Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Council of Representatives Big Red Barn Greenhouse March 13, 2000 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. Notes

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Pat Carr, 1999–2000 GPSA Vice President, at 5:10 PM.

Open Forum

There were no items for Open Forum.

Announcements and Reports A) GPSA

Stefan Hames, GPSA President, announced that Krista Mowry, Nutrition, was elected GPSA Secretary at the last meeting.  He informed members that the GPSA passed a resolution in support of Shadows 2000.  The question regarding departmental summer funding support was also discussed.  Based on responses, it appears that summer funding support is not a major problem for most fields.  S.Hames noted that the GPSA also decided to pass the 2002–04 Cornell University academic calendar at its last meeting.

B) UA

Krista Levac, Nutrition, summarized that the UA invited Andy Noel, the new Director of Athletics, to its last meeting.  She noted that Ezra Cornell also came to the meeting to establish contact between the UA and the Board of Trustees.  K.Levac reported that both a holiday observance resolution and changes in the language of the judicial code was discussed.  Finally, the UA decided to pledge its support to the Shadows 2000 program.

C) Meeting with the Dean

S.Hames stated that the proposed plan Dean Cohen had been working on to revise student health insurance may stall.  It had been hoped that Dean Cohen would present a proposal to the GPSA this spring, and potentially students could have seen health insurance included in their assistantship packages next year.  However, Provost Don Randel has accepted a position with the University of Chicago and the proposed plan may now move forward slower while leadership changes.  The new provost, Biddy Martin, must examine all of the material.  S.Hames informed members that the effect of this administrative change should be known by next month.

S.Hames stated that the summer funding support issue was also discussed.  As with many items at Cornell, there are differences between endowed and statutory schools.  In both cases, money for summer funding support comes from a large pool.  For the endowed side the money comes from the endowment, but for the statutory side this money comes from the actual college.  Therefore, funds are more limited at times for the statutory side.  S.Hames noted that these items are dealt with on a case by case basis and it is hard to make broad generalizations about this issue.

Various members suggested that the GPSA should take an active role in presenting the health insurance material to the new provost.

P.Carr stated that this topic could be brought to the new Provost’s attention at the next Leadership meeting.

S.Hames stated that he and P.Carr would be attending a conference of the Ivy Graduate Student Associations.  He noted that the majority of Ivy schools do have health insurance included in their assistantship packages and therefore they hope to be able to collect valuable information at this conference.  S.Hames reiterated that he believes that the administration is aware of the fact that they will have to include health insurance in assistantship packages sooner or later.

Kevin Sherper-Walker, City and Regional Planning, suggested that it might be useful to organize a petition and pass the petition around for graduate students to sign.  He noted that this could be done by the ad-hoc Health Insurance Committee.

D) Other

P.Carr informed members that the administration recently decided to go ahead with the e-Cornell project.  This project has been much debated within the Faculty Senate.  It is intended to raise the capital needed for distance learning ventures.  Cornell has had offers from companies previously to organize long distance learning programs, but such programs require a great deal of set up.  Therefore, capital is needed to have these programs.  This program is intended to raise venture capital, but Cornell University is supposed to maintain a controlling share.  P.Carr noted that the faculty has been against this proposal.  They are concerned that the popular and more marketable subjects would be given priority for funding.  There are also some intellectual property issues.

P.Carr informed members that there is a Faculty Senate resolution that requires that the administration consult with the faculty before making decisions about this project.  However, this was supposed to have included its formal creation but it has already been created, albeit it is currently not funded.  P.Carr remarked that the Board of Trustees appears to be very enthusiastic about this project.

Lidija Sekaric, Applied Physics, stated that faculty members are concerned about becoming even more overworked as a result of this new project.  They are fearful that new positions will not be created fast enough to fulfill the demand for teachers.

P.Carr replied that faculty members are responsible for the initiation of a long-distance learning class.  Therefore, the decision to participate is left up to individual faculty members.  P.Carr stated that one problem with this program is that if the faculty are not being consulted about this project, then it is highly unlikely that students will be consulted for their opinions.  Therefore, the GPSA might want to consider addressing this issue.

Business of the Day A) Campus Elections

P.Carr asked Bonnie Bailey, Office of Assemblies, if election results were in yet?

B.Bailey replied that results are still not available as they are currently being tabulated.  However, it appears that voter turnout has increased over last year.

S.Hames stated that the GPSA should consider asking for a graduate student seat on the Board of Trustees.  He explained that when the GPSA broke off from the SA several years ago, the student-elected trustee seats were not divided between undergraduate and graduate students.  Because undergraduate students outnumber graduate and professional students, this makes it hard for a graduate student to win an election for this seat.

P.Carr agreed with this idea.  He stated that he had discussed this issue with Katie Dealy, one of the student-elected trustees, and she stated that it is unlikely that a graduate seat would be created on the Board of Trustees.  P.Carr stated that it is important to have a graduate seat on the Board of Trustees in order to represent the graduate and professional student community, which is rather sizable.  He noted that the current student-elected trustees do not seem to be representing the needs of graduate students.  He pointed to the fact that while the student-elected trustees do attend SA meetings regularly, they rarely attend GPSA meetings.

S.Hames stated that it is nearly impossible for a graduate student to be elected to the Board of Trustees as things currently stand.  He commented that P.Carr ran for the position last year and if anyone could have done it, P.Carr should have been able to because of all of his connections at Cornell.  S.Hames stated that he spoke with a couple other members on the Board of Trustees and those members seemed supportive of a graduate student seat.

As a reminder, B.Bailey stated that there will be double meetings next month for both the COR and the GPSA.  The regular meetings for the 1999–00 representatives will both be held at 5:00 PM.  At 6:00 PM, the new 2000–01 COR and GPSA representatives will have their meetings.  She stated that new COR members should be identified by the end of the month.

B) Summer Support

This subject was covered earlier in the meeting.

C) Shadows 2000

P.Carr stated that the GPSA agreed to support this program at its last meeting.  He directed members’ attention to the relevant attachments to the agenda.  The intent of the Shadows 2000 program is to provide more interaction between members of different communities at Cornell.  He noted that it appears that this would be more beneficial for undergraduate students than for faculty, administration, and graduate students.

S.Hames agreed that the undergraduates would receive the most benefit from this program.  However, the GPSA still decided to support the spirit of the program.

P.Carr stated that while the GPSA decided to support Sadows 2000, it did not promise to participate in this program because it did not want to force anyone to participate.  P.Carr noted that, of course, any interested graduate or professional students could participate if they wish.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned by P.Carr at 6:02 PM.