority like ICE … is just beyond the pale,” Wolfe said.
In his speech, Wolfe spoke out against the Trump administration and referenced anti-semitic actions by Elon Musk. Wolfe said the administration has weaponized charges of anti-semitism against constitutionally protected protest and speech criticizing Israel.
Wolfe, a Jewish tenured professor at Stanford, also referenced an Oct. 2023 op-ed he wrote in The Daily, saying he was accused of anti-semitism for criticizing Israel, despite also criticizing Hamas.
“This is really important for us to speak up against the Trump administration’s really blatant suppression of free speech,” Wolfe told The Daily.
Obenzinger, an alumnus of Columbia University, spoke to the crowd about his involvement in the student protest of 1968, expressing that “nothing has changed” regarding Columbia University’s actions between 1968 and today.
In January, President Donald Trump signed executive orders denouncing anti-semitism, stating that his administration would use “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”
Trump has argued that immigrant protesters residing in the U.S. have forfeited the right to stay in the country by supporting the Palestinian group Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organization.
Kahlil and other student leaders at Columbia University Apartheid Divest have rejected claims of anti-semitism, though the protest coalition has at times voiced support for leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Trump threatened that Kahlil’s arrest would be “the first of many” in a Truth Social post on Monday. The president has made clear his willingness to punish protests he views as threats of violence since the protests surrounding George Floyd in 2020, when he threatened military force against protestors.
Trump also referred to protest organizers such as Khalil as “terrorist supervisors” in his post, writing that his administration “will find, apprehend and deport” them.
An organizer of the rally, who identified themselves to The Daily by the alias Toyota and wished to remain anonymous due to concerns of potential ramifications, said that the rally aimed to express solidarity.
Many protestors expressed concern over University president Jonathan Levin’s comments to the Graduate Student Council regarding willingness to give student information to immigration agents. Levin said that if the university needed to “comply with federal law,” then they would hand over information on students, though he also highlighted resources including a website containing information to support students with immigration.
“[We rallied] to show the Trump administration that we are here and we are going to build a collective power to stand our ground for what is pro-Palestine and pro-immigration,” Toyota told The Daily.
Evy Shen contributed reporting.
This article was updated to reflect that Wolfe’s speech focused on the Trump administration and Elon Musk.
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From video game development to Stanford’s furry club: Meet Lucas Wang, aka SkylarFor Lucas Wang ’27, an interest in computer science, game development and drawing led to founding the Furries at Stanford club.
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Lucas Wang ’27 has always liked drawing animals, especially ones that he calls character “personas.” In middle school, he created Oliver, a bubbly and carefree otter, Adrian, a nerdy engineer bird and Skylar, a mechanical bat. Now, Wang feels like he’s “morphed” most into Skylar, he told The Daily.
For members of the Furries at Stanford club and the larger furry community, Wang is only known as Skylar. “People eventually started calling me Skylar, and then it just kind of became me,” Wang said.
The founder and president of Furries at Stanford, Wang wears many hats on campus. Currently, Wang is a section leader for CS 106B and course instructor for CS 11. He is also planning a student-initiated course on game development for next fall. For Wang, however, the furry community and his interest in computer science go hand in hand.
While furries are sometimes stigmatized or ridiculed online, Wang hopes to share that they are “just people,” too.
“The furry fandom is a fandom, similar to the anime fandom, K-Pop fandom or sports fandom,” Wang said. “We’re just a group of people that like a specific thing, and that thing is anthropomorphic animals.”
Wang first connected with furries in middle school when his friend introduced him to an online platform for fandom communities and its art commissions. This was where Wang started creating characters of anthropomorphic animals like Oliver, Adrian and Skylar, also called “fursonas” – a portmanteau of “furry” and “persona” – which are “more integrated with one’s identity and personality,” according to Wang.
In high school, he reconnected with the community by working more closely with members of the community on developing games like top-down shooter games, roguelike games, card-based games and puzzles. Compared to the more theoretical nature of computer science courses, Wang said, “With game development, you can actually bring a life to coding and see the product you make.”
Shortly after coming to the Farm, Wang founded Furries at Stanford in the spring quarter of his first year, inspired by the Furries at Berkeley club. Furries at Stanford now hosts over 80 members from the Bay Area on its Discord server and has 15 regular Stanford members, according to Wang.
“Everyone had roughly the same childhood,” Sophia Zhang ’27, who identifies with the fursona of a Border Collie named Fia, wrote to The Daily. According to Zhang, an “obsession” with the Warrior Cats, Pokémon, Zootopia, My Little Pony, Five Nights at Freddy’s and other series often led people to become furries.
For Lucien Lasseau ’25, who goes by the fursona of a dragon named Hera, the furry fandom stands out from other subcultures for its acceptance of queerness, neurodivergence and “plain being different,” Lasseau wrote to The Daily.
“I knew that I would feel much more at home surrounded by furries than anywhere else on campus, and I was entirely correct,” Lasseau wrote.
New members like Noe Chicas-Aranda ’28, also known as the fennec fox Snicker, have experienced a similar sense of community. “It feels more like a friend group rather than just a club,” Chicas-Aranda wrote to The Daily. “What I love most is the sense of belonging and acceptance — it’s a space where you can truly be yourself without any reservations.”
Since its founding, the club has held events in each quarter, including educational events to learn about the furry fandom and dispel stereotypes, as well as social events, Wang said.
While some events are furry-themed – watching “Zootopia,” for example – others are not. Chicas-Aranda’s favorite was the club’s bonfire event, where he invited friends from outside the community to participate. Seeing people come together to “celebrate each other for who we are” was “a perfect reflection of the kindness and inclusivity the furry community fosters,” Chicas-Aranda wrote.
The club also hosts workshops to make “fursuits” — custom-made animal-based costumes worn by members of the furry community — led by Zhang, where members work with textiles and sewing. Zhang also leads a one-unit fursuit-making class under ITALIC 99SI. “Seeing almost 15 people go from nothing to complete foam fursuit head bases throughout one quarter was so fulfilling!” Zhang wrote.
Furries at Stanford has also hosted speakers. The club invited former Stanford pediatrics professor David Benaron, also known by his fursona, a cheetah named Spottacus, for a Feb. 27 masterclass titled “Furries, Neurodivergence, and STEM: Finding Your Path from Zero to One to One Billion.”
In a 2022 profile, Benaron championed the furry community, telling PC Magazine, “We produce music, science, and art and we freely share our ideas and experiences online. I truly feel I am part of the local as well as international furry community, and how many people can say that these days?”
Benaron’s research at Stanford contributed to novel imaging techniques and laid the groundwork for developing heart rate sensors in smartwatches, according to PC Magazine.
“It’s kind of funny sometimes how people use dismiss[ive] phrases [around furries] because they are just normal people, too. There’s a lot of inventions that come out of the community, and these speaker talks are meant to show that,” Wang said.
Members of the club appreciate Wang’s leadership, with Lasseau writing that “[Wang] uses his leadership skills gained from his teaching work to coax us into something resembling a functioning executive team,” Lasseau wrote.
Going forward, Wang sees himself exploring opportunities to teach game development at Stanford, then pursuing software engineering as a career.
In the professional world, however, “I think it’s a bit unfortunate to have so much stigma around furries because I feel like it’s not a very employable feature,” Wang said. “It’s like ‘these people are either going to underperform’ or they’re not a normal type of people.”
Given such stigma, Wang said he doesn’t think he’s “going to be emphasizing the furry aspect of myself” in career settings.
Instead, Wang expects the furry community will remain a hobby. “I think it’s just gonna be a part of me that I have fun with,” especially in meeting new people, he said.
Nevertheless, Wang’s experience with furries has still shaped aspects of his professional life. When Wang first started with computer science, he saw it as a path to making money. After becoming a furry, he’s become more open to experimenting with design, which he recently declared as a major.
“I think being a furry kind of opens you up to being more carefree, bringing more fun into your work,” Wang said. “I can be silly and I can wear this costume around and not care about what people think.”
Wang’s open presence has also shaped younger members of the furry community. When Chicas-Aranda first met Wang during Admit Weekend, “he surprised me by waiting outside the dorm I stayed in — fully suited in his fursuit,” Chicas-Aranda wrote.
“At first, I thought it was a little ridiculous, and I’ll admit, I felt shy and unsure about being around him. He was so unapologetically open and bold, which felt overwhelming at the time. But as I started talking to him and learning about his interests, I began to see things differently,” Chicas-Aranda wrote. “Now, I see him as someone who fully embraces who he is and inspires others to do the same.”
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Police Blotter: Rape, assault and motor vehicle theftThis report covers incidents from March 3 to March 9 as recorded in the Stanford University Department of Public Safety bulletin.
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This report covers incidents from March 3 to March 9 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.
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the report of student safety due to an assault to commit rape at 450 Jane Stanford Way.
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the report of motor vehicle theft at 213 Pine Hill Court and the report of rape at 600 Jane Stanford Way.
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the report of non-criminal hate violence and simple assault with intent to commit mayhem at 618 Escondido Road..
The Daily has reached out to SUDPS for more information regarding the report of touching a person intimately at 700 Campus Drive.
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Secret Trump-Putin letter uncoveredIn yet another example of presidential document mishandling, a secret letter from Trump to Putin has been uncovered by Daily staffers. Read it here first before the Feds shut us down.
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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 following is a damning letter written by President Donald Trump and mailed to Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after the 2024 election. Matched only by Nixon’s notorious Watergate tapes, this letter is shocking, serving as the FBI’s first evidence of Trump’s literacy.
Dear Vlad,
Do you taste it, Vlad? That’s the taste of sweet, sweet victory. Very yummy. These past four years have been the longest of my life. Melania won’t hug me; she’s still jealous of us. Eric won’t stop trying to hug me. I’m already Yelping stuff for us to do in Moscow together when I come to visit. So far I have the tremendous Moscow McDonald’s and something called “Donbas Museum of Victory: Opening Soon.”
I’ve missed our visits. This wouldn’t have happened if the libs hadn’t stolen the last election. They didn’t follow the rules. I called a Mulligan in Georgia and no one listened. They said I have to leave, yadda yadda the 22nd Amendment. I used my Uno reverse card but nobody cared. They took four years away from us and we’ve got some lost time to make up for.
