Jinny Shinsato

Jinny Shinsato

Protest Quach firing

April 28, 1988

Jinny Shinsato, Fidelia Butt, Asian American Students Association.

Origins of Peoples Platform

Letter to the Stanford Daily, Volume 189, Issue 39, 10 April 1986;

As members of the Third World/Progressive Alliance, we would like to protest the handling of this year's election by Jim McGrath, the elections hearing commissioner. We spent weeks developing the Peoples Platform, a document intended to build an atmosphere of respect for all peoples here at Stanford, in our community and throughout the world. Because we want the 1986-87 ASSU to be responsive to our needs, we have been especially careful not to disqualify the candidates for ASSU Senate who are running to uphold the principles of the Peoples Platform. Since the end of last quarter, we have continuously met with the members of the ASSU Elections Committee to stay within the bylaws of the elections handbook for our campaign to promote The Peoples Platform, and those candidates who have stated their support for the platform.

Jim McGrath has made it especially difficult for these candidates to campaign by overturning his publicity decisions after they accommodated them. McGrath has been making arbitrary interpretations of the bylaws specifically against these candidates. McGrath has treated the candidates who endorse our platform as a slate regardless of the fact that they have constantly insisted that they are running as individuals. For example, he has forced these candidates to check that none of their fliers "appear" (to him) similar in design. He has also ridiculously stated that the candidates cannot share certain words (which he has defined as "buzz" words), phrases, logos or even the same color flier, despite the fact that they all do agree with principles of the platform. Would McGrath ask that congressional candidates not run under the principles of the U.S. Constitution? We do feel that the just bylaws to any election are necessary and ensure a fair campaign. However, we do object to the fact that McGrath is forcing the candidates to waste time emphasizing differences rather than allowing them to express their own chosen principles for their own campaigns.

Lisa Neeley - Stanford American Indian Organization, Ed Gilliland - Stanford Central American Action Network, Jinny Shinsato - Asian American Student Association, Michael J. Schmitz- Stanford Out of South Africa, Derek Miyahara - Asian American Student Association, Amanda Kemp - Black Student Union, Gina Hernandez - MEChA, Elsa Tsutaoka- Third World Women's Caucus.

"The status quo has got to go"

January 1988, holding placards asserting "The status quo has got to go" and "The core list is the real closing of the American mind," more than 100 students flanked an entrance to the Law School yesterday through which Faculty Senate members passed on their way to debate changes in the University's Western Culture requirement. Members of the Asian American Students Association, the Black Student Union, MEChA, the Stanford American Indian Organization, Stanford Organization for Lesbian and Gay Equality and Students United for a Democratic Education staged a demonstration in support of the Western Culture Task Force's proposed revisions of the Western Culture, or Area One, requirement.

The demonstrators, who held signs listing notable minority and women writers' names and quotations, turned out for the meeting to "show the Faculty Senate that we do have support from the community and to make sure the support is heard," BSU spokesperson Louis Jackson said. Sophomore Canetta Ivy read a statement written for the occasion by the Rev. Jesse Jackson praising the "courageous stuggle" of the Stanford students to change the curriculum. "The proposal to change the Stanford Western Culture program is in the best spirit of the Rainbow Coalition," Jackson wrote. "To be truly educated, one must study the fullness of our nation. The imminent changes at Stanford represent a positive step into the future for higher education in America," Jackson said. The demonstration was staged to show approval for the task force's proposal for a new course titled "Cultures, Ideas and Values." CIV would include the study of works from at least one European culture and at least one nonEuropean culture, as well as works by women and people of color. The current Western Culture core reading list of 15 authors would be abolished under the task force proposal.

In addition, the proposal calls for a review of the curriculum in three years, at which time a core list could be proposed, according to senior Rudy Fuentes, a student representative to the Faculty Senate's Committee on Undergraduate Studies. Senior Jinny Shinsato voiced AASA's support for the task force proposal. In a statement read at the demonstration, Shinsato said the proposal is a "progressive step" because it recognizes the importance of "contrasting ideas and values drawn from different traditions and cultures and of moving away from a Eurocentric focus."

In addition to Students for Western Culture, a group called "Save the Core!" met two days ago to organize a campaign in support of English Prof. William Chace's recent counterproposal to keep the core reading list and to add a selection of works by minorities and women to the required reading.

Louis Jackson wrote that the counterproposal should have been made a long time ago "if it was that important to them." The struggle to change the Western Culture requirement has gone on for almost eight years, Jackson wrote, but the opposition to change emerged only two days before the debate. "It was almost hypocritical in a way," he said. According to senior Julie Martinez, spokesperson for MEChA, Chace's proposal is "tokenist, adding a few minorities and women on the side to appease people." The task force proposal, if approved by the senate, would give "a much better perspective of the ideas that made our society and a better reflection of the people that make up this society today," Martinez said.

Stanford labor negotiations

Several students wrote a letter to the Stanford Daily, June 2, 1988;

We are concerned that this year's negotiations be fair and visible to the Stanford community. Workers are an important part of the Stanford community and one that we respect. We see University support for open negotiations as the first step in administrative commitment to treating the union in a fair and just fashion.

• Mary Dillard - Chair Black Student Union
• Lucky Gutierrez - Chair MEChA
• Fidelia Butt - President, Asian American Students Association
• Jinny Shinsato - Asian-American intern
• Barbara Voss - Stanford Organization for Lesbian and Gay Equality
• Kathleen Coll - Students United for a Democratic Education