MINUTES
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
February 22, 1999
Big Red Barn Graduate & Professional Student Center Greenhouse
5:00 P.M.

I. Attendance:

98–99 GPSA Members 4/27 9/28 10/26 11/23 1/25 2/22 3/29 4/26 Matt Abramovitz E P P P E E Dennis Carlson P P P E P P Amy Carroll P P P E P P Michael Cosh P P P P P P Deidra Suwanee Dees P P E P P E Wendy Fleischman P P P P A A Stefan Hames P P P P P P Sergey Kiselev P P P P P A David McCusker N/A P A P P A Purnima Menon P P P P A P Yogesh Potdar P P P P A P Lauren Russell A P P P P P John Schwarz P P P P P P A. Ramon Thomas P P P A A E Linda Yannone A E E A A A

Others Present: Philip McPheron, Katie Dealy, Bonnie Bailey, and Stephanie Tinsley

II. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by John Schwarz, GPSA President, at 5:15 p.m..

III.Open Forum

Amy Carroll, Microbiology, stated she is currently serving on the SA’s Committee on the Environment. She stated that a couple years ago, the SA passed a resolution recommending that Cornell try to function as an environmentally sustainable university. The Committee on the Environment has compiled relevant information, such as research on pesticides, electricity usage, etc., and is now seeking a way to get this information to the appropriate people. She stated that a resolution is being written regarding this distribution of information, and she will keep the GPSA informed.

Michael Cosh, Civil Engineering, asked if other members had to fill out progress reports for their departments.

Various members indicated that they did fill out progress reports, though some did not.

M.Cosh explained that the Engineering College is looking into instituting progress reports. He requested that members e-mail egsa@cornell.edu and share details regarding existing progress reports, such as who fills them out, who receives them, and what questions are asked.

IV. Announcements and Reports

A) TCAT Service Concerns

Stefan Hames, GPSA Vice President, reported that he had spoken with Rodney Ghearing, General Manager of TCAT, regarding the concerns from graduate students about the busing situation. There are several bus routes that are severely overcrowded, and in some cases, students have been left waiting at the bus stops because there was no room on the bus. This problem is especially bad on the routes which head towards the mall. S.Hames gave R.Ghearing several e-mails written by graduate students regarding this issue and R.Ghearing was pleased to receive them.

S.Hames said he was told there are two possible solutions to the busing problem. One is to run doubles, a term meaning that two buses will be running the same route at the same time. The other option, which is preferred by students, is to increase the frequency of the bus runs. For example, instead of having buses going to Pyramid Mall every thirty minutes, buses would travel the same route every fifteen minutes. In August of 1999 new bus schedules will be implemented, and S.Hames stated that R.Ghearing reassured him that graduate concerns will be kept in mind during this process.

B) Trustee Elections

J.Schwarz announced that three additional polling locations were added for student elections this year. The additional polling locations are scheduled for 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. at Sage, Hughes, and the Vet School Atrium. Patrick Carr, Geology, and Doug Rawald, Law, are graduate and professional students on the ballot for the Student-elected Trustee seat.

S.Hames stated that the GPSA should inform its constituents of the election and encourage them to vote. He noted that if candidate statements are sent to gpsa-l, all candidate statements should be included because he does not believe that the GPSA can endorse a candidate.

C) Committees

J.Schwarz stated there are two committees with vacant seats which the GPSA is trying to fill. The first is the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, which will make a recommendation regarding which new contract for the student health insurance plan should be choosen. There are currently two graduate students serving on the committee, but there is one seat left.

J.Schwarz explained that the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee has designed the plan that it would like to receive. It has sent this plan out to various companies, who will send in bids on how much it will cost for them to provide the plan. By March 19, the bids are due from the companies. The committee will then review the offers and select three bidders to make presentations at Cornell between March 19 and April 20. After this, this committee will make a recommendation on which company to chose. The selection will actually be made by Cornell administration, but the committee is very involved in this process. J.Schwarz noted there will probably be approximately twenty hours of work for this committee between now and April 20. He asked members if they were interested in serving on this committee.

S.Hames stated that it would be nice to have a GPSA or COR member serve on this committee, but any graduate or professional student is fine. He stressed that it is crucial for another graduate or professional student to serve on this committee to represent graduate and professional student interests.

A.Carroll stated that William Laratta, had made contact to say he was interested in this position, but did not receive a reply.

Bonnie Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, replied that she did answer him. She offered to contact W.Laratta again regarding this committee.

J.Schwarz requested that members ask their constituents if they are interested in serving on this committee. He noted that the initial plan offered by Chickering had included a 24% increase in premiums. It was decided to have the plan sent out for bids, and so Chickering cut this increase to 16%.

S.Hames noted that the current coverage is less broad than it was last year. He commented that he is now having to pay more for medicine.

J.Schwarz asked that anyone interested in serving on the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee contact him or B.Bailey.

J.Schwarz stated that the second committee to be filled is the Food Services Study Team. Campus Life is reviewing dining services on campus. J.Schwarz and S.Hames were assigned to the committee, but due to their current time commitments, neither of the two can be on the committee.

