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

I. Attendance:

98–99 GPSA Members: Matt Abramovitz Dennis Carlson P Amy Carroll P Michael Cosh P Deidra Suwanee Dees P Wendy Fleischman P Stefan Hames P Sergey Kiselev P David McCusker A Purnima Menon P Yogesh Potdar P Lauren Russell P John Schwarz P A. Ramon Thomas P Linda Yannone E

Others Present: Philip McPheron, Hilary Ford, Bonnie Bailey, and Stephanie Tinsley

II. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by John Schwarz, President, at 5:07 PM.

III. Open Forum

Stefan Hames, Vice President, stated he is concerned with how Cornell handles inclusion and support for disabled students on campus. He feels this needs improvement. He attempted to speak with Winnie Taylor, Associate Provost, but was unable to reach her due to scheduling conflicts. However, her office told him the information was being reviewed.

Michael Cosh, Civil Engineering, asked that members review the guidelines for setting the graduate student activity fee. He posted the guidelines to the gpsa-l listserv at: http://www.cee.cornell.edu.mhcosh/guidelines.html.

Dennis Carlson, Statistics, stated that Michael Johnson, an undergraduate student, spoke at the September 26, 1998 GPSA meeting about Gannett Mental Health Services and the recent limit placed on the number of psychological visits per person. D.Carlson stated he had followed-up on this issue. He learned there previously had been no per person limit on the number of visits, and staff were overloaded. D.Carlson noted that last year, it often took up to seven weeks just to get an appointment and up to four weeks to receive medication. He was told that most people do not approach the visitation limit set by Gannett, and therefore, most will not be affected by it. He noted the staff appears to be doing their best to serve the community with the limited resources they have.

S.Hames noted the insurance carrier for the Student Health plan had changed. He stated it seems to him that the coverage is not as good as before, and the GPSA may want to examine this issue.

Hilary Ford, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, stated there are two seats on the Health Advisory Board for graduate students. She stated this is a very important committee, and representatives have to make a real commitment in order to gain the necessary background to influence the committee.

J.Schwarz stated there is currently one vacancy on the Board on University Health Services committee. He inquired if any GPSA members wanted the position. When none replied, he stated he would contact a COR member who had indicated interest in this issue.

IV. Minutes

The minutes of the September 26, 1998 GPSA meeting were approved as submitted.

V. Announcements and Reports

A) Report from the TA/RA Committee

J.Schwarz stated he and S.Hames have been working on the TA/RA committee for the last year.

S.Hames stated members should have received the TA/RA draft report via the gpsa-l listserv. He noted that Dean Walter Cohen of the Graduate School asked for two graduate students to serve on this committee. This committee has been working to establish guidelines because currently there are no University-wide guidelines for the conditions of teaching and research assistantships. S.Hames stated the draft guidelines have been sent to all of the directors of graduate studies and graduate field assistants. S.Hames stated he thinks this is a big step forward to help clarify the expectations between all involved parties. This clarification should help to prevent some of the abuses which have been noted in the past.

S.Hames stated there are three parts to the draft document. The first is taken from a document used by the University of Minnesota, which governs the mutual responsibilities of the graduate fields, advisors, and graduate students. The second part is the recommended guidelines for Cornell University. Finally, there is a sample of a TA/RA assistantship letter, along with guidelines for sending these out. S.Hames stated the committee believes it to be very important for all the responsibilities and terms of an assistantship to be clearly spelled out in this letter so there are not misunderstandings later. S.Hames requested that members share this information with their constituents and forward comments to him. The committee will meet again to discuss all of the feedback and make changes as necessary.

Ramon Thomas, JGSM, asked whether this document was intended to make the conditions of assistantships uniform across the university.

J.Schwarz stated this was not the intention of the committee. It is expected that actual terms of assistantships will vary across the fields. These guidelines were created to address some of the more basic issues and to set a basic set of minimum standards. The committee would like the information about the terms of the assistantship to be communicated at the beginning of employment. For example, the appointment letters would now have to be very specific in listing the term of employment and responsibilities of the graduate student.

J.Schwarz stated these guidelines are still in draft form and are not final.

H.Ford stated the TA/RA committee will meet again on November 9 to examine the suggestions and feedback. Changes will be incorporated as needed, and then Dean Cohen will submit these new guidelines.

