The 26th Undergraduate Senate (UGS) debated a resolution at their last meeting Wednesday to “express solidarity” with the seven active students charged with breaking into, barricading themselves inside and vandalizing the University president’s office in a pro-Palestinian protest last June.

The protesters face felony charges of vandalism and conspiracy to trespass from the Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s Office. The resolution would “affirm the right to dissent” and “express solidarity” with the seven protesters facing charges who are still currently enrolled at Stanford.

UGS co-chair Gordon Allen ’26 said that the “resolution condemns all forms of anti-semitism and other forms of oppression.”

“This is simply a way to attest to the fact that, yes, those who have protested have received consequences from the Office of Community Standards, but felony charges from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office is disproportionate,” Allen added.

UGS parliamentarian Noah Maltzman ’26 M.S. ’26 called the resolution a “sorry excuse of a bill.” He argued that civil disobedience did not encompass vandalism, nor “breaking into a building and taking over and demanding like a little kid throwing a tantrum.”

“I’m sorry, but being a criminal, vandalizing property, writing hateful messages: that is completely beyond the realms of free speech,” Maltzman said. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘what if this was a different group?’ What if, for example, this was a white nationalist group that was going after different minorities, right? You can’t excuse whether it’s political or not based on if you like said politics.”

Poojit Hegde ’23 M.S. ’23, who presented to the UGS in support of the bill, said Maltzman’s argument was “very peculiar.” Hegde urged the UGS to consider a “context of war, genocide, ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians, “as is being argued by Amnesty International, by the United Nations and by various international organizations.”

“These are students of conscience [who] already faced massive [consequences]: They were suspended. They were kicked off campus. They were doxxed by the Stanford Review,” Hegde said, referring to the protesters. “The resolution is to express solidarity, to really make the basic point that this is disproportionate.”

UGS Senator Celeste Vargas ’27 voiced concern over the precedent the resolution would set.

“While I do think it’s very admirable, I think that actions have consequences. And the [student protesters] knew that their actions had consequences,” she said. “The law applies equally to everyone.”

Maltzman likened the resolution to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tactics. “That Orange Man, I would argue, frankly, uses laws when they’re convenient for him.I think this bill is trying to manipulate the rulings when they’re convenient for [the protesters]. You can’t just pick and choose who you apply the rules to. Rules apply to everyone,” he said.

The UGS also considered a bill to stand in solidarity with ethnic theme dorms following the University’s elimination of the application-based pre-assignment process for Okada, Ujamaa, Muwekma and Casa Zapata . The University replaced the pre-assignment process with a randomized lottery system without providing “transparent communication” or seeking “community input” and “due process,” the bill asserted.

The bill also calls for the University to “reinstate a process that allows for intentional community,” create a “participatory policy making process regarding future residential decisions” and protect the “autonomy, legacy, and cultural-political mission” of ethnic theme dorms.

“Without any consultation with staff of the ethnic dorms, after we had already reviewed applications and made our selections, we got word that admin had changed the process from the pre-assigned application people had already done,” Rohan Chowdhury ’26, an Ethnic Theme Associate (ETA) for Asian American theme house Okada said. “It caused a lot of confusion, a lot of mistrust.”

The UGS also unanimously voted in favor of a bill to allocate $250 to the UGS Political Action Committee (PAC) and $300 to support the Black Mural Project from its remaining discretionary budget. According to the bill, the PAC provides “critical platforms for dialogue, protest, and direct engagement with University policy,” while the Black Mural Projects seeks to “create a community-informed visual landmark honoring Black excellence.” The bill attributed the extra PAC funding to “essential supplies and resources” and printing guidelines on safety and legal information. 

At the end of the meeting, the 26th UGS witnessed the 27th class of UGS senators’ swearing in.