Wednesday\u2019s GSC meeting was focused on the discussion of the creation of a Haiti Relief Czar (HRC), a position generated to oversee and coordinate campus efforts to help Haiti and organize a national student coalition in long-term support of the country.<\/p>\n
The meeting also included discussion of election regulation, approving a move to allow student campaigns to start today, and policy and funding requests.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo What If There\u2019s an Earthquake Tomorrow in Tokyo?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n ASSU President David Gobaud, a coterminal student in computer science, discussed both a project for free weekly distribution of \u201caffirmation bracelets,\u201d encoded with motivational messages to boost self-esteem for students, as well as a puppy-kitten study break \u2014 a benefit fundraiser held in White Plaza for Pets In Need, a no-kill, community-based animal shelter\/adoption agency.<\/p>\n After Gobaud concluded his projects updates, GSC members questioned him about his attempt to hire a \u201cHaiti Relief Czar\u201d for his cabinet. The main controversy lay in the fact that the Czar would receive a work compensation of $500.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty bad-ass position even if it\u2019s unpaid,\u201d said fourth-year geophysics graduate student Justin Brown. However, Gobaud explained that there has only been one applicant.<\/p>\n Debate broke out as GSC members questioned Gobaud\u2019s right as ASSU president to establish such a position.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what if there\u2019s an earthquake tomorrow in Tokyo?\u201d asked GSC member Noa Lincoln. \u201cWhat protocol do we go through to trigger those positions?\u201d<\/p>\n GSC member Aleksandra Korolova defended Gobaud\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWe received a large enough student voice to show that this is important to them,\u201d Korolova said. \u201cDavid is helping the student as a whole to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n In order to provide the $500 compensation, it was decided that the money would come out of Gobaud\u2019s salary. The bill to decrease Gobaud\u2019s salary to allocate cabinet funding for a Haiti relief chair was unanimously approved at last night\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thought of directly donating the money to Haiti,\u201d Gobaud said. \u201cBut I think if this person plans at least one successful event then we can generate much more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that we\u2019re paying someone to do a charity position just doesn\u2019t go well with me,\u201d said doctoral candidate in computer science Adam Beberg.<\/p>\n According to Gobaud, there will be at least five events from now to the end of the year to be planned by the Haiti Relief Czar.<\/p>\n \u201cHiring this person and paying them will make them vested in the position and work hard,\u201d Gobaud said.<\/p>\n Campaign Regulation and Reform<\/strong><\/p>\n Elections commissioner Quinn Slack \u201911 brought up the issue of campaign regulations, which were briefly mentioned in last week\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n According to Slack, there are two main changes in the revised elections guide. The first change will allow candidates to campaign during the voting period, and the second change will remove the flyer-limit regulation.<\/p>\n Regarding the first change, Slack addressed GSC members\u2019 concerns by explaining that the joint by-laws already contain language on voter fraud.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to tell candidates that if they interfere with someone\u2019s voting then that\u2019s voter fraud,\u201d Slack said. \u201cSince voter fraud is dealt with by legislatures, I will report it to you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will be very vigilant,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s the elections committee\u2019s role to deal with these violations.\u201d<\/p>\n Gobaud pointed out that voters would have a hard time saying no to candidates who may be campaigning in front of their faces during voting.<\/p>\n To quell this concern, Slack said that voters are able to change their ballot at any time and can report the incident to the elections commission. He added that such situations exist even with the regulations in place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re focusing on rules that we can enforce and not working on rules that we can\u2019t enforce,\u201d Slack said.<\/p>\n Beberg was in favor of keeping the regulations.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current policy of getting people to back off and focus on figuring out what to vote for may be important,\u201d Beberg said. \u201cAnd seeing by yesterday\u2019s Daily\u2019s headlines, special fees groups will probably be rabid.\u201d<\/p>\n Slack suggested that there was no way to stop this behavior, even with current regulations. As for the second change, he said that green student groups would be enforcing the limit.<\/p>\n \u201cThey [sustainable student groups] want to make this their issue,\u201d he said. \u201cThey want to seize the mantle of the issue. They do the enforcement and publicity. They can be much more enthusiastic than we are. We have a lot of other things to do during campaign week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhether or not we enforce a limit, [violators] going to have to cross a psychological barrier to not be sustainable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Secretary and graduate student in management science and engineering Crystal Yin agreed in part with Slack\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a good idea to have the green student groups to enforce the law,\u201d Yin said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t see the need of removing the law.\u201d<\/p>\n Vice president Andy Parker \u201911 brought up the possibility of allowing candidates to start campaigning even as early as now if the regulations are removed.<\/p>\n \u201cMy understanding is that there is no fair campaign at all,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThere will be no campaign week, so candidates can basically campaign now.\u201d<\/p>\n Slack said candidates technically are allowed to campaign starting Jan. 2.<\/p>\n \u201cAs for campaigning starting now I don\u2019t think it would be a problem,\u201d Slack said.<\/p>\n GSC members unanimously approved the first change in election regulation and approved the second change with a vote of six to three. Concluding the debate, GSC members approved a regulation to allow candidates to start to campaign tomorrow in a vote of eight to one.<\/p>\n \u201cMore power to the people,\u201d said third year law student and co-chair Eric Osborne. \u201cLet the execs race start tomorrow!\u201d<\/p>\n Funding Requests<\/strong><\/p>\n The GSC approved money for two student groups, including $2,010 for the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Stanford and $5,500 for an upcoming Chinese New Year party hosted by the Hong Kong Students Association, the Chinese Women Collective at Stanford and the Undergraduate Chinese American Association.<\/p>\n Social chair Hariharan Vijay requested funding for a graduate students\u2019 spring break trip to Las Vegas to either subsidize the trip or provide two trip coordinators. After short discussion, GSC members shot down the idea of subsidizing the trip.<\/p>\n \u201cWe changed our policy so that we don\u2019t fund conferences,\u201d said graduate student in electrical engineering Robert Hennessy. \u201cAnd I see this as a fun conference.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the vote to fund two trip coordinators was tied with five approved, five opposed and two abstaining. Parker broke the tie in favor of providing $300 compensation for two coordinators.<\/p>\n The GSC went on to unanimously approve $1,500 for an annual Valentine\u2019s Day Party to be held this year on Feb. 12.<\/p>\n Toward the end of the meeting, the GSC also approved $300 for the Graduate Student Programming Board, $300 for a Diverse Action Committee (DAC) town hall meeting and $200 for a DAC happy hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday\u2019s GSC meeting was focused on the discussion of the creation of a Haiti Relief Czar (HRC), a position generated to oversee and coordinate campus efforts to help Haiti and organize a national student coalition in long-term support of the country. The meeting also included discussion of election regulation, approving a move to allow student […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}