MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

T. Grove introduced the reporter from The Daily Sun.

Present: J. Boodley-Buchanan, B. Cristelli, L. Croll Howell, B. Esty, K. Fahey, T. Grove, M. Kitchen, L. Meyerhoff, L. Morris, G. Osborne, L. Sayam, B. Schaffner

Absent: D. Brooks, C. Ferguson, J. Seymour, G. Stewart

Also Attending: N. Doolittle, E. Epstein, B. McKinney, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

T. Grove asked for any late additions to the meeting. There were no late additions to the existing agenda.

III. Approval of Minutes from last meeting

T. Grove asked for any additions or amendments to the minutes from February 1, 2012. B. Cristelli made an amendment to page four of the minutes under the elections section. B. Cristelli made a motion to approve the revised minutes. L. Morris seconded the motion and the EA unanimously approved the amended minutes from February 1, 2012.

IV. Report from the Chair

a) Leadership Breakfast

T. Grove said the topic of the last Leadership breakfast was proposed changes to the academic calendar. T. Grove then asked L. Meyerhoff to explain the proposed changes in more detail. L. Meyerhoff said the Calendar Committee will be making the proposed changes public. The proposed changes include the addition of two new staff holidays in the spring. L. Meyerhoff explained this decision came from the committee itself when they learned the staff does not have any time off from winter break until Memorial Day. L. Meyerhoff said the committee is not proposing many changes for the fall, the majority of the changes are occurring in the spring semester. Currently, there is an imbalance in the days students have classes in the fall semester versus the spring semester. The committee is also proposing to change the study days, which will bring the two semesters closer in numbers. The spring changes will include a holiday break on the Monday and Tuesday of President’s Weekend and spring break will be more centered within the semester and may include a few more days. The changes are proposed to take effect Fall 2013. T. Grove asked if any of the members had any further questions or comments.

b) Employee Survey - Daily Sun

T. Grove said the results from the Employee Survey were featured in the Daily Sun. T. Grove also stated she talked with M. Opperman about having EA representation at the trustee meetings. M. Opperman decided the EA chair should attend the Ithaca campus trustee meetings.

V. Committee Reports

a) George Peter — Tanya Grove

T. Grove noted the committee has received a lot of applications and they will be meeting on February 22, 2012.

b) Communications Committee - Survey Funding — Leslie Morris

L. Morris said the committee met on February 9th and discussed the implementation of the new logo. L. Morris explained along with the discussion of the logo, the committee worked on election publicity plans. She sent the election publicity plans to the members of the EA and asked the members to encourage their fellow staff members to run for a seat. L. Morris stated there will be facebook ads, Cornell Daily Sun advertisements, PawPrint flashes, and a few other media outlets advertising the election. L. Morris then passed around the poster for the election and asked for any comments or questions.

L. Morris then said she is planning to send out the EA E-news soon and asked for suggestions for articles. T. Grove suggested KUDOs should be included in the E-news. Finally, L. Morris explained there is a communication plan for the EA survey. The launch date for the survey is April 1, 2012 and C. Ferguson will be taking the lead on all of the details surrounding the survey. She then asked G. Osborne about the budget for the survey. G. Osborne stated she is working with Kuali and has budgeted $2,050 for the survey, which she believes can be taken from the budget for live streaming that was not used.

c) Faculty Senate — Leslie Sadler Meyerhoff

L. Meyerhoff stated the Faculty Senate met the previous week with Dan Hiltenbocker to discuss the NYC Tech Campus. The new campus will be named Technion Cornell Innovation Institution. L. Meyerhoff stated the dean of engineering will be the new dean of the NYC Tech Campus. Classes will be starting next fall but the first building is not scheduled to be completed until 2017. She explained Cornell is the owner of the campus and Technion is a 50–50 work partnership but are not paying for the building or creation of the campus. A. Epstein explained the institute is within the campus but there are other ventures which may not involve Technion and therefore they will not be covering the entire cost of the NYC Tech College. L. Meyerhoff then explained there was an interesting conversation about Technion and Israel as an institution and there may be concerns with relations to Palestine. However, she said Kent Fox explained “if Cornell is going to change the world the way this is accomplished is through engagement not boycott.” Finally, L. Meyerhoff mentioned there is a consistent theme of the faculty being frustrated that administrative decisions are made without faculty consent. B. McKinney added there will be a jobs page that will give communications regarding job opportunities to NYC and other opportunities for employment at Cornell.

