Notes Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Council of Representatives

Big Red Barn Greenhouse April 8, 2002 5:00–6:00pm

I. Call to Order O. Salminen, the 2001–2002 GPSA Vice-President, called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.

II. Open Forum O. Salminen updated members on the end-of-year GPSA/COR sponsored party. She told members that party spaces are booked far in advance, so they will need to book for next year now. Anticipated plans for this year will have the GPSA/COR participate in the annual BBQ outside the Big Red Barn on May 10th. Planning is underway and one consideration is to sponsor alcohol and food for this event. Volunteers are needed and she requested that anyone interested come forward.

P. Carr requested that O. Salminen draft a budget for this event.

O. Salminen responded she would do this, saying she was meeting with K. Corda tomorrow. She asked for any comments or suggestions and mentioned V. Ying from pharmacology is helping with the planning and could also be contacted by anyone willing to help.

III. Announcements and Reports GPSA update P. Carr brought up the GPSA reorganization issue and stated the final vote broke the graduate fields into areas with the following number of GPSA representatives from each: 3 in humanities, 3 in biological sciences, 4 in social sciences, 4 in physical sciences. The professional schools stay with one GPSA representative each, to total 3 professional school representatives on the GPSA.

O. Salminen thanked those who provided comments and suggestions and said they want to make the election process easier next year. The idea is to have people interested in being on GPSA make statements in advance. Timing didn’t allow this to be implemented for this year but she wanted members to know this suggestion was heard and would be a goal for future years.

J. Moriarty announced updates related to the General Committee regarding on-line dissertation availability and said the pilot project has been put on hold. Part of this is due to issues raised related to publishing concerns, particularly by those in humanities and social sciences. Money also played a part in the decision.

G. Hurley added there might be flexibility on the decision about suppressing dissertations indefinitely.

J. Moriarty remarked a new person was hired to work in development in the Graduate School. This position will be working to find money to enhance graduate student life. Things this position might be aiming for could be getting corporate sponsorship and increasing fellowships.

IV. Business of the Day A. GPSA Account Surplus S. Adam summarized the GPSA has a $100,000 surplus currently sitting in the GPSAFC account. Talk earlier this year had focused on ways to do something with this surplus, with an idea of investing it to earn interest being the favored idea. Investigation has revealed there are basically two account options the GPSA needs to consider. They are a long-term investment account or a short-term investment account. Mention was also made of putting the money into a funds functioning as endowment account, though that primarily operates as a long-term investment account. Each option has its pros and cons. In the long-term option, the money is essentially “tied up.” The short-term investment option requires a $50,000 minimum balance at all times. Money invested into the short-term account above the $50,000 may be used as the group wishes.

S. Adam provided a handout containing potential options for a resolution about this issue. It read:

R. 8

		DRAFT Resolution to Invest GPSAFC Excess Balance

WHEREAS, the GPSA recently resolved to transfer the GPSAFC excess budget of $100,000 to the GPSA account;

WHEREAS, these funds are currently not receiving any interest;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that

[Option I ] These funds be invested in a long term Funds functioning as Endowment account;

[Option II ] These funds be invested in a short term Investments Account;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that

[Option A] All returns on the above investment shall be disbursed by the same guidelines as that for the Activity Fee, outlined in Appendix A and Appendix B of the GPSA charter.

[Option B] All returns on the above investment be used for

          		[Option B1] an annual special project of the GPSA/COR.
   	[Option B2] a special GPSA/COR lecture series.
   	[Option B3] … suggestions …

[Option C] All returns on the above investment are used to directly subsidize the Graduate and Professional Students’ Activity Fee.

Respectfully submitted,

Gavin Hurley, Karsten Hueffer, Shaffique Adam, Virginia Augusta

APPENDIX 1:

INVESTMENT OPTIONS FOR GPSA’s $100,000.00

SHORT-TERM INVESTMENT LONG-TERM INVESTMENT

� $50,000.00 minimum to set up account � no minimum required to set up account � $50,000.00 average balance required � money expected to stay in investment It acts as a Funds functioning as Endowment account. (Money should be left alone.) � works like a savings account � works like a mutual fund � receives interest once annually (June) � receives interest once annually (June) � interest is based on the average balance. 2002 interest is 4% � interest for 2002 is $2.70 per share. The current market value is approx. $47.00-$48.00 per share. � There are no penalties for withdrawal. Since this account is set up as a savings account, money can be withdrawn as needed, or bills can paid from it. It would be similar to the current GPSA operating account. � money invested is supposed to be left alone. The spendable portions would be the interest earned, although there would be ways to touch the principle investments if absolutely needed. � money “safer” since it’s similar to a savings account � money fluctuates with the market. There could be losses. There are also higher gains when the market is good.

APPENDIX 2: Option I: Advantage is that we will have $50,000 readily available when a brilliant idea arises.

Option II: Advantage is that it will ensure that the principal that was generated by all graduate and professional students over four years would not be spent at once.

Option A: Advantage is that it gives the GPSA the flexibility on how to spend the returns of the investment.

Option B: Advantage is that it provides a sustained long-term special project.

Option C: Advantage is that it could either reduce the Activity fee or prevents increases due to inflationary pressure.

