Provost Jenny Martinez told the Faculty Senate Thursday that the University has made “substantial progress” in their negotiations with the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU), but the two parties remain “rather far apart” on economic issues.

That same day, SGWU members overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike. The bargaining committee can launch a strike on Tuesday if Stanford does not make “serious movement” regarding the union’s demands, the union wrote in a press release.

“Our goal is to recruit the very best students to pursue their graduate studies here,” Martinez said. “However, we don’t think it would be fair or responsible to grant their [economic] demands.”

Martinez also said the University has made a “very fair and competitive offer,” comparable to that of Ivy-plus peer institutions, and that the administration has done “a lot of planning” in the event of a strike. The information she presented at the meeting echoed an email she and Stacey Bent, Vice Provost of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, sent to the Stanford community that evening. 

Deans envision research growth, carbon neutrality

The deans of the Graduate School of Education, the School of Medicine and the Doerr School of Sustainability outlined their schools’ futures at the Thursday Faculty Senate meeting.

“Our greatest strength is the fact that we are a part of Stanford University,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the School of Medicine. “Being good citizens of the University is our first priority.”

Presenting an update and overview of the School of Medicine, Minor described a “synergistic” relationship between the school’s three goals: research, education and clinical care. He also presented the future of life sciences, AI and cancer research as the three focuses of the school.

“There have been more advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the last decade than the past three decades, yet we are barely scratching the surface,” Minor said. “We believe there should be a designated cancer facility, analogous to that on the East Coast, on the West Coast — here at Stanford.”

Jonathan Berk, a finance professor at the Graduate School of Business (GSB), asked Minor to compare the medical school’s ranking with the University of California, San Francisco Medical School (UCSF).

In response, Minor referenced the “unparalleled” strength of Northern California institutions UCSF, Berkeley and Stanford and expressed a focus on “fueling collaborative research among the three institutions,” rather than viewing the universities in direct competition.

Dan Schwartz, dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE), said that the school is prioritizing “rejuvenating the core,” resulting in 50% new faculty.

The GSE is prioritizing encouraging undergraduate interest in education and renewing Stanford’s interest in their mission, according to Schwartz. 

Schwartz also called Stanford an “accelerator for learning,” highlighting that a California law to push back the start time of public schools was enacted based on Stanford research. However, he also expressed concern that the education field “has been bad at getting research-based, proven solutions into practice.”

The new GSE campus, which has been under construction since 2022, is set to have its grand opening in September 2025.

Arun Majumdar, Dean of the Doerr School of Sustainability, shared that half of their 140 faculty members have “joint appointments” with every other school on campus.

“It was really important to start this way,” Majumdar said. “In addition to the all-campus feel for research, we have developed the connective tissue to bring the whole campus together and open the portal to the rest of the world.”

Majumdar also noted the importance of “balancing” discovery with solutions-based research, citing the launch of the school’s Sustainability Accelerator, an initiative focused on “taking solutions and launching them into society.”

Jane Willenbring, associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences, asked Majumdar to address Stanford’s 2018 commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050.

Majumdar said that the “scope is relatively easy” for the University to reach this goal within the time frame. “Some of the research coming out of the accelerator may really help in Stanford’s ability to get to net-zero,” he said.