Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Council of Representatives Notes
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall
October 18, 2004
5:30–7:00p.m.

I. Welcome

II. Open Forum

One person mentioned the topic of safety on campus. It is hard to get home safely and some women are getting harassed by intoxicated people. H. Etienne agrees that he would like to discuss this in a future meeting.

Jeff student asked about committee assignments, the response given was that if the applications were sent in, then the sender should be notified.

J. Vertesi student brought up the collegetown creeper issue, and to send somebody to a committee because the undergrad students are working on the issue

Lotoya said that 40 TCAT bus drivers threatened to leave because of budgets. Many off-campus buses are restricted.

III. Visit from Josh Katcher, Student Trustee

Josh Katcher discussed a paper that he handed out to the assembly. He would like every student in Cornell to take a survey about certain issues on what to do about money. Josh said that we need to reassess things and tell the administration about unnecessary fees. He said that they can try to get certain fees to be embedded in the tuition so that there could be financial aid for it, such as gym membership, a new ID card, net print, thesis payments.

IV. Visit from Graduate School Deans�Allison Power, Dean of the Graduate School and K. Ellen Gainor and Terry Plater, Associate Deans

The deans gave a general overview of the graduate school. There are 4300 Grad students from 120 countries.

The deans are currently working on the issues of availability and affordability of childcare for full-time students, and a parental leave policy for students. They are also developing something to assist people with any type of problem, a case management structure. People will be able to work with faculty and help with their problems. They hope to have a contingency fund which contains a modest amount of funds available to help students.

A. Felkey asked about statutory and endowed colleges and how the university wanted to promote interdisciplinary fields. They want to make fees more uniform.

One of the deans said that the state tuition will increase while the endowed tuition will decrease a little or stay the same. This change will only effect professional and masters programs. Students will be grandfathered in and people paying the state tuition will not have to pay the endowed tuition immediately.

V. Assembly Update�Brian Holmes

Kent Hubbell went to the last GPSA meeting. He gave information on the redesigning of WSH to make it better for students.

The assembly passed a resolution for committee chairs to add vice chairs. They approved a budget for the Ivy Summit.

B. Holmes said after the summit, they met Cornell Medical school people who are interested in visiting Cornell’s Ithaca campus.

VI. Committee Updates

a. Internal Operations�Tim McConnochie

T. McConnochie said that people should check on vacancies on the committees to fill it in. People who do have positions will be e-mailed with responsibilities and each representative must notify people with news.

b. Elections�Joshua Nelson

J. Nelson said that some people are not showing up and that they must fill in seats. People should look at the website and e-mail Josh if you are not on the list. He needs help with the elections committee.

c. Communications�Harley Etienne

H. Etienne said that he plans to prepare a digest that will summarize issues at meetings and tell people about events. Once the digest is sent out, people should forward the e-mails into fields not represented.

d. Funding Policy�Kevin O’Neill

e. Finance Commission�Ruchira Bhattamishra

VII. GPSA / GPSAFC Year-End Financial Statement Reports�Kevin O’Neill and Ruchira Bhattamishra

K. O’Neill talked about the Ivy Summit and other expenses for the GPSA.

R. Bhattamishra discussed the GPSAFC summary and how they are spending more than the income and that they are now using the revenue.

VIII. University Assembly Update�Doug Mitarotonda

D. Mitarotonda introduced the UA and said that it has legislative authority. However now people change rules and just notify the UA rather than having the UA approve it.

D. Mitarotonda said that the UA will take care of the transportation issue and try to tell the transportation board not to make changes by secret.

The UA will try to be more pro-active.

IX. Adjournment

H. Etienne adjourned the meeting at 7:06p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of Assemblies