NOTES: Since the minimum investment is $50,000, only excess investment greater than this minimum is accessible for expenditure, therefore the sub-committee strongly discourages any division of money. GPSA/COR is requested to pick either Option I or Option II but not combinations of them.

Subject to verification from Bonnie, our reading is that if the funds were currently invested, we would receive $4,000 from the short-term investment and $5,680 from the funds acting as endowment. Furthermore, the recent under performance of the stock market and the time lag in calculating return rates, would suggest a future DECREASE in the interest rate of short-term investment, while also suggesting that the endowment shares are currently undervalued and would be likely to INCREASE.

APPENDIX 3: From Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Charter:

Guidelines for Allocating the Graduate Student Activity Fee

I. Preamble

    The Graduate and Professional Student Activity Fee (GPSAF) is allocated to by-line funded organizations by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, per Appendix A of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Charter and the delegated authority given to us by the President of the University and the Board of Trustees. This fee is mandatory for all graduate students of the university, and is used to pay for activities and programs that benefit the Cornell Community. The GPSAF is voted on every two years.

D. Brown commented in terms of option A, B, C, that combining B1 and B2 would allow funds for a large capital project.

A member questioned if it was possible to put the money in both the long and short-term accounts.

S. Adam said that was possible, however he reiterated that the short-term account required a $50,000 minimum balance. Putting $50,000 into the short-term account and $50,000 in the long-term account doesn’t seem the investing ideal. Splitting it in ways other than 50/50 doesn’t really seem to work well either. Given that the group might wish to have money available for spending it might not be the optimal choice to split the $100,000 between the two accounts.

J. Sebastian agreed B1 and B2 sounded fine, but he didn’t favor option C as there would be only a minimal monetary benefit.

A member expressed concern that the GPSA is already very busy and a lot of time might be taken planning projects. Instead of having the GPSA responsible for all the planning, it was suggested that the whole graduate student community be encouraged to get involved.

K. Hueffer agreed that the community should be involved; he also liked option A as it is flexible and broad. The money was generated from past student activity fees, and it should be spent wisely.

P. Carr commented if the group was leaning toward going with option A that the resolution should cite directly from Charter.

A member commented she favored going with the short-term investment account and money paid by former students should be used.

J. Wightman said keeping money in trust isn’t necessarily bad. She suggested putting out creative grant ideas, and advocated using money in the short-term but keeping the long-term in mind. She pointed out some concern with former GPSA discussion surrounding September 11 and the spontaneous response by the GPSA to take a significant portion of their own funds and send them out for relief.

P. Carr stated combining B1 and B2 is basically a flowery way of saying “do what you want with the money” as it would go into GPSA operating account.

V. Augusta said she liked the idea of having access to money, but the long-term option was more equitable.

A member questioned what would happen if the short term account went under the $50,000 minimum balance.

B. Bailey responded the account is set up with the understanding that it will maintain a$50,000 minimum balance. That is the Cornell policy and it cannot go less. The money would need to be managed with this in mind.

J. Sebastian said it might be useful for GPSA to give money for a one-time project.

D. Toomey said he preferred having more flexibility, hence he favored the short-term option.

S. Adam made a motion to conduct an informal poll.

A member questioned how much EMS wanted for a new ambulance when the activity fee was being set last semester.

G. Hurley responded it cost $120,000; the GPSA will give $2,500 per year toward that.

A member questioned if the GPSAFC will have a surplus in the next few years.

P. Carr replied the GPSAFC was given a lower amount from the activity fee this year.

A member questioned how the surplus happened.

K. Hueffer said the GPSA Charter stated they must give a minimum of 35% of the total allocation to the GPSAFC. Thus, when other groups asked for higher funding, it automatically meant the GPSAFC amount had to proportionately increase as well. The GPSA did address this issue this year by changing the guidelines to reduce the GPSAFC amount to a minimum of 25% of the total allocation.

P. Carr commented the GPSAFC allocates more to groups than they spend.

A member expressed concern over allowing too much flexibility with the money and a fear that it might not be wisely used.

J. Moriarty advocated the short-term investment option. Concerns about future GPSA’s and the way they might spend the money seem unwarranted. She argued they should trust future graduate/professional students and allow flexibility.

A member suggested spending the money generously to benefit the grad/professional student community. The ideas used could be from anyone, not just this group.

P. Carr stated the President wants to know the plans regarding what the GPSA intends to do with the money. If anyone has an idea he requested that they voice it now.

A member brought up this is just COR/GPSA. The bigger graduate/professional community should be asked.

O. Salminen reminded members the topic on the floor was what to do with money while ideas are being developed. She summarized the three options 1) leave as-is 2) short term investment account 3) long term investment account

S. Adam clarified this discussion was a gathering of opinions. The actual vote would take place in two weeks.

Those present raised their hand to indicate preferences on the options presented. Investing the money in a long term account received 11 votes, investing the money in a short term account received 17 votes, and leaving the money sit as is, earning no interest, received no votes

S. Adam clarified that option A was leaving the language more vague and would allow flexibility in spending of the funds. Using any of those listed under option B would provide specific guidelines saying how the money would be spent.

A show of hands showed a definite majority in favor of option A.

V. Adjournment The meeting adjourned 5:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Margaret Heavey Office of the Assemblies