Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Council of Representatives Notes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse February 11, 2002 5:00–6:00pm

I. Call to Order O. Salminen, 2001–2002 GPSA Vice-President, called the meeting to order at 5:04pm.

II. Open Forum P. Carr announced that Senior Week organizers approached him to see if the GPSA would like to contribute funds. They are looking at ways to reduce prices for seniors. He asked for comments.

A member asked if grads would be able to participate in the events if the GPSA contributed funds.

P. Carr replied he wasn’t sure, but possibly. He noted he would bring this up at the next GPSA meeting.

III. Announcements and Reports A. GPSA update P. Carr reported that the GPSA approved a statement on neutrality regarding grad unionization at their last meeting. The language of the resolution is available on the web.

B. Health Insurance Survey D. Demaine, Soil and Crop Sciences representative and a member of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, thanked participants for their feedback to his survey. He apologized to members, saying he had done the best he could in gathering the responses, however he is still processing the data.

L. Junker, Microbiology representative and a member of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, reported she recently attended a Chickering policy renewal meeting. Chickering is Cornell’s student insurance provider. She noted they were responsive to increasing the prescription drug cap and they are looking for more local eye care providers.

V. Augusta, Education representative, inquired if people really wanted to increase the cap.

L. Junker replied it was brought up in the surveys. Chickering looks at the numbers to see if it is in Cornell’s best interest to increase coverage, yet still remain cost efficient.

A. Saathoff, Agricultural & Biological Engineering representative, commented that in some cases Cornell seems insensitive. He noted an instance in which a student was forced to pay double premiums.

A member voiced surprise with this. She noted this could have been avoided by completing a waiver.

P. Carr noted there might be an issue; some grants require mandatory student health insurance coverage.

V. Augusta mentioned Cornell refunds some things on a pro-rated basis. It seems they could attempt something similar for thee types of cases.

D. Demaine said he tried his best to respond to all the comments from the survey, but he just couldn’t respond to all. Everything was forwarded to Gannett.

L. Junker reminded members that Gannett encourages students to view their website. The appeal process will be revised and she asked members to stay tuned for further details.

C. Graduate School Travel Grants S. Adam, Physics representative, reported he was waiting to hear back from his inquiries.

J. Sebastian, Medieval Studies representative, explained the graduate school allows funding for one grant per student per year for up to $600.00 based on geography. Currently the amount may only be used for transportation costs. The GPSA has asked that grads be allowed to use the money on other travel-related expenses, such as conference fees.

J. Moriarty, ILR representative, noted the graduate school is hiring someone to work on the development of grants to build the school endowment. The budget has been cut back. The number of fellowships is staying the same this year, but they may have to be reduced in future years. She noted another issue brought up has been the drop in the number of underrepresented minorities. They are trying to figure out how to best fix this problem.

O. Salminen announced the Campus Planning Committee recently discussed building a new biotech building, and alumni field is targeted. The rest of the field would be turned into public space. There is some opposition, as the fields would be relocated next to the equestrian center. More frequent shuttles would be employed.

K. Hueffer inquired if the equestrian center location was approved.

V. Augusta responded she got an email stating it was approved.

IV. Business of the Day A. GPSA Reorganization P. Carr distributed a handout and summarized the current GPSA/COR organization. It operates under a relatively haphazard structure that results in some odd combinations. These groupings are called clusters. He proposed they restructure to follow the graduate school’s division of four groupings. Under this plan, at-large seats would be eliminated. He inquired if there were comments or questions.

A. Saathoff questioned the different totals presented in Table 1 and Table 2 of the handout.

P. Carr responded it may be an error as two different people put together the information. The data was taken from the Annual Report of the Graduate School. He apologized, but pointed out the overall data was proportionately consistent and could give members a general idea.

D. Grossman, Computer Science representative, noted that the proposed idea seemed as though it could allow the GPSA elected body to be made without an engineering student representative. He commented that engineering is a large group and to potentially have no GPSA representation was troublesome.

