a. August 29, 2005
One change was made in the minutes, then it was approved.

a. Operations and Staffing Committee � Z. Wang
Z. Wang talked about how to attract people�s attention to be in the operations and staff committee. The deadline for applications was originally on Sept 19, but they decided to extend the deadline to Sept 26.

Z. Wang said that they got 35 applications so far plus some more that Tammy has. There were 14 applications from social science, 8 from physical science, 8 from mba programs, 3 from humanities, and 2 from biological science. Z. Wang said that she would like more people from biological science and humanities to apply.

Z. Wang said that the operations and staffing committee would like to have a meeting this week. She said that people will be notified of appointments of positions sometime next week after the operations and staff committee meeting.

b. Funding Policy Committee � A. Fatale
A. Fatale said applications have been sent out. He discussed deadlines and how/whenthe fall package will be decided.

A. Fatale mentioned there was an Ivy Graduate Summit request made by T. McConnochie since it was under $500. The Ivy Graduate Summit was voted for and allocated.

T. McConnochie said any funding requests up to $500 from the GPSA can be approved by the Funding Policy Committee rather than through the GPSA

c. Executive Committee � T. McConnochie
T. McConnochie said that the executive committee has been working on the Ivy Summit, which is 10/14–10/16 at Yale. T. McConnochie said that the GPSA is sending 3 executive committee people (president, vice president & secretary) including some others. He described the ivy summit and how it can be helpful.

T. McConnochie mentioned a meeting he had with Dean Powers and told her about pay and benefits survey. Many issues came up, one included people receiving misleading offer letters. T. McConnochie said that the GPSA wants to hear about it if people received misleading offer letters.

T. McConnochie also discussed the funding for the ivy summit.

A. Beggs said that she asked about graduate students from New Orleans. There are 15 graduate/professional students registered here. She said she hopes to have some reception for them.

a. Pay and Benefits Survey Report � J. Sullivan
T. McConnochie motioned to adopt the pay and benefits survey. Joe first the motion and Yuyu second. The members had no questions or comments about the report and there was no discussion.

The GPSA voted on adopting the pay and benefits report, 14 people favored it. The pay and benefits survey was approved unanimously.

a. Funding Request � Ivy Graduate Summit � T. McConnochie
This was already discussed earlier in the meeting.

b. SA Image Committee � H. Grantham and T. Saha
H. Grantham gave a quick background/overview of the SA Image Committee. She said that it deals primarily with issues related to Cornell�s image and student life, basically all students� issues. H. Grantham said that the SA Image Committee has marketing as a big focus and they helped create the new logo.

H. Grantham said the biggest thing the Image Committee is working on this semester is class size. They are thinking of having post doc. people to teach classes to decrease class size and help them get teaching fellowships.

T. McConnochie said the main issue is what relationship GPSA wants to have with the SA Image Committee.

H. Grantham said that she�ll take as many GPSA representatives as there is offered.

c. 2005–2006 Goal Setting
People went around the room and members said what their goals/concerns for this year are. Some people said:

S. Gomez-Ibanez said the vet school is isolated and there should be more social activities that include ALL graduate schools. She said that many vet graduate students are mad about parking fees. She is also going to become the representative for the transportation advisory committee.

K. Novakofski said her school wasn�t really informed of anything, so she suggests the GPSA try to promote stuff to all departments.

M. Derval Diaz asked about having a GPSA student newsletter via e-mail again because she used to forward it to her department. A. Beggs said she used to do it and will try and get a replacement.

J. Woody would like a reiteration of funding for groups/info about funding committee because people keep asking the same questions. A. Fatale suggested the executive board write statements about how they interpret the statutes rather than constantly making amendments.

M. Bhadauria said he would like fees to be more affordable for self funded students. He also said it�s frustrating how Cornell advertises all of these courses and people come to take them and then they are cancelled.