Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Business Meeting Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse January 22, 2001 5:00–6:00p.m.

Attendance: 2000–01 GPSA Members 4/24 8/28 9/25 10/30 11/27 1/22 2/26 3/26 4/23 Debbie Anderson P P E A A A Virginia Augusta A P P P P P Pat Carr P P P P P P Erica Doerhoff P Stefan Hames P P P P P E Sergei Krasulya P P P P P P Bhaskar Krishnamachari P P P P P E Krysta Levac P P P P P P Aaron Saathoff P P P P P P John Sebastian P P P P P P Lidija Sekaric P P P P P P Eric Sprague A A A A A Lakshmi (Vatsa) Srivatsa A on-leave — resigned 8/00 Andrew Thomas A P P A P P Lotus Wang P P P A A A Jessica Ward P P P P Krista Zanetti P P P P P P Others Present: T. Gwathmey, K. Thompson, V. Blodgett, P. McPheron, B. Bailey, M. Greenbaum, S. Piliero, and M. Carvalho

I. Call To Order P. Carr, At-Large Representative and President of the 2000–2001 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

II. Open Forum V. Augusta, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (Social Sciences) Representative, asked if COR had a representative from the Communication’s Department.

P. Carr checked the membership listing and responded that Communications did not have a representative.

A member asked what would happen if the Communication Students Society picked one representative and the dean picked another.

P. Carr responded that the elections-related letters that are sent each spring specify that student approval is necessary.

V. Augusta suggested that the GPSA go to the director of graduate studies and say that it has come to our attention that the Communications department is not currently represented.

A member suggested that the interested student be contacted directly since he showed interest in representing the Communications department.

J. Sebastian, Arts and Sciences (Humanities) Representative, wished to present a complaint to the group that was brought up to him from other students regarding the reduced library hours during the break. He specifically mentioned Olin and Mann as libraries of graduate concern. Olin is referred to as the graduate library.

L. Sekaric, Arts and Sciences (Physical Sciences) Representative and 2000–2001 GPSA Vice President, asked if anyone attended the library forum? She had sent information about the library forums to gpsa-l@cornell.edu.

J. Sebastian responded that it was held in the middle of the day and that is a time when many are teaching. Consequently, most people he knew were unable to attend.

L. Sekaric volunteered to re-send the information to J. Sebastian.

K. Levac, Other Representative, expressed interest in knowing the reasons why all the libraries change their schedules over breaks.

P. McPheron, Director of Graduate and Professional Student Housing, announced that applications for Graduate Community Assistants are now being accepted. This is an opportunity for a possible job position that would require living in one of the various graduate-housing areas. He extended an invitation to members of the GPSA to apply and stated that information sessions will be held in January.

III. Approval of GPSA Minutes The November 27, 2000 GPSA minutes were approved as amended.

IV. Announcements and Reports A. Executive Committee P. Carr announced that Victoria Blodgett, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Life, is the new liaison from the graduate school to the GPSA. V. Blodgett is replacing Hillary Ford as the liaison. He reported that the GPSA presented a clock to H. Ford in December upon her retirement from Cornell and stated the clock was very nice.

B. General Committee K. Zanetti, At Large Representative and GPSA Secretary, and J. Sebastian reported that the General Committee of the Graduate School has not met recently. The next meeting is scheduled in February.

K. Zanetti announced that the code of legislation that the General Committee had been working on has been submitted to the faculty to be voted on.

L. Sekaric asked that the GPSA offer its full support for a uniform and defined grievance procedure in the graduate school when that issue is presented.

P. Carr announced that he was on the Search Committee for the Dean of students and if anyone knew of any professors who are “engaging” to the undergraduates to send along the name to him.

C. Others It was reported that eCornell has a building in downtown Ithaca now.

V. Augusta said that the Faculty Senate meetings have been regularly voting to extend their discussions on eCornell.

K. Thompson, Floriculture & Ornamental Horticulture Representative, added that issues have been brought forward regarding eCornell, such as intellectual property rights, etc.

V. Augusta agreed, and explained that there are small problems and issues that keep getting raised so this is turning into a long process.

V. Business A. University Calendar

S. Piliero, Chair of the Faculty Senate Education Policy Committee (EPC), wanted to share proposals with the GPSA and get some feedback.

S. Piliero presented the following alternatives to the GPSA: 1) Start classes the day after Labor Day. Although suggested, this would not be a feasible alternative because Cornell must hold a minimum number of class days each semester and it is already very close to the minimum for the fall semester. There simply is no “wiggle room” in the fall semester to enable them to do this. 2) Not have Labor Day off a) Do nothing — continue to “officially” hold classes on Labor Day, but encourage faculty members to allow students to celebrate Labor Day and make up the work at another time. It would be presented to the faculty as a recommendation from the Educational Policy Committee and the Dean of Faculty and it is felt this alternative would cause the least disruption. b) Reduce the timing of registration by one day once the registration process becomes more efficient. This would free up the Wednesday before classes (classes now start on a Thursday) which would allow Cornell to get Labor Day off. With this solution science labs would still be effected and would continue to be held on Labor Day.

P. Carr commented that the graduate students were not pleased with solutions that give others the day-off, but still require labs to be in session. He noted that everyone else would be off for the holiday except for the graduate students who teach the labs.

