ASSU election data reveals student attitudes on VSOs

On April 26, Stanford undergraduate and graduate students voted in the 2025 ASSU Elections for class presidents and Senate leadership and also approved annual grants for voluntary student organizations (VSOs). The results not only dictate which clubs receive funding but also shed light on student opinion on hundreds of VSOs — from the lowest support for Stanford College Republicans (SCR) to the highest for Stanford Undergraduate Research Association.

Just 17.79 percent of the student body voted in this year’s elections, meaning results reflect the opinion of less than one in five students. About one in three undergraduates voted while only 5 percent of graduate students cast a ballot.

Among those who did vote, there was broad support for every single VSO. Every club’s annual grant application passed by a wide margin, with the vast majority earning over 90 percent support. Undergraduate support exceeded graduate support for every VSO where both groups voted. These results suggest broad student support for extracurricular clubs on campus, particularly among undergraduates.

A possible factor for this strong support could be a side effect of ballot design: students can choose to approve (or reject) every single club grant with just one click rather than vote club-by-club. In fact, the majority of students chose to check the box to approve all clubs’ ASSU grants rather than vote line-by-line on each VSO’s grant. This held true for not just joint grants (grants approved by both undergraduate and graduate students) but both graduate- and undergraduate-specific grants too.

The most popular VSOs were dedicated to student services and academic pursuits. The Stanford Undergraduate Research Association received the most support at 95.73 percent followed closely by Bridge Peer Counseling and Cardinal Free Clinics. Academic clubs like Robotics, Flight and Physics Society also garnered a lot of support.

Conversely, Republican, Christian and Fraternity VSOs received the least support. SCR received by far the least support at 72 percent followed by three Christian groups; Kappa Alpha was the least popular fraternity. Still, all of these VSOs received over 70 percent support among students who voted.

Because most students approved all VSO grants with a single click, the popularity of certain VSOs may be overstated; among students who voted on each grant individually, these clubs received even lower support.

Three VSOs — SCR, Stanford Israeli Association and Kappa Alpha — received less than 50 percent support among students who individually considered their grant. Notably, while 72 percent of all voters supported SCR, only 22 percent of voters who individually evaluated SCR supported their grant.

Stanford students also differentiated their support for Jewish organizations from Israeli organizations. Over 90 percent of voters approved of the Jewish Student Association’s (JSA) grant compared to roughly 80 percent for the Stanford Israeli Association (SIA) — JSA received less than half as many “No” votes as SIA. 

This year’s ASSU results come 18 months after the Hamas attack against Israel in October 2023 and the months of student activism that followed. They suggest that a significant portion of student voters feel differently about funding VSOs focused on Jewish or Israeli identity.

The complete official 2025 ASSU election results contain more data.

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