The Graduate Student Council (GSC) listened to a presentation from StanfordNext representatives Kathleen Kavanaugh and Whitney McNair, seeking insight on a proposal to grow housing and academic space on existing campus land during its Thursday meeting.
According to the StanfordNext website, the group’s work will “shape a new General Use Permit (GUP) that is designed to align with state, county and local priorities while ensuring that Stanford remains a global leader in research, education, and innovation.”
Stanford senior associate vice president and StanfordNext project executive Whitney McNair said to the GSC that the group hosted events in recent months on campus and in Palo Alto, soliciting feedback from the Stanford community about issues people want to see addressed as they pull together an application.
McNair, who said StanfordNext hopes to present to the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) in the coming months, shared that the goal is to submit a proposal to Santa Clara County in August 2026. From there, public hearings and an 18-month environmental review of the project would occur, and progress on projects on campus would begin “sometime in the year 2028.”
Following McNair’s presentation, Undergraduate Senator and UGS Chair of Administration and Rules Dan Kubota ’27 spoke to the GSC with UGS Chair David Sengthay ’26. Kubota and Sengthay presented a Joint Resolution to Oppose Housing Room Selection Changes For Students With Documented Office of Accessible Education (OAE) Accommodations.
10 members of the GSC voted in favor of joining the joint resolution, none voted against, and one abstained.
Kubota said that information about new processes for applying for housing accommodations through the Office of Accessible Education (OAE) was not presented to the student body with enough time for students to process decisions that would affect the entirety of the next academic year.
The new OAE housing application process has faced criticism for not allowing students to join or form housing groups.
The goal of the resolution is to “show the university we don’t stand with this decision… [and call] on the administration to meet with the student body and speak with students,” Kubota said. Though it is not written in the resolution, one idea would be for Residential Education (ResEd) to meet with students and hear about their experiences at the Disability Community Space (DisCo), said Kubota.
Council members also heard the Joint Bill on Policy on Proctoring Following the Conclusion of the Academic Integrity Working Group (AIWG) Proctoring Pilot. “[Proctoring] is really an absolute necessity to achieve the learning goals in courses right now,” said Jennifer Poehlmann, faculty co-chair of the AIWG.
The GSC will vote on the joint bill at its April 16 meeting.