Remember my last visit when we did shots? You drank vodka, I drank Diet Coke with double concentrated syrup. I called it “Jacked up Coke.” And then we went for a walk and I threw a snowball at you and your bodyguards tackled me. I remember one of them pinned me to the ground and yelled “Lezhi, svin’ya! Lezhi, svin’ya!”* over and over again. I asked my translator what that meant and he said it meant “That’s a funny joke, you handsome boy.” And then we went back to your place and did karaoke. I love karaoke. Do you remember our song? I’m listening to it now. I won’t give the answer away but I know that you know it “All to Well.”
Zelensky never did karaoke with me. I asked if he wanted to do “Rasputin” and he told me that wasn’t funny. You know everyone’s being very unfair to me and you. All they hear is his side. If they knew you like I do they’d know that Zelensky totally started it. We’re gonna take the money we’re giving to him and pay Elon to make a couple thousand Cybertrucks for the military. They explode easily but that just means we’re gonna use them Kamikaze style. The beautiful thing is that we aren’t going to buy new maps. We’re just gonna pull out the old ones from the 1960s and trust that you figure things out on your end.
Let’s forget about Zelensky and focus on having a special four years together. If we’re lucky, I’ll be able to overturn the 22nd Amendment and make it the rest of our lives. I’ll see you soon. Hopefully in April — that’s when flights to Berlin are cheap.
All My Love,
Donald
*This translates to “Lie down, pig! Lie down, pig!”
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Annual Midnight Breakfast brings students togetherFaculty and staff served students a hot breakfast buffet at midnight on Tuesday morning for a finals week tradition.
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At 11:30 p.m. on Monday night, Stanford’s dining halls were buzzing with activity for its annual Midnight Breakfast. At Lakeside Dining, hundreds of students lined up, while faculty served omelets and pancakes as the Pillsbury Doughboy danced at the front entrance to the live DJ.
Stanford’s Midnight Breakfast has long been a favorite tradition among students. It was first hosted 25 years ago. Towards the end of winter quarter, Stanford faculty and staff come together to serve students a breakfast buffet at an unusual time – midnight. Every year, thousands of students are served across multiple dining halls to accommodate all midnight visitors until 1:30 a.m..
This year’s Midnight Breakfast was co-sponsored by Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE), Stanford Student Affairs and the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU). Students from all over campus had local dining options to choose from, including Arrillaga Family Dining Commons, Munger Graduate Residences, Escondido Village Graduate Residences (EVGR) Dining, The Axe & Palm (TAP) and Lakeside Dining. The line at Arrillaga reached all the way down the stairs and out the door at one point.
“I think it’s a fire event, and I have no complaints,” said three-time Midnight Breakfast attendee Emily Schwab ’26, despite being disappointed that “they served cereal with no milk.”
The menu this year included traditional continental breakfast foods like bagels, pastries and fruit. Stanford faculty, like Mona Hicks, Senior Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Students, doled out hot foods like bacon, pancakes and tater tots.
However, students were drawn to the event for more than just the food. For freshman Austin Shaw ’28, Midnight Breakfast was a “morale boost.” He felt “loved and appreciated” by the staff who helped serve and said that the event helped build community among students.
“It was great to see my dorm come together and share a meal even in finals week — it has built a real sense of community in week 10,” Shaw said.
Many students also got to reconnect with friends and classmates while eating their midnight breakfast. Carlos Valencia ’28 attended his first Midnight Breakfast and said he saw a lot of people he had not seen since the beginning of the quarter.
“We joined three tables together to make one big super table,” Valencia said about making space to accommodate all of his classmates.
However, not everyone was a fan of the fare. Aiden Ackerman ’28 said he expected more and thought that the bacon was too thin. Still, many students are waiting for next year’s Midnight Breakfast to go again.
“For sure I’ll come back next year,” said Valencia.
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Stanford graduates redefine tampons with ‘Sequel’ for women’s athleticsStanford graduates Amanda Calabrese and Greta Meyer are the co-founders of Sequel, and they are passionate about the intersection between women’s menstrual care and sports.
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Dreams became a reality for two Stanford Product Design graduates, Amanda Calabrese ‘19 and Greta Meyer ‘19, when a class project evolved into the company, Sequel, that is pioneering the next generation of tampons.
Last fall, the two launched a partnership with Stanford athletics for the 2024-25 academic year that provides free Sequel tampons to student-athletes. This marked the first official collaboration between a college athletic program and a tampon brand in NCAA history.
“It was always our intent to support athletes that struggled with the same problems that we had, which was period products not being reliable when they needed to be,” said Calabrese, who was a student-athlete while at Stanford. “And being able to collaborate with Stanford Athletics is a dream because that was where we started.”
Sequel tampons are now making a quiet impact in locker rooms and team bags. In order to support Stanford athletes at their peak performance, Sequel tampons feature helical grooves instead of traditional vertical channels, creating a longer flow path for improved absorption and leakage protection.
“It’s important that [the athletes] have a regular cycle,” said Stanford assistant athletic director Sarah Lyons, regarding the partnership. “We want to be able to take care of the things that we can help them control so they can give their focused and undivided attention to their sports, to the coaches, and to the goal, which is ultimate success.”
At Stanford, Calabrese and Meyer were both high-level athletes – Meyer on Stanford’s Division I lacrosse team and Calabrese on the Open U.S. National Lifesaving team – who dreaded leakage while competing on their period. Frustrated by existing tampon designs, they set out to build a more reliable, leak-proof alternative, an idea that first took shape in their shared ENGR 145: Technology Entrepeneurship” class.
The two classmates landed on the spiral tampon and co-founded Sequel shortly after graduating in 2019. It wasn’t until fall of 2023 that the Sequel tampon was FDA-cleared and market-ready, but the timing proved to be advantageous, especially with women’s sports seeing record interest and viewership around the same time.
Beyond supplying products for Stanford’s 20 varsity women’s teams, Sequel is also the official tampon provider of the USL Super League and Unrivaled Basketball League – both women’s professional sports leagues that were founded within the last four years. Two former Stanford athletes are ambassadors of the brand, including WNBA player Lexie Hull ’22 and pro beach volleyball player Charlie Ekstrom ’23.
“Women’s sports is the moment right now,” Calabrese said. “It has a captive audience, and it allows us to access fans, moms, daughters, people that are playing sports and using their bodies. It allows us to have our product put to the ultimate test of reliability, comfort, and performance.”
The partnership with Stanford athletics was just the beginning for the Forbes 30 Under 30-recognized duo. Calabrese and Meyer now want to launch more partnerships, grow their TikTok presence and expand their affiliate program that is open to student-athletes from all college programs.
“We’re working on some really cool stuff with our partners,” Calabrese said. “Stuff you’ve never seen before. Stanford was the first NCAA partnership, and we’ve got a lot of other firsts coming. That was the first domino to fall.”
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From the Community | Stanford Medicine community rejects hate and anti-Israel biasClinical associate professor of pediatrics Joshua J. Blinder M.D. and members of the Stanford Medicine community criticize a Letter from the Community released by other members of the Stanford Medicine community in September regarding the war in Gaza.
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As Stanford faculty, staff, students, alumni, patients and allies who work in or care about the Stanford Medicine community, we take issue with the misleading and divisive Stanford Daily opinion piece entitled “Stanford Medicine community demands an end to Stanford’s complicity in genocide.” The letter is replete with falsehoods and purports to represent the views of the entire Stanford Medicine community. It does not.
Healthcare providers and researchers are trained and entrusted to make recommendations and decisions based on evidence. As such, we are compelled to ask the signatories of the letter: Did you consider the accuracy of your narrative? Did you review the evidence? Did you listen to both sides carefully, or even at all? You call for the boycott of a sovereign democratic nation fighting to defend itself from a terror organization whose sole mission is to annihilate it. It is incumbent on each of you to be informed before making such serious and inflammatory accusations and demands that are not only misleading, but also extremely hurtful and divisive to our Stanford community, and endanger patient care.
The letter is grounded in the modern blood libels of “Genocide in Gaza” and “Apartheid in Israel.” The authors rely on non-evidence-based opinion pieces and misinformation as “evidence,” which is disappointing and reckless coming from physicians, researchers and medical students. Further, the authors completely ignore and disregard Hamas’s primary responsibility for the war and for the casualties and destruction in Gaza.
Accusing Israel of genocide fails to meet definitional and legal standards. It was the assessment of the Biden administration that the war in Gaza is not a genocide. Joan Donoghue, former president of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) made clear that the ICJ did not decide the claim of genocide was plausible, and Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, said that Israel’s war with Hamas is not a genocide. Military experts including General Sir John McColl and officer John Spencer have evaluated Israel’s war in Gaza and determined that the civilian to militant casualty ratio is historically low for modern urban warfare.
Likewise, Spencer has concluded that Israel is going above and beyond to prevent civilian casualties. A report submitted to the International Criminal Court by the High Level Military Group, an independent body of former chiefs of staff, senior military officers and cabinet ministers with decades of expertise in conflict and the legality thereof, described why claims against Israel of intentional starvation and unlawful killing in Gaza are false. An International Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report has stated that “the available evidence does not indicate that famine is currently occurring” debunking claims that Israel is causing “starvation” in Gaza. Israel has distributed hundreds of thousands of flyers and made countless phone calls to warn civilians of military operations at the expense of military effectiveness while risking its own soldiers’ lives. According to Humanitarian Efforts Israel, Israel facilitated the vaccination of over 1 million Gazan children for polio. These actions are entirely inconsistent with “genocide.”
The letter notably ignores the fact that Israel’s current military operations were taken in response to the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on Oct. 7, 2023, in which Hamas committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity including torture, murder and disfigurement of hundreds of innocent civilians. It also ignores the ongoing imprisonment and execution of hostages.This massacre occurred 20 years after a voluntary withdrawal of all Israeli citizens, including graveyards, from Gaza. During this time, Hamas was the elected government of Gaza and used donated funds to build terror infrastructure, including tunnels and rockets under civilian infrastructure. Hamas leaders have repeatedly promoted rhetoric and policies aimed at annihilating Israel and killing Jews around the world. The letter’s signatories lament the impact on hospitals while ignoring the fact that Hamas systematically uses hospitals to store rockets and hide amongst the civilian population, and that, according to international law, hospitals lose their protected status when used for military operations. The letter fails to issue any consideration to the fact that Hamas started this war and fights from among and under civilian populations, typically disguised in civilian clothing in an attempt to increase civilian casualties. In fact, Yahya Sinwar stated that increasing Palestinian civilian deaths is beneficial to their cause.
