The Graduate Student Council (GSC) unanimously passed a resolution voicing its support for the unionization of resident assistants (RAs) at its Thursday meeting.
“RSLs [Residential Student Leaders] perform essential institutional labor and deserve [a] meaningful voice in their working conditions,” said David Sengthay ’26, chair of the Undergraduate Senate (UGS).
RSLs have motioned to unionize following a year of understaffing at dorms, underpayment and poor communication from University administration. As of Monday, per Sengthay, 40% of RAs have signed union authorization cards, exceeding the 30% minimum required to form a union under federal law.
A group of RAs is hosting a union launch rally on Friday at White Plaza in hopes of receiving formal recognition from the University. The event will include card signing and speeches from members of the community.
The GSC also passed a resolution calling for the reinstatement of Beyond Sex Education as a mandatory part of New Student Orientation (NSO). Starting with the 2026 NSO, Beyond Sex Ed will be optional.
Beyond Sex Ed, which has existed since 2016, according to Sengthay, served as a large part of NSO programming. Current students would take the class “Storycraft: Sexuality, Intimacy & Relationships” in the previous spring and then prepare speeches for the event, speaking on topics of sex, intimacy and relationships before the new freshman class. The event aimed to teach about healthy relationships and communicating consent.
“The highest risk period [for sexual violence] is the first 90 days of the academic year… when first-year students are most vulnerable. Given all this, it’s important that the university makes Beyond Sex Ed mandatory, again, not optional, so every student gets the same baseline education at the moment it matters,” said Minji Cho ’28, deputy chair of the UGS. Cho said that the decision to make Beyond Sex Ed optional was made “without any student input.”
The resolution also called for the University to publicly disclose data on Beyond Sex Ed, including participation rates in sexual violence prevention training, reported instances of sexual misconduct and outcomes of formal reporting processes.
“From a union perspective, [getting] statistics on [sexual violence] is very useful for our purposes in order to make the workplace a safer place,” said Rory O’Dwyer, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in Physics, co-chair of the GSC and organizer with the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU).