Six slates vie for sophomore class presidency

The six slates running for the Class of 2029 sophomore class presidency offer competing visions of what the role should look like. The Daily interviewed each slate about a range of topics, from event programming and financial accessibility to the role of class presidents in effecting institutional policy changes.

The slates include Stanford JEDI (Avani Ganesan, Finn Boyle, Jacob Yuryev and Sophia Lin), Levin’s Grandkids (Theodore Kratter, Esther Luvishis, Jacob Chung and Adam Kogen), THRIVE (Greta Bollyky, Elizabeth Feng, Alexander Ugwonali and Ryan Farokhzad), Stanford SKY (Didi Umeukeje, Terry Shen, Nadine Mae Padrigon and Braun Endicott), We Speak for the Trees (Marinelly Rivera, Ryan Tong, Meridian Hailu and Zidaan Kapoor) and Stanford SOAR (Max Fan, Malika Ali, Shubh Jain and Marcelina Maciag). Endicott of Stanford SKY and Maciag of Stanford SOAR were unavailable for interview.

First-Generation and Low Income Student Interests 

All six slates offer different strategies to make events accessible to first-generation, low-income students.

Boyle (JEDI), a member of the First-Generation Low Income (FLI) community and the current frosh class co-president, said class presidents should not seek to generate revenue from student events. “Our job is not to make money. The university gives us money,” Boyle said. “Our job is to pull resources that the university has, advocate for the sophomore class to receive more resources, and then use those to invest in a fun, fruitful experience for all students, regardless of financial background.” He said he allocated 100 subsidized frosh formal tickets for FLI students this year, with additional compensation available upon request.

Ali (Stanford SOAR) who served as a co-chief financial officer on frosh council, said the subsidized ticket expansion originated from her financial committee rather than the president’s office. “The driver was honestly me,” Ali said, citing fellow committee member Jason Farrell ’29 as the one who first proposed increasing the FLI ticket allotment.

Padrigon, (Stanford SKY) who also identified as FLI, said her slate focuses on minimizing out-of-pocket costs. “A lot of [the time], something at the back of the mind is,’ am I going to be able to afford [this event]? Am I going to be able to participate with out-of-pocket expenses?;” Padrigon said. Shen (Stanford SKY) added that the slate would work to expand awareness of subsidized tickets by communicating directly with resident fellows and resident assistants (RAs).

Rivera (We Speak for the Trees), also an FLI student, said her slate is considering a spring formal and acknowledges the need to expand subsidized ticket programs accordingly. Hailu said the slate’s position is that the existing subsidized ticket policy “can be both good and needs to be expanded.”

Bollyky (THRIVE) said her slate plans to hold “open, very frequent, ideally weekly meetings that are accessible to the general public,” with notes made publicly available. Ganesan (JEDI) proposed resource-based programming that does not require social participation, including midnight food crawls using local vendor donations during finals season.

Life on the Farm

All six slates described plans to reach a broad cross-section of the sophomore class, though they differed on what that means in practice and on whether the presidency should extend into policy advocacy.

Bollyky (THRIVE) said her slate spans “almost 20 different clubs and organizations on campus.” “The fact that we’ve come together represents just the different corners of campus that we cover,” she said. Bollyky also said some competing slates are “campaigning on policy ideas that we actually, as class presidents … don’t actually have a vote in the Senate.”

Shen (SKY) affirmed his slate’s commitment to representing the Class of ’29’s diverse interests.  He noted that Endicott (SKY), a member of Stanford’s rowing team, is the only athlete of the 24 candidates. “The reason people should consider SKY [is] not because we’re necessarily better than anyone here at Stanford,” Shen said. “We think it’s because we would do the best job at putting into action the ideas of the Stanford class of 2029,” he explained. SKY also proposed a voting system so students can weigh in on which events get planned.

We Speak for the Trees took a different approach, proposing advocacy on issues including OAE housing accommodations, dining dollar conversion rates and dorm room door access systems. Kapoor said the role should encompass more than event planning. “There is a mold that’s been given to the sophomore slate, and I think that representing a class isn’t just about the events,” he said. His teammate Tong said: “We really do care and we don’t really care if precedent says [sophomore class presidents] normally don’t do this.”

