The Graduate Student Council (GSC) reviewed a bill to ensure enforcement of the Office of Community Standards (OCS) charter during its Monday meeting. GSC co-chairs Emmit Pert, a fourth-year chemistry Ph.D. student, and Áron Ricardo Perez-Lopez, a third-year computer science Ph.D. student, authored the bill to protect due process rights for students and to keep the OCS accountable to its charter, they said. 

“I find it problematic that the OCS has a mechanism where they can request you admit guilt before they have done any investigation,” Pert said. “It seems inherently problematic that you can offer plea bargains before you’ve done any investigation. No student should ever accept a plea bargain at the beginning if they think there’s any chance they’re going to be exonerated.” 

Pert noted that he does not have an issue with the OCS providing students with an opportunity to accept responsibility before a trial but said he hopes the OCS can do a preliminary investigation and inform students as to whether there seems to be enough evidence to find them responsible for a violation. 

The representative to the Faculty Senate Artem Arzyn ’26 M.S. ’26 shared her experience going through the OCS process as someone who was ultimately found not responsible during a four-hour hearing that took place 50 weeks after the initial notice. 

“At the beginning of my process, my conduct counselor asked me, ‘Do you really want to spend so much time going through this process?’” Arzyn said. “There very much is pressure from within the system for people to accept responsibility.” 

Arzyn also voiced her concerns about students using the OCS to target other students.

“Theoretically, a student could just submit a bunch of letters against people they don’t like saying they all cheated on an exam,” Arzyn said. “These students would then likely be pressured into accepting responsibility.” 

Councilor Laurel Kim J.D. ’26 emphasized the impact the OCS process could have on a student’s reputation. 

“Because of the sanctions being so traumatic, I’m sure for students they leave a big bearing on what you can do and what you’re known for on and off campus,” Kim said. 

The GSC also reviewed funding for club sports. GSC treasurer Zev Granowitz ’23 Ph.D. ’27 said that certain sports were receiving an “inordinate amount” of funding, close to thousands of dollars per graduate student. 

“We are trying to have clubs provide funding to teams based on their membership rather than based on how expensive the sport is,” Granowitz said. 

Andy Yin, co-treasurer and third-year math Ph.D. student, emphasized that the GSC will still provide adequate funding for club sports, but that on their end, the clubs must use funding in a manner consistent with GSC principles.

“One of our principles is that students across the university should all have an equal opportunity to get roughly the same amount out of what they are paying in,” Yin said.  

Additionally, the GSC approved funding requests for other graduate student groups, including the International Policy Students Association and Stanford Science Penpals.