DRAFT
Council of Representatives
Biotech G10
September 11, 2006
5:30–7:00 p.m.

I. Welcome and Introduction

M. Walsh called the meeting to order at 5:38pm.

The members of the board introduced themselves.

II. Moment of Silence

Everybody bowed their heads for a moment of silence.

III. How things work

J. Vertesi gave an overview of how things work. She described the various assemblies (GPSA, UA, EA) and their roles.

J. Vertesi explained the difference between the GPSA and COR:

• The GPSA administers the activity fee which supports all of the graduate students on campus and their activities, as well as by-line funded groups.
• The GPSA runs a lot of committees and members are liaisons.
• The GPSA also serves as an advisory body with the Graduate School, President�s Office, Board of Trustees, etc.
• The GPSA also patches resolutions, which is the official word of the graduate and professional student assembly. It deals with anything related to Cornell. Resolutions are sent to the president and all affected parties. They are submitted to the executive committee, introduced at council meetings, and voted on at assembly business meetings.
• The COR is a representative body of graduate and professional students.
• The COR communicates constituencies� needs and desires to the committees and assembly.
• COR members deliver GPSA news back to each representatives� constituency.

E-mail GPSA@cornell.edu if there are any concerns.

M. Walsh wanted to extenuate the point that being part of the COR is just a start to being involved . T. McConnochie, last year�s president came for a visit.

IV. Introduction from Graduate and Professional Student Services Staff

a. Richard Kiley � Acting Director of Graduate Student life

R. Kiley is replacing V. Blodgett�s previous position, he will be the interim director of the graduate student life.

Part of his role in the university is to focus on primarily non-academic issues that are affecting grad students.

R. Kiley said his door is open, and to stop by any time.

R. Kiley also does his doctorate here so he is aware of many issues that may arise.

V. Business of the Day

a. New Athletics Ticketing System � Alan Katz, Associate Director of Athletics

A. Katz gave a background as to how he got his job and he was very fortunate to be at the meeting.

A. Katz said he appreciates the funding that has been provided by the GPSAFC. He said that the undergrads and the athletic department didn�t match up this year so the SAFC didn�t give them byline funding. The loss of funding from the SAFC is now replaced by hockey ticket prices which will be more expensive b/c the athletics department is in a tough financial condition.

A. Katz said that the athletics department did some research which showed that if there�s a charge to attend sporting events, it increases attendance and more competitiveness. Iowa just did this and there was more attendance.

A. Katz said that the men�s ice hockey tickets for grads will be $9 per ticket and $180 for a season pass.

A. Katz said the athletics department wants to give back to all students, therefore they created the Big Red sports pass-sticker which will be place on the student ID card. The Big Red Sports pass allows entrance to all sports games. ALL grad professional students interested can get one from the registrar for FREE. It will be $5 if they want a t-shirt.

J. Vertesi asked what kind of games could be seen?

A. Katz replied by giving a list of games: Men & women�s home basketball games, men & women�s soccer, men & women�s lacrosse, women�s vball, all men�s football games, men and women�s indoor & outdoor track events and women�s hockey.

K. Yasuda asked if graduate students can bring a guest. A. Katz said they have to buy a ticket either at the ticket office or at the game for $3.

A. Katz said the athletics department set several goals for the process of getting hockey tickets�it will be safe, fair, they will use technology to make it easier for people to pre-register, and preserve some traditions (camping out in lines).

The process for obtaining season hockey tickets is online at cornellbigred.com. The part of the process that has changed is how a student would go about getting a line number that allows them to camp out.

The process is:

• Students should pre-register online to show interest in having a chance to purchase season tickets for ice hockey as well as authorizing the use of the bursar to pay for the season pass and giving identification information.
• Students physically go to the ticket office with their ID cards and get their line numbers. Graduate Students can only register for the 1st block (2,000 people), in the order that people go to the ticket office to receive a number after pre-registering determines what number they get (1–2,000).
• On Schoellekoph field the numbers randomly drawn will be flashed on the scoreboard. Whatever number picked is the start of the 200 random numbers that are allowed to go and camp out and purchase tickets.
• Students go to Bartels to purchase tickets. Groups of people, friends can come together to the ticket office w/their IDs to receive consecutive line numbers which is an advantage b/c the group can all sit together. There is no advantage to going first and rushing to ticket office.

A COR representative on the floor asked of the 200 selected, what if somebody doesn�t show up?

A. Katz answered that if somebody doesn�t show up to get a number, the luckiest students are the ones that are next after the range that is selected.

E. Sparo asked what if a person didn�t purchase a season pass? Can a person buy individual tickets?

A. Katz answered by saying that several days before the game there are tickets for sale to the general public.

M. Walsh asked about Lynah Rink

A. Katz answered that there is a temporary occupancy permit to allow the team to start practicing. In December, Lynah should be totally completed, and if not they have a backup plan.

M. Walsh and E. Sparo are talking about having a grad night out at some athletic event (women�s volleyball?).

A. Katz thinks it�s a great idea.

b. Neighborhood Council Update � Gwen Curtis

G. Curtis said the neighborhood council was organized after Redbudwoods. She gave a handout that summarizes the neighborhood council.

G. Curtis also discussed the issue on whether or not fences should be put up on plantations or cull deer? She said documents concerning this issue will be online at the GPSA website soon. G. Curtis hopes that people look at the documents and send back comments and e-mail gc53.

