The Graduate Student Council (GSC) provided updates from the University on international students, considered a resolution to improve Title IX education and probed Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) on rodents and the overnight guest policy at their meeting Monday.

GSC co-chair and fifth-year chemistry Ph.D. Emmit Pert, served as a GSC representative in a recent meeting with the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) and Vice Provost for Student Affairs (VPSA). Pert shared that the “high-level takeaway” for international students after the meeting was the University’s hope to send “individual students who have concerns to the right resources that can be sufficiently confidential and give them the right legal protections.” 

Pert pointed to the Office of the General Counsel and the Bechtel Center as existing resources for students with legal concerns and said that the bulk of the meeting was spent discussing “campus climate” in light of “all the news.”

On April 4, the University disclosed that four students and two recent graduates had their student visas revoked. On April 8, the University confirmed that additional students had their student visas revoked but said it would no longer provide updates on the total number of students impacted.

Pert also said VPGE & VPSA “dodge[ed]” questions about the application of California’s sanctuary state laws, which often limit state and local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement. 

“The basic response is, ‘We are obligated to follow the laws as applied to us,’” Pert said. “They were not looking very excited to discuss these things.”

The GSC also debated a bill to enhance Title IX education and shift the campus culture surrounding Title IX. The bill calls for a four-year curriculum with specific recommendations for each undergraduate class, neighborhood and dorm-based training and increased emergency contraception accessibility. 

Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) President Diego Kagurabadza ’25 expressed concern that, although the bill was presented as a joint-resolution, it could lack “sufficient graduate participation efforts” because the language suggested placing a majority of the work on the Undergraduate Senate.

Zev Granowitz ’23 Ph.D. ’27, the GSC treasurer, noted that the issue seemed to branch beyond the language of the resolution. “It also seems like a process thing,” Granowitz said. “Most of these processes seem to focus on the undergraduate experience.”

Kagurabadza said he would discuss the concern with the Undergraduate Senate.

The GSC also voiced concerns to Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) leadership at the meeting over rodents and pests on campus, specifically regarding rats near the Rains Houses dumpsters and fruit flies around the Munger Residences entrances.

David Ward, assistant vice provost of student housing operations, called pest management a “24/7 challenge.” He encouraged students to close the lids of trash bins and report any pest or rodent sightings.

“Rodents are out there looking for food sources, shelter, and to get inside our buildings,” Ward said. “We’re doing everything that we can, and we will continue to.”

Pert also questioned R&DE on the University’s overnight guest policy, which allows students to host overnight guests for a total of five nights each quarter. “I think it’s probably a number that most people who have partners violate on a regular basis,” Pert said.

Justin Akers, senior director of student housing assignments, said that the policy isn’t “heavily policed” and that the R&DE is “not knocking on doors to see if you have any guests.” 

“If you are living in a shared environment, and your roommate is really being egregious, it does help to have a standard in which we can say if we need to, ‘hey, this is not okay,’” he said. Still, Akers said R&DE would “consider” and “flesh out” the policy.

The GSC also voiced concerns regarding The Daily’s reporting of GSC meetings.

“I think that there’s a sense of responsibility for the people who have given statements to The Daily under the argument of freedom of speech, while these are also the same tools that are being used to criminalize people,” Pamela Martinez MFA ’25, the GSC financial officer, said. “I don’t think it should abide necessarily by the standards of the industry, because they are not in the industry. They are serving the student community.”

Martinez voiced a specific concern for international students quoted in The Daily. “I hope that we can continue pushing for higher accountability and responsibility for international students, given that we’re living in really unprecedented times,” she said.

The Daily’s executive editing team plans to meet with the GSC next Monday, April 14.