The Graduate Student Council (GSC) heard requests for funding from Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs), considered the bylaws regarding the upcoming election and shared updates on their meeting with the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) at their meeting Monday.
GSC leadership gave an update regarding their meeting with Kenneth Goodson, who was named vice provost for graduate education and postdoctoral affairs last month.
According to GSC co-chair Emmit Pert, a fourth-year chemistry Ph.D. student, they reviewed compliance with the agreement between the University and the Graduate Workers Union (SGWU) negotiated last fall.
As a part of the ratified contract, the University agreed to provide and maintain a record of each graduate worker’s appointment letter, detailing their role and responsibilities. VPGE is “currently trying to corral all the faculty [who employ graduate students] into actually writing these job descriptions,” Pert said.
Pert also spoke with the VPGE about the University’s plan regarding federal funding cuts.
“[The University] doesn’t want to make an early commitment to do something because it may incentivize professors [who run research labs] to act differently in that they do want emergency funds to be spent by labs as well,” Pert told the GSC. He said the University is committed to “stepping in” as a “last resort” to maintain research funding if necessary.
The GSC ended their meeting reviewing the bylaws for the upcoming ASSU election and leadership transition. As of now, only nine individuals are on the ballot in the race for the fifteen GSC seats. The current council previewed the procedure for filling the remaining six seats after the election.
GSC member Artem Arzyn ’25 M.S. ’25 also preemptively declared an intention to either abstain or vote against certifying the election results in response to a number of changes made by the election commissioners.
“The signature deadline was changed, the election date was changed, the public financing is unclear. What is happening at this point?” said Arzyn, who does not feel “comfortable” certifying the results.
The GSC also reviewed and approved funding requests from the ADC Consulting Club for a software subscription to an interview preparation chatbot, the Graduate Catholic Student Association for their monthly dinner and the Classics in Theater association for an upcoming performance.
They approved a funding application from the Ukraine Support Alliance of Stanford for the Bechtel International Center’s annual Fire on Fire multinational barbecue.
Representatives from the acapella group Sing Plus Plus attended the meeting to request funding for their annual performance on May 10. The GSC granted a portion of their initial request to purchase time-sensitive merchandise but moved the rest of their request to next week’s agenda.