The Graduate Student Council (GSC) voted unanimously on Wednesday to condemn the University’s response to the summer noose incident, a response that administrators acknowledged came too late and with too little action attached.
The “Resolution to Condemn Recent Finding of Noose” addressed the five-day gap between when the noose was sighted near Columbae and the University’s official email in response, as well as the lack of communication between administrators and organizations supporting Stanford’s Black Community.
Resolution condemns response to noose incident
Organized by the Undergraduate Senate and multiple Black student organizations, the GSC’s resolution pushes to hold the administration accountable for a perceived lack of communication to authorities, students and organizations in Stanford’s Black Community.
“During my undergraduate degree at [Duke], we had a similar experience,” said Kari Barclay, a Ph.D. student in Theatre and Performance Study. “What Duke did well was use its education to teach the history of lynching in the U.S. and the symbolism. I want to make this helps spark further teaching and education reflective of structure and inequality.”
A July Daily op-ed carried similar criticisms, contrasting the University’s 148-word-long response to the Duke president’s 1400-word speech, “delivered publicly, with depth, with spirit, mere hours after [the event].”
Universal voter registration
The GSC also passed the “Universal Student Voter Registration” bill to increase civic engagement and the sheer amount of student voters. The bill acknowledges that “such efforts must be supplemented by institutional reforms to ensure a long-term shift in campus culture surrounding voter registration.”
The bill urged Stanford to add a mandatory choice voter registration system that would place an additional enrollment hold for students on Axess that are eligible to vote but unregistered. In order to lift the hold, students would need to register to vote or decline to do so. The system will not penalize students who are ineligible to vote.
R&DE update
Stanford Dining Director Eric Montell met with the Council and updated them on the food pantry pop-up on Oct. 28, the final of three meant to mitigate graduate student food insecurity. He noted that 125 families had signed up already at the time of the GSC meeting. Montell announced that another pop-up, supported by Second Harvest food bank, would take place on Nov. 20 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
With 405 people served at the Sept. 24 food pantry installation, Montell expects a significant turnout at the upcoming events.
Contact Emily Geigh Nichols at enichol5 ‘at’ stanford.edu and Casey Hidekawa Lane at clane23 ‘at’ stanford.edu.