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Stanford’s war against its own students

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Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#31

Pure politics, nothing technology related.

Hacker news doesn't exist purely to curate tech articles. It's really for anything that people here find interesting. There are countless posts here every day that are about systems or policy or non-tech science or just simply something thought provoking.

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#32
This is such a weird article that I feel like I must not understand it. From what I can tell:

A fraternity hosted one or more parties where, by finding of fact and apparently the admission of the frat itself, they served alcohol to minors, contravening an obvious Stanford policy; as a result, they had to go through an annoying adjudication process and spend several months under the thread of a long-term suspension of the fraternity.

Contemporaneously, a student assaulted with a cup of coffee another student that she believed was himself responsible for assaulting one of her friends. Stanford began an annoying adjudication process, this time including a thread of expulsion from the school. The student committed suicide.

The latter case is, of course, a terrible tragedy. But an adjudication process doesn't seem like a disproportionate response to an assault, however minor. Stanford students are adults; transpose this setting to a workplace and there would be no adjudication at all, only an immediate termination. The story seems dead set on pinning the responsibility for the tragedy on Stanford, and Stanford may well be at fault! But it's not clear from the article how.

Meanwhile: the organizer of the frat party is less jubilant about his campus life after his frat party ran afoul of the frat party police. I feel like I have to have missed some other detail of how Stanford messed with his life, because from what I can tell, at all times in this story, he remained a Stanford student in good standing. His frat ran a risk of being prevented from hosting parties. So what?

Again: if I sound flippant here, it's likely because there is some aspect of this story that I simply don't understand.

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#33

How could this: > Stanford now has more than 10,000 administrators who oversee the 7,761 undergraduate and 9,565 graduate students—almost enough for each student to have their own personal butler. (There are about 2,290 faculty members.) These bureaucrats make up an increasingly powerful segment of the university population, as they expand their portfolio and send the message that all conflict should be adjudicated b…

Where is that 10,000 number coming from? I don't see it on the PDF they link to, and I don't see it on the Stanford site:

https://facts.stanford.edu/administration/staff/

That 10k number doesn't even sound impossible, knowing what we know about large universities now, but I just wonder where it came from. Maybe I'm missing something obvious on that PDF?

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#34

Pure politics, nothing technology related.

Considering how many tech startups are founded by Stanford grads (or current students), I think it's pretty relevant on HN, in my humble opinion.

That's what an alumni group is for.

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised they allow alcohol at student organization events, period. My boring public university no-one's heard of sure didn't, years back.

Look we are trying to have a moral panic about political correctness here get in the spirit please.

Spirit? That's a rule violation sorry

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#36

"For the past several years, Stanford has required students to adhere to a Student Party Policy, which includes a highly detailed “Harm Reduction Plan” mandating multiple sober monitors and designated alcohol service areas, and prohibiting the serving of any hard liquor. Party hosts must also provide “EANABs,” or Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages, to “contribute to an inclusive and inviting experience” for a…

As a non-drinker all of those seem to me pretty reasonable requests for any kind of gathering.

A bit organized perhaps, but not insane as some commenters suggest.

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#37

"For the past several years, Stanford has required students to adhere to a Student Party Policy, which includes a highly detailed “Harm Reduction Plan” mandating multiple sober monitors and designated alcohol service areas, and prohibiting the serving of any hard liquor. Party hosts must also provide “EANABs,” or Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages, to “contribute to an inclusive and inviting experience” for a…

This sounds so crazy. Can't they just leave the premises to have a good party?

> Can't they just leave the premises to have a good party?

Yes. As others mention, many universities prohibit alcohol at official student organization events.

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#38

"For the past several years, Stanford has required students to adhere to a Student Party Policy, which includes a highly detailed “Harm Reduction Plan” mandating multiple sober monitors and designated alcohol service areas, and prohibiting the serving of any hard liquor. Party hosts must also provide “EANABs,” or Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages, to “contribute to an inclusive and inviting experience” for a…

The real problem is that this is presumably enforceable. How is that possible?

Re: Stanford’s war against its own students

#40

"For the past several years, Stanford has required students to adhere to a Student Party Policy, which includes a highly detailed “Harm Reduction Plan” mandating multiple sober monitors and designated alcohol service areas, and prohibiting the serving of any hard liquor. Party hosts must also provide “EANABs,” or Equally Attractive Non-Alcoholic Beverages, to “contribute to an inclusive and inviting experience” for a…

As a non-drinker all of those seem to me pretty reasonable requests for any kind of gathering. A bit organized perhaps, but not insane as some commenters suggest.

They're not requests, they're requirements.
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