On Wednesday night, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) swore in newly elected members, held a closed session on the budget and ASSU and discussed officer positions.

During the meeting, the 15 GSC members for 2018-19 were sworn in, five returning and 10 new. Council member Aditya Ranjan M.B.A. ’19 was also elected as financial officer. The GSC will determine its co-chairs and other elected officers in next week’s meeting.

Council members Amy Tarangelo, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in biology; Yiqing Ding, a master’s candidate in aeronautical engineering and Rui Liu, a third-year Ph.D. student in civil and environmental engineering are all running for co-chairs.

“This is the first time in a long while that there has been a seriously contested chair election,” said ASSU Executive and former co-chair Rosie Nelson.

The council also agreed to spend $14,591 for Fire on Fire, an annual international barbecue including twelve student organizations. The event will take place on May 12 and 1,600 people are expected to attend.

“This and Chinese New Year are the most expensive events that we put on,” said Melanie Malinas, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in biophysics.

In the meeting, Nelson also referred to the publication of the Graduate Student Life Survey final report earlier this month as the GSC’s “biggest accomplishment.”

Graduate student formal will also take place this Friday. Ph.D. student Gabby Badica, social chair, reminded members that the Office of Alcohol Policy and Education changed its sober monitor policies in 2017 to require one monitor for every 25 guests instead of one monitor for every 50 guests. According to Badica, there will be 42 volunteer monitors at the event, and each will receive a complimentary ticket in exchange for their willingness to monitor.  

Contact Anat Peled at anatpel ‘at’ stanford.edu.