The Graduate Student Council (GSC) met briefly on Wednesday to review upcoming events and student-group funding for winter quarter. ASSU President Angelina Cardona ’11 brought news of the Undergraduate Senate’s effort with GSC co-chair Justin Brown to address last Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
“Justin spoke about increasing the stipends for graduate students, especially international grad students with families,” Cardona said. “I concentrated on updating the Faculty Senate on issues of mental health, sexual misconduct and relationship abuse on this campus, and what we’re doing to address them,” Cardona said.
Cardona asked GSC members to inform their constituents about the new ASSU Executive Action Grant Program, the Undergraduate Senate’s measure to work more directly with student groups on four specific areas: student health and wellness, ending sexual misconduct and relationship abuse, campus sustainability grants and campus unity.
The GSC approved a funding transfer of a little more than $125 for The Science Bus, a service-oriented student group that brings Stanford students into contact with grade-school students at the East Palo Alto Charter School. During a field trip last December, the group did not use all the funding it requested for transportation to and from the event, but did end up paying out of pocket for student lunches that were supposed to be provided by the school. Voting members looked favorably upon the group’s request and approved the transfer without opposition.
Representing the Graduate Student Programming Board (GSPB), Krystal St. Julien requested $375 for a lottery dinner at the Banana Leaf, a Thai restaurant in Milpitas, so grad students could “mix and mingle.” St. Julien reported receiving around 100 responses with interest in attending lottery dinners, and expected no fewer for this one.
GSC programming co-chair Joanna Lankester reminded the GSC of the Rains Karaoke Night scheduled for Friday. The council was reminded that the event was “grad-wide,” meaning the event was not specific to Rains residents.
In the meeting’s closing moments, a representative from Stanford’s Vision Earth group told the council about plans for Future Fest 2.0, a three-day conference seeking to look at issues of sustainability from a design perspective. The representative requested input from the graduate community on what sort of programming the graduate students would like to see at such an event. GSC members took note of the opportunity and offered some suggestions.
“Here at Stanford you have so many incredible resources,” said Tom Spahn, the council’s law representative. Spahn encouraged Vision Earth to go beyond making the Stanford community aware of sustainability issues and attempt to create a business model or policy to really make a difference.
Contact Anna Schuessler at [email protected].