GSC approves resolution on student housing, proportional funding bill for SAF-supported organizations

On Thursday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) approved a housing transparency bill, debated a joint finance bill with the Undergraduate Senate (UGS) and heard from The Daily’s Editor-in-Chief George Porteous ’27.

Councilors unanimously voted to approve a resolution that seeks increased transparency in housing policies for master’s students, especially those in multi-year programs. The resolution requests GSC access to the University’s 2016 graduate housing policy and a formal briefing on its original intent and implementation. Specific actions also include raising housing priority for master’s students, clarifying which administrative bodies are involved in housing decisions and improving all-around communication.

“[The resolution] asks for a clearer articulation of roles, constraints and expectations,” GSC Councilor Ruby Rong Zhou ’27 M.S., the author of the resolution, said.

The GSC also approved a joint bill with the UGS that partitions Student Activities Fee (SAF) dollars to SAF-supported organizations according to their proportion of graduate and undergraduate members. This ensures that the GSC’s share of SAF funds does not subsidize a predominantly undergraduate-student organization, or vice versa. 

This is a departure from the current “70-30” system where a Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) of 70% graduate students or more would be funded entirely by the GSC.

“In prior years, groups that were on the 70-30 split would not be able to receive joint funding, even though they may have had a non-zero population of the other body,” UGS chair David Sengthay ’26 said. The changes seek to reconcile this so that VSOs are not disproportionately funded by either the GSC or UGS.

The UGS approved the bill on Wednesday after a period of revisions. Clarifications outlined how proportional funding is achieved, how participation within VSOs can be measured and emphasized that the bill does not mandate a fee increase.

George Porteous ’27, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily, attended Thursday’s meeting to introduce himself and his goals for the volume. 

“This line of communication between The Daily and the GSC has always been an important one and should continue to be so that we can publish the most accurate coverage in a timely way,” Porteous said. “We think it’s important to create an opportunity for our readership and for the Stanford community to understand [the GSC’s] work.”

Several GSC councilors emphasized their desire to see more consistency and accuracy from The Daily in reporting on their meetings — principles some councilors feel have not always been upheld. Many expressed a reluctance to share recordings of their weekly council meetings, as it might compromise the privacy of graduate students who express their opinions or raise sensitive concerns, such as how they’re treated by the Principal Investigator of their labs. 

“I just want to guarantee to you all that there’s no use of [recordings] beyond pulling a quote out of the audio,” Porteous said. “I think given that this is a public forum and there’s a public interest in accuracy and accurately capturing what’s said here, I would maintain that recordings are important for The Daily.”

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