The Undergraduate Senate officially gained its first group of frosh representatives on Thursday after senators unanimously passed a bill naming three Frosh Council representatives “ex-officio” members of the Undergraduate Senate. 

After calls for frosh representation in the Senate, Senator Amira Dehmani ’24 and Senate deputy chair Darryl Thompson ’23 drafted the bill that would allow Frosh Council members Joy Jasmine Molloy ’25, Divya Ganesan ’25 and Diego Kagurabadza ’25 to achieve ex-officio status in the Senate. According to the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Constitution, ex-officio Senate members are granted all privileges that senators have but are never permitted to vote.

Although the roles and responsibilities of these frosh representatives have yet to be defined, the bill marks a new effort to include frosh voices in the Senate’s proceedings.

The Senate is also moving forward with its efforts to reform policing on Stanford’s campus. Senate co-chair Emily Nichols ’23 met with Abolish Stanford, a police abolition group, to discuss redistributing Stanford’s policing budget back to students. A campus-wide survey drafted by Senator Marion Santo ’23 about policing at Stanford will also be sent to students by the Senate this week.

Another campus-wide survey will be released in mid-February about student accessibility to Counseling & Psychological Services. Results will be used to make changes to mental health services on campus.

Senate co-chair Alain Pérez ’23 said they were interested in forming a Stanford Student Workers Union for undergraduate and graduate students, especially for achieving equitable pay for teaching assistants and resident assistants. The project will start from within an ASSU subcommittee and will expand to the proposal of a bill involving all ASSU leaders. Pérez said they plan to work with members of the United Auto Workers Union through the beginning stages of unionization. 

Thompson, who has been leading the COVID-19 isolation aid program for students, is also working with Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Sarah Church to look into increasing access to remote instruction.