Stanford awards student drag troupe $50,000 — five times more than veterans group

Stanford University awarded its drag troupe $50,000 in joint annual grants while offering its association of veterans one-fifth of that amount this year.

Undergraduate students at Stanford University pay $240 quarterly for the Associated Students of Stanford University Activities Fee, which helps fund the organizations. 

According to grant documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, the Stanford Drag Troupe received five times as much funding as the Stanford Undergraduate Association of Veterans, which was allocated $10,000.

In student voting, 88 percent approved funding for the Stanford Undergraduate Association of Veterans, while about 84 percent voted to fund the Stanford Drag Troupe. Last year, the drag troupe sponsored a performance by two drag queens, “Slut the Rock Johnson” and “ZZ Chic,” as part of a “sex trivia” event titled, “Are You Smarter Than A Sexpert?” 

Additionally, the Muslim Student Union received $175,000, which is “more than the budget for every Christian student group combined,” the Free Beacon reported. 

Meanwhile, Stanford’s Republican club received a little over $7,500.

Student organizations receive funding through a student-led allocation process at Stanford. The Associated Students of Stanford University manages this process, funds student groups, represents the student body, and strives to enhance the overall student experience.

Luisa Rapport, director of media relations at Stanford University, told The College Fix that elected student representatives of ASSU allocate based on the same standards for all student organizations, regardless of viewpoint or affiliation. Students make requests and then ASSU makes recommendations that the students vote on.

“Student organizations make requests for specific amounts each year, which are considered by ASSU,” Rapport said. “ASSU then makes recommendations based on those requests, and they are voted on by the student body. Allocations can vary from year to year based on many factors.”

Rapport noted that student organizations span a wide range of interests. 

“Stanford has more than 600 student organizations that span a wide range of academic, cultural, political, religious, and social interests, reflecting the breadth of our student body and their interests,” Rapport said.

John Sailer, director of higher education policy at the Manhattan Institute, said that every dollar allocated reflects a value judgment. Institutions typically rely on metrics like popularity and cost to determine that value, which often results in the most popular groups being seen as the most worthy of funding.

“To some extent, that makes sense, as there’s no reason to give a ten-person organization the same resource thousand-person organization,” Sailer said. “But this suggests that whatever is most popular is most worthwhile.” 

“It’s much more difficult for administrators to make qualitative decisions about what’s actually worth funding, but that’s something they should be doing,” he said. 

Sailer noted that the imbalance says more about campus culture than the university’s judgment, as the drag troupe is more popular and the majority of students are not veterans.

However, this could raise questions about Stanford’s recruitment practices, as universities can favor applicants who show interest in particular issues, like identity and social justice. 

“It’s a familiar story: students are recruited for their interest in social justice, group identities, and activism and then — surprise! — they build a campus culture obsessed with social justice, group identities, and activism,” Sailer said.