On Thursday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) unanimously passed the Joint Resolution Calling for the Reinstatement of the ZAP Residential Assistant (RA) and Immediate Action to Address Student Leader Staffing Vacancies. The GSC also passed a motion calling for the GSC’s signature of the associated petition.

Prior to the vote, Burbank RA Aileen Rubio ’26, presented to the council about issues stemming from her claim about a lack of transparency around RA vacancies and their impact on the Stanford community. She represented a coalition of other RAs concerned about these issues, and delivered a similar presentation to the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) on the vacancies.

Rubio said that over the past few months, Stanford has seen an “unusually” high number of RA vacancies. RAs across campus have been fired, spanning from undergraduate dorms to co-ops. Many of these firings have been shrouded in a lack of transparency, and RAs have received inconsistent information about whether vacancies will be filled, Rubio said. There are current RA vacancies in Rinconada, Terra, Branner, 586 Mayfield and Junipero.

RAs serve roles as support for residents, operations managers for houses and drivers of dorm culture. “When trouble occurs, an RA has to step in,” David Sengthay ’26 M.A. ’26 said. “Any such vacancy is directly threatening to students.”

RAs themselves experience many impacts. “We are a very large source of labor for the university, especially as undergraduates,” Rubio said, noting that RAs depend on their positions for stipends and housing. “There is a lot of fear of retaliation amongst the freshman RAs, that if they say something, they will be fired next. This is really affecting our mental well-being.”

The GSC also held a discussion with Stanford Transportation about GoPass, Marguerite line expansions and bike safety.

Rory O’Dwyer, co-chair of the GSC and a sixth-year Ph.D. candidate in physics, asked whether there were plans to expand GoPass, an unlimited CalTrain pass for Stanford commuters, to students who live on campus. Áron Ricardo Perez-Lopez, GSC parliamentarian and third-year Ph.D. candidate in computer science, brought up BayPass, which allows for unlimited fare-free transit for UC Berkeley students.

“We are working with Caltrain to understand how to value this … in order to get some funding for it from Stanford,” said Lesley Lowe, the executive director of Stanford Transportation. “Right now we are in the exploratory phase.”

GSC Deputy Chair Casey Chan, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in chemistry, began a discussion about the possibility of expanding hours of the X and Y Marguerite lines to the weekend.

“We want to make sure that when we bring lines back, they will be utilized,” said Jeff Olschwang, director of communication for Stanford Transportation. Momentum will ramp up “if I can demonstrate to leadership that I am hearing this enough, and I’m starting to. When you take your transportation surveys in February, put it in there,” Lowe said.

Laurel Kim, GSC co-chair and third-year J.D. candidate, raised concerns about discrepancies in bike safety enforcement. The transportation team acknowledged the issue, noting that both the Department of Public Safety and county police are in charge of enforcement, which could lead to these differences.
The GSC passed a bill calling to remove meetings on finals week from the bylaws. They also held discussion on stipend transparency, grad appreciation week and reviewed a proposal of new funding guidelines for club sports encompassing food funding, air travel, uniforms and more.