DRAFT
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Big Red Barn
February 28, 2005
5:30–7:00 p.m.

I. Call to Order

B. Holmes called the meeting to order at 5:43pm.

II. Open Forum

There were no comments for open forum.

III. Approval of Minutes

a. January 31, 2005

One correction was made and the minutes were adopted unanimously.

IV. Announcements and Updates

a. Council Update — H. Etienne

H. Etienne said that the council was visited by O’Brien last week. They discussed visa issues and mental health resources. O’Brien is interested in creating an advisory committee.

b. Pay and Benefits Survey Update — A. Poduska

A. Poduska said the survey will go on for three weeks. An email will be forwarded with a flyer and if students do not receive the email, email Ann and she’ll contact SRI.

c. General Committee of the Graduate School Update — D. Looser

D. Looser said some of the criteria for SES diversity to get an adversity fellowship. The issue is that poor white students can get these awards rather than underrepresented people. It is hard to document and verify that you’re poor and disadvantaged. She said that there is an advantage for people with good persuasive writing.

d. Student Fees Review Committee Update — A. Soule

A. Soule said that that the committee didn’t really make any actions yet, they are just talking about what to do with the information gathered from the survey last semester.

Fees that receiving attention this semester are: bus ride and permit costs, athletic fitness center and printing costs (which include net print personal and net print for classes which are mandatory), and CIT. The committee is meeting with the “experts” from each area.

The fees that are also of importance that were passed onto other people to work on were: Gannett co-pay and instructional course fees.

e. Other updates

There were no other updates.

V. Old Business

a. Solomon Amendment — B. Holmes and D. Mitarotonda

D. Mitarotonda said that students wanted Cornell to take a stance concerning the Solomon Amendment and join the lawsuit. However, Cornell does not want to join it because it’s not its own lawyers.

B. Holmes mentioned that there was a resolution regarding this issue passed Fall 2003.

b. Grad Ball — J. Vertesi

J. Vertesi said that tickets will be on sale beginning 2/29. The Ball is on April 9 at the Atrium in Sage Hall.

VI. Visit from Candidates for Student Trustee

The three candidates that visited were Justin Davis, Doug Mitarotonda and Rayon Tayler. They each said a mini speech and answered questions.

VII. New Business

a. Funding for Future GPSA Events — K. O’Neill and B. Holmes

B. Holmes discussed the “Funding and Planning of GPSA Sponsored Events” attached to the agenda.

b. Possible Changes to the GPSA Charter — B. Holmes, H. Etienne, and T. McConnochie

The meeting was short on time, so the assembly was instructed to read thoughts on the charter and if there are questions to e-mail and it will be discussed another time.

c. Get Out the Vote — B. Holmes

B. Holmes tried to get people to vote for student trustees and tell people to “get out the vote.”

VIII. Adjournment

B. Holmes adjourned the meeting at 7:13p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies