MINUTES
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly Council of Representatives
December 14th, 1998
Big Red Barn Graduate & Professional Student Center Greenhouse
5:00 P.M.

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:05 PM by Stefan Hames, Vice President of the 1998–99 GPSA.

II. Open Forum

There were no remarks during open forum.

III. Announcements and Reports

A) Alcohol Policy Update

Stefan Hames said that at the last Council of Representatives meeting he, Ramon Thomas (JGSM), and Dennis Carlson (CALS) had reported that they had been trying to arrange a meeting with Jan Talbot, Community Health Educator, to discuss the concerns the GPSA had with the proposed changes to the alcohol policy. Due to scheduling difficulties, the GPSA ad hoc committee ended up discussing concerns amongst themselves first and then S.Hames met with J.Talbot and Allen Bova, Director of Risk Management to convey those issues. S.Hames said that, overall, he was pleased with the changes made to the language of the final draft because all of the concerns raised by the GPSA were addressed and improvements were made to the policy document. He felt that graduate and professional students got the best deal they could get with this document and graduate/professional student organizations are given the same status as a department. He still felt, however, that the alcohol policy is too restrictive overall, although it is restrictive across the board and isn’t any worse for graduate and professional students than other groups. Stefan felt the issues raised about the use of alcohol in Cornell owned graduate student housing was clarified in the policy and he was satisfied with this.

Copies of the final draft of proposed changes to the alcohol policy were distributed to members assembled at the meeting. Stefan announced this draft was presented to the University Assembly at their December 2, 1998 meeting and it was passed.

A question was raised about the way this policy will affect department picnics. S.Hames replied that if the event is held off campus, the department chair must be notified about the event, but a UUP will not be required. S. Hames added that he knows of some faculty in one department who are very annoyed with the changes to the alcohol policy. He said his department recently held a party and decided to move it to a location off campus to avoid the red-tape which would be involved with holding the party on campus.

B) Committee to examine TA/RA issues

John Schwarz, GPSA President, noted that the TA/RA report has been submitted to Dean Walter Cohen of the Graduate School and it will be disseminated to others. Eventually it will be given to President Rawlings for his review.

A question was raised asking whether there is a timeframe regarding when information will filter back to the GPSA from administrators on this report.

It was reported that Dean Cohen is going on Sabbatic next semester and there wasn’t a sense regarding the timing of a response to the report.

Hilary Ford, Assistant Dean to the Graduate School, said she will check into this and get back to the GPSA with the answer.

A member asked it there was a plan formulated to disseminate the information to those affected, namely TA/RA’s, once it is ready.

J.Schwarz replied that he hopes the GPSA will help with this.

S.Hames thought there was discussion generated by the TA/RA committee regarding incorporating part of the information with the graduate school handbook.

H.Ford said there were two recommendations made in the report. One involves Cornell developing a statement about graduate student education and the mutual responsibilities involved in an assistantship, and the second involved closer mentoring by the Dean of the Graduate School.

C) Student Health Insurance Options

J.Schwarz reported that Dean Cohen had posed the issue of a health insurance plan which would tie health insurance premiums into assistantship packages. He explained that the basic concept is that graduate students receiving stipends would forgo a percentage of their annual raise over a three year period and that money would be used to offset paying health insurance premiums.

J.Schwarz brought the issue to the GPSA at their November 23, 1998 business meeting and said that Dean Cohen is interested in hearing from the GPSA and wanted feedback on whether to explore this.

S.Hames cited a rough example to give members an idea of what this would involve. For example, if the raise per student is 4% annually, 2% of that raise would be taken to pay the health insurance premium, and the student would in effect have 2% in-pocket. At the end of the 3 years, the health insurance premiums would be “paid” by Cornell.

J.Schwarz reported that the GPSA decided at the November meeting that it would be acceptable to let Dean Cohen look into this issue, however there was concern from several members about making it clear to Dean Cohen that no decisions should be made without direct GPSA involvement. J.Schwarz said that preliminary investigation has begun, but no action will be taken without GPSA approval and that the GPSA will be involved in the process.

J.Schwarz added that Dean Cohen obtained information regarding the number of graduate students who opt out of having Cornell health insurance. Students would generally opt out if they are covered under another person’s health insurance. Dean Cohen expected the number to be relatively low and was surprised to find that approximately 1,400 graduate students opt out. This number was significantly higher than expected and if this plan were implemented, those students would lose out since it seems that all graduate students with an assistantship would be part of the plan.

J.Schwarz added that if a decision is made to go with this plan that it could potentially give Cornell a recruiting advantage since Cornell could then say that it pays for graduate assistantship health insurance premiums. There is a possibility that perhaps Cornell would help subsidize the premiums since it is advantageous to the University to have graduate students buy into this plan. Assuming Cornell does find money for this endeavor, Dean Cohen then posed the question to John regarding whether graduate students feel the money raised could be better spent on something else? Would there be a preference to use the money on graduate fellowships, for example? It was clarified that only incoming students would be eligible if this particular option were decided upon.

