The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) reviewed final details for their town hall with Stanford’s Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) Thursday at 1 p.m. over Zoom, which hopes to provide students a chance to directly ask questions to R&DE executives and employees.
In recent weeks, students have complained on Fizz about rats, microplastics and a lack of food variety in dining halls. Stanford’s housing application process, which has changed every year for the past five years, is also managed by R&DE. The 2025-2026 housing cycle is set to open in the first week of March.
Earlier this week, the UGS collected possible questions for R&DE from students, receiving around 300 responses. The first hour of the town hall will be spent answering a selection of these questions, while the latter portion of the event will allow students to ask live questions through a Q&A.
“As much as students are ranting on Fizz, it’s also important to engage in dialogue with R&DE,” UGS co-chair Ivy Chen ’26 said.
UGS also tabled their joint resolution from last week to enhance Title IX education and engagement with the SHARE Title IX and Title VI Office, citing a desire to continue workshopping the language of the resolution within both the undergraduate and graduate senates.
The senate additionally proposed the idea of a potential resolution to expand course offerings for Creative Expression (CE) requirements to include physical wellness, outdoor and horse classes. Chen hopes that the change would reflect the “diverse ways” creativity manifests at Stanford.
The change to CE requirements would mirror the opportunities given to students at other peer institutions to pursue physical wellness within their curriculum, such as MIT’s requirement that all students must pass a swim test or take a swim course.
However, this would not substitute the CE requirement with physical education, and Chen emphasized that this resolution would not create new course requirements for students.
UGS also considered options for a new location for the Sexual Health and Peer Resource Center (SHPRC), following a request from Vaden Health Services Student Health Center for the SHPRC to leave its current location in Vaden by the end of this year.
“Vaden does not want [SHPRC] in Vaden anymore,” said senator Jadon Urogdy ’27.
Though SHPRC was presented with the option of the Old Union basement, the center declined due to the space being “creepy” and “requir[ing] a lot of repairs and money [SHPRC doesn’t] have,” said senator Viviana Chuquijajas ’26.
UGS co-chair Gordon Allen ’26 noted Kingscote Gardens, which houses Stanford’s Institutional Equity and Access programs — including the Title IX office — as an alternative location not yet explored.
Senator Celeste Vargas ’27, UGS chair of health and safety, said SHPRC “should be institutionalized” rather than exist solely as a voluntary student organization (VSO).
UGS also passed a motion to hold a special meeting during week 10 to review and approve funding packages.