VI. Call for Committee Involvement � GPSA Officers

a. Pay & Benefits Committee � Zuoming Wang, Chair

Z. Wang described what this committee is doing. She said the committee makes sure the graduate students get good pay and sufficient benefits.

Z. Wang said the first thing to look at is the stipend level�10 % increase and better housing. Housing can be divided to offcampus (landlord-tenant issues, the University is aware of these needs and is trying to establish an off campus housing office directly underneath the dean�s office. Last year they worked closely with the ISSO on these issues) and on campus housing (they�re hoping for better communication, there is a group that is inactive right and they now hope to bring it out again and have it be a better channel to talk to the university housing office).

Z. Wang also mentioned transportation�parking and bus service. She said that the committee is going to try and get better insurance coverage, better health care, and better child care facilities. If anyone cares about these issues, email Zuoming at zw34.

b. Funding Policy � Yu Yu, Chair

Y. Yu said that the Funding Policy Committee manages GPSA funds. It also reviews appendix A and B of the GPSA charter on the policies and procedures for setting and allocating the activity fee. The Funding Policy Committee also renews the FC bylaw and recommends to the GPSA the funding guidelines of the GPSA finance commission.

Y. Yu said the Funding Policy Committee also contacts byline (cu cinema, athletics, big red barn, etc) funded organizations to come and present at GPSA meetings.

Y. Yu said the time commitment for this committee is very minimal. She said they meet once or twice a semester and everything is mainly done by e-mail.

If interested email yy235.

c. GPSA Finance Commission� Caren Kang, Chair

C. Kang said the GPSAFC is the funding arm of the GPSA. She said the GPSAFC is responsible for funding over 200 registered graduate and professional student organizations on the Cornell campus.

The GPSAFC gets applications from student groups and the GPSAFC applies bylaws to the applications and decides how much money is allocated to the student groups.

C. Kang said some of the perks are that if you were in this committee you�d get free food, and they only meet 4 times a semester. You also get to learn a lot about the different groups and what types of events are being held for graduate students.

If interested, contact chk26

d. Events Committee � Ellan Spero, Chair

E. Spero said the events committee organizes events for grad and professional students sponsored by the GPSA. Some events include ice-skating night at lynah rink, orientation outreach to new students, the grad student ball and the end of the year bbq at the big red barn.

E. Spero said she is open to many suggestions. E-mail efs8 if interested.

e. Communications Committee � Michael Jay Walsh, Chair

M. Walsh said the communications committee maintains the flow of information from the GPSA to the grad and professional student body as well as other groups at Cornell. He said the committee will maintain and improve the website�updating it with events, news, and resolutions.

M. Walsh said the communications committee will publish an e-newsletter containing news as well as GPSA and GPSAFC sponsored events.

M. Walsh said that the committee needs a small newspaper staff:

• writer for news stories and press releases
• photographer
• editor to publish newsletter
• hope to create new position publicist (joint appointment between communications, events and finance commission)
• liaison to student assembly
• liaison to employee assembly
• liaison to faculty senate�think needs grad representative on this committee

M. Walsh said to e-mail him at Mjw66 with any questions & to sign up!! Most of the stuff will be done over e-mail.

f. Other opportunities for involvement � Janet Vertesi

J. Vertesi said they are starting 2 new working groups under the pay and benefits committee. She briefly described the committees:

• housing resident�s advisory group
• transportation working group: there are a lot of issues, they are starting a group to bring all of the reps together and have them talk to each other
• university assembly committees
• faculty senate committees
• joint assemblies committees
• University neighborhood council
• others by the graduate school, neighborhood council, library, Gannett�

VII. Election of 2 Master�s-degree Assembly Seats

2 seats were open, one for masters engineering seat and one seat open to any masters� field.

J. Vertesi described the election process. She also described the roles of these assembly seats and their responsibilities.

Three people were nominated:

• Kenny Chan masters in health administration.
• Jason Moore masters program in real estate
• David Day m. eng. bio engineering

M. Walsh closed the floor for nominations.

G. Curtis said to accept D. Day as the rep. Another COR member 2nd it.

D. Day gave a mini speech as to what he does and his goals.

Each candidate gave a 60 sec. speech about themselves and why they want the position.

Some questions were asked of the candidates and M. Walsh closed the floor for questions and everyone voted.

K. Chan won the election.

VIII. Goal Setting & Open Forum

J. Vertesi said they hope to make COR more interactive and bring in people that the COR wants to talk to. She said the COR would like members to tell them of any issues that they think are important for the GPSA to address this year; and to tell them if they want an administrator, or professor on campus they�d like to meet or think we should be talking to.

D. Day suggested inviting Cornell people to come and talk to them to get more funding and possibly help with the communications.

Another COR member mentioned summer funding. She said many people are international students who stay here over the summer and the summer stipend is low which can be problematic

In response, Y. Yu said they talked about it and put up $20,000 as a funding source (100 applicants). M. Bhadauria said the stipend amount may depend on which department you are in.

Another COR member hopes to see services about childcare providers.

One more COR member mentioned transportation and bus passes and how newly matriculated students have free bus passes and other people were grandfathered in. They want to know if anything can be done about that.

J. Vertesi replied by saying if they are passionate about this issue to sign up for one of the committees.

E. Spero also added on, saying that she was thinking of starting a motorcycle thing.

Another COR member asked about the health insurance plan.

Z. Wang replied by saying they have a new insurance advisory committee.

IX. Adjournment

M. Walsh adjourned the meeting at 7:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies