The Undergraduate Senate (UGS)’s Affordability and Accessibility Committee is awaiting a new Executive Director of Stanford Transportation to fill Bryan Shaw’s outgoing position before they can take the next steps to improve the Disability Golf (DisGo) Cart Service, senators said at Wednesday’s meeting.
Class coordinators from the Disability Community (DisCo) space had gathered data over the summer on specific improvements that could be made to the DisGo service, which included making the service more accessible for members of the Stanford community with disabilities and medical conditions as well as facilitating travel between core campus locations.
This Wednesday, UGS Co-Chair Gordon Allen ’26 and Lizbeth Hernandez Rios ’25, chair of the Affordability and Accessibility Committee, met with them and the DisCo advocacy group to discuss how UGS could help them facilitate their efforts to improve DisGo.
Hernandez Rios said that, as DisCo continues to engage in conversations with Vice Provost of Student Affairs Michele Rasmussen, UGS will continue to “advocate for student voices.”
The Senate also addressed their ongoing initiative to continue supporting Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS)’s shuttle service facilitating students’ travel to and from the nearby airports. Hernandez Rios, Allen, Celeste Vargas ’27 and UGS Co-Chair Ivy Chen ’26 recently met with Rasmussen to discuss potential improvements to this service. Hernandez Rios said they should work more closely with Stanford Transportation to better present the needs of the student body to them.
Yoanna Hoskins ’27 and Viviana Chuquijajas ’26 also gave an update on their initiative to collaborate with Green Library to expand the First-Generation and/or Low-Income (FLI) library. The FLI library is a library loan system for used textbooks. Hoskins and Chuquijajas want to expand access and affordability to textbooks for FLI students through funding provided by Green Library. They are using last year’s data provided by Diego Kagurabadza ’25, the Associated Students of Stanford University president to see what the most important books are for the student body.
The Senate is drafting a joint resolution to support undocumented students and another joint resolution to establish a student staff at Bechtel International Center to resolve issues international students face regarding financial aid. At their Wednesday meeting, they also approved funding for Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs).