The feature “On this day in Stanford history” details events that occurred on the same date in past years at Stanford.
According to The Stanford Daily’s archives, on May 31 in….
1918: Stanford’s student government came under new rule with the passage of a new constitution by the student body. Only 49 votes were cast, with 39 done so in favor of the change. Among other changes, the constitution created a permanent election board, changed the executive committee to a more powerful student council and the introduced the possibility of recall for student leaders.
1928: A young man was taken into police custody after an unprompted visit to a sorority house, due to “annoying behavior” and an insistence on “demonstrating his athletic prowess.” Authorities suspected he was on drugs.
1933: A recount of the recent ASSU election was called for because, among other reasons, candidates and their campaign managers had been involved in counting the votes.
1939: In an article headlined “Daily Stops; Life Begins,” it was announced that that day’s issue was to be the last of the quarter. “We gotta take finals too,” the article explained.
1955: The Daily reported on continued clashes in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Egypt. “Each side accused the other of provoking the attack,” the article said.
1961: A front-page article on the Fair Play for Cuba Committee explored the “Communist-infiltrated organization,” a pro-Fidel Castro group with a presence on 37 college campuses. The article, from the United Press International, made no mention of Stanford.
1972: A group composed of members from the Palo Alto Human Relations Commission and the Palo Alto Youth Advisory Council issued a report criticizing the Palo Alto police for an earlier “mass arrest” of 205 protestors. The report found no misconduct by Palo Alto officers, but determined that it was “unlikely that mass arrests [were] needed.”
1978: The ASSU voted in support of divesting student funds from general university ones, primarily because the latter were partially invested in business that supported apartheid South Africa.
1990: After having taught drama at Stanford for a decade, Prof. Sandra Richards left to teach at Northwestern University; The Daily explored he reasons for departure in an article titled “Faculty of color face problems at elite universities.”
1995: The Daily announced that universal student ID cards would make their debut the following school year, combining ID, dining hall and debit card functionality.
2012: Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, spoke to an audience of students in NVIDIA auditorium as part of the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thoughts Leader Seminar. “So many companies that you would think about in the hall of fame were started by people who, basically, didn’t know what the hell they were doing,” Houston said.
Contact Brian Contreras at brianc42 ‘at’ stanford.edu.