At their Oct. 9 meeting, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) voted on new funding requests, planned upcoming social events and discussed campus service concerns including mail delivery and accessibility resources.
The GSC aired concerns over mail and package delivery issues ranging from confusion about delivery of prescriptions, discussion from business representatives about loss of packages to access to the Stanford package center.
While Stanford Land, Buildings & Real Estate (LBRE) representatives have stated that food and grocery deliveries should not be impacted by recent changes, confusion remains about the delivery of prescriptions and access to the package center. Hence, representatives from LBRE are scheduled to attend the next GSC meeting to address these concerns directly.
During the meeting, a bill was presented to confirm Fiona Clunan J.D. ’28 as Constitutional Council Candidate. Clunan was selected via open process and interviews and previously worked with the president of the nominating committee, confirming the new appointments for the council’s upcoming year.
The confirmation was by a majority vote, with only two dissenting votes: Diversity & Advocacy Chair Artem Arzyn ’26 and Parliamentarian Áron Ricardo Perez-Lopez, third-year Ph.D. candidate in computer science.
“I opposed waiving prior notice because it prevented students from having a full week to review and comment on the bill for, at best, a one-day faster approval, since the UGS wasn’t voting until October 15th and our next meeting was October 16th,” Arzyn wrote in an email to The Daily, after clarifying post-meeting that he was not dissenting about the nomination but rather the timeline.
“I then abstained from the final vote on the bill given the notice waiver,” wrote Arzyn.
The meeting included new council appointments filling seats across the council. Meredith Gee ’27 M.B.A was elected new Graduate School of Business (GSB) Representative (after the previous representative resigned and nominated her).
Claire Berg, first-year Ph.D. candidate in higher education, was elected as Graduate School of Education (GSE) Representative and Social Chair.
Ruby Zhou ’27 M.S. and Cesar Lema, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in physics, were appointed as GSC At-Large Representatives. All positions were approved unanimously.
The GSC unanimously also approved three funding requests: Stanford Student Parents in Academia, STEM’s Queer History + Night and the RSA Welcome BBQ. STEM’s Queer History + Night passed conditionally, dependent on further discussion about the event’s inclusivity to all grad students.
The annual Rains Halloween Party organization committee requested $8,000 towards an estimated $9,700 in total costs. A bill was motioned by Arzyn to be approved in its current form, and it passed unanimously.
Further, Thanksgiving Dinner and Grad Appreciation Week events were discussed. It was decided that the Chairs and Social Chairs would hold a meeting with the GLO office to decide on the Thanksgiving dinner.