GRADUATE AND PROFESSIONAL STUDENT ASSEMBLY COUNCIL OF REPRESENTATIVES NOTES

Big Red Barn Greenhouse December 11, 2000 5:00 — 6:00 p.m.

I. CALL TO ORDER Lidija Sekaric, GPSA Vice President and Applied Physics Representative, called the meeting to order at 5:06 p.m.

II. OPEN FORUM K. Thompson, Horticulture Representative, reported that the Big Red Barn (BRB) will be open this summer. The Trillium will close. The BRB might need some help with funding for it to host some of its special events. He said that Kris Corda, Director of the Big Red Barn Graduate & Professional Student Center, has a nine month position at the BRB. She does not want to work the extra months over the summer, so someone else would need to be hired to do that. Members thought this shouldn’t be too big an obstacle as there are always grads on campus who are willing to earn extra money over the summer.

III. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REPORTS A. GPSA UPDATE L. Sekaric said there were three main items that occurred at the last GPSA meeting that she wished to report back to COR members. First, the GPSA unanimously supported the sentiment of the University Assembly Transportation resolution. In summary, this resolution asked for a person designated by the UA to be one of three Cornell TCAT board members.

L. Sekaric announced that Hilary Ford, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School, is leaving Cornell. John Ford, Dean of Students and Hilary’s husband, accepted a position at Emory and consequently they are moving. H. Ford has been a tremendous support to the GPSA. The GPSA decided to present her with a gift to show their appreciation and voted to buy her a clock. They had a plaque engraved for the clock and it looked very nice. Pat Carr is presently at the reception that is being held in honor of the Fords and he will present H. Ford with the gift from the GPSA.

L. Sekaric reported that the SA and GPSA are consulted on the University Academic Calendar each year. The SA has voiced concerns stemming around Labor Day and some other holidays. The SA is working with Dean Cooke and some other faculty members about their concerns and looking into possible compromises. The GPSA discussed the Labor Day issues with a focus on how it affects graduate students. Grads felt that TA’s are most adversely affected. They voted to not approve the University Academic Calendar at their last meeting.

V. Augusta, Education Representative, asked what Dean Cooke’s response was regarding the Labor Day burden for graduate students.

L. Sekaric replied that Dean Cooke didn’t seem to think of this issue. Dean Cohen, however, thought it was not fair.

S. Hames, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Representative, said it isn’t fair. Others at Cornell have Labor Day off—why not grads? He suggested staying an extra Monday at the end of the year to allow Labor Day off and to then make the day up. Undergrads may not like it if it cuts into their study period though.

L. Sekaric noted that no one seems to want to make changes. She didn’t think this issue has gone to departments, just to the Faculty Senate.

S, Hames said the issue has gone to his department. He said labs are a problem and factor into the decision for Cornell to not give Labor Day off.

K. Thompson asked if this is really such a big deal.

L. Sekaric and S. Hames replied that it is. The GPSA has discussed the fact that grads have to hold classes when they TA, that administrative offices are closed, and that there are no support staff available on that day.

B. MEETING WITH DEAN COHEN L. Sekaric said the TA/RA policy was discussed at the last meeting with Dean Cohen. This will be discussed in more detail later in the meeting. The Dean would like for the grievance policy to be better defined in the graduate school.

C. COMMITTEE UPDATES J. Sebastian, Medieval Studies Representative, said the General Committee of the Graduate School recently met. A discussion was held that revolved around “kicking students out” of the graduate school. A situation that brought this into light was when a Chair resigned for non-academic reasons and no department assumed the responsibility of taking this student on. The question to be resolved is who is responsible in this type of instance. There was general agreement within the General Committee that procedures should clearly be spelled out and a timeframe to resolve the issue be given.

S. Hames commented that departments at Cornell must handle this issue differently. Grads accepted into the program in his department are accepted by the whole department. He remarked that if all departments handled the situation in this way there would be no problem. He asked what happened in this case.

K. Mowry, Nutrition Representative and GPSA Secretary, clarified there are clear procedural guidelines if the Chair had resigned for academic reasons.

K. Mowry said this is an extreme case.

D. Grossman, Computer Science Representative, agreed Cornell does need more policies and this would be high on the list. However, he felt concentrating on this issue still does nothing to address bad advisors, and that is probably more of a problem for more grads.

K. Mowry replied that although this case may be more rare, it really should have a clear answer on how it should be handled. It should not be stuck in limbo. In this case, a clear policy is needed and would help.

