1999–2000 Graduate and Professional Council of Representatives Notes September 13, 1999 Big Red Barn Graduate and Professional Student Center Greenhouse 5:00 p.m.

Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Stefan Hames, 1999–2000 GPSA Vice President, at 5:01 p.m.

Open Forum Peter Kaskan, Psychology, reported there have been problems with toxic waste disposal in his lab. He asked members how this subject was handled in their respective labs.

Lidija Sekaric, Applied Physics, asked P.Kaskan to clarify exactly what he would like to know.

P.Kaskan replied that the problem is that the lab is not really organized to dispose of the waste. Currently, the toxic waste piles up in the lab until the person nominally in charge of disposing of it is pressured enough to get rid of it.

L.Sekaric suggested that Tom Shelley, Environmental Health & Laboratory Safety, be consulted with this concern.

P.Kaskan replied that several of his colleagues had spoken with T.Shelley and no information was given regarding how to arrange a better long-term solution.

L.Sekaric and P.Kaskan agreed to speak together in more depth about this issue after the meeting.

Kevin Walker, City & Regional Planning, expressed his concerns over the current health insurance package. He noted there was a lack of preventive care in the package. In addition, a flyer was sent to students advising them of an available dental package. However, he felt a full disclosure was not provided to students. K.Walker stated when he researched the dental plan he found that no provider in Ithaca participates with this plan. He suggested that the GPSA take a more active role with this issue and perhaps consider acting more similar to a union.

Jean Ahn, Human Services Studies, stated she has served as a member of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee. She noted the dental plan is considered a supplementary plan and is not mandatory.

K.Walker clarified that his actual concern is that the dental plan did not clearly describe the terms of service. In response to members’ questions about where the flyer could be found, he replied that it was mailed to students along with their bursar bill and it was also available at Gannett Health Center.

J.Ahn stated that the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee felt that dental insurance is not in high demand and consequently this plan was pitched as an optional supplementary item to make available to students.

Michael Cosh, Civil Engineering, announced there would be a GPSAFC budget information session held on September 22, 1999 at 5:30 p.m. in the One World Room in Anabel Taylor Hall.

Chi-ming Yang, English, stated that students in her field have not been charged for Net Print for the past several years. Recently, however, there has been a charge of ten cents per page for printing. She stated she would like more information regarding why this change was instituted.

S.Hames answered that the GPSA has a seat on the CIT committee and efforts to get more information about this subject would be made.

Announcements and Reports A) Funding Policy Committee Charles Marentette, JGSM and Funding Policy Committee (FPC) Chair, informed members that the major task of the GPSA this fall is the setting of the Graduate and Professional Student Activity Fee (GPSAF). The GPSAF appears on the bursar bill as a separate charge. The GPSAFC is set every two years and this is the fee setting year. Various organizations will be submitting requests to be directly funded (called byline funded) from the Student Activity Fee. In October, the task of the FPC will be to review and summarize these requests. In November, the FPC will present its funding recommendations to the GPSA and then the GPSA will vote to set the fee. Once the GPSA has gone through this process it will notify the President and the Board of Trustees, who must also give their approval of the fee before it becomes final.

B) Student Health Plan Support S.Hames stated there has been some sense amongst the graduate community for some time that health care should be included in the package of benefits received from Cornell. Dean Cohen had suggested a plan last year which would do this. The general concept thus far considers taking part of the approximate four-percent raise TAs and RAs receive in their stipends each year as their cost of living adjustment. Under the plan suggested by Dean Cohen, this raise would be decreased by roughly two percent for about three years. That money would then be used to pay health care premiums for graduate students. S.Hames noted that this plan would unfortunately exclude students in the professional schools. He added that last year’s GPSA and COR members expressed a desire to be involved and informed with making this decision. S.Hames stated this idea has already been brought to the attention of the administration who appear to accept the concept as something whose time has come.

Members asked whether the health plan would be paid solely by the percentage taken out of the stipend increase.

S.Hames replied that the administration should also bear some of the cost. If this is not the case the GPSA has the option of not agreeing to the proposed plan.

Members asked if students on research grants would be covered under this new plan.

S.Hames replied the answer is currently affirmative, but it is problematic.

Karen Deangelis, Vet Med, stated she had two questions on this general issue. The first deals with looking into providing a similar plan for vet students/professional students. The second question deals with the dental plan issues brought out during open forum. K.Deangelis reported that people have indicated to her that they have paid for the dental plan but have yet to receive a response by Gannett regarding getting more information. She stated she would like a contact name for this problem.

Krysta Levac, Nutrition, noted there is no dentist in Ithaca who participates in the dental plan. She informed members that when she asked her dentist about the plan he replied that dentists can raise their prices in order to make up the difference not covered by the insurance. The dentist explained that he prefers to keep his pricing down and therefore does not participate.

L.Sekaric commented that she had asked for additional information about the dental package at Gannett and they were unable to provide her with anything. Instead, they suggested that she do the research on her own. She expressed dissatisfaction at the service Gannett provided regarding the distribution of information.

Bill Bauerle, Floriculture, suggested that a comparison be performed between the health plan offered by Cornell versus those offered by other Ivies. He indicated his willingness to help make such a comparison.

S.Hames suggested that J.Ahn be consulted before work is done on that area. He reassured members that GPSA could refuse the health care plan as suggested by Dean Cohen if it is felt it is not in the best interests of graduate students. He concluded that including health care to assistantship packages is becoming vogue around the country and believes Cornell will eventually be pressured to offer it somehow.

C) Celebrating Diversity: Assemblies’ Advance Dan Simmons, Medieval Studies, stated that diversity is an ongoing concern at the University. Action plans are needed to respond to the events that happened on campus last year. At the Assemblies’ Annual Fall Advance, several suggestions were offered to the GPSA regarding how to deal with diversity issues. One suggestion made to the GPSA was to establish closer ties with graduate organizations that target minorities, while another suggested that the GPSA perform a Cofhe survey of attitudes amongst students.

S.Hames noted that evidently the Johnson Graduate School of Management has a survey, which has been used to examine diversity. He asked if it would be possible to do something similar to the Graduate School survey to the graduate population at-large.

C.Marentette, noting that the minority population is small at the Johnson School, stated that the survey helped to point out some items offensive to minorities. He added that the administration found the survey useful since they did not realize these items were offensive. He stated that the survey seemed to work well especially because the Johnson School is not too diverse and that it seemed to do a good job of uncovering current perceptions. He stated he could check with the Dean of the Johnson School to get more information about the survey to bring back to members.

Terry Plater, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, stated that the GPSA needs to clarify who it intends the audience of the survey to be. Is the audience only meant to be of students, or will faculty and staff be included also? She encouraged members to think of their own questions to ask. She noted that the term, “diversity” is often used to mask other items, so a clear definition is needed.

S.Hames stated that he believes the goal of the survey to be simply finding out how individual students perceive the atmosphere at Cornell. He remarked that the problem with maintaining diversity at Cornell is not so much recruitment as it is retainment. Therefore, the issues that make minorities uncomfortable must be identified in order to find solutions.

Heather Spinney, Hotel Administration, commented that the Hotel School has a culturally diverse program since many students come from foreign countries. She asked how diversity would be promoted amongst students. Would there be specific course offerings, University events to be held, or something else?

T.Plater replied that cultural diversity is generally measured in terms of minorities who are historically underrepresented at universities, and not foreign students. She stated this is a very sensitive issue. She suggested that when the GPSA gathers information, that it focus solely on the collection of information. The GPSA should not judge the information at that point. T.Plater suggested that the GPSA also consider gathering information anonymously because people are not comfortable with talking about this issue and may not give honest feedback if they are feeling monitored.

Lynette Millett, Computer Science, reported that the College of Engineering did a climate survey of its students several years ago. The Engineering Graduate Student Association (EGSA) was formed in response to the information gathered by that survey and it acts as a channel for communication. She offered the support of the EGSA in dealing with this issue and said she could be contacted if others wish to hear more about how they dealt with this.

D) Transportation Dennis Carlson, Statistics, stated that the University Assembly rejected the Transportation Program Document late last Spring because of disagreement over some of the changes Transportation would be implementing. For example, students were not adequately informed of the raises in bus fares and he would like to see campus bus fares return to the recent price of .50 cents. On a related note, D.Carlson informed members that Hasbrouck and Maplewood residents must pay to park there. Therefore, he would like these residents, who already pay for parking on campus, to receive Omniride passes along with their permits. Employees already receive that courtesy and he feels graduate students deserve equal treatment. He asked that members e-mail him with any concerns on transportation issues.

Kerry O’Brien, Environmental Toxicology, stated she is the graduate student representative on the Transportation Advisory Committee and that members could also e-mail her if they have any questions, comments, or suggestions on transportation issues. She may be contacted at kao6@cornell.edu.

Business of the Day A) University Calendar S.Hames requested that members review the proposed academic calendar for 2002–2004. He explained that the GPSA has the responsibility of approving this calendar and it will be voted on at the next GPSA meeting. He asked that COR members either e-mail or talk with a GPSA member if they have any questions or concerns.

B) Proposed Changes to the GPSA Charter S.Hames explained the GPSA had been asked by the Board of Trustees last year to amend its charter in order to codify the procedures for setting the Graduate and Professional Student Activity Fee. The suggested changes were approved by the GPSA and were then sent to President Rawlings. However, President Rawlings returned it because he requested that additional clarifications be made. He requested one wording change, which would add the word “qualified” in front of advisor as well as asking for some clarification on other items. S.Hames stated he sees no problems with the proposed changes requested by the President. He informed members that he has sent a revision to the President for approval. S.Hames stated that the GPSA would need to vote on these revised resolutions and Charter amendments at its next meeting.

C) Executive Committee S.Hames informed members that GPSA President, John Schwarz, has taken a leave of absence from the University. John was one of three at-large members elected to the GPSA, as well as being the GPSA President. He stated that he and Pat Carr, GPSA Secretary, are the remaining members of the Executive Committee.

D.Carlson read from Robert’s Rules of Order, which states that the vice president can become president should the president become indisposed for some reason. S.Hames said he would accept and move into the position of President of the GPSA.

S.Hames apologized to members for this issue arising. He stated the GPSA will need to elect another person to the Executive Committee to serve as Vice President. In addition, a new at-large member must be elected from the larger COR group to serve on the GPSA. He clarified that the election of the new at-large GPSA member would take place at the next COR meeting on October 4, 1999.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned by S.Hames at 6:00 p.m.