S.Hames stated that the reason why he and J.Schwarz were put on the committee was to ensure GPSA involvement. Therefore, any member of the graduate and professional community can serve on this committee.

J.Schwarz stated that the Food Services Study Team will look at dining services in two phases. The first phase involves an extensive interview and feedback process in which the committee will try to determine what students would like from the dining halls. The second phase will involve making recommendations in order to implement changes suggested in the first phase.

Phil McPheron, Director of Graduate Student Housing, stated that a very extensive survey will be performed on this topic. He noted that the consulting firm is the preeminent firm in the country on this topic.

S.Hames stated that he would particularly like for the graduate seats on this committee to be filled because the administration took the initiative in trying to ensure graduate student input. He stated that he would post more information on this position to gpsa-l.

J.Schwarz requested that members let him know if they are interested in serving on this committee.

Lauren Russell, Public Affairs, noted that she may be interested in serving on this committee.

D) Graduate Student Bill of Rights

S.Hames stated there is currently a group of officials from different universities who have put together a graduate student bill of rights, and are looking for graduate student input from universities throughout the country. He stated he would e-mail gpsa-l giving more information about this topic. S.Hames suggested the GPSA look at this suggested Graduate Student Bill of Rights, and send this group a formal opinion on its contents. He asked if anyone would be interested in volunteering for this ad-hoc committee.

Dennis Carlson, Statistics, and L.Russell volunteered to serve on this ad-hoc committee along with S.Hames.

S.Hames confirmed the ad-hoc committee will meet and will try to bring something to the next meeting for the GPSA to vote on.

V. Business of the Day

A) Student Activity Fee Guidelines

M.Cosh reported that he was recently made aware of the fact that the GPSA Treasurer’s Handbook does not mention club insurance. Cris Gardner, Director of the Office of Assemblies, and Allen Bova, Director of Risk Management, have written a paragraph to remedy this situation. M.Cosh then read the proposed wording of the resolution out loud. M.Cosh stated that he would e-mail members with the relevant information, and that he plans to have a resolution ready for the next meeting.

Katie Dealy, Student-elected Trustee, stated that because of incidents that happened last year, the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees decided to codify procedures regarding setting the Student Activity Fee. A draft resolution regarding this process has been made and it was presented to the Student Assembly at its last meeting. K.Dealy stated that the intent of the resolution is to set broad guidelines. She noted most of these guidelines are more relevant for the SA, which has had more controversy over this topic. One of the guidelines in this document states that if the Student Activity Fee is not set by the end of the fall semester, then funding levels will default to the old levels. K.Dealy noted the definition of by-line funded groups was made broad and not very specific so that the Assemblies are able to debate whether or not a particular organization provides a service for their entire community.

S.Hames stated some members of the committee had wanted to include a clause that would prevent by-line funded organizations from receiving all of the money gathered from the Student Activity Fee. He noted that Part F is a good compromise on this issue.

K.Dealy stated that any suggestions regarding Part F would be welcomed. She stated the last point deals with the idea to have students decide individually whether or not they want to fund an organization. However, it was decided that it is not really feasible to have either positive or negative options to pay because this would be so difficult to administer. Exceptions are possible but they must be approved by the Assembly and by the President of the University. K.Dealy stated should members want more information on this topic, it is available at the Office of Assemblies.

K.Dealy stated there will be a meeting held by the Task Force at the end of the week in regards to this document. After this meeting, the document goes to the Academic Affairs Committee for their review. It is expected to be approved by the Board of Trustees at its May meeting.

M.Cosh stated that he would like the section in Part D stating that organizations need to demonstrate a funding need of at least $0.50 per student to be more precise.

K.Dealy asked that he clarify his question.

M.Cosh stated that the section should also read that an organization receives $0.50 per student. He stated that it is easy for an organization to say they have a minimum budgetary need of $0.50 per student, but that does not mean they will receive it. Thus, he would like a section specifically stating that an organization must receive a minimum of $0.50 per student per year in order to be considered by-line funded.

S.Hames asked that members refer to the handout he had passed out earlier in regards to the Student Activity Fee. S.Hames stated this includes the relevant amendments to the GPSA Charter that need to be made, and that he plans to bring this to a vote at the next GPSA meeting. He stated he will bring the resolution again to the next COR meeting. The changes in bold on the document cover all the proposed changes, except for the one just suggested. He noted he will add a new paragraph that states the Board of Trustees and the President of the University delegate the authority to set and allocate the Student Activity Fee to the GPSA.

B) Changes to the GPSA Charter

J.Schwarz stated that the Assemblies want to be more involved in the decisions made at Cornell University that affect their constituents. Therefore, they have been trying to develop language to add to the GPSA Charter to have that effect. J.Schwarz noted that the scope of the consultation is still being determined. He stated this topic will be discussed in more detail at the next COR meeting.

S.Hames stated that the GPSA is in danger of not being consulted on matters relevant to graduate and professional students currently, as the situation with the Division of Biological Sciences demonstrated. He noted they are working in conjunction with the other Assemblies on this topic.

J.Schwarz stated that any help in clarifying the limits to consultation would be appreciated.

VI. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by J.Schwarz at 6:14 PM.

Respectfully Submitted, Stephanie Tinsley