The Graduate Student Council (GSC) had a busy meeting last night, discussing important developments on the Caltrain passes, winter quarter programming — including weekly graduate student pub events — as well as approving student group funding requests.

The transportation committee, charged with extending the GO Pass program, which subsidizes Caltrain rides for graduate students who live off campus, made major headway this week. According to Councilmember Hannah Scherer, a fifth-year earth sciences doctoral student, University Provost John Etchemendy has agreed to fund the GO Passes through 2006, provided interested students are willing to pay part of the cost. The GSC will also subsidize part of the cost.

As another contingency for the Provost to provide funding for this year’s passes, student advocates must promote the program as much as possible and the GO Pass must be placed on the special fees ballot for future use beyond 2006, Scherer said.

“Hannah and the transportation committee have done a lot of work in a short amount of time,” said GSC Co-chair Tom Lee, a fourth-year electrical engineering graduate student. “They’ve been working on this program largely in the last two months, and they’ve done a lot of work to get to this point; hats off to them.”

Another stated goal of the GSC is to get as many students as possible to purchase the GO Passes, Lee said. At the same time, council members understand that price is an issue.

“We want the GO Passes to be economical for occasional users,” Lee said. “The passes will be priced, so they will be economical for the occasional users.”

Lee also hinted about future expansions to the GO Pass program beyond the current calendar year.

“This year, the program is for off campus graduate students only,” he said. “However, with special fees, we would try to provide some free Caltrain rides for graduate students who live on campus.”

Details will be released soon about how eligible graduate students can purchase their subsidized Caltrain passes for 2006, Lee said. Interested students should sign up on the graduate commute e-mail list, “grad-commute.” As soon as the discounted passes are available, the GSC will let students know.

In addition, the council approved funds for upcoming 750 Pub events. The programs, which will eventually be held on a weekly basis, will be located at the Pub on the first floor of the Graduate Community Center.

Also, the GSC approved by consensus funds for two student groups, the Korean Students Association and the Pakistanis at Stanford.

The Korean Students Association will be celebrating the Lunar New Year Party on Friday, Jan. 27, coinciding with the Chinese New Year. The Association is inviting all Korean students as well as the greater Stanford community. Event organizers said they expect between 350 and 400 students.

The Pakistanis at Stanford student group will hold a comedy event Sunday, Jan. 22. Event organizers have invited a famous comedian to speak that night, and they expect between 150 and 300 students.

The GSC is also looking for a new Humanities Representative to the council. The previous representative David Lummus, a doctoral student in Italian, had to resign due to teaching responsibilities. People who are interested in this position should contact Tom Lee at gsc-chair@assu.stanford.edu.