MINUTES
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
January 26th, 1998
Big Red Barn Graduate & Professional Student Center Greenhouse
5:00 P.M.

IIII. Attendance:

97–98 GPSA Members:  9/22 10/27 11/24 1/26 2/23 3/30 4/27  Matthew Abramovitz, Sumit Aggarwal, Todd Callaway, Michael Cosh, Kevin DeBorde,Katrina Ellis, Gary Hartz, Cheryl Heinz, Sergey Kiselev, Yvonne Lamar, Larissa Minicucci, Mark Parson, Yogesh Potdar, John Schwarz, Linda Yannone,

Others Present: Hilary Ford, Keith Kannenberg, Mark Hauber, Stacey Kenyon, Cristen Gardner, and Stephanie Tinsley

II. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:08 by President R.Gary Hartz.

III. Open Forum

Keith Kannenberg, Aero Engineering, announced that the graduate student team won the hockey tournament last weekend. This tournament will hopefully take place next year and improvements will be made.

IV. Minutes

The minutes were approved as amended: under the Student Activity Fee, the votes on the approval of funds for the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Finance Commission and for the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly were modified so that no numbers are connected to the approval of each.

V. Announcements

1) Committee to Address TA/RA Issues

Hilary Ford, Assistant Dean, Graduate Student Life, stated that a committee is being formed to review policies in regards to TAs and RAs in areas such as the length of appointment, vacation time, how work is assigned, etc. Each undergraduate college was asked to provide a faculty member to be part of the committee. Currently, there are faculty members from all the major undergraduate colleges. H.Ford would like the GPSA to send two people to be on this committee.

H.Ford stated that the committee will come up with a series of recommendations on how the policies could be improved. This process will take a long time, but should hopefully generate discussion on various topics. The committee should be meeting for the first time in about two weeks.

G.Hartz stated that the two representatives sent from the GPSA should be emissaries from the larger group. A sheet was passed around for interested members to sign. These members will then meet and decide who will represent the GPSA on this new committee.

2) Long Distance Costs

G.Hartz stated that this topic will be presented at the next leadership meeting. It will be suggested that a renegotiation of the terms take place or alternate plans be offered to graduate students.

C.Gardner asked whether or not it was possible for calling cards to be used. Members responded that it was possible to use calling cards, but that fact was not advertised. Also, there are no special evening or weekend rates attached to calling cards.

G.Hartz requested that members e-mail him if there are any other issues that should be brought up at this meeting.

3) Handbook Project

Linda Yannone, At-Large, stated that the Handbook Project has been going on for approximately 12 months. Currently, volunteers are needed to be responsible for various sections of the handbook. L.Yannone stated that the handbook is to be a collection of information that can be easily accessed by new graduate and professional students.

H.Ford stated that this publication would be student-to-student, rather than university-to-student focus as is Life at Cornell. Life at Cornell is used a great deal by the community. In the future, it may be possible to have the handbook and Life at Cornell be complimentary publications.

Katrina Ellis, Management, asked whether it would be possible for the information to be turned over to the Office of Publications. The handbook project seems rather time consuming and it would be more efficient to let Publications handle it, with the GPSA acting in an advisory role.

Larissa Minicucci, Vet Med, suggested that the handbook be done by departments, since not all the information included within the handbook would be needed by all students. Also, it might be useful to separate graduate student issues from professional student topics.

Mark Hauber, Neurobiology & Behavior, suggested that a book of anecdotes be put together. H.Ford stated that there was once such a publication, however, it is no longer being published.

4) Office of the Assemblies’ Vacancy

G.Hartz stated that Annie Dykes has left her position at the Office of the Assemblies and a search is going on to find someone to take her place.

C.Gardner stated that the job listing was posted in the Cornell Chronicle. There was a surprisingly large number of applications and out of those applications, three finalists were chosen. G.Hartz, President and Cheryl Heinz, Vice President of GPSA, participated in the interviews. An offer should be made shortly.

VI. Business of the Day

1) Finance Commission

C.Heinz stated that budgets will be reviewed by the Finance Commission in March 1998. However, there is one change that she would like to propose. Currently, no equipment is funded. C.Heinz suggested that the guidelines be changed so that equipment necessary for the functioning of a club could be placed on the budget. However, items that could be borrowed or rented will be excluded.

John Schwarz, Government, stated that this change would be welcome. His department received some money a few years ago for use only by graduate students. It has not been used because no one was able to agree upon what the money should be used for. It would be nice to be able to use the money to pay for items such as computer equipment and Xerox machines. J.Schwarz asked what the definition of equipment would be and what would be the approval levels based on expenditure levels?

C.Heinz responded that the definition of equipment would be refined. Also, approval will only be needed if amounts over $500 are spent. The club would need to define what they are using the money for when requesting the funding.

C.Gardner stated that the University already has a definition of capital equipment. She suggested using the University definition instead of spending time searching for a definition.

M.Hauber stated that it might make more sense for some groups to pay for their own equipment rather than renting it, if they are going to use a particular piece of equipment on many occasions.