d) Academic Calendar — Leslie Sadler Meyerhoff

T. Grove noted this was discussed earlier in the meeting but asked if there were any further questions or comments. L. Croll Howell suggested the creation of a resolution to support the addition of two staff holidays. T. Grove said she would write a resolution and send to A. Epstein for further revision.

VI. New Business

a) East Hill parking

T. Grove said she received two emails from the employees at East Hill concerning their transportation concerns. The employees have two primary concerns: the free lot parking is changing into a paid parking lot and the bus that runs East Hill to campus has changed their times. The new paid parking lot will be on the low tier price but it is still a change for employees who were paying nothing. She said the East Hill employees are concerned there are no other options besides this lot. If employees were to take the bus to work they would to catch a public bus to campus and then from there take a bus to East Hill which would add an additional thirty minutes each way to their commute. Another concern is the change to the TCAT schedule. TCAT route 82 that serves East Hill changed their schedule without informing the East Hill employees. Many of the employees are now discovering if they have a meeting at the top of the hour, they have to catch an earlier bus and wait on campus until their meeting begins. The employees are asking for and increase in the frequency of the TCAT route 82 to every 10 minutes instead of every 15 minutes and they are asking for a twenty second wait at the bus stop so employees do not have to wait outside for the bus. Another request the East Hill Employees are making is for another parking lot to be designated closer to East Hill. A. Epstein suggested bringing the issue to the Campus Infrastructure Committee. L. Morris said she thought the issue seem reasonable and if there are truly no other options then the EA should attempt to help the employees.

b) Software update question

T. Grove received an email from Terri Mingle regarding technology and the issue of some new versions of necessary software not being accessible to employees. L. Croll Howell suggested bringing this issue before Ted Dodds.

VII. Open Forum

• L. Morris asked for a follow up on the decision for paper ballots for the election. T. Grove asked A. Epstein whether the Office of Assemblies has received information regarding the people who do not use their net ids and would need a paper ballot. A. Epstein stated there are approximately one hundred people who do not use their net ids and most of them are in building care and dining services. A. Epstein said they will be sending out reminder postcards informing employees where they can go to fill out a paper ballot.
• L. Morris then asked if a doodle poll was sent out for dates the EA could hold their meeting in Geneva. T. Grove said she has not done this yet but will do it very soon.

� L. Meyerhoff asked for volunteers to help with Soup & Hope. B. Schaffner and B. Cristelli volunteered. L. Meyerhoff also encouraged the members of the EA to attend Soup & Hope.

• B. McKinney said she and C. Ferguson went to an employee session with residential hall directors. She said this was a very good way to talk to people and inform them about the EA. She mentioned the director came up with the idea and invited them to attend. T. Grove said she will bring up the idea of employee break out sessions to M. Opperman.
• T. Grove stated she received more information from Cheryl McGraw regarding the CRC. In the past, an EA member was on their staff and the CRC used to send someone to EA meetings. In terms of what the CRC needs currently, they have zero funding for the recruitment event and are hoping the EA could help co-sponsor the event on March 18th. The group is looking for $200–250 to cover pizza. There was some discussion as to what the EA would actually be able to donate and what would be a reasonable amount. Apart for financial backing, the CRC would also like to partner with the EA on an event.
• M. Kitchen handed out more information on the perennial garden and about donating and volunteering. T. Grove said she looked into an EA donation and found out the EA cannot make cash donations but can donate tangible goods. M. Kitchen said any donation would be nice but the group would be equally happy having volunteers to help.

VII. Adjournment

L. Morris made a motion to adjourn the meeting. B. Cristelli seconded the motion and the EA meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.