Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Council of Representatives Notes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse February 12, 2001 5:00–6:00p.m.

I. Call To Order L. Sekaric, Applied Physics representative and Vice-President of the 2000–2001 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.

She welcomed new CoR members, Karsten Hueffer (vet), Andrew Pleasant (communications), and Larissa Parson (classics) to the meeting.

II. Open Forum Adela Rosa Ramos, Microbiology representative, asked for an update regarding the search for finding a new dean of the graduate school.

P. Carr, Geological Sciences representative and President of the 2000–2001 GPSA, replied that he is the graduate student on the search committee. He invited everyone to send him feedback or concerns.

N. Benjamin, Education representative and the graduate member of the Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education, told members this committee will need a new representative this semester because she is unable to do it. Meetings are held the first Tuesday of each month at 8:00 a.m.

III. Announcements and Reports A) GPSA Update No major business was reported.

B) Meeting with Dean Cohen and Changes to the Graduate School Code L. Sekaric reported that a major concern addressed with Dean Cohen was in response to recent e-mails regarding changes to the add/drop period. However, it was explained that students can still add/drop within the 7th week of the semester. They have until the last day of classes to change their grade options. The one change is that the department chair would now sign petitions. A signature is needed for every Physical Education class.

L. Sekaric stated that a new option for students is going to be implemented whereby students could choose not to register their thesis to go onto the university’s microfilm.

L. Sekaric reported that students would also be able to change committee chairs for non-academic reasons.

C) University Calendar P. Carr reported that the Labor Day issue for the University academic calendar was discussed at the last GPSA meeting. He noted that Susan Piliero, Chair of the Faculty Senate Educational Policy Committee, attended the meeting to explain alternatives and options the committee wished the GPSA to consider. GPSA members came to the consensus that the current situation is not the best, but none of the proposed alternative options were any better. They therefore decided to leave things as is and not support any of the proposed alternatives. Additionally, the Student Assembly voted the options down. As a result of these actions, Labor Day is no longer an open issue and will be put to rest for this year.

D) Committee Updates — COR Members D. Demaine, Soil, Crop and Atmospheric Sciences representative, reported he serves on the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee (SHIAC). He reported that Chickering, the company that administers Cornell’s health insurance, presented their proposed plan for next year. The major change for next year is that all students will be required to have a USA health insurance policy that meets Cornell’s minimum requirements. Cornell has experienced problems in the past with international insurance plans. Difficulties include: collecting the money, assessing if those plans meet all of the university’s minimum requirements, and verifying that a student is signed up for the foreign coverage.

L. Sekaric added that graduate students would be required to petition Cornell Health insurance to be excluded, as opposed to the waiver that is used now.

M. Cosh brought attention to the MEng students who would be affected since this it is only a one-year program.

S, Hames said this issue has been grappled with in the past. He felt it would be hard to find any plan where everyone could win.

D. Brown, Agricultural Economics representative, commented that US health insurance is expensive! He suggested that SHIAC look at each country differently and not make an across the board policy. For example, he felt that Canada would be better linked to the US system than some other countries.

A member replied that there were also some problems experienced with Canadian coverage.

M. Gayne, History representative, asked if students on field research would get their insurance paid for.

P. Carr replied that if they are paid by Cornell, have fellowships, etc., that their insurance would be paid.

C. Grimsrud, Immunology representative, said she is a member of the Board on University Health Services. She announced that an open forum would be held later this spring to allow the public to bring up related issues.

IV. Business of the day A) GPSA Funding Guidelines Changes J. Sebastian, Medieval Studies representative and chair of the GPSAFC, reported that they have been examining ways to improve funding for graduate and professional student organizations. A message was sent to organization president’s asking for suggestions and input. He reported a very low response from his attempts to elicit feedback, but said three major changes would be proposed to the funding guidelines: 1) allow organizations $200 for honoraria. In the past GPSAFC hasn’t covered honoraria for speakers. 2) increase social event funding from $200 to $300 3) allow up to $350 per year for receptions with no requirements as to how to allocate the funds.

K. Zanetti, Nutrition representative and 2000–2001 GPSA Secretary, asked about the $300 travel cap.

J. Sebastian clarified there is no cap on travel expenses for speakers.

P. Carr asked about January and summer funding to allow organizations to be reimbursed for events held during those times.

J. Sebastian responded that the way the guidelines are currently written require requests to be filed by the middle of May.

M. Cosh, Civil and Environmental Engineering representative, told members he has been on the GPSAFC for the past 4 years. He explained that the activity fee is paid per semester and the policy is to restrict funding to those times. The rationale is that since people are paying during the academic year they should get the benefit of that money when they are here. On the other hand, there is the argument that some students are here all year. Since money is available, why not use it?