Similarly, the claim that Israel is engaged in a form of “apartheid” is false. Even activists who promote this claim against Israel admit that it is slanderous. Apartheid is defined as segregation based on race. Yet in Israel, Arabs, Druze and Christians enjoy full citizenship and human rights not available in any other country in the Middle East. In the West Bank, under the Oslo Accords, jurisdiction over Palestinians and Israelis is divided between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. There too institutionalized racism does not exist. Checkpoints and other security measures are necessary to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel and killing innocents in buses, cafés and restaurants or using vehicles to ram civilians.
Indeed, prominent South Africans who have had first-hand experience of apartheid reject the claim that Israel is an apartheid state. The former president of South Africa, F.W. de Klerk, who negotiated with Nelson Mandela to end the apartheid regime, said that it was “unfair” to refer to Israel as an apartheid state. One of Israel’s most famous critics, retired South African judge Richard Goldstone, wrote that accusing Israel of apartheid “is an unfair and inaccurate slander against Israel, calculated to retard rather than advance peace negotiations.”
The authors also promote the demonstrably false claim of “medical apartheid” in Israel. Every Israeli citizen, no matter their race or religion, has access to the same medical care.
Palestinians living in the West Bank have their own medical system, which they govern. Before Oct. 7, there was ample collaboration between the two.
The letter calls on Stanford to join the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement (BDS). We would like to remind the signatories that there is ample evidence linking BDS to terror organizations, and proponents of BDS say their goal is to eliminate the state of Israel. BDS opposes the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and rejects diplomatic efforts aimed at a two state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Their activists consistently and violently target Israelis and Jews living abroad for no reason other than their nationality, much like the Nazis once did to Jews. BDS also supports the Oct. 7 massacre, while Israel was beating back Hamas infiltrators from their invasion into Israel, BDS was calling for solidarity with Hamas. Demanding that Stanford align with the BDS movement would embroil the University in a violation of California law, by implementing a policy against a sovereign nation that is recognized by the government of the United States.
The accusations and goals of the letter cannot be separated from the Islamic Republic of Iran-funded student protests and propaganda over the past year — protests that call for violence against Jews (“Long Live the Intifada”) and we consider the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel from their ancestral homeland in the chant, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” These are hate-filled protests that do not seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. Rather, like BDS, they seek the annihilation of the only Jewish state. It is extremely offensive to all — particularly Israelis, Jews and those dedicated to a peaceful future in the Middle East — to read this letter and learn that healthcare professionals at Stanford support the same propaganda and demands as these groups.
We do not expect physicians to be knowledgeable in international affairs and legal issues, but we do expect them to be responsible, and not spread biased and false narratives about topics they are unfamiliar with. The demands of the letter are based on libelous and unfounded accusations which reflect poorly on Stanford Health Care, the School of Medicine, our campus and our community. It is irresponsible for physicians and other healthcare professionals to publicly demand that Stanford Medicine succumb to their political and biased stance.
Patients who support Israel, or who simply support a peaceful resolution to this conflict, may be inclined to check whether their doctor has signed this biased letter, and to avoid them for fear of unprofessional treatment — or opt to avoid Stanford Medicine for their medical care altogether. Political indoctrination has no place in healthcare, and undermines the very values of inclusivity and compassion that define our community. We must ensure that Stanford Medicine remains a place of healing, not a breeding ground for intolerance and hate.
Joshua J. Blinder M.D. is a clinical associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. This article was co-signed by members of the Stanford Medicine community who reject hate and anti-Israel bias, including 511 Stanford faculty, staff, students, alumni, patients and 3,641 allies.
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To paint like a child again: Exploring Cheonggae Ilsu Cha’s exhibition at the East Asian LibraryAt the East Asian Library, Cheonggae Ilsu Cha’s exhibition reimagines literati painting with his childlike spontaneity and unrestrained expression.
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Walking into the East Asian Library, one is immediately enveloped by the quiet hum of contemplation. The very atmosphere lends itself to the delicate interplay of ink, space and spirit in South Korean artist Cheonggae Ilsu Cha’s literati paintings.
Cha’s exhibition, “Grasp the Essence, and the Form Fades Away,” takes its philosophical cue from the concept of Tŭgŭi Mangsang (得意忘象) — meaning to truly capture the essence of a subject, one must allow its superficial form to dissolve. This sentiment, often echoed in the traditional Chinese and Korean literati painting (Muninhwa, 文人畵), finds renewed urgency in Cha’s work.
Literati art is a form of art that blends poetry, painting and calligraphy. Having spent 40 years in education before fully devoting himself to art and poetry, Cha follows in the footsteps of literati figures such as Su Dongpo and Kim Jeong-hui, who found in ink and brush a means of distilling both worldly and otherworldly truths.
Cha situates himself in this tradition, yet his work is far from a mere homage to the past. His paintings embody the qi: the life force that animates a work beyond technique. Here, precision yields to spirit, measured lines give way to fluidity, the silent weight of negative space becomes as crucial as the ink that stains it. His brushstrokes show minimalism as not merely aesthetic reduction, but as a practice in restraint: an art of knowing when to stop, when to let the painting breathe.
And yet, there is color. Not the reserved hues of antiquity, but red – bold, urgent, expansive. Red, a pigment once restrained in classical literati painting for fear of being gaudy or vulgar, finds in Cha’s compositions a startling presence. In Cha’s works such as “Red Pearl”, or the sweeping fields of crimson in other pieces, the pigment does not sit idly upon the surface; it commands attention, interacting with calligraphic strokes in a dance between saturation and emptiness, tradition and rupture.
This, in fact, makes me ponder, in relation to the childlike playfulness that seems to be present throughout Cha’s work, how much, then, has the literati’s fear of vulgarity, of the worldly, led to artistic restraint? For in a child’s eye, the world is as gaudy as it is wondrous, colors unfettered, as though observed for the first time. I am drawn to Cha’s use of color, in its broad, rather wide and reckless brushstrokes. Cha has captured not just the form but also the essence of qi that has been subdued by conventional literati art.
Perhaps one of the most striking elements in Cha’s work is his incorporation of English calligraphy — a visual gesture that at first seems anachronistic, yet, on closer inspection, sits seamlessly with the literati ethos of free-flowing, unrestrained expression. A particular phrase stands out: “That they, bored with childhood, rush to grow, and then long to be children again.” The writing, rendered in a manner that is playful, even childlike, presents a paradox familiar to both the human experience and the artistic pursuit. To unlearn the rigidity of form, to paint with the intuition of a child: this, too, is an ambition shared by literati artists through the ages.
In many ways, Cha is following the very path Picasso once traced when he declared that “it takes a lifetime to learn how to paint like a child.” This notion of returning to a state of unburdened perception resonates with the literati ideal of tongxin (童心) — the child’s heart — in that true artistry lies in seeing the world with clarity and honesty. To be an honest artist, then, is to face the world — nature, reality and its fleeting forms — with the utter curiosity and integrity of a child.
And in this, Cha is well on his way.
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Overheard at Stanford: ‘I’m also just a big landmark guy you know’What are those campus landmarks we know and love? These are peoples’ happy places, Hansen writes.
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Overheard at Stanford is a biweekly column written by Linden Hansen ’28. Hansen takes notable quotes she hears around campus and develops them further — whether they be insightful, astonishing or humorous! No matter what, they are guaranteed to represent the pulse of the student body.
“I’m also just a big landmark guy you know.”
— Outside the math corner of Main Quad.
This guy got me thinking … What are those campus landmarks we know and love? Read these interviews with care … These are peoples’ happy places.
Interviews have been minimally edited for clarity.
Amiya Stroumza, ’28
“My favorite place on campus is probably — well, that’s a good question. There’s so many places to choose from. I’m just gonna go with the Bender Room ’cause it reminds me of the living room that I aspire to have. It’s so cozy, and I like to expose myself to things that are grander than myself. But now I go to the Lane Reading Room. I would do — I would write my RBA [Research Based Argument] and do CS, which are two things that don’t require a desk, and I would do that all in a couch chair. But now I’m taking math … which requires a table. Hence Lane.”
Kai Uemera, ’28
“Law school terrace. I really like the nature, like the green plants surrounding there, and it’s a great study space. We went on a night walk and stumbled upon it.”
Preston Seay, ’28
“It’s got to be Lake Lag. ‘Cause when it actually has water in it, it looks really cool. I think that’s how it should be.”
Daria Hajimiri, ’28
“Oh my gosh, this is such a good question. I think — I know it’s cliché, but I think Main Quad is genuinely one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. And I think, there are so many little hidden libraries on campus that are just incredible. I think Main Quad, like, the architecture, the colors, the arches. It’s so beautiful, and like, I just — I could spend all the day here. Yeah, that’s my spiel. Purr.”
Chisa Ogaki, ’28
“My favorite place is Crome, um, Crungeon. Anywhere in this dorm. This lovely dorm. The best dorm. This is where all the Crotherians are. So … the best place to be.”
Tess Buckley, ’28
“My favorite place on campus is lowkey Meyer Green. It’s gotta be Meyer Green. Or no, it’s the roof of McMurtry Library. Because I like the view, and it makes me really happy to think that I’m in a building with so many art books because they’re phenomenal and lovely and inspiring. I go there every Tuesday for one of my art history seminars, and then I’ll usually find myself there another time during the week just to study or to sit up on the roof. But it’s kind of far, so I don’t go a ton. Yeah. Go to the McMurtry terrace if you haven’t been. It is so, so beautiful, and I think a real gem on campus. Great sun.”
Jeremy Friedman, ’28
“My favorite place on campus is Main Quad right in front of the church, at night time in particular. You can see all the light reflecting off the gold mural, and I feel like it’s the most beautiful place on campus.”
Carly Green, ’28
“Oh, my gosh. Oh my gosh. Definitely somewhere with, like, food. The bookstore café. The Stanford bookstore café is a staple. Um, because it’s quiet but not too quiet and it feels, like, a little underground. And the matcha’s fire. I go — I try not to go more than once a week, but I feel like I do end up there more than once a week. I would highly recommend that people check it out, but not too many, because then there would just be too many people there. So, really think about if you wanna go or not, and then go, because it’s a really special place. So don’t go if you’re not gonna really appreciate it. Thank you.”
To be frank, listening to my friends talk about their most cherished spots on campus made me realize I, too, am a “big landmark guy”. I think my personal favorite spot on campus would have to be my bed … I have blue sheets and its linen and I write all these columns propped up in it with at least three pillows. It’s pretty much a princess setup and my room is the palace. I’m just missing someone to hand-feed me grapes — then, it would be extra perfect.
