The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) unanimously tabled a joint resolution with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) to designate Stanford as a sanctuary campus at Wednesday’s weekly meeting. This resolution would prevent the University from assisting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s federal immigration enforcement unless mandated by a court order.
UGS’s motion to table follows an update from resolution co-author and GSC representative Artem Arzyn ’25 M.S. ’25, who recently met with Provost Jenny Martinez and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Stephanie Kalfayan on this issue.
Arzyn told the Senate that, based on the meeting and discussions with fellow GSC members, it would be best to table this resolution, citing the University’s position on institutional neutrality and GSC’s concerns over the issue being “highly publicized.”
“Personally, I think it’s concerning that professors, staff members and students are allowed to want fellow students to be deported,” Arzyn said. “But it does align with the institutional neutrality position.”
Arzyn reassured UGS of the University’s continued support for undocumented immigrants through a “training or renewal position in some capacity,” funding for external lawyers and willingness to answer students’ questions surrounding immigration and commitment to providing them with resources.
Undocumented immigrants also have access to meetings with members of the Immigrant Rights Clinic (IRC) of the Stanford Law School, which defends clients facing deportation, Arzyn added.
The University and GSC will continue to release more information throughout Know Your Rights Week, an initiative aiming to educate the Stanford community about immigrant rights under the President Donald Trump administration through events from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13.
UGS co-chair Ivy Chen ’26 and senator Celeste Vargas ’27 also updated UGS on their initiative to implement educational programming on Title IX, which deals with campus sexual assault prevention.
Chen, Vargas, UGS co-chair cordon Allen ’26 and senator Jadon Urogdy ’27 met with Benjamin Bradley, the architect of Dartmouth College’s Sexual Violence Prevention Program (SVPP), for a “discussion focused on understanding how he and his team developed educational programming,” Chen told the Senate.
The four of them will meet with Carolyn Yee and other members of SVPP’s student advisory board on Tuesday to find ways to “engage student interest in sexual violence prevention programming and [foster] a culture of consent” as UGS launches SHARE Title IX & VI Office’s online student ambassador program.
Vargas said that she will also meet with SVPP Director Amanda Childress next Friday to gain insights into how Dartmouth runs SVPP and how UGS can implement similar measures.
Chen and Allen plan to meet with Carley Jaskulski, Director of Prevention Education for students in the SHARE Title IX & VI Office, today to provide updates on their implementation of UGS’s Title IX proposal.
The UGS also approved funding for Volunteer Student Organizations (VSOs) and reaffirmed its support for The Bridge, which provides 24/7 anonymous peer counseling to students but has been facing funding gaps and a possible relocation.
