The wave of university encampments in solidarity with Palestine has led to serious repercussions for students across the U.S. Protesters have faced arrests, police violence, assault, doxxing, suspensions, expulsions, housing evictions, altered graduation ceremonies, and having their degrees withheld. Now, that tension is seeping into the politics of student governments. As the semester wraps up, the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) faces allegations of election misconduct related to the victories of pro-Palestine candidates in the latest undergraduate student government race.
Carmen Kang, an incumbent student senator at Stanford, recently filed a complaint to the ASSU Constitutional Congress claiming that senators who ran in support of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement were guilty of manipulating the election outcome. The pro-BDS undergraduate senators dominated the end-of-year election results, coming in first-to-sixth place out of all candidates and write-in votes. Kang took in the eighth-most votes. Her complaint takes aim at four incoming senators, two incumbent senators, three elections commissioners, a student advocate of the BDS Referendum, and various members of The Stanford Daily.
The university’s Elections Commissions team responded to Kang’s claim by saying the election results represented the popular vote.
“The vote breakdowns for the winners of the Undergraduate Senate are accurate,” the electoral commissions committee wrote in a statement. “The EC did not manipulate data to ensure the top six spots were won by supporters of the Divestment petition or encampment. These two efforts were largely supported by the student population, as evidenced by the overwhelming affirmative vote towards the Divestment petition. In turn, voters likely supported the candidates that aligned with the goals of the Divestment petition.”
The commission called for Kang to be removed from her role as senator due to her “attempts to coerce, intimidate, and assume full control of the Undergraduate Senate.”
Gordon Allen and Ivy Chen, two incumbent senators targeted by Kang, told The Stanford Daily they believe Kang wanted to win a co-chair position, which is fueling her objections. While a portion of Kang’s 13-page complaint criticized the BDS slate and alleged accounts of antisemitism, the bulk of the document focused directly on Allen’s and Chen’s actions over the course of the campaign cycle.
In her complaint, Kang said Chen and Allen spread false information, misused resources to push divestment, engaged in unprofessional behavior, and had inappropriate ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). The PSL is a communist political party, and its Bay Area chapter assisted in organizing various pro-Palestine demonstrations at Stanford.
On Monday night, the two accused senators emailed the student body responding to Kang’s claims, according to reporting from The Stanford Daily. Their response primarily focused on denying Kang’s claims about election violations and harassment but wrapped up with a conclusion stating that Kang was attempting to disrupt the senate’s transition of power through an insurrection.
Neither Kang nor the accused members of the ASSU responded to inquiries for comment from Prism.
At a closed senate session last week, Chen and Allen asked the Stanford Department of Public Safety to be present due to concerns for the safety of the senate members. Kang’s parents also requested officers check on her during the meeting.
“I genuinely felt like I was going to get shot today, which is why I decided to go to the DPS because I feel like she is a person who can get armed,” Chen told The Daily.
Kang told The Daily she also felt unsafe, noting that her parents have received phone calls threatening to “publicly lynch” her if she does not stop campaigning. Degrading comments about Kang’s appearance and behavior have circulated on Fizz, an anonymous social media app used by university students.
“We have no reason at this time to believe further security is needed,” a Stanford University spokesperson Luisa Rapport said in a statement to The Stanford Daily. “SUDPS spoke with senators and received no substantiated information of a threat to any individuals.”
Kang has been dealing with stress-induced health issues due to the election cycle since March, as documented in an email exchange between Kang and an elections commissioner, which was obtained by The Stanford Daily.
Kang’s initial complaint claimed Chen and Allen “engaged in spreading rumors, defamation, and making false accusations, contributing to a culture of unprofessionalism and animosity within the Senate, as well as defamation during the election against fellow senators.” Chen and Allen denied this in their email follow-up.
Kang also zeroed in on Chen’s friendship with a Daily staffer in the opinion section, writing that it caused a conflict of interest in the newspaper’s election coverage.
“Editorials in The Daily’s opinions section represent the perspectives of the author, not the institution at large, and follow policies independent to those that guide news coverage,” Daily staffers wrote in their coverage of the situation.
The four newly elected senators shared a statement via Instagram, stating they “stand united against genocide and apartheid, and as such, we continue to support the liberation of Palestine and the peaceful advocacy of the People’s University in White Plaza. Our work, which includes introducing resolutions to support BDS and ethical spending, transcends any one election or vote.”
Pro-Palestine advocacy groups on campus have expressed frustration with the Stanford administration’s involvement in student elections.
“The framing of the democratic elections of senators who are in support of divestment as only possible through the senators working in collusion with influences external to the University implies a greater importance of this election to the dynamic between the current pro-Palestine student movements and the overall counteraction by university administrative teams nationwide to quell the students’ endeavors toward divestment,” Stanford Students Against Apartheid wrote in a press release.
Prism reached out to both Stanford University and Stanford Students Against Apartheid, but they did not respond to requests for comment.
The student government conflict comes after months of political pressure on campus related to the genocide in Palestine. Stanford students hosted a “Sit-In to Stop Genocide” between October and February before it was dismantled by the administration. The encampment relaunched in April as the Popular University for Gaza movement took off around the globe.
Stanford’s Constitutional Council will meet on May 24 to decide how to proceed.