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Daily Diminutive #042 (Mar. 12, 2025)Click to play today's 5x5 mini crossword. The Daily produces mini crosswords three times a week and a full-size crossword biweekly.
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Death of the Masterpiece: The souvenirs of having livedIs everyday photography a meaningless gesture, as banal as small talk, or something more?
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In “Death of the Masterpiece,” Istaara Amjad ’28 explores our ever-changing relationship to art in the modern world.
When it rains in Islamabad, you don’t need to check the weather forecast: Instagram will make sure you know. It is a predictable phenomenon — every single one of us rushes to capture the sight of the clouds against the hills as if it is our personal discovery. Clicking through our feeds that night, we experience an endearing exhibit of countless angles of the same cotton candy clouds.
The camera is an integral part of our lives. Whether we are snapping a picture of our latest meal or posing with a friend, there is no doubt in our mind that these experiences are worthy of being recorded.
As eager as our parents’ generation is to discredit the superficiality of the Gen Z picture obsession, the urge to capture our lived experiences is not new to humanity. From Realism to Warhol’s Pop Art, art movements have been pushing to glorify the everyday for centuries — none more so than street photography.
The genre found its footing with the invention of the portable camera in 1888. Here were artists who dedicated their time and efforts to building a monument to mundanity. It was not their attention to detail, but the spontaneity of the camera that was able to accomplish what no other medium could. With neither the artificial pristine of the TV nor the obscure symbolism of the written word, photography appears to be the most objective of any art form. The photographer voices no opinion and saves their choice to point the camera at the scene.
In truth, photography is subject to the same implicit and explicit biases that plague every other form of art and journalism, and has an inextricable relationship with power and exploitation. The legacy of street photography remains powerful: it has been tied to political activism for its ability to offer visibility and commentary on people and issues that society tends to marginalize, such as Gordon Parks’ focus on racial segregation during the era of the Civil Rights movement and David Wojnarowicz’s work during the AIDS epidemic.
However, there hardly seems anything daring or political about an average person’s picture gallery today. Writer and critic Susan Sontag purported that most people do not practice photography as an art form, but rather “a social rite,” and she was writing in the time before cell phones existed. If an art form is practiced by the masses, can it still be considered art? Is our everyday photography a meaningless gesture, as banal as small talk? I don’t believe so.
Expansive parking lots, corporate office buildings, anti-loitering laws — the modern city does not belong to us. As the separation between work and leisure becomes increasingly narrow, social architecture like parks and libraries dwindle and life becomes increasingly fast-paced, the sidewalk is no longer a place to linger.
It might be time, then, to take a leaf out of the flâneur’s book. We must learn to wander with no purpose, on purpose. The flâneur is a character found in a tradition of writers and artists who considered their urban wanderings to be consequential enough to warrant a name.
Working on one of her novels, author Virginia Woolf wrote in a 1930 letter that she could only find inspiration if she was “perpetually stimulated,” a state of being she found only by “plung[ing] into London, between tea and dinner, and walk[ing] and walk[ing], reviving [her] fires, in the city.”
Most of us can admit to the feeling of being perpetually stimulated – except we find our diversions through social media and the internet, where the wonders of having access to the thoughts and opinions of millions of people every second of every day can get, well, a little much. But what if this isn’t merely a symptom of the technological age? We are simple creatures, searching for beauty and narrative everywhere we look. In Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa’s words, we are “eternal tourists of ourselves; there is no landscape but what we are.”
Perhaps the camera is humanity’s most narcissistic invention. Or perhaps it is our most honest revelation, an endless love letter to the world. Everytime you are taken aback by the brilliance of the sunset on your way home, every graffiti caricature that makes you smile, the cat perched comfortably on a windowsill — it is a reminder of the physical world you are a part of.
Taking a picture requires you to stop, look closer, experiment with angles. For a fraction of a second, you take responsibility for a piece of the city that is not yours. It is a declaration of belonging, and therefore a welcome inconvenience.
As corporations encourage us to retreat into the blemish-less perfection of the digital world and real-life connections become harder to maintain, pictures are an ode to the imperfection of the everyday. Perhaps this is what Sontag means when she writes that “to collect photographs is to collect the world.”
Every photograph may not be art, and it may be near-identical to the thousands of pictures you could find online, but it represents what you captured. Your pictures don’t need to be posted or published. They are simply a souvenir of having lived.
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Leif Wenar ’87 applies ethical truths in an imperfect worldSince returning to Stanford in 2020, Leif Wenar ’87 has combined his research interests in political philosophy and ethics to emphasize our interconnectedness as a global community — while urging students to consider the ethical implications attached to their disciplines, career choices and everyday decisions.
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‘How do you know the world exists behind you?’
As a 10 year old, Leif Wenar ’87 recalls turning around to peer into his shadow in response to his father’s question — only to realize that this wouldn’t bring him any closer to an answer.
Wenar, Olive H. Palmer professor in humanities and courtesy professor of political science and law, attributes his early interest in philosophy and ethics to his father, who always challenged his understanding of the world and his role within it.
“The particular questions of philosophy just turned out to be so challenging, and the opportunity to think with some of the greatest minds of human history was so exciting that it was hard to resist,” Wenar said.
After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard, Wenar served as chair of philosophy and law at King’s College London for over two decades. However, the decision to cross the pond and return to Stanford in 2020 “was an easy one,” Wenar said.
“At Stanford, you are really free to think what you want to think and to build something new, to innovate, to disrupt, to make big changes, and that’s just very exciting,” said Wenar, who serves as the faculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society.
Through the McCoy Center, Wenar offers advice to students on applying ethics within various disciplines, from computer science to sustainability.
“We’re hoping to really get people to think about the societal implications of what they’re doing automatically,” Wenar said. “Not just as an afterthought, but as part of their understanding of what they want to do with their lives and how they’re living day-to-day.”
Philosophy department chair Lanier Anderson emphasized Wenar’s many contributions to the Stanford community, particularly his leadership at the McCoy Center, “whose activities make a big difference to the whole University.”
In his research, Wenar focuses on theoretical ethics, applied ethics and political philosophy. Wenar lauded the work of philosophers such as John Locke, Jean-Claude Rousseau and John Stuart Mill — intellectuals who were deeply engaged in the political struggles of their time, and who were sometimes vilified or exiled for their ideas.
“You have to be willing to step into the big game of politics [outside of] the academy, but for those who can do that kind of work, the chance of making a real contribution to the human project is immense, because everything is changing very fast, and philosophers are amongst the people who could show the big picture of where we could go,” he said.
Over the past several years, Wenar has worked on one of the oldest and most daunting questions in philosophy: ‘What is good in itself?’ According to Wenar, the question has been known since at least the time of Socrates, and the four main ‘answers’ in the Western tradition have been known since the age of Aristotle.
However, 2,400 years later, “we’re still stuck debating the same four theories that we’ve known literally for millenia,” Wener said.
Asserting that none of the theories are correct, Wenar noted that every civilization has its own answer to ‘what is good.’ “In our times, when we do cost-benefit analysis, we’re assuming some particular account of what’s good and bad. When we say we want the economy to grow, higher GDP, that depends on a particular understanding of what’s good and bad,” he said.
After years of contemplating this timeless question, Wenar has formulated a new answer in the form of ‘unity theory’ — a revolutionary approach that overcomes the individualism of Western thinking about goodness, and the assumption of the ‘separateness of persons.’
“Every genius throughout the centuries has assumed that goodness is in some way coming to individuals,” Wenar said. “But much to my surprise, it turns out that the way to understand what’s good in itself is to model the problem as if all of us are one. What’s good in itself turns out to be unity with the world, unity with each other and unity with ourselves.”
“If you feel like you’ve made even a little bit of progress on not only one of the oldest but one of the most important philosophical questions there is, what better way to feel like you’ve made a contribution,” he said.
Debra Satz, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, noted that Wenar’s work “exemplifies an approach to political philosophy that Stanford has long been known for: the rigorous consideration of big philosophical ideas … combined with attention to the empirical evidence that helps illuminate alternative human possibilities.”
Wenar teaches several courses on the intersection of moral issues and international affairs, including a graduate course on race and structural inequality and an undergraduate introductory seminar, PHIL 20N: Justice Across Borders, which examines issues such as climate change, war, fast fashion, global poverty and inequality.
“America is [less than] 5% of the world’s population. Why should it take 95% of our attention?” Wenar said. “Of course, the people who live in other places have lives just as valuable as our own. How can we understand the lives of people outside our country, and especially how we are influencing their daily lives through our government policies, our corporate decisions, and what we do?”
Wenar commended the social conscience and political awareness of the student body. “Stanford students really want to make a difference in the world, not just for themselves, but to make it better for a lot of people. That’s a special, special feature of Stanford which not all elite schools have,” he said.
Reflecting on the pressures facing Stanford students, Wenar stressed the importance of incorporating ethics into their future careers. “The real figures that make a mark on human consciousness are the ones who are born ethicists, who think always about their impacts on other people, like Socrates, Buddha, Jesus, Gandhi, King, Du Bois. They [offer] a model for how we should want to be,” he said.
Of all the places on campus, Wenar said that his favorite spot is the Coffee House (CoHo) — a hub of intellectual activity.
“When I was here [as an undergraduate], you could still smoke unfiltered French cigarettes and pretend to be existential,” Wenar said. “[CoHo was] where the philosophers hung out. But even now, I can feel the brain waves from all the students bouncing off the walls. It’s fun, and it’s inspiring to be there.”
Throughout the years, Wenar’s favorite memory within the Stanford philosophy department has been engaging with philosophers from a wide range of backgrounds in the philosophical seminar.
“The philosophers have very different personalities, but they all share this talent, and to see them engage thoroughly on a profound question together, really interrogate it, see how it could be answered better – that’s a real joy,” Wenar said.
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Lab RatsAnother wonderful cartoon by The Daily's own Janina Troper.
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‘Doing the lord’s work’: 5-SURE aims to foster community safety and connection5-SURE student employees reflect on campus safety and meeting peers by providing free rides, water, snacks and walks home.
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5-SURE, or Students United for Risk Elimination, aims to foster community safety by mitigating the risks of walking alone at night — including theft, assault and harassment — by offering free rides, water and snacks.
“We get a lot of ‘you’re doing the lord’s work’ comments,” said Hayden Henry ’25, student co-leader of 5-SURE on Foot. “The most endearing interactions are when people come up to us and are like, ‘Hey you guys really helped me out,’ whether it was last week, last quarter or at the start of the year.”