K. Zanetti suggested that they make a small percentage of that money available for breaks and special requests.

M. Cosh replied that is probably a good idea, but how much should be set aside?

S. Hames, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology representative, commented that most people in biological sciences or the AG school wouldn’t benefit from it because they are usually out doing field work.

A member asked if there was a way to find out the percentage of the students that stay here during those times.

Another member suggested that each organization be given the option to spend their funds at whatever time they chose throughout the year.

K. Thompson, Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture representative, asked if it would be possible to use the money for events that are all-grad-inclusive, such as TGIF? It would impact the graduates on a wide scale as opposed to looking at specific groups or speakers.

L. Sekaric invited everyone to come to the GPSA meeting in 2 weeks when the GPSA would be voting on the resolution.

M. Cosh clarified that the money is collected by the university and given to the GPSAFC in bulk. If percentages are used to distribute funding this could unfairly result in a dramatic shortening of money in some areas.

E. Meseck, Vet School representative, added that the Vet school operated on a different academic schedule. They begin in the beginning of August and go until the end of May. Third year students are here all year long. It would be nice if they had funded events at those times too.

M. Cosh replied that the GPSAFC does recognize that the Vet school is an exception and they cover the end of the year for them.

V. Blodgett, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Life, asked if the GPSA would want to petition grads to see how they feel. She wondered it the GPSA meets beyond the academic calendar year.

M. Cosh replied that both the GPSA and the GPSAFC do not meet over the summer. He suggested that they could take the excess rollover money and put it into a special account labeled “summer programs”.

A member asked how soon changes would go into effect if this was voted on at the GPSA meeting in 2 weeks.

M. Cosh responded that it would go into effect immediately.

A. Saathoff, Agriculture and Biological Engineering representative, remarked that he feels money should be available over the summer for organizations that would like to use it.

B) Smoking Policy Committee P. Carr reported that he recently attended a committee meeting that is examining Cornell’s smoking policies. The current rule is that there is no smoking in the university building common areas. The only exception would be in the case of an office with consenting officemates. In the next 8–10 years Cornell has the goal of making this a non-smoking campus. His impression was that they are concerned with staff productivity issues (smoking breaks) and they will be offering programs to help people quit. They estimated that it costs Cornell $100,000-$125,000 per year to clean cigarette butts. One option mentioned was to designate only one entrance per building for smokers or to require people to be 20 feet away from all buildings to smoke.

C) PhD Robes K. Levac announced that she would like to discuss the discrepancy between buying and renting a PhD commencement robe. She stated that if one rents a PhD robe for graduation that the robe is black. Those who buy a robe ($800) get a red robe. She wanted to know if others felt that PhD grads should be able to buy and rent the same distinctive outfits.

B. Krishnamachari, Engineering representative, agreed. He felt the issue worth pursuing.

K. Levac said she would call the commencement office to find out if it is more expensive to make the red robes and if Cornell or the renting company made these policies. She would investigate further the role that Cornell would be able to play. For example, maybe Cornell would buy some red robes and rent them out to students.

M. Cosh added that the rented robes are generally cheaper. He thinks that the red robes are made of velvet and they are supposed to signify that one is a Cornell graduate.

K. Levac commented that even if the robes are of different quality that they should at least be the same color.

D) GPSA Budget Surplus K. Levac reported that the GPSA has approximately $18,000 in their account and she asked for ideas on what to do with the money. She said the activity fee allocates approximately $2000 per year to the GPSA. She presented the following ideas for consideration: 1) set up an emergency fund that can be used for emergency situations - but will $2000 be helpful enough? 2) sponsor a speaker that would encompass many broad interests and be open to the whole university.

S. Hames mentioned that the undergraduates have a system in place to help students in emergency situations called “Students Helping Students”. He thought grads could benefit from something similar. He added that in the past the GPSA used some money to send representatives to the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) meetings and Ivy League conferences.

V. Augusta, Education representative, suggested updating the Big Red Barn computer.

V. Blodgett informed members that the graduate school does have 2 types of emergency loans: 1) medical emergency grants 2) loans for non-medical emergency expenses

She said they would welcome any monetary contribution from the GPSA.

B. Krishnamachari asked if suggestions for spending the money applied to this year only or every year?

K. Levac responded that they can chose to do anything - dedicate money annually, stop taking in so much from the activity fee, etc.

B. Krishnamachari suggested that the GPSA might limit future flexibility if they chose to dedicate money annually.

S. Hames added that there are fairly strong restrictions on the medical funds V. Blodgett described.

K. Levac concluded that she would send out an email to everyone on the listserv.

V. Adjournment

L. Sekaric adjourned the meeting at 6:05p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Melissa Carvalho, student clerk