On Wednesday, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) prepared for upcoming holidays, discussed recent nominations to the ASSU Constitutional Council and clarified policies about religious and political events.

The Council’s Thanksgiving coordinator, doctoral student in earth sciences Mary Van der Hoven, announced plans to revamp the menu for the annual dinner given for graduate students in honor of Turkey Day. Van der Hoven was pleased with last year’s increased attendance but was determined to improve the programming for graduate students and their families spending the upcoming Thanksgiving break on campus. According to Van der Hoven, last year’s event attracted hundreds of students, but she invited willing participants to add some creativity to the event.

“What I would really like is for someone to take it and run with it, get creative,” Van der Hoven.

The GSC turned from celebrations to speculation as Ryan Peacock, a graduate student in chemical engineering and ASSU executive cabinet member, brought an Oct. 12 Stanford Review blog post to the council’s attention. In the post, blogger Otis Reid ’12 questioned the recent selection of three new nominees for the ASSU Constitutional Council, postulating that GSC politics may have played a role in the developments.

“Otis was able to get a little information from an anonymous source,” Peacock said. “I think it was unfortunate that that message was sent because it was not true.”

Reid wrote that Brianna Pang ’13, former GSC beat writer for The Daily, was a first-round Constitutional Council nominee but was not re-nominated in the second round, raising “concern about the impartiality of GSC members…towards her nomination.” (Pang remains a Daily staff member.) Peacock addressed this issue as well.

“As a GSC member from the previous year, we thought Brianna was great,” Peacock said. “She turned the level of reporting on the GSC around.”

Samir Siddhandti ’12, representing one of the second-round nominees to the Constitutional Council, attended the meeting and fielded questions posed by GSC members about his new position.

The meeting concluded with an invitation to discuss the GSC’s bylaws regarding funding for religious and political events. Krystal St. Julien, a graduate student in biochemistry, reported recommendations given in a recent meeting with representatives from Student Activities and Leadership

“The recommendation was that we should be open to funding religious events,” St. Julien said. “Everyone must feel welcome attending. On the political side, keep the bylaw stating that we don’t fund political events unless they are educational.”

Contact Anna Schuessler at [email protected].