5-SURE Safe Rides provides free transportation to students from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night, while 5-SURE on Foot offers free water, snacks and walks home from outside Robert Moore South (BOB) on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
5-SURE emerged as Students United for Rape Elimination (SURE) in the late 1970s as a student-led organization to fight rape on Stanford’s campus. The initiative began with $900 from the Office of Student Affairs, donations for flashlights, whistles and badges from the Stanford Police Department and student volunteers who walked or biked alongside their peers.
At the time, some students criticized SURE for presenting a male-founded and male-run organization as the solution to a crime often perpetrated by men against women. Other students argued that the initiative promoted women’s safety while traveling across campus at night. SURE responded by adding women to their team of escorts, who worked in teams of two.
After stagnating in the 1980, the organization reemerged as 5-SURE in the 1990s. The service operated seven days a week and provided golf cart rides instead of walking escorts. In 2011, 5-SURE rebranded as Students United for Risk Elimination to encompass the wider range of risks associated with walking home alone at night.
“There doesn’t need to be a stigma around using 5-SURE,” Henry said. “You can be completely stone sober and come and get a pop-tart and have a great conversation with us. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with coming to 5-SURE. There should be no shame or guilt associated with it.”
Ocheze Amuzie ’22 M.A. ’24, a writer for The Daily, said she felt “heartened” by the presence of 5-SURE and the student employees dedicated to seeing peers “have a good time but not a dangerously good time.”
“I remember going to parties with my friends and they would always be on the corner with their snacks,” she said. “It was always really nice to be crazy [drunk] and have all these people taking care of you.”
Joe Kaczorowski, Assistant Director & Program Supervisor for the Office of Substance Use Programs (SUPER), told The Daily the “most satisfying” part of his job was watching “student leaders go off and into the world” after working with them closely through 5-SURE. “It sounds silly, but I love writing recommendation letters,” he said.
Kaczorowski said he most remembers an interaction with a student following the first campus party after the COVID-19 lockdown ended. “I came out to help, and a student walked up to the table. He didn’t know who I was, but he was like, ‘I’m so glad 5 Sure on Foot is back … You were here my freshman year, and you literally saved my life,’’ Kaczorowski said.
Amuzie estimated that she uses Safe Rides at least once a week. She described recent wait times as ranging between five and 45 minutes and characterized her experience with drivers as “overwhelmingly positive.”
“One time, there was this girl who was playing the Phineas and Ferb soundtrack as she was driving, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, wait, turn it up,’ and we sang along to ‘Squirrels in My Pants,’” she said. “It was a really silly moment.”
Safe Rides student driver Joanne dePierre ’26, a staff writer and DEI co-chair for The Daily, emphasized the student community at 5-SURE. “We always go ‘Ugh, guess what this passenger did today?’ and then we share stories that we can laugh about,” she said.
DePierre told The Daily that she tries her “absolute hardest and best to not work on weekends” because this is typically when people “get the most sick.” She shared that last year, during the one late night weekend shift she decided to work, “on the last ride of the night – the last ride – the last passenger got sick everywhere.”
“And I’m like, ‘Well that’s great. That’s great,’” dePierre said.
5-SURE provides buckets with liners in every vehicle and charges a $250 cleaning fee to any passenger who vomits or makes a mess in the vehicle. “A vehicle that has been vomited in cannot be used for the remainder of the evening, and must be taken off-line until it is cleaned. This only adds to our already long wait times. Be considerate of everyone else,” the 5-SURE website reads.
5-SURE Safe Rides student manager Marilyn Garcia-Valle ’26 had a different perspective from dePierre. “I love working Friday and Saturday nights when everybody’s just out and drunk and plastered,” she said. “They’re the funniest people ever.”
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Education Department letter warns Stanford about campus antisemitismIn a letter to Stanford and 59 other universities, the U.S. Department of Education wrote that the schools are “under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with [the Office for Civil Rights].”
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In a Monday letter, the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) warned the University of “potential enforcement actions” if they did not fulfill obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus.
Stanford is one of 60 institutions that received the letter, which was addressed to all universities currently under investigation for Title VI violations relating to antisemitic harassment and discrimination.
The investigation comes in the wake of Friday’s $400 million cuts to federal grants for Columbia University by the Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. A news release announcing the cuts cited “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” as a reason for the slash in funding.
The letters are in furtherance of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order that aims to use “all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, according to the news release. “University leaders must do better.”
On Feb. 3, OCR launched direct investigations into five universities — Columbia University, Northwestern University, Portland State University, University of California, Berkeley and University of Minnesota, Twin Cities — where “widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported,” an ED press release wrote.
The other 55 universities, which include Stanford, are “under investigation or monitoring in response to complaints filed with OCR,” the press release wrote.
According to University spokesperson Dee Mostofi, the letter was sent to Stanford in connection with an OCR investigation that was initiated December 2023. “We worked cooperatively with OCR in that investigation and provided all of the requested information by March 2024,” Mostofi wrote in an email to The Daily.
In September of last year, the University announced a new Title VI process to replace the previous Protected Identity Harm (PIH) reporting system for reporting bias-related incidents.
This new policy solely covers incidents in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin at institutions that receive federal funds. “National origin includes shared (Jewish) ancestry,” the press release wrote.
“Stanford has taken concerns about antisemitism on our campus very seriously,” Mostofi wrote to The Daily. “Since last year, we have taken a number of steps to ensure that we have clear policies that both protect the right to constitutionally protected free speech and also prevent disruption of campus operations and illegal discrimination and harassment.”
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Stanford softball sweeps Syracuse, remains undefeated at homeStanford softball continued their undefeated home streak of 11-0 in Stanford stadium over the weekend with a conference sweep of the Orange.
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Stanford softball (17-3, 5-1 ACC) stretched out a three-game winning streak with a hard fought 4-3 victory over Syracuse this Friday. Playing in Stanford Stadium as the Stanford Softball Stadium is under construction seems to be a good luck charm for the team, as they have won every single home game this season.
The offense produced an early bang, with four runs, five hits and two run-producing triples by freshman infielder Joie Economides and junior infielder Taryn Kern in just the second inning.
Simultaneously, senior pitcher Kylie Chung held Syracuse to two hits and zero runs for the first four innings, with two three up, three down innings.
After the game, Kern attributed Stanford’s success to “folks having quality at-bats, moving runners [and] keeping it simple.”
Head coach Jessica Allister agreed, citing “putting up the four [and] Kylie’s start” as Stanford’s greatest strength during the game.
However, this game would not end without drama. Just as it seemed Stanford had won, Syracuse rallied, tallying two runs in a strong fifth inning. True freshman pitcher Zoe Prystajko and a Cardinal defense ready for revenge for the fifth inning held Syracuse to one run over two more eventful innings, closing out the game by stranding three Syracuse players.
Prystajko explained her defensive stand as, “the utmost confidence in my ability to throw well and in my defense to back me up.”
Both Kern and Allister praised Prystajko, with Kern saying she was “proud of [Prystajko] for being tough in there” while Allister said that “the composure [for Prystajko] was great, and that’s going to be really important from now on.”
Overall, the team seemed proud of their performance, but acknowledged that they could make improvements.
“It’s a good start,” Allister said. “We left some runs on the board, and I think we could have put 8 up. We maybe [need to] have a little bit better offensive production.”
“We got a few runs in the second inning, but we’ve got to put the nail in the coffin and hammer it in.” Kern said. “Even though we’re up, we got to play like we’re down.”
Avoiding a close game was firmly on the minds of Stanford’s players as they prepared for their rematch with Syracuse on Saturday and Sunday. Stanford secured back-to-back wins following Friday with 5-1 and 9-0 victories and is well on their way to surpassing last year’s already strong performance.
“We want to have a great conference season, win every series,” Kern said.
Next, softball will face Cal Baptist University (13-12, 2-1 WCC) on Thursday at Stanford Stadium. The matchup is expected to start at 4:30 p.m.
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Levine | ‘No Justice, No Peace’: Neutrality is the easy way outIn her latest column installment, Levine criticizes Stanford for taking down the Black Lives Matter banner on Green Library and analyzes historical dangers of neutrality.
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Maybe it’s my background in competitive debate, or maybe it’s just my confrontational nature, but I can’t recall the last time I was “neutral” about a topical issue in the cultural or political zeitgeist. Although emotions can have disarming effects on governmental institutions and feelings like anger and fear often encourage bad civic behavior, the alternative – a world where politics are separated from emotion – would be remarkably grim.
I was disappointed and upset to hear that Stanford had removed the Black Lives Matter banner hanging from Green Library, citing a policy of institutional neutrality as justification. Like many of my peers, I found this behavior a disturbing continuation of an institutional push to further silence and exclude Black voices, coming after news of decreasing Black enrollment from the class of 2028 and reduced DEI information on university-wide websites. Most unsettling, however, is the ease with which such a notable institution has avoided issuing messages of support for the students, faculty and staff who risk vitriol and oppression at the hands of legislation and an altered social climate.
I understand how appealing neutrality can be. No one wants to be disliked or considered an enemy. However, those who can afford to “stay neutral” on controversial topics are necessarily those with the privilege to escape those issues’ effects.
“Politics” is whether or not my future children receive a comprehensive history education in school. “Politics” is frantically texting my best friend last spring about the active shooter alert in his school. “Politics” is the challenging of my very existence. I cannot separate the personal from the political, nor would I want to – more than just an academic pursuit or career possibility, it is my way of life.
Perhaps the most common example of a neutral body, Switzerland, was not immune to the allure of institutional security and accumulation of wealth. Despite claiming neutrality in World War II, the Swiss National Bank was the only institution willing to exchange money for the Third Riech’s gold, prolonging Nazi Germany’s reign. Accepting looted Jewish gold, their reputation as the country that “stays out of it” is only supported by their placation of the aggressor to prevent invasion. This strategy worked for them – unlike most of Europe, Switzerland escaped WWII topographically unscathed. It did so at the expense of aiding the Holocaust.