A member commented that under the basic proposal, the only real change is that it looks as though Cornell is paying the costs, although in reality the graduate students will still really pay their own premiums.

S.Hames added that at first it was thought that a tax benefit would be gained with this process, however they learned that graduate students will not realize any tax benefits because they are not categorized as employees. He felt this is disheartening and makes the package less appealing.

Ana Cordova, Natural Resources, asked how many of those 1,400 graduate students who opt out actually receive a stipend. If most of those 1,400 do not receive a stipend, it would mean that fewer people would be negatively impacted with regards to this particular concern since this plan only affects those with assistantships.

Another member asked if it is known how other universities handle this issue. It was commented that married people would lose out on this plan. It was clarified that dependents would not be covered and therefore the difference in the premium for those with dependents would still need to be paid by the graduate student.

D) TCAT Service Concerns

S.Hames noted that Purnima Menon, Nutritional Sciences GPSA member, read a letter from a constituent to the GPSA at their November 23, 1998 meeting about transportation/busing concerns. S.Hames followed up on this concern and distributed a relevant copy of an email to the COR members assembled.

S.Hames reported he had been in contact with Hank Dullea, Vice President of University Relations, about these concerns. H.Dullea is also on the Board of Directors of TCAT. H.Dullea pointed S.Hames to Rodney Ghearing, Manager at Transportation Services, for assistance. S.Hames was informed that there are anticipated system-wide improvements to the TCAT service, however those improvements are to be implemented in August of 1999. The concern is what can be done now to help alleviate the busing problems. The two major options are to 1) add more buses; and 2) to add more bus runs. R.Ghearing has asked for input and feedback from the GPSA. S.Hames said he forwarded this email to gpsa-l today, asking for the message to be forwarded to constituents and for people to send comments to him.

S.Hames said he forwarded this email to gpsa-l with hopes of getting feedback back from people. He commented that he felt the communication with R.Ghearing has been positive and that he genuinely would like to hear back from the GPSA.

E) Student Activity Fee

S.Hames reported that a Task Force was formed by the Board of Trustees in response to legal concerns over the practice of students setting their activity fees. The two Cornell Student Trustees were involved with this task force, though they hadn’t been informing the GPSA of their activities. S.Hames and Michael Cosh, Engineering, were belatedly put on this task force to help examine these issues.

M.Cosh noted that written guidelines need to be put together to present to the GPSA which, for the most part, will codify procedures which are already in practice. He felt that the guidelines are really common sense and there is a need for formalizing the process. M.Cosh added that these written guidelines will result in changes to the GPSA Charter and will need approval from the GPSA. He expects he will draft resolutions on this topic to present at a future GPSA meeting.

Dean John Ford wrote a draft response to the report, and Cris Gardner, Director of the Office the Assemblies, also made several good suggestions.

The Board of Trustees has given the President the authority to spend the money, with the President informally handing this task over to the GPSA. One of the changes they would like to see put in the Charter involves the President delegating the authority to the GPSA for spending the activity fee money.

F) Board of Trustees

J.Schwarz added this item to the agenda. He explained that the Cornell Board of Trustees does not presently have a seat specifically designated for a graduate/professional student. The Employees have one seat and there are two student seats on the Board of Trustees. However he considers the present system unfair due to the numerical inequality of undergraduates to graduate/professional students at Cornell. J.Schwarz added that given those numbers, it is almost impossible for a graduate/professional student to get elected to the Board of Trustees. The odds are numerically against graduate/professional students on this issue.

He added that he believes this present situation is a leftover from when the GPSA splintered off from the Student Assembly. He explained that originally all students, including graduate/professional students, were represented by the SA. He noted that he has observed certain committees which still do not have full graduate/professional student representation and feels this is another area which was overlooked after the constituency split. He feels the situation recently experienced with the Student Trustees and the Board of Trustees Task Force reinforces the need to have a graduate/professional student seated with the Board of Trustees. He also feels the graduate/professional community has different needs than the undergraduates.

J.Schwarz said he would like to see this situation remedied, although he isn’t sure exactly what steps would need to be taken to do this.

Members concurred and felt graduate/professional student representation on the Board of Trustees worth pursuing.

S.Hames added that communication with the two current student Trustees hasn’t been ideal. For example, notification regarding the Board of Trustees Task Force wasn’t timely, and consequently involvement by the GPSA wasn’t as early as they’d have liked.

G) Search for Associate Dean

J.Schwarz added this item to the agenda. S. Hames said the GPSA executive committee has been involved in a search committee to replace Eleanor Reynolds, Associate Dean of the Graduate School. They helped with interviewing six candidates and were pleased to report that the candidate selected was someone with whom they were very comfortable, and in fact wanted for this position.

