Last Thursday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) addressed concerns related to new campus mailing and delivery services, created an action plan in case of immigration enforcement and considered beginning DateDrop for graduate students.
GSC co-Chair and third-year J.D. candidate Laurel Kim raised the issue of Stanford’s response to President Donald Trump’s threat to deploy federal agents in San Francisco.
“Stanford had a very legally-approved way of saying [their stance],” Kim said.
Kim recounted that Stanford believes immigration positively benefits research opportunities as well as the school and country’s student population. Stanford also recently notified the community about California Senate Bill 98, which mandates colleges and universities in California to immediately notify students, faculty and staff of immigration enforcement on campus. According to Kim, when she asked the University if they planned on lobbying, Stanford loosely answered the question, she said.
“They were comfortable saying that Stanford filed a comment against a proposed change for the visa term limit for international students of four years, similar to MIT,” Kim said.
The GSC planned to send out a survey to gauge the community’s level of concern in response to Trump’s threats, in case they resurface in a more pressing way. They expressed that given the diversity of backgrounds that make up the graduate student body, it was important to stay vigilant and careful in this turbulent political time.
“Hopefully, we won’t be seeing federal authority on campus anytime soon,” Kim said.
According to co-chair Rory O’Dwyer, a fifth-year physics Ph.D. candidate, two-thirds of the problems related to mail delivery services have also been resolved following continued discussion between graduate students and Stanford administration. One problem still needing to be solved is that of poor delivery service through apps like DoorDash.
“I have higher confidence than usual that [these issues related to Door Dash] will be addressed,” O’Dwyer said.
Some council members felt that students could do a better job at directing DoorDash drivers to the drop-off spot. They quickly came up with the idea of creating signs to direct drivers that students could explicitly write in their driver notes when ordering food.
“The amount of food getting stolen is not okay, but it should be the job of those ordering to make sure that they get their food,” Áron Ricardo Perez-Lopez, a third-year computer science Ph.D. student, said.
Other council members worried that students with disabilities would have to take additional steps just to receive their orders. For some students with disabilities, DoorDash and other delivery services are the most effective way to get a meal, and many council members found it to be unfair that their ability to eat was being taken away due to mailing issues. Kim and O’Dwyer are continuing to work on solving the issue.
Council members also considered a partnership with DateDrop, the social site aimed at matchmaking undergrads, to encourage more socializing within the graduate school community. They planned to work with the DateDrop creators to incorporate graduate students and hold a DateDrop meet-up event on the first week that matches drop.
Graduate students were also invited to the annual community-wide Row trick-or-treat event on Halloween, in another attempt to encourage socialization within the student body.