Hate has a disturbing way of permeating throughout generations, usually in the form of a small group perpetuating the same rhetoric towards whatever scapegoat is most convenient. In her book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” Isabel Wilkerson reveals that Nazis “sent researchers … to study Jim Crow laws here in the United States.” She argues “how the United States had managed to subordinate and subjugate its African American population” laid crucial groundwork for systemic, legal oppression and eventual genocide. No one needs lessons in hate, but historical precedent legitimizes it into an unfortunate inevitability rather than a preventable atrocity. As such, this harmful practice becomes a pattern easy to repeat without us explicitly working against the standard. When institutions normalize hateful actions through the guise of neutrality, hate transforms from a jarringly evil word to one that makes us sigh and move on, avoiding conflict by not challenging and therefore normalizing such vitriol.
As an individual, I recognize it’s much simpler to take a stand when the reputation of a wealthy, prestigious university and institution isn’t resting on my shoulders. Stanford is obligated not only to its students, but its donors and those they rely on to maintain such a high standard of education. And, just as institutional action and public statements signal social change and regression for citizens, these gestures have the capacity to quell opposing views in a way that limits growth and discussion between peers. That being said, when we fail to express any belief, we yield to the status quo, leaving our implicit biases unchecked.
Furthermore, a lot of damage has already been done: Stanford’s work with scholars (and even its founding president) has propagated eugenicist beliefs that disproportionately affected Black and Brown women by forced sterilization. This, however, was not seen as “biased” since it upheld a social norm considered to be the standard for those privileged enough to voice their opinions. Science has become increasingly political in our modern climate crisis, as fact gets intertwined with fiction and critical policy research is called into question. Questions of bias do not exist in a vacuum. Stanford has never been neutral, and it’s unrealistic to change that now. In the same way that conforming to the status quo is never a true neutral, we can’t just claim neutrality without confronting and dealing with our past, inherently political choices.
This is not to say that embracing diversity of opinions is not valuable. If I believed that, I wouldn’t be a columnist. But when neutrality is made the blanket norm, it discourages any critics of the status quo from expressing themselves, which prevents the opportunity for debate and personal growth.
Rather than a policy of neutrality, I encourage Stanford and all its students to instead adopt a mindset of openness. Hold your strong opinions with pride, and share them with others. Listen to a diversity of ideas, engage in respectful discourse and do not allow your thoughts to be silenced in favor of impartiality.
No one is truly objective, and it’s disingenuous and inaccurate to believe that we can be. Lean into subjectivity and, rather than presenting your belief as fact, consider what external factors may have influenced you in coming to that belief. What privileges do you hold in our society? You may not be suffering the consequences of your neutrality now, but I guarantee that someone else is.
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Students, educators call for student-led education reform in the Bay AreaStanford students and community members participated in an event entitled “Connecting the Dots: Pizza, Partnerships, and Systemic Change in Education” on Thursday at the Haas Center for Public Service to discuss community-oriented educational advocacy in the Bay Area.
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A small group of Stanford students and community leaders in education gathered Thursday at the Haas Center for Public Service to encourage student-led systemic change in the Bay Area education system.
The event, titled “Connecting the Dots: Pizza, Partnerships, and Systemic Change in Education,” called for students to actively engage in hands-on community services and initiate partnerships between the educational organizations they belong to and others in the Bay Area community.
Around 10 community members met to hear from John Harrington, an AmeriCorps VISTA member at the Thrive Alliance in San Mateo County, and Rubie Macaraeg, the coordinator for Expanded Learning and Community Partnerships at the San Mateo County Office of Education.
“It’s really a matter of bringing them together, bringing them into conversation with each other, and realizing where individual initiatives can overlap with others,” Harrington said.
According to Harrington, San Mateo County is home to over 180 education-related nonprofits representing over seven $60 billion in revenue, indicating that the “resources are definitely there” to address systemic educational inequity.
Taylor Hall ’25, the Issue Area Coordinator for Education at the Haas Center, said she was inspired to reflect upon what past generations have done to fight inequity.
“A lot of what [my elders] have done is build their own systems, create their own partnerships and create their own things to help their community when the government would not,” Hall said.
The U.S. Department of Education released a letter last month warning that educational institutions, including Stanford, that failed to cease race-conscious practices in admissions, hiring and campus life within two weeks could face a loss of federal funding. President Donald Trump is imminently expected to attempt to abolish the Department of Education through an executive order.
Attendee Princess Awambu ’28 stressed the importance of raising awareness of educational inequity, highlighting “that there’s people who are working to overcome [educational] challenges” and that individuals are “not laying down in the dirt” in the face of systemic issues with education
“Stanford has the brain power to learn how to fix these different barriers, from transportation or economic to mental health and everything that blocks students from reaching their potential in areas around our school,” Awambu said.
Systemic issues, such as mental health challenges, are “not felt equally,” especially for marginalized students, Harrington added. In particular, he said those belonging to Black, Pacific Islander and LGBTQ communities disproportionately report feelings of depression.
San Mateo County has a higher portion of mental health providers per capita compared to the state average but still falls short of the necessary amount, particularly in schools and for students who don’t speak English, Harrington said.
Hall said that “a lot” of Stanford students care about educational inequity but must “put their care into action” by investing their time in “direct service work,” such as mentoring high school students in East Palo Alto.
“[Stanford students] have the power to change things, and I think coming together is how we really get it done,” Awambu said.
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Trope-tastic: What can we do about Mary Sue?Gohari explores the history of “Mary Sue,” a dated and sexist character archetype that’s spanned books, movies and TV shows over several decades.
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In Trope-tastic, Ellaheh Gohari ’28 explores the history of tropes in film and media.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
While it is initially entertaining to see an absurdly strong female protagonist girl-bossing her way across the galaxy, countless admirers worshipping the ground she walks on, I’ve found it more fun (and relatable) to see a well-rounded female character instead. As much as I’d love to sit here and tell you, dear reader of The Daily, that the entire female gender is perfect (myself included, of course), I fear that all of us have imperfections. Yes, really. Women, just like all humans, have flaws.
Not exactly a shocker, right? For some writers, it seems to be. Known as a “Mary Sue,” the trope featuring a female character who can do no wrong, appears time and time again in wildly popular media such as “Twilight” and “Star Wars.” Whether she’s naturally an expert in anything she tries once, exceedingly beautiful to the point of disbelief, alluringly quirky (but not too strange) or all of the above, Mary Sue characters paint an idealized version of women that strips them of their actual personhood. An overly perfect character without relatable flaws makes a story predictable, losing that attention-grabbing zing that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.
The term originated from a 1974 “Star Trek” fanfiction called “A Trekkie’s Tale.” In the fanfiction — which is itself a parody of the female characters like Janice Rand and Rayna Kapec who appear in the original show — a beautiful 15-year-old lieutenant named Mary Sue attracts Captain Kirk and Spock simply by existing. She later manages to flawlessly save the ship from danger, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, before dying tragically. While clearly not meant to be taken as a serious form of literature, this satirization of “Star Trek” remains relevant to this day.
In recent years, “Star Wars” fans have accused Rey — main character of the sequel movies — of being a Mary Sue, citing her seeming invincibility despite enduring torture, her ability to beat powerful Force-user Kylo Ren in a lightsaber fight with no training and her immense natural Force power.
Other well-known characters commonly accused of being Mary Sues include “Twilight”’s Bella Swan, an apparently average high schooler who somehow has two extremely attractive guys fighting for her and Arya Stark in “Game of Thrones,” a young noble-turned-warrior who manages to defeat an allegedly unbeatable enemy.
However, some argue that calling a strong female character a Mary Sue simply because she is skilled is misogynistic. Rey, in particular, went through several training montages in the movies, more than viewers witnessed protagonist Luke Skywalker partake in during the original trilogy movies, yet only Rey’s abilities were repeatedly derided by fans for supposedly being unrealistic.
Indeed, the term is most often used to refer to women, despite men like James Bond from the “James Bond” series, Harry Potter from “Harry Potter” and even Luke Skywalker from “Star Wars” having similar unrealistic feats of prowess and perfection. Although these characters do have clear, acknowledged flaws and thus do not fully embody the essence of Mary Sue, some have used a term like “Gary Stu” or “Marty Stu” for a male version of the trope.
So, what can we do about Mary Sue?
We can support TV shows and movies that portray well-rounded female characters instead. It shouldn’t be difficult to accomplish. The protagonist of the “Alien” movies, Ellen Ripley, is strong and competent, cautious yet firm and realistically imperfect. Interestingly, Ripley was originally written to be a man, but director Ridley Scott switched the character’s gender after realizing that it made no difference to the plot. The change worked: Ripley is still praised today by fans and critics alike as one of the greatest sci-fi characters ever written, defying gender norms while still maintaining a sense of humanity and purpose that resonates with audiences of all identities.
More recently, hit TV show “Arcane” featured a plethora of female characters including Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn and Mel who are highly competent in their respective roles while still facing hardships and having imperfections that make them human. By avoiding “Mary Sue”’s, “Arcane” not only presents more interesting and compelling female characters, but also improves the plot itself by telling a less predictable story.
While writers and viewers alike might want their favorite character to have no flaws, a really good story requires a little bit more zest to get things interesting. After all, who wants to be perfect anyway?
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Asking Stanford: Who is a woman in your life who you admire?“Asking Stanford” is a series of small stories from Stanford students, each of which comes together to highlight the diversity of experiences and perspectives on campus. In honor of Women's History Month, we're sharing women who inspire us.
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“Asking Stanford” is a series of small stories from Stanford students, each of which comes together to highlight the diversity of experiences and perspectives on campus.
I’ve learned a lot from my friend Audrey. I cherish every time I get to hear a little more of her life story. Her outlook on life, and how she navigates all that life throws at her, does so much to inform how I can best live my life. There certainly is a futility to a lot of things in life, but the beauty of it all is on full display when you choose to do good and to be that uplifting influence in other peoples’ lives to begin with. Being nearly a year into my academic suspension journey, I admire Audrey more than I ever have before. Thanks to her, I know a little more about how to live a good life. – Sebastian Strawser
My two older sisters! One is a lawyer and the other is a doctor, and they continually inspire me with their wisdom, kindness, humor and warmth. Despite our 10- and eight-year age gap, we remain each other’s closest friends. Throughout every step of my life, they have always offered their guidance and support, and in turn, I try my best to return the favor and be a helpful younger sister. I couldn’t ask for two better role models! – Helen Katz
My lab’s PI (principal investigator) is someone I deeply admire. A post-doc in our lab describes her as a “girl boss,” but to me, she’s more. Dr. Roxana Daneshjou somehow balances being a new mother and full-time researcher while maintaining an extraordinary presence as a mentor and human being. Her leadership style combines technical drive with genuine compassion. What impresses me most is how she’s dismantled the competitive atmosphere often found in research settings, showing that scientific progress doesn’t have to feel zero-sum. Thanks to her, I’ve had the opportunity to love and learn a little bit more. – Sonnet Xu
One of the most important women in my life is my mother. Aside from birthing and keeping me alive all these years, she has maintained a loving and supportive household despite the numerous personal, professional, and familial challenges — including a troublesome son — thrown her way. What’s more, hearing her life story gives me immense respect for her as a person. She fought and studied her way from rural China to the city, from the city to Canada, and from Canada to the United States — all to give her children a better life. Despite having the odds stacked against her, she persevered and found immense academic and professional success as an electrical engineering professor and still found time to give her kids boundless love, care, and support. Love you mom! – Eric Cui
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Daily Diminutive #041 (Mar. 10, 2025)Click to play today's 5x5 mini crossword. The Daily produces mini crosswords three times a week and a full-size crossword biweekly.