L. Sekaric told members she didn’t think specifics of this case really ought to be discussed at the meeting.

J. Sebastian agreed, concluding that the point is that there isn’t a policy for this problem.

S. Hames told members that the TA/RA committee never really got to address this kind of problem.

K. Mowry said that a policy on this issue would protect the student.

J. Sebastian reported the General Committee also discussed the Campus Code of Legislation. It has had some revisions and will go before the faculty for a vote before it is finalized.

K. O’Brien, Environmental Toxicology Representative, reported that the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) had reviewed the UA Transportation Resolution. The GPSA, SA and UA have supported the sentiment of the resolution. She told members that three Cornell administrators are TCAT Board members and the UA resolution is asking to have one of those board members be a UA designee. K. O’Brien told members that TAC agrees with the sentiment of the resolution, however the resolution has some factual errors that need to be addressed. For example, TCAT is bigger than Cornell and TAC does not have control over it as may be assumed. Another point included in the resolution is that TAC has been asked to meet with the TCAT board twice per semester, but TAC feels that once per semester is enough. TAC will send the resolution back to the UA with a request that it make revisions.

S. Hames asked if anyone had contacted Rod Ghearing, TCAT General Manager. He said R. Ghearing is very approachable and has worked with the GPSA about concerns it had in the past.

P. Carr stated this is a complex issue. The UA Charter is outdated and TAC cannot control bus fares since TCAT is made up of more than Cornell. TAC can make recommendations, but doesn’t really have authority beyond that.

L. Sekaric said the assemblies pass resolutions but they still need to go to the President for his approval.

K. Levac reported the UA met last week and passed a resolution. She summarized for members that the UA has legislative authority over four areas of campus: CURW, transportation, Gannett Health Services, and the Cornell Campus Store. Each of these departments annually present program documents to the UA for their review and approval. Program documents contain information such as budget and planned programs each area is considering. In the past, the UA basically “rubber-stamped” the program documents. The UA wished to be more proactive in the process this year and passed a resolution to this effect. It basically asks each of the four departments to hold an open forum a few weeks prior to the UA meetings at which the UA plans to vote on whether to approve the program documents. This would allow the public to hear what is planned and give them an avenue to express their concerns.

P. Carr suggested establishing oversight committees.

K. Levac replied that committees already exist for each of these four areas. In fact, some may choose to use one of their regular meeting times to hold their open forum.

N. Benjamin, Education Representative, reported that she is the GPSA member serving on the Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education. She said they have met Patty Weldon, an administrator in Athletics. Discussions revolved around how athletes do not get enough rest and are stressed.

IV. BUSINESS OF THE DAY A. ELECTION FOR THE GPSA VACANCY P. Carr asked if anyone from the Law school was present at the meeting.

No law representative was present.

P. Carr reported that he had e-mailed the Law school again and has still not received any response. Therefore, the GPSA Law seat is now open to At-Large.

L. Sekaric stated that an At-Large seat could be given to a particular group. The floor was open to nominations.

J. Sebastian suggested naming a person from Humanities as the new At-Large member. He felt humanities could use additional representation.

P. Carr read the GPSA composition from the GPSA Charter. He read: “The GPSA shall consist of fifteen (15) graduate and professional school students, of whom one (1) shall be from each of the professional schools (Law Vet, JGSM), three (3) shall be at-large, and the remaining nine shall be distributed by graduate field clusters as follows:

� One (1) from the Division of Biological Sciences and the Graduate Veterinary fields. � One (1) from Biological Sciences in Agriculture. � One (1) from Social Sciences in Agriculture. � One (1) from Architecture, Art, and Planning and Social Sciences in Arts and Sciences. � One (1) from Humanities in Arts and Sciences. � One (1) from Physical Sciences in Arts and Sciences. � Two (2) from Engineering. � One (1) from Human Ecology, Industrial Labor Relations, Hotel Administration, Law, and Management.

L. Sekaric identified the current At-Large GPSA members. They are: Pat Carr, Geological Sciences; Krista Mowry, Nutrition; and Jessica Ward, Zoology. It was noted they are all affiliated with the sciences.

L. Sekaric asked if anyone else wanted to run for At-Large.

S. Hames asked if the GPSA was voting on whether Humanities would decide among themselves how they would like to handle filling the At-Large vacancy.

L. Sekaric and P. Carr responded that the candidate would come from Humanities and they would decide who will fill the At-Large seat.

P. Carr moved to close nominations and S. Hames seconded it.

L. Sekaric asked if there was any discussion or objections.

L. Sekaric asked how many people were present from Humanities.

B. Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, asked what they were doing. She expressed confusion with the election process that was taking place.

P. Carr read from the GPSA Charter: “By nomination and/or self nomination for the at-large seats, the Council of Representatives members may identify groups/interests that are not adequately represented by those elected to the designated seats.” He said the GPSA is picking Humanities as the group and the cluster will caucus and pick someone to be the new At-Large member.

