Ideas, Flyers, and Behavior

https://outlook.office.com/mail/search/id/AAQkADA5ZDIxMTI3LW...
Ideas, flyers, and behavior

Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs <[email protected]>
Thu 11/7/2019 2:38 PM
To: Scott Borgeson <[email protected]>
NOVEMBER 07, 2019
Dear students,
I am forwarding to you a message we shared this morning with VSO leaders

and student residential staff. I know many of you have been impacted by the
complex issues the provost and I discuss in this message, so I am sharing this
information with you, too. Student staff in your residences and your
residence deans are here to support you, and I am always here to meet with
and support each of you as well.
Sincerely,
Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost for Student Affairs
------
Dear voluntary student organization leaders and student residential staff,
We are writing to you today in your capacity as student leaders who play
critical roles as the keepers and creators of student communities. You make a
tremendous difference for students every day, and we are deeply grateful for
the care, compassion and kindness you bring into our communities.
1 of 3 11/13/2019, 4:04 PM
In the last few weeks, our campus dialogue has heated up around flyers, and
ideas evoked in those flyers. We know that many of you are feeling distressed
and frustrated that similar incidents have occurred multiple times over the
past few years. Debating ideas and disseminating ideas via flyers are an
essential part of campus life. However, in recent weeks, some of the
behaviors that have accompanied these practices have crossed a line of
respectful treatment that we feel need to be addressed head-on.
We have learned about exchanges that included verbal threats and

intimidating behavior. We have learned about a student group demanding
entrance into Casa Zapata although those present do not live there and are
not invited guests. We have learned about the same student group gathering
outside Casa Zapata with cameras, appearing to record residents and guests
as they came and went. These behaviors do not comport with our
expectations for a caring, respectful community. We have formal processes to
determine if such behaviors violate university policy. We are not commenting
on those processes or any potential outcomes. What we are commenting on is
the basic human dignity that we expect every member of the Stanford
community to extend to one another.
To the leaders of our student organizations: you are given the opportunity to
apply for and use the funds that are provided through student fees and you
are given access to campus spaces for meetings and events. With these
privileges, we have the highest expectations of your behavior and the ways
you engage with fellow students.
In this time of heightened tensions and fear from national and international
events, we need to recognize real fear, grounded in real threats and true
harm at events still raw and recent in our memory -- El Paso and Gilroy,
Pittsburgh and Poway. We need to respect that there are people on our
campus who just want to feel safe and secure inside their homes and
community spaces. Casa Zapata and El Centro Chicano y Latino have been
particularly impacted by these events, and we ask our campus community to
extend care and support to Casa Zapata and our broader Latinx community.
2 of 3 11/13/2019, 4:04 PM
We all have a foundational responsibility to support and respect all members

of our community. We all also have a responsibility to comport ourselves in
ways that are worthy of mutual respect. It is important that we embrace a
sense of humility as the counterbalance to the privilege of being here and the
tremendous intellectual capital we wield. When we bring harm to one
another, we go against what this university was built to achieve.
We ask student residential staff to continue discouraging students from

tearing down or defacing flyers. The ideas reflected in flyers may be
abhorrent to many in our community but tearing down flyers does not
eliminate those ideas from campus. Instead, we ask that you engage your
communities in discussing controversial ideas, that you give strong voice to
counter-opinions, and that you support students in distress. The challenges of
our time require us to engage together as a community.
Each of you has a choice to make and a role to play. We and our colleagues
will be here for you and all the students around you. We will do all we can to
ensure everyone feels respected and safe, but the truth is the power to shape
the environment in which we live is a responsibility that we hold collectively.
Sincerely,
Persis Drell
Provost
Susie Brubaker-Cole
Vice Provost for Student Affairs
Copyright © 2019 Stanford University, All rights reserved.
3 of 3 11/13/2019, 4:04 PM

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https://outlook.office.com/mail/search/id/AAQkADA5ZDIxMTI3LW...

Ideas, flyers, and behavior

NOVEMBER 07, 2019

I am forwarding to you a message we shared this morning with VSO leaders

Dear voluntary student organization leaders and student residential staff,

We have learned about exchanges that included verbal threats and

We all have a foundational responsibility to support and respect all members

We ask student residential staff to continue discouraging students from

Copyright © 2019 Stanford University, All rights reserved.

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