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Students, researchers protest federal research funding cutsOver 70 Stanford community members — including Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi — protested at the "Stand Up for Science" rally.
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Over 70 students and Stanford affiliates joined hundreds of protesters outside of San Francisco City Hall on Friday at the Stand Up for Science rally against the Trump administration’s cuts to federal research funding.
Stand Up For Science is a national grassroots movement run by five young scientists from different disciplinary backgrounds. The San Francisco protest was one of 32 official Stand Up for Science rallies nationwide. Attendees carried signs that read “Science Saves Lives” and “You know it’s bad when the nerds get mad.”
Since his inauguration, the Trump administration has ordered the NIH to limit funds for facilities’ costs to research institutions and implemented layoffs at several science agencies including the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Stanford could lose up to $160 million dollars in funding from the NIH if the changes are made, though a judge has since issued a temporary restraining order against the NIH. Despite the legal challenges filed against the NIH, professors have already noticed their grant applications have not been assigned study sections, which review and approve grants, and some graduate student researchers are being warned away from academia.
The protest featured several speakers, including chemistry professor and Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, who began her speech by recounting the role science played in her family’s history.
By the time she was born, her “parents had both come out of deep poverty and joined the middle class, thanks to the kinds of opportunities an education in science [provides],” Bertozzi said.
“It couldn’t be a better time to be a scientist, until a few weeks ago,” Bertozzi said.
In 2022, Bertozzi was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for her development of bioorthogonal reactions, which can be used to study protein production and develop cancer treatments.
Bertozzi cautioned against the dangers of limiting federal funding and shutting down government programs.
“The very programs that made it possible for me to stand here before you as a practicing chemist, an educator, a researcher and a Nobel laureate, are exactly the kind of programs that our current administration is trying to destroy,” Bertozzi said.
Other speakers included geophysicist Mary Lou Zoback ’74 M.S. ’75 Ph.D ’78, SETI astronomer Seth Shostak and California State Sen. Scott Wiener. One performance included a parody of “This Land is Your Land” by medical school professor Steve Goodman that included the refrain “science is good for you and me.”
Student groups were active in publicizing participation in the protest. Stanford Students in Biodesign (SSB) and Stanford Biotech Group (SBG) sponsored transportation for students, including subsidizing carpool groups and CalTrain tickets while the Graduate Workers Union (GWU) organized the carpool effort.
Other student groups like Stanford University Physics Society (SUPS) and Fossil Free Stanford helped to publicize the rally via mailing lists, flyers and the anonymous social media platform Fizz.
Pinyu Liao ’27, a member of SSB and SBG who organized undergraduate attendance at the rally, heard about the event at a team meeting in Bertozzi’s lab.
“[Bertozzi] was super passionate about the event, but I noticed that not many undergraduates were talking about this or knew about the implications of the NIH budget cuts,” Liao told The Daily. With over 70 student and affiliate sign ups, Liao called the transportation effort “a big collaboration.”
Biophysics graduate student and GWU organizer Sophie Walton Ph.D ’26 was inspired by the protest. “It’s really exciting to see everyone out here flexing their muscles and saying ‘we love science,’” said Walton, who appreciated the solidarity displayed across disciplines.
Walton also worries about “the tendency for university leadership to leave folks behind” in an effort to comply with the government and secure federal funding. She believes that events like the rally are “showing that we can’t leave anyone behind.”
In a statement on recent executive orders, the GWU asked Stanford to maintain graduate student workers salaries and “provide at least 12-month 5-year funding to all enrolled PhD students in good academic standing, regardless of the state of research grants and federal funding,” which is consistent with the funding commitment negotiated between the University and the GWU in November 2024.
Organizers ended the rally by asking scientists to “be vocal about your science and what makes it possible,” and instructed all protestors to be wary of misinformation and pseudoscience on social media.
“We have to keep the doors open for the next generation. Our students are counting on us. Our children are counting on us,” said Bertozzi.
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Community gathers for Open Iftar dinnerStanford’s Muslim Student Union (MSU) hosted its annual Open Iftar for Ramadan Friday, where community members prayed, ate Halal food, listened to speakers and reflected on their faith.
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Over 500 community members gathered at the Old Union Courtyard Friday to break fast in an Open Iftar dinner hosted by the Muslim Student Union (MSU) and cosponsored by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL).
“Not being able to celebrate with family and loved ones is hard,” MSU Social Justice Coordinator Baraa Abdelghne ’27 said. “But everyone going through the same struggle [through fasting] makes us a stronger community.”
Iftar is the meal eaten by Muslims after sunset during Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, focus on increased prayer and charity, engage in spiritual reflection and bond with their community. In the Islamic tradition, Ramadan is the month in which the Quran —Islam’s sacred text— was first revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims regard its annual observance as one of the Five Pillars of their faith.
In observance of Ramadan, MSU has hosted iftars and Taraweeh prayers — night prayers involving recitations of the Quran — every night since Ramadan began on Feb. 28, with funding assistance from the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) and help from Muslim and non-Muslim volunteers alike. The volunteers set up tables and prayer tarps, welcomed speakers and organized food orders.
Volunteers also raised funds to aid civilians affected by the ongoing war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Israel-Gaza war and the Syrian civil war between government security forces and supporters of ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.
The Open Iftar event began at 5 p.m. and was followed by introductory remarks and a Quran reading at 5:30 p.m. After a recitation of the Maghrib prayer, the fourth of five daily prayers in Islam that take place after sunset, the attendees enjoyed a dinner of burgers and fries.
Abdelghne recited the Dua — the supplication that asks Allah for help, guidance or mercy — at the Open Iftar and led fundraising efforts. He said that the MSU provides Suhoor (pre-fast) and Iftar meals for almost 300 students every night and credited the MSU with creating opportunities for Muslims at Stanford to build community.
MSU Public Relations Co-Director Ameera Eshtewi ’27 echoed Abdelghneand, saying that Ramadan has brought her and those in the Muslim community closer to their faith. Eshtewi facilitates communications efforts for the Ramadan Core Committee, sending daily morning announcements to MSU members on prayer times and menu items through newsletters, WhatsApp messages and Instagram.
Eshtewi also created an initiative called “Ramadan Around The World,” in which she highlights Ramadan messages from the countries of every MSU member to showcase the diversity within the organization. Eshtewi hopes this initiative will allow MSU members to learn more about the global Muslim diaspora.
Owen Martin ’28, an MSU frosh Intern who helped set up the Open Iftar, said Ramadan was a way to “spiritually retreat” from the “hustle” of everyday life and focus on one’s religion and roots, though he added that doing so can sometimes be challenging. Martin said that during the Ramadan month, he stays up late at night to study but spends the morning taking naps, resting and taking things slow — apart from going to class to pray — and fasts from sunrise to sunset.
The attendees gathered for one last prayer at 8 p.m., performing the Isha — the fifth daily prayer that takes place in the evening — and Taraweeh.
While many attendees at the Open Iftar were Muslim students like Abdelghne, Eshtewi and Martin, non-Muslims also joined the dinner to experience Ramadan. Attendees were not required to fast, with the MSU inviting all students to “just come with an open heart and big appetite” via their Instagram post.
Having attended international schools, Betty Yao-Lu ’28 had attended Ramadan events with her Muslim friends from high school. However, Yao-Lu said that Stanford’s Open Iftar was much larger than the Ramadan events she had attended in the past.
Sasha Zhang ’28, on the other hand, came to the Open Iftar not knowing much about Ramadan and wanting to learn more.
Jorge Ramos ’28, a non-Muslim student, accompanied his best friend and roommate Morteza Ehsani ’28, a Muslim student, to the Open Iftar, marking his first experience of Ramadan.
“I love seeing this aspect of [Ehsani’s] identity, and everyone has been super welcoming,” Ramos said. “I’ll definitely be coming to more Ramadan events in the future.”
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Chan | Less talk, more action: Why I’m tired of Stanford’s land acknowledgementsChan argues that instead of unauthentic and performative land acknowledgements, the University should prioritize the land back movement and active outreach towards Native American students.
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Last quarter, I stood before Enchanted Broccoli Forest (EBF), Stanford’s loosely arts-themed co-op. They were throwing a party on a cold November night, and we were told we needed to read a cardboard sign aloud in order to get in. It read: “This is Muwekma Ohlone land, $19 billion of stolen resources for which Leland Stanford murdered Muwekma Ohlone people. The Muwekma Ohlone continue to struggle for federal recognition. I acknowledge the violence complicit in my presence here.”
Here at Stanford, land acknowledgments inhabit every sphere – from drunken Friday nights to commemorating the start of class time to speeches at frosh orientation. Constant acknowledgment has left us desensitized. So much so that, at Stanford, it has lost almost all of its value.
For Stanford, authenticity is the issue.
Stanford’s websites highlight the university’s interactions with local tribes, which include creating a “Native Plants Garden,” a lecture program hosted by Indigenous speakers and an annual Powwow celebration on Stanford grounds. Undoubtedly, educational initiatives, guest lectures and community traditions are important in recognizing Indigenous cultures and people; however, one piece is sorely missing — advocacy. It is difficult to find follow-through on Native American advocacy anywhere online, unless it is Native American students themselves organizing to make tangible change, which is mostly done through the Native American Cultural Center (NACC). Stanford’s most notable contribution to Natives involves restoring artifacts of the past, such as funding research for burial grounds located on campus and repatriating around 1,000 Indigenous remains back to their families. Even so, the return of remains and research shouldn’t be the end to Stanford’s contributions. For such a large school, there’s a surprising lack of institutional advocacy aimed towards Indigenous populations that live in our society today.
