In its second meeting, the 19th Undergraduate Senate discussed senators’ top priorities and potential projects, as well as overarching institutional goals as part of Stanford’s long-range planning initiative.

“A lot of things are tentative right now,” said Chair Kojoh Atta ’20.

Executives Justice Tention ’18 and Vicki Niu ’18 accepted ideas from senators for a presentation on community life that they will give to a long-term planning steering group next Tuesday.

In his senatorial update, Hamzeh Daoud ’20 advocated the creation of senator-monitored “brave spaces” – conversations that foster political diversity and disagreement – on campus.

Other senators discussed collaborating with First Generation and/or Low-Income Partnership (FLIP) to advocate for the University to provide additional Cardinal Dollars or money via VISA gift cards to students who need such funds when dining halls are closed over spring break.

For Atta, amending the ASSU’s founding documents is a central priority during the upcoming term.

“We really want to fix the bylaws and ensure that they follow the Constitution, as right now, in some cases, there are still discrepancies,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “These are things we need to fix sooner rather than later, so that we can effectively carry out our other goals.”

Atta did not specify an example of such a discrepancy, but a Constitutional Council case recently petitioned against the Senate by 2017 ASSU Undergraduate Senate candidate Jacob Randolph ’19 revolves around a potential disparity between Constitutional rules and the Senate’s bylaws.  

During the funding requests open forum, the Arab Student Association received funds for its annual spring culture fair. Other groups, such as the International Socialist Organization, Stanford Raagapella, the Black Feminist Collective and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, also received funding.

No new or tabled bills were available for consideration or for a vote.

Contact Courtney Douglas at ccd4 ‘at’ stanford.edu.