At their Monday meeting, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) voted to reintroduce a bill to certify the results of the spring 2025 election and outlined the upcoming transition to the next slate of council members as the end of the quarter approaches. 

Multiple council members raised concerns regarding the timing of the reintroduction of the election certification bill, which required a two-thirds majority to be added to the agenda. While some council members noted that the bill should not be brought to the agenda so late in the quarter, others said that the bill can be postponed until upcoming weeks.

The decision follows the GSC’s vote last week to only certify the part of the election certification bill pertaining to funding due to concerns of election fraud.

“I’m very concerned about the continuity of the GSC, including the different committees that are currently operating. They need the next crop to come in and run this,” said Chris West MBA ’25. “Not only that, if there is a constitutional concern for this election, this does not prevent that constitutional concern from continuing to be discussed at the Constitutional Council. Things need to be changed.” 

Artem Arzyn ’26 M.S. ’26 expressed concern regarding the potential exclusion of graduate student voters in the election.

“In terms of the concerns around voter disenfranchisement, if even one graduate student could not vote in any of the graduate student council elections… one person is enough to have changed the outcomes,” Arzyn said. 

GSC co-chair Emmit Pert, a fourth-year chemistry Ph.D. student, provided an overview of the council’s agenda in the remaining weeks of the quarter and the transition to the next leadership. He emphasized his view that the council should only consider pressing legislation in the coming weeks in light of the upcoming turnover. 

“The GSC should be wound down. Our terms should be over at this point and it doesn’t make sense to introduce new legislation for non-urgent topics if it will be handled by next year’s GSC,” Pert said. 

He advised the GSC to postpone its decision regarding an undergraduate joint resolution to encourage the creation of an Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) executive multicultural and religious coalition. 

“My personal recommendation is that this be deferred to the next council, but we could introduce it at our next meeting if we really care,” he said. 

Pert added that he has “no intention of handling or wading into any of the constitutional questions” related to the election, except to contact those who will potentially need to be present at the week 10 GSC meeting — the final meeting of the current council and the first meeting of the new council members. 

The new council will be announced during the final meeting of the current GSC. The GSC will not meet during week 9 as its regular meeting falls on Memorial Day, but may be hosting an asynchronous vote on funding approvals. 

The Undergraduate Student Council (UGS) will announce its new leadership Wednesday evening. 

Next week, the ASSU Nominations Commission will also approve a list of students for nomination to the University committees, which create policy recommendations. 

GSC members have also met with University administrators to discuss potentially allowing students to be involved in the process of disciplinary action, and publicizing the grievance procedure that currently exists for students who have been disciplined by will. 

In preparation for the summer quarter, GSC social chair Lorena Avilés Trujillo announced that she and her co-chair Leslie Luqueno are working on planning a range of events.