Levin’s Grandkids said they organized their proposed events around different student profiles. “A lot of the time, the events are really specific towards very specific types of people,” said Luvishis. “It’s not something that you can really go by yourself.” Kratter said the slate consulted peers directly: “What you see on the list is representative of a large student body.”

SOAR proposed “six at six” dinners, which bring together curated groups of six students matched partly by existing friendships and partly by new connections. “When we’re designing this group of six people, it’s not just six random people,” said Fan. “We want to make sure that every group has some people you know, and some people that you don’t know.”

Sophia (JEDI) said the slate’s range of extracurricular involvement informs its programming. “Between the four of us, we probably span at least 20, 25 clubs,” she said. JEDI also proposed a mentorship program connecting sophomores with upperclassmen who have gone through career recruiting processes.

On Leadership

Several slates cited frosh council involvement as evidence of their preparedness for the presidency, while their competitors questioned whether that credential should carry outsized weight.

Yuryev (JEDI) said the slate’s combined background sets it apart. “This slate just absolutely has the experience,” he said, calling the group “the most hard-working group ever.” Boyle served as frosh co-president and Avani as director of communications for frosh council.

Feng (THRIVE) who served on frosh council’s Communications Committee, said that in frosh council, individual titles are less important than the group’s collaborative leadership style. “Despite the different titles and positions that people might have held, our meetings were very much like a group, collaborative effort,” Feng said. “Every frosh council member has a lot of experience, equal experiences.”

Stanford SKY questioned whether frosh council should be the primary credential for election to class presidency. “We have frosh council experience, we have high school experience within Student Council, and we also have a lot of leadership experience outside of government-related roles,” said Padrigon. “I don’t think [frosh council experience] should be the sole determiner of the presidency.”

Kapoor of Speak for the Trees, whose slate does not include a frosh council member, said the group has held extensive meetings with former class presidents, senators and council members. “Throwing the word around of experience — that’s something that comes with a weight that maybe isn’t scrutinized,” Kapoor said.

Fan (SOAR) said the frosh council presidency is primarily a delegation role. “Frosh council is like 20 people. As president of frosh council, [Boyle]’s delegating tasks between 20 people,” Fan said. He discussed his slate’s leadership experience elsewhere, including Jain’s tenure as head boy at his school in India and Maciag’s involvement with the NATO youth board.

Chung (Levin’s Grandkids), who served on frosh council, described the transition to running for president as “a natural continuation.” His teammate Luvishis, also a council member, said her work on the mental health committee shaped her priorities. “It’s not necessarily about the psets or the degree, but it’s about the people you meet, how you interact,” she said.

However, this year’s frosh council faced several organizational challenges, including communication breakdowns and uneven commitment, according to several of the slates.

Boyle (JEDI) said commitment was inconsistent among councillors. “There were committees where repeatedly, in weekly meetings, there was one committee member who was there and the rest of their committee wasn’t,” he said. 

Chung (Levin’s Grandkids) said the council “could have used more streamlined unification,” while Feng (THRIVE) attributed “some miscommunication within the different committees on frosh council” to the group’s size. SKY’s Shen said bureaucracy was a factor, describing the time-consuming and multi-layered approval process for ordering food for an event.. SOAR’s Ali echoed Shen’s point, noting a need for “coordination, communication and discipline.”

All slates said they plan to select cabinet members through open application or election processes — a requirement under new ASSU bylaws that limit cabinets to six members. Luvishis (Levin’s Grandkids) said the slate wants to ensure the process is “really accessible for people who maybe don’t have any background” in student government. THRIVE’s Bollyky said the slate would hold “a free and fair election for those six positions,” a sentiment echoed by SOAR’s Ali. “Having a fair and equitable process” for cabinet selection is “at the top of our priorities,” she said.

Voting concludes Friday at midnight.

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