The Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) may soon have more say in approving Voluntary Student Organizations (VSOs), according to a plan Associate Director of Student Organizations Pete Cerneka presented to the Graduate Student Council (GSC) on Monday.
The plan expands the current VSO approval process to include a committee staffed by student government members that will decide on approval after administrative and budgetary reviews by the University and the ASSU. A version of the plan was presented to the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) last week.
Cerneka floated a later-stage plan to also cap the number of student organizations on campus and sunset inactive organizations to make space for new ones. The number of recognized VSOs on campus is reaching the capacity Stanford can handle, according to Cerneka.
Stanford currently recognizes more than 700 VSOs, and over 500 of them receive funding from the ASSU.
“It’s sort of to the point where ASSU is at its capacity, and the University itself is at its capacity to support the groups, and then the student body is at capacity to actually lead these groups,” Cerneka said.
To lower the burden on the University, ASSU and student groups, the later-stage plan would let the UGS- and GSC-staffed committee help set a limit and identify groups to phase out — such as those without expenditures or programming in recent years.
The plan was presented to GSC to make members aware of the chance to join the committee.
By retiring groups, the committee would make room for new VSOs the next year, according to the plan. Cerneka also saw the changes as an incentive for smaller, overlapping groups to consolidate.
The GSC also set the agenda for their next meeting, which will include talking to representatives from Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) and Stanford Transportation.
Stanford Transportation has reserved residential parking spaces near Lyman Graduate Residences and Governor’s Corner (GovCo) Suites due to renovations to the golf clubhouse. The council expressed interest in asking R&DE and Transportation about the limited parking, as both undergraduate and graduate students have expressed concerns about the changes.
“They are not allowing us to park in the parking spots which we pay nearly $50/month for,” ASSU Vice President Celeste Vargas ’27 wrote in the meeting chat.
Casey Chan, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate, agreed that the GSC should discuss the parking lot situation at the next meeting, pointing out that R&DE may also benefit from the conversation.
“I don’t think R&DE is really as involved in that, but it may still be helpful for them to be aware of the problem,” she said. “It really does impact quality of living in Lyman.”
The GSC also discussed an internal directory for the ASSU, which aims to streamline collaboration, according to Vargas.
“This [directory] will be internal to our bodies so that we can work smarter, not harder,” Vargas said.
Another effort toward efficiency includes a prospective joint resolution between the UGS and GSC to establish a protocol for passing bills to the faculty senate. While the transmission of resolutions to the senate is not new, the protocol would ensure that the process occurs quickly and consistently.
“This is something that’s already been going on,” UGS Co-Chair Troy Harris ’27 said. “But we just want to have a more streamlined, documented process for this.”