On Wednesday the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed its position as a facilitator of freedom of speech on the Stanford campus. In response to a questions raised about religious-event funding, the council invited Nanci Howe of Student Activities and Leadership to speak about the University’s relationship with the bylaws regarding religious and political funding. GSC funding committee chair Krystal St. Julien clarified the guidelines the group has been using in the past year to make funding decisions.

“Right now we cannot fund religious and political events with the strict exception that they are educational and open to everybody,” St. Julien said. “One of the things that has come up in the discussion is that it is making certain student groups feel excluded.”

Howe clarified the basis for the rules, saying that Stanford’s status as a 501(c)(3) organization restricts funds coming directly from the University from supporting candidates running for office.

“We cannot support partisan and political activities,” said Howe. “‘Partisan’ is narrowly defined by someone running for office. We cannot endorse or fund candidates, and cannot put the University in a position of funding candidates. That is against tax law.”

Howe could not be sure of the origins of the funding bylaws regarding religious events, but she encouraged the GSC to think about the values they were planning to uphold with their final decisions.

“There are two philosophical concerns: what is your body’s commitment to free speech and free association? If you do restrict funding, it should be content-neutral across all activities because you might be abridging someone’s speech,” said Howe.

Some council members expressed reservations about writing a bylaw intended to be passed down from year to year. Addy Satija, a fourth-year graduate student in electrical engineering, hoped to protect the transient nature of each council.

“I would think it would be useful to keep [the bylaw] standing at least for a year,” Satija said.

Ultimately, councilmembers came to the conclusion that the decision would be theirs to make. The GSC planned to discuss the matter at greater length at an open session directly following the meeting as well as at its upcoming retreat.

“We can ask as many administrators as we want,” said Jessica Tsai, council co-chair. “But in the end, we have to make our own decision about our values.”

Contact Anna Schuessler at [email protected].