The Undergraduate Senate (UGS) unanimously passed bills to confirm Office of Community Standards (OCS) student panelists and provide the First Gen and/or Low Income Partnership (FLIP) with discretionary funds for its First-Gen Week programming. 

The Joint Bill to Confirm New Student OCS Panelists will confirm 49 student panelists tasked with reviewing OCS cases. The bill must also be passed by the Graduate Student Council (GSC), which will vote on the bill at its Oct. 30 meeting.

GSC member Tom Liu, a sixth-year physics Ph.D. student, indicated that the GSC is planning to pass the bill. “We have chosen to act in the spirit of collaboration and give the OCS process a genuine chance to improve,” Liu said.

Although Liu noted that the GSC has expressed concerns with the OCS process in the past, successful dialogue on OCS reforms with the current interim OCS director, Lawrence Marshall, has inspired hope for a more transparent and productive relationship between the two organizations.

“If, over the year, the OCS and the Board of Conduct Affairs (BCA) fail to take any suggested steps towards reform, we will keep that in mind when considering next year’s approvals,” Liu said.

Liu gave a presentation at the UGS’ Oct. 8 meeting reviewing a survey on the OCS, which documented student accounts of negative experiences with the office.

The UGS also passed the Bill to Allocate Funds to the First-Generation and/or Low-Income Partnership (FLIP) for First-Gen Week Programming, which provides $2,000 in funding from the UGS’ discretionary account for First-Gen Week starting Nov. 3. The funds will be used to finance the venue, event services and program materials for First-Gen Week.

The UGS also introduced the Joint Bill to Confirm 2026 Elections Commission, which would confirm two Assistant Election Commissioners. The Elections Commission oversees student government elections at Stanford and provides election information to students. 

In accordance with its new ad hoc email policy, the UGS also unanimously approved an email request to provide information on Democracy Day events, which will take place on Nov. 4. 

“I think we’re all big believers in civic engagement, given that we’re senators of the undergraduate population,” UGS Chair David Sengthay ’26 said.