L. Sekaric added that few faculty members teach labs, especially science labs.

S. Piliero asked if there is data to support that theory. She thought it would be interesting to get the numbers and statistics to prove there is low attendance on Labor Day.

V. Augusta presented the problems faced when holding classes on Labor Day. These include getting classrooms, projectors and other equipment and office support.

S. Piliero commented that that was a problem for everyone who comes to work on Labor Day, not just graduate students.

S. Krasulya, Engineering Representative, asked if it would be possible to add a day of classes to the end of the semester.

S. Piliero responded that the undergraduate SA would probably be upset by that as a solution since they start to celebrate the end of the semester on Friday and they don’t want to tamper with the 3 days for study period. The schedule is tight at the end of the semester and it is almost impossible to add another day for classes at the end.

J. Sebastian said that if option 2a is implemented that it would be difficult for the freshman writing seminars and it would result in a lost day. It would be difficult to assess their writing skills within the first week and therefore, it would create more of a hassle, not a solution.

S. Piliero explained the EPC thought the attendance expectation for Labor Day would be included in the class requirements.

A. Saathoff commented that the idea behind Labor Day was to not do much labor. It sounds as though this might not work at Cornell, so maybe leaving the calendar situation as it is right now might be the best solution.

V. Augusta asked if it would be possible to give Labor Day off and substitute the following Saturday for classes.

S. Piliero responded that a Monday can’t be substituted for a Saturday for religious reasons. She reminded members that if things were left as is, that faculty members have the academic freedom to chose whether to have classes or not.

S. Piliero asked if the GPSA could suggest any other solutions that may have been overlooked?

L. Sekaric suggested that perhaps labs could be reorganized so that the indispensable ones are dispensed with. Very often classes can actually remove a lab with suffering unduly. She concluded that when asking a dean to comment on the situation, he mentioned that it isn’t fair to require a minority number of students to work. If people feel this is as important issue, changes can be done.

S. Piliero added that when this issue went out over a listserv that there was an outcry from the science faculty because they would lose another week. This would result in a overall number of 3 weeks lost for them. This causes an imbalance in the spring vs. the fall semester for labs and it ultimately becomes a different class.

K. Levac agreed with the idea that having Labor Day be an optional day would get very messy.

P. Carr commented that he sensed that the GPSA felt that none of the alternatives presented should be implemented. Making the day optional for students would be too complicated and still have unfairness in the system.

S. Piliero responded that she could suggest extending the fall semester by one more day, but she thinks that the SA would dislike that idea for reasons mentioned earlier. Some students also like to leave campus during study week. However, she could bring it up.

S. Piliero concluded that she would put the issue on the faculty listserv. It will be put on the agenda for the February 13th meeting.

P. Carr presented to the group that they “stay the course” and keep this on the agenda for the next GPSA meeting. V. Augusta can report back to the group at that time.

P. Carr requested that V. Augusta speak-out on behalf of the GPSA at Faculty meetings she attends so they are aware of the GPSA’s opinions on this issue.

B. Shadows Program

B. Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, explained that the shadows program pairs two people from two different constituent groups together based on mutual interests. This gives participants an opportunity to gain a better understanding and perspective of others on campus. The paired participants communicate and choose mutually agreeable times to shadow each other during a specified time-period. The shadows program this year is being held February 19 — March 2nd. Publicity has begun and questionnaires are due in the Office of the Assemblies by February 2nd. She added that she knows the GPSA had tried to begin initiatives similar to the shadows program earlier this year. She noted that Dean Cohen would be participating as well. If anyone is interested in participating they can look on the assemblies website at: www.asssemblies.cornell.edu.

K. Zanetti suggested to the group that they should try it for one year.

B. Bailey clarified that the GPSA agreed with the shadows concept last year but they didn’t want to have to participate.

K. Zanetti asked if the shadows program could be publicized to the graduate students?

P. Carr requested that it be put on the gpsa-l@cornell.edu listserv.

B. Bailey replied that she would send out the information on the listserv.

P. Carr announced that elections for the position of student-elected trustee would take place on March 6th and 7th.

L. Sekaric clarified that the requirements to run include being a full-time student and being in Ithaca for the next 2 years. Information sessions are being held on January 30th and February 8th if people are interested

A. Saathoff asked if there was a history of a graduate student being elected as trustee?

P. Carr answered once.

P. McPheron added that an idea was brought forth to have three student-elected seats — 2 for undergraduate and 1 for graduate, however the trustees are not interested in this idea.

C. GPSAFC Future Revisions

P. Carr said there are regulations that don’t make sense in the graduate student handbook for organizations getting funds from the GPSAFC.

P. Carr and J. Sebastian will go through the handbook and make necessary revisions.

P. Carr asked if anyone knew any Presidents or Treasurers of graduate student associations as they would like to get feedback from them.

V. Blodgett stated that a mailing list exists that has the contact information for the Presidents and Treasurers.

J. Sebastian announced that they would be holding a meeting next Monday, January 29th, at 5p.m. in the Big Red Barn. All are invited to attend or send J. Sebastian an email at jts29@cornell.edu with any comments or suggestions for revisions.

P. Carr added that the GPSAFC is trying to get money out to all of these organizations.

J. Sebastian agreed, and said they are having problems doing so because they find they get stuck in the rules. He gave an example of not being able to pay out money for events held over a break.

VI. Adjournment P. Carr adjourned the meeting at 6:01p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Melissa Carvalho, student clerk