B. Bailey then told members that if they felt a group or individual other than Humanities should get the At-Large seat that they could nominate them.

K. Mowry said that now that she better understood what was happening that she felt the GPSA category of “Other” should get the seat because they represent such a wide group of people. She felt the group is so broad that they could benefit from another representative.

P. Carr identified the fields represented by the cluster Other and their COR members. They are: Design and Environmental Analysis, Hotel Administration (Karthik Namasivayam and Nir Liebling), Human Development and Family Studies, Human Service Studies (Bob Serrano), ILR (Laura Cohen), Law, Management, Nutrition (Krista Mowry and Krysta Levac), Policy Analysis and Management (Monica Ruiz-Casares), Textiles (Rebecca Jackson), and Veterinary Medicine.

P. Carr identified the Humanities fields and their COR representatives. They are: Economics (Luca Bossi), English Language and Literature (Chi-ming Yang), Germanic Studies (Erica Ann Doerhoff), History (Mary Gayne), History of Art & Archaeology (Shin-Yi Yang), Linguistics (Rina Kreitman), Medieval Studies (John Sebastian), Near Eastern Studies (Gregg A. Serene), and Theatre Arts (Emily Colborn). From the Humanities; Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Literature, Music, Philosophy, Romance Studies, Slavic Studies do not have representatives.

L. Sekaric asked if any COR members from the cluster Other were at the meeting besides those from Nutrition.

Monica Ruiz-Casares from Policy Analysis and Management indicated she was present.

L. Sekaric invited discussion. There was none.

P. Carr said he now moved to close nominations and it was seconded.

L. Sekaric distributed paper to members for voting purposes and they were asked to write their choice of which of the two groups to give the At-Large seat.

A member asked if Law would ever get their GPSA seat back.

P. Carr replied that they would. In this instance, the seat was taken from Law due to excessive absenteeism, following the guidelines in the GPSA Charter. The seat will be reassigned to Law in April 2001, but they have lost it until then.

In the vote, Humanities won the group designation for the GPSA At-Large position. The count was Humanities-16, Other-7.

L. Sekaric said Humanities should designate someone from their cluster as the GPSA At-Large representative. She remarked that in April, it is done based on the people who are present at the meeting.

P. Carr suggested they allow the COR members from Humanities to let them know by the next GPSA meeting.

L. Sekaric said they could be informed via e-mail regarding who the representative is so everyone would know prior to the meeting.

S. Hames suggested taking five minutes to let them decide now.

M. Gayne asked if they are basically looking for a person who is willing to attend both the COR and GPSA meetings from January until April. She said she would be willing to do that.

E. Doerhoff said she would like to be the GPSA member.

M. Gayne said that was agreeable.

E. Doerhoff was selected to fill the GPSA At-Large seat by acclamation.

B. University Calendar It was noted that this item was already discussed under the “Announcements and Reports” section of the meeting.

P. Carr asked V. Augusta, Education Representative and GPSA Liaison to the Faculty, if they had recently met.

V. Augusta replied they had not.

H. Chen, Computer Science, asked if Cornell has ever thought of going on the quarter system.

Members didn’t know for sure. P. McPheron, Director of Graduate and Professional Student Housing, thought not.

C. TA/RA Policy L. Sekaric stated that the TA/RA Policy that had been worked on in the past by S. Hames was being reviewed by Dean Cohen.

S. Hames commented that he didn’t understand why it is being reviewed now. The process used by the TA/RA committee was very thorough and was brought to grads for their comments. It went to the Academic Deans and they approved it. The policy is used to help define the TA/RA duties and expectations. It requests that things related to employment such as the start and end date, how much will be paid, how frequently one will be paid, and other relevant issues regarding employment be clearly spelled out.

K. Mowry said the policy is still officially in the interim stage.

S. Hames wondered what interim meant. He was under the impression this was the policy of the graduate school.

A member said that the policy format needs to be reviewed before it could change from interim to final policy.

P. Carr brought up the search for the Dean of Students. He told members that if they happen to know of faculty they think would be good candidates for this position to encourage them to apply.

K. O’Brien asked for clarification regarding what position is being filled.

P. Carr said a search committee has been formed to replace John Ford as the Dean of Students. J. Ford will be leaving Cornell to serve at Emory. This person must be a faculty member and is responsible for overseeing fraternities, sororities, undergraduate orientation, crisis management, and student organizations.

V. ADJOURNMENT L. Sekaric adjourned the meeting at 6.02p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bonnie Bailey, Office of the Assemblies