DRAFT Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse August 26, 2002 5:30–6:30 p.m. Attendance: 2002–2003 GPSA Members 8/26 9/30 10/21 11/25 1/27 2/24 3/24 4/21 Shaffique Adam P Daniel Dadoyan P Gerod Hall P Gavin Hurley P Lauren Mangiola P Kurt Massey A Timothy McConnochie P Andrew Miller A Joan Moriarty P Bryan Preston P Daniela Raik P David Schmale III P Andrew Schpak P Nab Sharif A Ariana Vigil A Robb Willer P Heather Wynder A Others Present: Paul Ampadu, Hope Mandeville, Tyng Tsuei

I. Welcome J. Moriarty, president of the 2002–2003 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m.

J. Moriarty announced that this was the first meeting of the year for GPSA and welcomed everybody. She noted that the meeting was being taped but that it can be turned off at any time if needed and that everything recorded is posted on the web. The issue of attendance was addressed and she explained the ramifications of missing meetings and requested that if a meeting needs to be missed by a member, please email her.

II. Member Introductions The members introduced themselves to the GPSA.

H. Mandeville announced the departure of Bonnie Bailey and that they are currently searching for a replacement for her.

III. What is the GPSA? G. Hurley explained that the GPSA is the voice of the grad students by way of legislative tactics and committees. In addition, he also mentioned the other kinds of assemblies and their functions.

IV. Process Discussion S. Adam said that it is the job of the GPSA to get the process started when issues arise. First, find people who are interested in the issue and form a committee. Then investigate the feasibility and options. Then bring the issue to COR for suggestions and to debate and discuss. Finally, form a resolution. For an example of a resolution, one can look at the draft minutes. He said that he believes things are likely to happen if they are feasible.

J. Moriarty explained the approval of the minutes. She said that the minutes will be uploaded to the web and an email will be sent out to the members notifying them that it has been done so that they can review the minutes before the next meeting.

The minutes of April 22, 2002 were unanimously approved.

J. Moriarty explained the meaning of absences and what the A, E, and P mean on the minutes. She also emphasized the time and place of meetings, saying that the wrong time has been posted somewhere. The correct time and place for meetings is 5:30pm-6:30pm at the Big Red Barn.

P. Ampadu asked when COR is meeting.

J. Moriarty answered that it is meeting the 16th of September at 5:30 and that COR and GPSA alternate meetings. She explained that the difference between COR and GPSA is that GPSA has voting ability to pass resolutions while COR does not. She said that the GPSA belongs to the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students and they have sent a bill for dues. Dues paid go towards lobbying of political issues and actions on behalf of graduate and professional students. An approval is needed to pay the dues. There is a choice of $200, $400 or $800 and the question asked is what level does the GPSA want to fund their activities? The GPSA usually always gives the highest because the Cornell GPSA is well funded.

B. Preston asked what is their annual budget?

J. Moriarty said she doesn’t know.

B. Preston asked does the GPSA get higher access to the lobbying?

J. Moriarty said that no, the GPSA only gets two rotations on their website banner for paying the highest priced dues.

L. Mangiola said that the question is what are we going to do with the rest of the money.

J. Moriarty encouraged the GPSA to give the highest because they do good stuff.

A motion was made to approve the dues at the highest level.

The motion was seconded and passed.

V. Goals D. Schmale said that he hopes that the GPSA will get a handle on what to do with the $100,000.

R. Willer said that an endowment has been set up and that half has been invested in low-yield stock while the other half has been invested in riskier investments. He said that there is nothing to report from GPSAFC and that he will be putting off reporting anything until the next meeting.

D. Schmale suggested bringing more members into the COR process.

L. Mangiola said that there is no formal occasion for all grad students to get together and suggested something to be sponsored by COR or GPSA. She also said that grad students should get some kind of handbook, similar to the one that Cornell gives out to the undergrads.

A. Schpak said that he wants to see more interaction of the grad schools. He noted that law students never see anybody else and that the Big Red Barn should open up more to all grad students.

G. Hall said that he had no ideas at this time.

D. Raik said she had no ideas either.

A member said that an issue that needs to be raised is health care for grad students, especially dental and eyes.

D. Dadoyan said that there is a house thought to be haunted on Eddy Street that used to belong to the benefactors of AAP and is now being sold because it is too expensive to maintain.

J. Moriarty said that the school is pressuring to sell it so they can get more money.

D. Dadoyan said that he believes it is worth thinking about because the house is important to the AAP students.

R. Willer said that an attempt should be made to dress up the Big Red Barn to be more bar-like. In addition, there is a divide between abortion and birth control on the health care plan that needs to be addressed. Another point is that he heard a COR member saying that they are sending the administration a letter by GPSA to comply with the Kyoto Now protocol. He also talked to S. Adam about sponsoring a debate on union issues.

B. Preston said that he wants to see the schools merging. He noted the absences of the Johnson school representative from meetings last year and hopes to change that this year. He also said that the elections process needs to be less confusing.

J. Moriarty said that is a charter change and requires a month’s notice before elections and agrees that it’s a mess.

T. McConnochie said that in regards to L. Mangiola’s formal idea, the GPSA should try to do something sooner than later because habits haven’t formed yet. He also suggested to try to keep the Barn open for the summer.

J. Moriarty said that every unit competes with other units to see who can be most profitable and that is probably why the Barn is closed during the summer.

