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NewsvineThe Stanford Daily (TSD): You have both spent time within the Executive branch of the ASSU. How would this shape your tenure as president and vice president?
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Sagar Doshi (SD): The best way to frame this is to recognize the problem the ASSU has--the issue of institutional memory. We and anyone else who is running are essentially in office for one year. That's a short period of time...You get a lot of repetition, just because you don't know what's happened in the past. Given what we have done, we won't have to go over some of that same ground. For long-term projects like diversity, we can just keep things going.
Phillip Hon (PH): We know what has already happened, and we know what has failed. We know the ASSU hasn't done its best job in being transparent and reaching out to students...A lot of people we talked to don't even know what the ASSU is, and it's really big for us to go out and hear people's concerns and let them know how we are serving them.
SD: It's a perennial problem. But to be honest, it's not a huge problem. It means that students are busy with other things, to help make this campus better. When people don't have to worry about how their needs are being met--that means their needs are being met. But there is always room for improvement.
TSD: How is your platform different from the other executive platforms?
SD: Broadly, it's supporting students and student groups because that's why we are here...Graduate issues are really important to us, because we are reaching out to a community that hasn't traditionally been reached out to. Old Union--we can get a place that's not just a study place. Student groups have a very tough time just trying to reserve space. We want to make a universal reservation system.
These are the same ideas people are going to hear throughout the campaign. But that points to a good thing--that means that a lot of us are here for the same reason: to make this place better. The fact that that is the case is something that reflects really well on the people that are here. The only way you can distinguish people is how feasible their ideas are, and if they have the leadership to make [their ideas] possible.