GSC debates BCA nomination, removal of commencement speakers

On Thursday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) debated a nomination to the Board of Conduct Affairs (BCA), the University’s decision to bar students from speaking at Commencement and how Voluntary Student Organization (VSO) funding is distributed.

Councillors moved to vote Tom Liu, a sixth-year Ph.D. student and a member of the GSC, to the BCA. Jim Biernat, a fifth-year M.A. candidate, gave a brief presentation on the background of the BCA and Liu’s potential involvement.

GSC Diversity and Advocacy chair Artem Arzyn ’26 M.S. ’26 questioned whether chairs from the Nominations Commission (NomCom) should have been present at the meeting to approve Liu’s nomination to the board. Arzyn wanted to ensure that other candidates were given the opportunity to apply for the BCA since the GSC recommended Liu for the position, they said. 

UGS chair David Sengthay ’26 said that the NomCom has the right to exercise discretion over how they solicit applications.

“If we [the UGS and GSC] were so insistent on advocating for Tom to be in this position, and then [the NomCom], in turn, only selected Tom because of our insistence, I feel like this is a fair bill,” Sengthay said.

Liu’s experience in the GSC was a factor in its advocacy for his nomination to the BCA, according to GSC chair Rory O’Dwyer, a sixth-year physics Ph.D. student. “There is a microscopic window for the OCS [Office of Community Standards] to have any sort of marginal change on the things that are very serious… I think it is quite critical to have Tom inserted in that microscopic window.”

The GSC also considered a possible future motion to change VSO funding from the current “70-30” system, in which a VSO composed of more than 70% graduate students is funded by the GSC and a VSO composed of more than 70% undergraduate students is funded by the UGS. The council considered implementing proportional funding based on the exact percentage of undergraduate and graduate students via joint grants for each VSO.

GSC treasurer Elena Vasilache, a fourth year M.A. candidate, said that the proposed joint system should be considered because the current 70-30 structure violates the ASSU constitution.

“[GSC treasurer] Brion [Ye] and I think that we should match the ASSU constitution,” said Vasilache. “If it says we should do [VSO funding] depending on percentage, then we should just judge the annual grants based on percentage instead of the 30-70 split.”

During the meeting, Sengthay also briefed the councilors on a presentation by Education and Democracy United (EDU) at Wednesday’s GSC meeting, which expressed dismay that the University will no longer allow student speakers at department-level commencement ceremonies. According to Sengthay, the policy change was announced in an American Association of University Professors (AAUP) op-ed published in The Daily in November.

“This is sort of contradictory to the fact that 56 faculty senate voted back in 2024 on a statement of freedom of expression encouraging that Stanford promote the wildest possible freedom of expression consistent with the University’s legal and moral obligations,” said Sengthay. “We believe that a blanket removal is much broader than necessary.”

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