B. Preston said that the business students are always looking for projects and they can probably find a way to make it profitable.

J. Moriarty asked what is going on with AAP. She said that the University is trying to dissolve the school completely and it appears that it will happen. The grad students are concerned where they will go and she suggests keeping ears open as to what is going on.

S. Adam said he talked to somebody in his department and found out that students are having conflicts with their advisor. He wants to create someone, maybe the ombudsman, to moderate/facilitate the conflicts between advisors and students.

L. Mangiola asked if it would be someone in the same college?

S. Adam said that they need somebody neutral.

L. Mangiola asked if the Dean would be effective?

S. Adam said he wasn’t sure.

D. Schmale asked if the chair of the department should resolve conflicts?

J. Moriarty said that it varies by departments, because what if the conflict is with the chair.

D. Raik said that the Cornell Co-Op Extension might be the place to look for a trained facilitator.

P. Ampadu said that the University always sticks together and students never win because the professors have all the power. It would require a lot of attention and effort and a panel may be needed.

A member said that the university needs to guarantee a student who files a complaint a safety net because a wrong move may ruin their career due to the power asymmetry.

G. Hall suggested having COR members document student problems so GPSA can have a feeling of the problems and conflicts that are arising.

S. Adam said he is wondering how widespread the problem is.

P. Ampadu said that a model department is Applied Mathematics because they have changed the whole PHD procedure so they have been able to rise above the problem.

D. Schmale said that a lot of problems are personality based and they need to be cautious of personality conflicts.

B. Preston said that maybe they should consult the National Association of graduate-professional students to see if they have any suggestions.

VI. Fall Advance H. Mandeville made an announcement that the Fall Advance is September 9 and only the GPSA is invited, not COR. It kicks off the Assembly season and everybody gets a chance to speak to come up with a collaborative project for all the Assemblies to participate in.

J. Moriarty said that she will be the representative for GPSA and asked for ideas or projects.

H. Mandeville said that they will be big on public service issues.

J. Moriarty said that so far she has Kyoto Now protocol and the disillusion of the AAP as ideas.

D. Schmale agreed with the sentiments on transportation being an issue.

T. McConnochie said that maybe the UA might be better to discuss it.

L. Mangiola said that she likes the idea of incorporating all grad students.

J. Moriarty asked the members to email her with any ideas.

VII. Union Update R. Willer said that they want to form a union for grad students. The union of employees has already been formed. October 23rd and 24th are elections and those eligible are TA’s, RA’s, GA’s, and GRA’s who have greater than or equal to 25% tuition fee waiver or stipends. For more information, members can visit the website http://www.caseuaw.org/. Unionizers also want to solicit a debate with administrators.

VIII. Party J. Moriarty said that the first COR meeting is Sept 16 and it was decided a party will be held after that for COR and GPSA from 6:30–9:00.

A. Schpak asked if Monday is a good day for everybody, since he knows law students have a lot of classes on Tuesdays.

J. Moriarty said that all members will be in the room anyway so she figured it would be easy to keep them in the room better because the Big Red Barn is always booked.

R. Willer said that the GPSAFC meets at the same time and has the same logic.

S. Adam asked if anybody is interested in organizing the party.

G. Hurley said that he would help.

L. Mangiola said she would help.

J. Moriarty said that the budget needs to be approved.

A motion was made to spend at most $600 on the party.

B. Preston said he doesn’t know what $600 can buy.

G. Hurley explained that the motion is more of a formality so that the planning can begin.

S. Adam said that it had cost $1800 for music, food and beer for 400 people so that’s where they got the $600 ballpark figure.

J. Moriarty said that they chose $600 because they wanted to have enough to be approved to start the spending.

G. Hurley said that they should clarify what is meant by “party” and that it is more of a gathering/social mixer.

The motion was revised to $300.

The motion was amended to $400.

A motion was made to approve $400 as the maximum amount spent.

The motion was seconded and approved.

A. Schpak asked are professional schools the only schools that have to pay $1000 for health care.

J. Moriarty said that the only schools that are fully funded get health care.

A. Schpak asked if there is a simple way to waiver it, because the law school does not make it simple.

B. Preston said that was another issue that was brought up at the UA and that undergrads are having the same problem with it too because there is too much paperwork involved.

J. Moriarty said that the fully funded students were being charged $500 and were unaware that they did not have to pay this.

R. Willer said that he thought that they were required to be part of the plan.

J. Moriarty said that everybody is automatically a part of the plan unless you opt out of it.

A. Schpak said that the process is difficult in law school to waiver out.

D. Dadoyan asked if anybody knew if the AAP disillusion was official or up in the air?

J. Moriarty said that different people believe different things.

R. Willer said that it is officially still up in the air.

J. Moriarty said that the trustees have to approve it.

G. Hall asked if it was too late to sign up for a committee?

J. Moriarty said no.

P. Ampadu said that the GPSA is not visible and they need to think about ways to make the grad community more involved.

G. Hurley said that the communications committee will be working on it this year.

J. Moriarty said that is an open committee and everybody is welcome to join it.

D. Schmale said that he is willing to talk to other graduate associations about what the GPSA is and does because it will be nice to put a face to it.

X. Adjournment

A motion was made to adjourn.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Tyng Tsuei

Office of the Assemblies