S.Hames announced that Terry Plater has accepted the position and will begin in January 1999. Her responsibilities will involve recruitment and retention of minorities and she will also act as a primary liaison between all graduate student groups, including the GPSA.

J.Schwarz added that it was gratifying to be involved early in this process. Several different groups were involved in the interviewing process; graduate students, faculty, and administrators. Dean Cohen made the final decision in the process. J.Schwarz noted there were diverse opinions expressed and in one particular instance the graduate students were opposed to a candidate. They were gratified to find that Dean Cohen weighed the opinions of each group and did not dismiss or favor any particular group. It was felt Dean Cohen was fair and considered graduate input in the process as worthwhile and meaningful.

IV. Business of the Day

A) Resolution Regarding Conditions of Research and Teaching Assistantships at Cornell

J.Schwarz distributed a copy of a draft resolution for members to read. A quick head count revealed there were not enough GPSA members present at the meeting to constitute a quorum and voting on the resolution would have to be postponed until a later GPSA meeting.

J.Schwarz noted the resolution was drafted as a way for the GPSA to independently make a statement on the TA/RA policy guidelines. He said there were two specific areas of concern which he tried to address: 1) parity in workloads over time, and 2) formal grievance mechanisms.

H.Ford noted that Cornell currently does have a formal grievance procedure in place.

J.Schwarz replied that he feels it important for a grievance report to be independent from the department in which an individual is having trouble. The relationship between the faculty and the graduate assistant is complex and having to work through a department when there is trouble makes things more difficult.

J.Schwarz noted that current policies allow an individual to go to the Ombudsman if necessary, however Cornell doesn’t mandate participation. Consequently, there have been cases where a graduate student has gone to the Ombudsman, but the faculty member refused to participate and the grievance process broke down.

S.Hames suggested changing the wording in the last paragraph to emphasize streamlining the grievance process and making an effort to let students be aware the process exists.

J.Schwarz felt it important to speak now if Cornell policies may be getting looked at. If they do, he felt these suggestions might be considered in the process.

Cris Gardner, Director from the Office of the Assemblies, asked if the main action of the resolution is to avoid conflict. Were there recommendations as to how conflict could be avoided within the existing policy?

John replied that hadn’t been looked at with this resolution.

M.Cosh stated that the Engineering Directors of Graduate Studies are reviewing their assistantship policies and are looking into making changes to their assistantship acceptance letters. He noted there will be less conflict if a contract exists in the beginning and if the terms of appointment are clearly spelled out up front rather than waiting for a problem to arise.

M.Cosh said he was also in favor of striking the last paragraph of the resolution which discussed the grievance procedure. He felt it important to focus on the issues raised in the TA/RA committee report and address specificity.

S.Hames noted that all opinions shared are equally important. The 15 GPSA members are elected from COR members and as such, are given voting privileges. He noted, however, it is very important that everyone remember that the GPSA needs to know opinions of the constituents and the COR meetings are a good place to exchange thoughts. He encouraged honest feedback and reminded members that this is a democratic process.

Discussion ensued regarding whether there is a university policy covering vacation time from work as it pertains to the context of this conversation. Many members found this amusing and there was a difference of opinion on how this is handled. It seemed that different departments may handle this issue differently. This illustrates the importance of having university guidelines for assistantships.

H.Ford noted that guidelines do exist with the graduate school, but added that this information is not as widely disseminated as it ought to be. She would like to see this particular issue improved.

Discussion advanced to whether affected students will actually feel they can file a grievance because they may fear retribution in some form if they take steps to file a grievance. Grievance procedures won’t help students who are unwilling to risk going through the process. The relationship between the faculty member and the assistant is too close and many students, particularly foreign students, or those who may be financially strapped, will endure poor working conditions rather than risk filing a grievance. There were opinions on both sides, with members understanding the dilemma, but also taking the stance that policies need to be in place and ready if one chooses to pursue that avenue.

M.Abramovitz noted that he understood the discussion at the last GPSA meeting to mean that the resolution would be a basic statement showing independent support by the GPSA for the TA/RA committee report. He noted that the resolution presented at this COR meeting seems go to a different level in that other issues are brought out which tend to cloud this point and suggest corrections to the report. He suggested that keeping the resolution simple in its focus; which is to show independent support of the TA/RA report seems as though it would suffice. Perhaps some of the other issues noted in this draft resolution would be worthy of a second resolution if that is what the GPSA feels inclined to support.

S.Hames replied that many good comments were noted at the meeting and that the resolution was still in draft form. It will be reviewed, have changes made, and be brought before the GPSA again at a later date.

V. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by S.Hames at 6:10 PM.

Respectfully Submitted, Bonnie Bailey