The Graduate Student Council (GSC) touched on the critical lack of graduate diversity in the final minutes of its meeting last night.

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Maggie Skortcheva

Students at last night’s Graduate Student Council meeting heard a presentation from Marja Mullings on the need for graduate student diversity. A forum on the topic will be held Saturday in Old Union.

Represented by co-chair Marja Mullings, a second-year chemical engineering doctoral candidate, the GSC Diversity Committee encouraged GSC members and other students to participate in a “diversity talk” that will be held next Saturday at 9 a.m. on the second floor of Old Union.

“Our objective,” Mullings said, “is to identify the problem that there is a lack of diversity among the students and graduate faculty at Stanford.”

The diversity meeting will have breakout sessions among alumni, faculty, students and staff to discuss the issue of minority underrepresentation at Stanford.

“The current lack of diversity brings into life the problem of the pipeline,” Mullings said, “which is the name given to the recruiting, retention and further development of graduate students of color at Stanford.”

According to Mullings, the diversity meeting was organized by alumni of color and members of the Stanford community.