J. Moriarty questioned if having a reserved engineering spot would make the proposal more agreeable.

P. Carr agreed, and suggested specifying one seat in the physical sciences grouping for engineers.

D. Grossman acknowledged the Masters of Engineering program is large and there is a lack of interaction with that program and the GPSA, however the other engineering areas have been involved. He also stated that having three people from the same area should be prevented.

J. Sebastian stated humanists should have at least one seat represented.

A. Saathoff added that humanities do currently get the short end of the stick and there should be a guaranteed representative from engineering.

V. Augusta mentioned the dynamics of the GPSA for the past two years has been cross representative of all grads; it is rare to have one school against another.

A. Saathoff agreed, but asked what would happen if engineering was completely excluded.

D. Demaine suggested scheduling time at the next meeting to discuss this further.

K. Hueffer commented that at-large seats could be used to counter-balance under representation.

A member agreed elections in April were rushed. She pointed out the total number of students in engineering is almost twice the number students in humanities, if the GPSA cares about numbers at all in terms of representation, they should designate a seat to engineers.

A. Saathoff pointed out when voting we haven’t given thought to what overall representation will be. He favored writing guidelines instead of relying on verbal communication.

P. Carr indicated more thought would go into the election process this year.

P. Carr said he’s leaning toward three seats in physical sciences, with one seat reserved for engineering.

A member questioned what the timeline for implementing this was.

P. Carr responded he like to have it operational in April 2002.

B. Endowment S. Adam inquired about the general opinion of investing the surplus money in an endowment.

E. Salas interjected, questioning if the travel grants discussed earlier cover professional students.

P. Carr replied no; they only cover graduate students as it is administered through the graduate school.

A member resumed the endowment discussion, questioning if an endowment would reduce the student activity fee.

S. Adam replied that would not immediately happen; though it could in the future.

P. Carr responded probably not, because they would keep the amount steady. They could take money out each year for special things. The GPSA could annually take $3,000-$5,000 out indefinitely.

G. Hurley said the funds should be acting as an endowment and collecting interest instead of just sitting stagnant in an account.

K. Hueffer agreed it should not be primarily seen as something to reduce activity fee. It should be looked at as a way to grant money for one time special projects. The problem is the money has been sitting still for the past couple years not earning interest.

P. McPheron suggested looking into an interest earning reserve account to allow money to be spent when needed. He suggested not leaving the money sit as its value is eroding. He recommended contacting the treasury office for more information.

E. Salas remarked the GPSA should try to make a decision and move forward with this. She felt the money shouldn’t sit for another year and said she’d hate for this issue to continue unresolved.

G. Hurley, V. Augusta, S. Adam, and K. Hueffer volunteered to meet independently to work to resolve this issue.

C. Car pooling/Parking A member questioned why car-pooling space isn’t available for graduate students and why costs are higher for grads?

K. Skopec, Food Science & Technology representative and a member of the Transportation Advisory Committee, said grads are able to buy one parking permit and put up to four license plates on it. Employees are able to have reduced fees for car-pooling because there is an employee benefits fund that is tapped to help subsidize the costs.

E. Salas inquired how much Cornell spends to maintain one parking spot.

O. Salminen responded $1000-$1200 per year to maintain a parking spot.

K. Skopec noted Cornell is trying to keep parking numbers down and keep the campus aesthetically pleasing.

A. Saathoff questioned why Cornell costs are so high in comparison to other schools.

P. McPheron replied others’ costs might be subsidized in other ways. It may look cheaper on the surface elsewhere, but costs are picked up in other ways. For example parking costs may be built into tuition.

E. Salas asked why Gannett has to pay for parking spots.

P. Carr responded Gannett is an individual enterprise unit. If they reserve spots that another paying individual could have used then they would have to pay as well.

D. Social Events O. Salminen announced many have expressed interest in increased graduate and professional student social activities. Maybe this couldn’t be done every month, but it would be nice to increase programming. She said this will be discussed more after spring break. She suggested that GPSA/COR could have a party in the beginning of the year to meet each other.

V. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 6:14pm.

Respectfully submitted, Margaret Heavey Office of the Assemblies