So, what should Stanford be doing? I reached out to Anagali Duncan ’26, a junior here who identifies as part of the Cherokee Nation, to learn more. For some background, Duncan’s ancestors were forcibly removed from their lands in the Southeast through the federally enforced Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears in the late 1830s.
“[Land] has caused rifts in our community, because, now we’re kind of viewing land as something that is ownable… That’s not our original mindset, but that’s something that I think has influenced my work as an indigenous activist and a scholar as well, is, trying to break the cycle of colonial mindsets in intruding our own ways of being,” said Duncan.
Duncan believes Stanford’s collaboration with the Muwekma Ohlone — especially its historic efforts to repatriate Native American remains and other cultural artifacts residing in the Cantor Museum back to their rightful communities — is “one of the better relationships [he’s] seen with other tribal nations.” However, I don’t think comparison to other universities who are doing objectively worse should be a benchmark for success. Duncan describes Stanford’s current acknowledgments as empty promises, and I agree. It makes me wonder if this type of unfulfilled land acknowledgement is even worth saying. Does acknowledgement cause more harm than good if it’s purely performative?
Not only does Stanford struggle with sincerity in its Native inclusion, its frequent land acknowledgments also open up questions of where to draw the line. During New Student Orientation (NSO), one speaker not only acknowledged Native Americans but endeavored to acknowledge Chinese-Americans who constructed the Transcontinental railroad and the African Americans who were forcibly enslaved during the slave trade. Sitting in the audience, I reflected on my identity as a Chinese-American. I had gained nothing from those few seconds of lip service.
This hand-wavy inclusivity felt ridiculous to me. Who should we acknowledge next? Every person who has experienced oppression? Of course, honoring the past is important, but at what point does land acknowledgment devolve into a virtue signaling competition? A recent The New York Times article on this subject quoted a member of the Chippewa Indians and Native advocacy leader Keith Richotte Jr., who said if land acknowledgements “are treated as the only or last step of one’s commitment to Indigenous peoples and nations, then they can become more harmful than beneficial.”
What can help drive change for the Indigenous community at a university level? It begins with admitting Indigenous students and fighting for their federal recognition. To even receive scholarships based on Indigenous identity for an institution as expensive and selective as Stanford, students’ Native tribes require federal recognition. Duncan said on some college campuses, such as Brown, there are “more deceased Indigenous relatives on their architectural investigations on the campus than there are Indigenous students.”
Similarly, whether it’s from a lack of directed outreach or accessibility towards higher education in Native communities, Indigenous students represent an abysmal 1% of Stanford’s total population, which is an embarrassing amount of students for an institution that touts land acknowledgement at almost every public event.
Beyond efforts to support Native communities, there is the more complex topic of “land back.” I’ve heard some people tell me, “well, we’re not just going to give the entirety of the United States back.” Agreed. But land back is possible in small amounts. In a 2009 class action, Cobell vs. Salazar, the U.S. government settled with Indigenous tribes, giving $1.69 billion dollars of land back to their communities. Although this took an class action lawsuit and the abuse of Native assets, this occurrence shows that land back is possible on a national scale, which makes it even more feasible on a local level and for a place like Stanford.
If the administration doesn’t hold itself accountable for its acknowledgments, students must take responsibility for themselves. The root of land acknowledgment should be a promise for the land back. As a replacement for passive acknowledgment, the questions we should be asking need to include Muwekma Ohlone and the Native community that continues to thrive in society today. I’d like to start the conversation with a question Duncan posed to me: “What steps are we taking to make sure that one day… this will eventually be Muwekma Ohlone land again?”
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Stanford men’s basketball falls to No. 14 Cardinals in fiery Louisville matchupFor their last regular season game, Stanford lost to the Cardinals in front of a high-energy Louisville audience. Senior forward Maxime Raynaud led Stanford with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
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In their last game of the regular season, Stanford men’s basketball (19-12, 11-9 ACC) fell 68-48 to the No. 14 Louisville Cardinals (25-6, 18-2 ACC) at the KFC Yum! Center Saturday. Struggles with rebounds and finishing in the paint proved to be detrimental to Stanford’s performance.
Coming into the game, the energy was high in Louisville, Kentucky, with the Cardinals on a nine-game winning streak and facing Stanford on their senior night. Stanford, on the other hand, looked to bounce back from their 54-56 loss to Notre Dame on Wednesday.
The first few minutes of the game was a tough battle of possession. Stanford went back and forth with Louisville, but was able to stay even with points. Louisville, however, showed their dominance when they began to drive to the basket. The dynamic team’s mix of flashy finishes and aggression made it difficult for Stanford to stop them at the rim. With nine minutes to go in the first half, Stanford went down to 10-20 as Louisville thrived off their momentum.
Stanford struggled to keep in line with Louisville’s shooting accuracy. The Cardinal’s field goal percentage by the end of the game was 26.7 compared to Louisville’s 42.6. This was in part a result of scoring struggles from junior guard Oziyah Sellers and graduate guard Jaylen Blakes, who only scored 8 and 5 points respectively, well under their season averages.
In addition, Stanford had difficulty rebounding, both on the defensive and offensive sides. Stanford gave up a total of 14 second-chance points and 13 offensive rebounds. This allowed Louisville to push the ball down the court, leading to easy finishes on the other side of the court. While Stanford wasn’t too far behind the Cardinals in terms of defensive rebounds, they often struggled to convert due to Louisville’s speed and athleticism.
The Cardinal fought amongst a live and roaring Louisville crowd that sought to challenge their focus during foul shots and offensive plays. The game started to slip away with five minutes left in the half when Louisville was able to extend the lead to 11-29, marking their second-largest lead of the game.
At the half, the Cardinal were down 15 points, with a score of 18-33. Stanford came out of halftime looking to close the gap and focused on fighting for rebounds and increasing the movement of the ball while in possession.
Following back-to-back defensive stops by Stanford, junior forward Chisom Okpara was able to get to the basket for two layups, cutting the lead to 51-41 with eight minutes left. While it seemed like Stanford would be able to build off this, Louisville made sure to stop the momentum, driving to the basket for a flashy finish that sent the crowd into a roar and ended Stanford’s brewing run.
While Louisville was able to get most of their points inside the paint, Stanford struggled to finish at the basket. However, the Cardinal looked to score outside the arc, gaining 21 points from the three compared to Louisville’s 15.
The game marks the end of Stanford’s regular season and first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). All in all, Stanford made a large improvement this season, coming from an overall record of 14-18 to 19-12, even while navigating the challenge of moving to a new conference and adjusting to a new coach.
Head Coach Kyle Smith spoke about his pride for the team’s work this season, specifically amidst an ACC prediction they would finish 17th in the standings.
“We didn’t really pay much attention to it, we just talked about the process and just [doing] your best everyday,” Smith said in an interview with The Daily. Smith also praised the team’s focus amongst the noise and predictions from the media. “They did a really good job of staying present and trying to improve,” he said.
The team travels to Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday (Opp. TBD) to begin the ACC tournament as the 7th seed.
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Green Library exhibit celebrates artwork from library staff“ART/WORK” an exhibit that aims to highlight the creative pursuits of library staff members, will be on display in the Bing Wing through April 27.
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Behind the scenes of Stanford’s libraries, a dedicated staff works tirelessly to make resources and services run smoothly. From conservation units and administration to a digitization lab, these individuals and their work are often unseen by students or the larger community.
To bridge this gap and celebrate the creativity and talent of the library staff, Stanford Libraries and the Department of Special Collections organized the “ART/WORK | Creative Pursuits of Stanford Libraries Staff” exhibit, which opened Feb. 20 in the Peterson Gallery and Munger Rotunda in the Bing Wing of Green Library. Displaying librarians’ creative work, this exhibit’s mission is to foster an environment for staff members to more fully express themselves and display their creative hobbies that may otherwise go unrecognized. The exhibit will be on display 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. every day through April 27.
Manager and designer of exhibitions Deardra Fuzzell produced and designed this exhibit with assistance from exhibits designer for Stanford Libraries’ special collections Elizabeth Fischbach. “The last time that we did a show of staff artwork was 10 years ago, so it’s been a little while, but it was so well-received, and everyone was so happy when we did it previously that I was waiting for an opportunity to reprise the show,” Fuzzell said.
Special Collections invited current Stanford Libraries staff to submit creative work for the exhibit in the summer of 2024. Over 100 pieces were submitted and blind-reviewed, and 50 were ultimately chosen to be displayed. Creators of selected pieces were then asked to write an artistic statement about their work and what it means to them, according to Fuzzell.
Fuzzell is inspired by the creativity of the library community across different mediums. “It’s just fascinating for me, and really — a really fun, joyful thing to go through all of these entries, engage in this process with everyone and just hopefully bring a little bit of light in people’s day,” Fuzzell said.
In her artistic statement for her piece “Mobius Radial,” a blue and white quilt made with cotton fabric, thread and batting, associate university librarian Julie Sweetkind-Singer expressed how she uses quilting to tell stories.
“It’s important to me to be doing work that connects me to something that women have been doing for thousands and tens of thousands of years,” Sweetkind-Singer said. Because working with thread, fabric and quilts was “seen as women’s work, men tended to ignore it, and so women were given a lot of agency in terms of what they did,” she said.
From this creative process for the exhibit, Sweetkind-Singer learned the importance of continuing to challenge yourself to improve and have fun with something you’re not an expert at, she said. “It’s important to express who we are wholly and fully in our lives as much as we can,” Sweetkind-Singer said, adding that she values creativity for exercising another part of her brain.
Academic technology specialist for the Department of History Anne Ladyem McDivitt’s piece “Gremlin Cats,” needle felted depictions of her cats, is also displayed in the exhibit. Although McDivitt has only been needle felting for a year and a half and doesn’t consider herself an artist, McDivitt appreciated the opportunity to be included in the exhibit and its broader purpose of humanizing the library staff, she said.
“It gives a kind of a human face, face in quotation marks, to us as library staff because you may not necessarily interact with us often,” McDivitt said. For her exhibit, McDivitt said she hopes to spread joy to viewers.
Sweetkind-Singer emphasized how impressed she was by her colleagues’ artistic talents and also hopes the exhibit will have a humanizing effect.
“[A lot of people across campus] come to their jobs or go to school or do whatever they do, and yet they go home and they express themselves,” Sweetkind-Singer said. “We’ve been given the space to show ours, which feels really fortunate.”
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