2) West Campus Housing Plan

J.Schwarz stated this issue will be an addition to the agenda. He stated the administration introduced a major plan to revamp housing on West Campus at the last Leadership meeting, and noted that while many of the details are in the early stages, it is clear they would like graduate student input.

S.Hames stated this plan calls for residential houses with faculty-in-residence, and maybe graduate-students-in-residence. A firm of architects have been hired, and currently plans are being made to set up various programs in these houses. These houses are intended to foster a stimulating, intellectual life.

Philip McPheron, Director of Graduate Student Housing, stated this plan is a byproduct of the plan to house all freshmen on North Campus by 2001. He noted that to facilitate that plan, new buildings are being built on North Campus, and renovations are being made to existing buildings. Because of this plan, West Campus will be inhabited by a different student population. He noted everything is still in the early planning stages, and that currently, graduate students may have some programmatic functions under this new system. P.McPheron stated the planning process is likely to be extensive.

S.Hames stressed it is important to get involved in this issue early.

D.Carlson noted information on this plan is on the web, and that feedback is requested.

In response to members’ questions, P.McPheron stated some program houses will have to be relocated because the presidential plan requires all program houses on North consist of at least 50% freshmen. Thus, some program houses may not be viable under this requirement and may have to reconstitute themselves.

J.Schwarz requested that members e-mail him at jms60@cornell.edu if they are interested in this issue.

P.McPheron noted that under the new system, it is possible that graduate students will hold quasi-staff positions.

VI. Business of the Day

A) Alcohol Policy Review

R.Thomas stated that he, along with S.Hames and D.Carlson, formed an ad hoc committee which carefully examined the policy proposal. He stated the proposed policy seems to mainly apply to the undergraduate community as it is currently written. However, there are areas of concern to the graduate community. On page twelve, there are guidelines for purchasing alcohol with University Funds. He stated a clause is needed here to clarify the buying of alcohol with funds garnished from the Student Activity Fee because although the GPSA does not feel these are University Funds, Jan Talbot, Community Health Educator, seems to believe that they are. R.Thomas stated the ad hoc committee has a draft of the clause they would like to add.

P.McPheron suggested the committee ask Allan Bova, Director of Risk Management, about his position on this issue.

S.Hames stated he knows of this position, which argues that all of the monies flowing through the University are University funds, and that he disagrees with it. He noted this issue has shown up at other schools where the administration was actually using the activity fee money, and they had to stop doing that because that money is not part of university funds.

P.McPheron noted that many people in administration would take the view that considers any money going through the system, regardless of origin, to be University funds.

S.Hames stated there are different views on this issue, and it is important that the viewpoint of graduate students be represented.

R.Thomas noted the committee needs to talk to J.Talbot on these issues.

H.Ford suggested the ad hoc committee contact Victoria Blodgett, Manager of the Big Red Barn Graduate Center, to discuss these issues.

P.McPheron offered to share with the GPSA his views on how this policy would affect graduate students living on campus. He referred members to the flowchart listed on page 13 of the policy which tracks the decision-making process and required forms. Currently, residents in graduate housing may hold dinner parties, without needing permission to serve alcohol. Under this proposed policy, if wine is served, the host would be required to fill out a Use Of University Property Form (UUP), regardless of how many people attend. He noted this would only apply to parties in a community center.

S.Hames disagreed, noting this may also apply to graduate students’ apartments.

P.McPheron stated he does not believe this to be the case, and if so, then he was misinformed. This issue may have to be clarified. He noted that currently, staff move parties to the community center in cases where parties in apartments get too loud. However, this cannot be done under the new policy. This could have negative repercussions, such as creating tensions between the staff and residents of graduate housing.

Amy Carroll, Microbiology, noted that in previous meetings, the issue of departmental picnics had come up. She asked whether there would be any affects on these picnics.

S.Hames stated a caterer would be required to serve alcohol, but this issue needs to be examined further. He noted he believes the proposed alcohol policy goes overboard in several instances, such as the required reporting of events to the Dean of Student’s office.

H.Ford stated that in practice, the Dean of Students has nothing to do with graduate students. However, the office has the resources necessary to handle reports for all students, and therefore, it makes sense to use the one office rather than establish a new one to handle this responsibility.

P.McPheron stated it seems that J.Talbot believes this issue to be primarily of education, and informing people of the consequences of serving alcohol.

R.Thomas stated the UA will vote on the proposed policy at their October 28 meeting.

