In its first meeting of the new year, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed a bill to endorse the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) report on sexual violence prevention at Stanford and updates with graduate student housing. The Council ended the meeting with a closed session that the agenda listed as “Discussion of CA program.” 

ASSU Senator Jonathan Lipman ’21 introduced a bill endorsing the ASSU sexual violence prevention report. The report presents a number of policy changes regarding sexual assault prevention and supporting survivors that the ASSU is asking Stanford to enact. The GSC will vote on the bill next week. 

Representatives from Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE) also presented updates on graduate student housing. Director of Student Housing Assignments Justin Akers noted that an email explaining the housing lottery for the 2020-21 academic year will be sent to graduate students in the near future, attributing the delay to an effort to design a more intuitive graphic to convey the lottery priority structure. 

Akers noted that the fundamental rules of the lottery will not dramatically change but that there will be adjustments to student housing priority that will only apply to the coming year. He explained that students currently living in off-campus subsidized housing — who have to move back onto campus after the completion of the Escondido Village Graduate Residences (EVGR) — will be considered earlier in the process. Students who have lived in one of six residences surrounding the construction sites will also get priority in assignment.

Akers emphasized that the completion of EVGR will lead to more than enough housing availability, if past lottery trends continue. 

“For years we’ve had to turn people away, and when the lottery ended last year, we had 1,000 people on the waitlist,” Akers said. 

With a net increase of 1,200 beds with EVGR, though, Akers anticipates that even populations that have a lower priority will likely be allocated housing.

The Council also unanimously confirmed two graduate student Title IX panelists, a role that involves participating in the Title IX hearing panels and reaching subsequent judgments.