C.Gardner noted that if such equipment is purchased, then an inventory would have to be kept by the club and the GPSAFC. There is also the issue of accountability and storage of the equipment so that there is a method to make sure it is passed on from year to year.

C.Heinz asked whether there were any objections to the proposal of allowing groups to purchase equipment that is essential to their functioning. She stressed that Finance Commission can use discretion in giving money. Since no objections were voiced, this change to the GPSAFC guidelines will be made.

2) Transportation Issues

K.Ellis passed out the results of a survey done by the Transportation Office in regards to parking and transportation issues. She also passed out a draft letter to TCAT from the GPSA to communicate what graduate students look for in public transportation.

S.Kenyon stated that she and K.Ellis had problems working with Transportation due to the short notice they gave before meetings. This concern was made clear at the University Assembly Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting last week. The letter will hopefully be looked at before any changes are made.

K.Ellis asked that members send comments to her by e-mail. An e-mail vote would be taken over whether or not to send out this letter, as amended. She stated that demographic information needs to be given to Transportation so that they can do another survey.

Some of the potential changes are as follows: free bus passes for people with certain parking permits, improvements in information sent out to graduate students on these issues, and improved bus service on evenings and weekends.

L.Yannone stated that Christopher Cole of the University Assembly wants a resolution on bus fares since there is now a monopoly. This resolution is to ensure that members of the Cornell community have a voice in the decisions made by TCAT.

3) ISPB Funding of GPSA-Funded Organizations

This item was postponed until the next GPSA meeting due to time constraints.

4) Joining NAGPS

J.Schwarz stated that this is a national organization of graduate and professional groups. It was founded in 1986 and serves as a source of information on many topics. This organization is an interest group and has an office in Washington. They perform a lot of lobbying, and the result of the lobbying has benefited graduate students at Cornell. NAGPS has about 140 members, which represent about 750,000 students. The NAGPS is a non-profit and non-partisan organization. In addition to lobbying, this organization offers health and dental programs for graduate and professional students.

J.Schwarz said there are several levels that the GPSA can join at. He would suggest that the GPSA join the NAGPS at the highest level, the Sponsoring Membership.

C.Heinz stated that the GPSA has already benefited from some of this group’s actions, such as the lobbying. Joining at the $1000 level would amount to approximately $0.20 per student; this amount can be paid out of the money that the GPSA receives from the student fee. Considering the fact that students cannot have access to the health plans they offer unless they pay for a $20 individual membership, this is a good deal.

J.Schwarz stressed that joining this group would benefit all students. In addition to the health plan, they would also be able to access the Job Bank kept by NAGPS. There are several reasons for joining at the highest level. More attention is likely to be received if the GPSA joins at a higher level.

K.Kannenberg stated that this issue be discussed with constituents. He notes that the fact that there are different levels of membership seems strange to him.

C.Heinz stated that there are publications that this organization makes. Since they have a limited amount of resources, the groups at the higher levels of membership receive copies first.

Todd Callaway, Microbiology, suggested that the GPSA join at a lower level in order to see if NAGPS is actually useful.

In response to concerns voiced by members, C.Heinz stated that the money to pay for membership would probably come out from the GPSA Internal Committee funds. Since $1.10 per capita is received per year and not all the money is used, it would be easy to come up with the funds. It would also be possible to have the Finance Commission provide the money.

Members expressed concern over making this decision too soon and without constituent feedback. Also, if the GPSA joined the NAGPS, it might be better to join it for a number of years so the GPSA does not need to vote to pay membership every year.

J.Schwarz noted that there is a meeting of the Northeastern segment of NAGPS in March. If a vote is not taken today, it may not be possible to send someone to that conference.

G.Hartz took a vote on whether or not to vote to join the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students at this meeting.

Ten members voted in favor and two members opposed voting on whether to join the NAGPS at tonight’s meeting.

J.Schwarz noted that the health plan premiums went down 15%. In the 1995–96 year, out of 137 members, 16 were at the highest level, 19 were at the second highest, 94 at Regular Membership, and 8 at the level of Developing Membership. The $1000 Sponsoring Membership is a new level added this year.

C.Gardner asked whether or not the GPSA intends to join for one year or more.

C.Heinz stated that it would be more convenient to follow the activity fee and join for three years.

G.Hartz took a vote on whether to join the NAGPS for a three-year term or to join for a one-year term.

Six members voted for the three-year term and six members voted for the one-year term.

Breaking the tie, G.Hartz, GPSA President, voted in favor of the three-year term.

G.Hartz took a vote on whether or not to join the NAGPS at the $1000 level.

Eight members voted in favor and four members opposed.

The GPSA would join the NAGPS at the highest level of membership: Sponsoring Membership for $1,000 for three years.

G.Hartz stated that now that the GPSA has decided to join the NAGPS, it is important that this fact is communicated to its constituents.

VII. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 6:25 PM by President G.Hartz.

Respectfully submitted, Stephanie Tinsley