D.Carlson stated he is worried the recommendations will be ignored. He stated there is a real concern among UA members that if they do not pass the proposal, it will be done over their heads. He noted that he can ask for another postponement, or pass it as an interim policy, which would allow for additional review and allow changes to be made before it becomes official. He stated the next meeting will be held on October 28, at 4:30 PM in the WSH Art Gallery, and it would be very helpful if members would attend the meeting in order to complain and show unity against it in its present form.

S.Hames stated this policy is rather badly written in some places. For example, on page 12, it states that any organization wanting to purchase alcohol needs the approval of the Finance Commission. This means that even if an organization was using its own money, it would still need to ask the Finance Commission for permission to buy alcohol.

J.Schwarz proposed a vote to recommend that the Proposed Alcohol Policy either be postponed or passed as an interim policy.

A vote was taken on the action to recommend the postponement of the Alcohol Policy vote, or for it to be passed as an interim policy.

The action passed unanimously.

J.Schwarz requested that UA members update the GPSA on this issue.

B) Resolution on the reorganization of the Division of Biological Sciences

S.Hames stated that University administration is considering a large reorganization of the Division of Biological Sciences. He noted this division has been in existence for roughly thirty years. It consists of both endowed and statutory units, and was originally set up to give more structure to the undergraduate biology major.

S.Hames stated that other Constituent Assemblies are also worried about this proposal. The SA is concerned about the difference in tuition between the statutory and endowed sides while the EA is worried about the affect this plan would have on employee jobs. He noted this issue should be of concern to the GPSA, since it is a large source of teaching assistantships.

S.Hames stated the Assembly leadership reviewed the reorganization document. The SA would like more time to examine this document, and passed a resolution regarding this. The Faculty Senate also passed a resolution for more time. The EA also passed a motion asking for more time to study the document.

S.Hames noted that requests for graduate student involvement and feedback about this was very unorganized and last minute. He noted he received an e-mail on a Friday asking that he attend a meeting held on the following Monday.

A.Carroll stated that her department, Microbiology, received advance notice of this issue.

S.Hames stated the other constituent Assemblies were also not consulted on this issue. S.Hames also stated the external review committee did not speak with his department, Ecology and Environmental Studies. He noted that while there may not be much chance of actually influencing this policy, it is important to pass this resolution for two reasons: 1) It gives support to the other Assemblies and 2) to give the administration the message to include campus governance system in decision making.

J.Schwarz stated he would like to take a vote on this resolution. He noted there seems to be a bigger issue regarding communication to the Assemblies by administration. The administration claims the information was posted to the web. J.Schwarz stated, however, that he would like to see information formally flow through the GPSA body into the community.

S.Hames noted this resolution is very similar to the one which will be voted on by the UA.

J.Schwarz noted the SA, EA, and Faculty Senate have already acted on this issue.

A vote was taken on the resolution regarding the reorganization of the Division of Biological Sciences.

The resolution passed by a vote of 9–2−1.

D.Carlson stated he believes this to be an important step towards improving communication, as the administration believes that it has already received all the necessary feedback.

C) The GPSA-L mailing list

J.Schwarz stated he would like to speak about this issue because of the recent congestion on the gpsa-l mailing list.

Yogesh Potdar, Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, stated there are two main areas one can look at on this issue: format and content.

J.Schwarz stated he would like to deal with the content issue. On the form issue, J.Schwarz noted that they have an expert within COR on this. He would like to see minimal traffic on this mailing list, and to facilitate that, posts should contain items of interest to the GPSA or COR. There should be no personal messages, flames, or messages from organizations about a particular event they are holding. He stated there will be a formal resolution on this by next month, but he would like the GPSA to discuss, consider, and agree to its use now.

Bonnie Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, asked whether discussion would be allowable on the list.

J.Schwarz stated that it would, so long as the discussion is relevant to the graduate and professional community.

D.Carlson stated it is important avoid using the list as an ad board.

J.Schwarz stated this issue will be formally dealt with next month.

D) GPSA Organization

J.Schwarz, noting the lack of time, stated this issue will be addressed at the next GPSA meeting. He stated he would like to have more response from members. Also, he noted he would like to begin to solicit committee reports. He asked for members to assume responsibility for gathering information.

B.Bailey stated she would be willing to gather the reports since she already has the list of committee appointees. This was accepted.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by J.Schwarz at 6:20 PM.

Respectfully Submitted, Stephanie Tinsley