At this week’s Graduate Student Council meeting, voting members commended student group collaboration, the approval of a new Law School representative and the power of debate.
The meeting opened, as it usually does, with the evaluation of student group requests for funding, but this week, the group found it had fewer student group events to approve for funding than it normally does, as the Diwali festival was being supported by three student groups instead of one. The GSC has been encouraging collaboration among student groups during their programming planning in the hopes of streamlining some of the funding it dedicates to student activities. The group was pleased to see this level of collaboration between graduate and undergraduate groups, among which are Sanskriti and the Stanford India Association.
“Can I just commend these groups for working together on this event?” said Imeh Williams, the GSC’s education representative. The groups planning the Diwali celebration, which is a five-day Hindu festival of lights, were also recognized for their willingness to work within the line item caps.
The group welcomed Tom Spahn, a third-year law student, to its ranks after a brief questioning period and a group vote. The GSC has been operating without a representative from the Law School and was excited to have Spahn on board.
“I thought it was a good way to learn about the University and bridge the gap between the Law School and the rest of the graduate student body,” Spahn said. He will be sworn into the GSC at next week’s meeting.
ASSU Executives Kelsei Wharton ’12 and Angelina Cardona ’11 attended Wednesday night’s meeting to update the GSC on undergraduate programming and explain their elections bill, which the two proposed to ASSU Undergraduate Senate on Tuesday. Designed to make running for student government positions more accessible for a greater part of the student population, the bill would include, among other measures, a $750 cap on campaign spending for candidates applying for public financing.
Some expressed hesitation for such a measure, arguing that the bill would be too invasive to students’ budgets. The majority of the GSC, however, seemed to support the bill.
“We should have a bill that supports good campaigns, not rich campaigns,” said Fanuel Muindi, a proxy for Drew Kennedy.
“The point is about education, it’s not about winning,” said council member Krystal St. Julien. “We’re talking about who has the most drive to innovate and do the most for the school.”
Contact Anna Schuessler at [email protected].