Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Council of Representatives
Big Red Barn
December 10, 2007
5:30–7:00 p.m.

I. Welcome and Introductions

M. Leinfelder called the meeting to order at 5:37pm. She introduced the members of the executive board.

II. Open Forum

A. Cowan mentioned at the last GPSA meeting that athletics does not hand in their budget to the GPSAFC. He said according to the charter, any new or returning group needs to submit a budget to the GPSAFC. A. Cowan said he e-mailed the director of athletics to ask more information about their policy. He said the director stated it is an internal, not a university policy. A. Cowan said he does not understand why athletics have private rules for themselves. He said that we should think about revising Appendix B for the Spring.

S. Kong said many members of the FPC didn’t want to allocate money because the detailed budget was not given to the committee. For the second FPC meeting, they asked athletics for a budget again and found out that in the past athletics never handed in a budget as well. S. Kong said although athletics did not hand in a budget, they did show what the graduate students gain from funding athletics.

A. Richter said frankly she does not know if she wants to see the whole budget for athletics because it might be too cumbersome. She said she can see why they do not want things funded publicly such as coaches’ salaries.

S. Kong gave a brief review of the student activity fee that was passed.

B. Forster gave an update from the communications committee. He said somebody from the Daily Sun will probably be at many of our meetings.

M. Walsh said he is going to bring a resolution forth in January to fund slope day for about the same amount as last year.

M. Leinfelder said what we approved recently was to fund slope day for the next academic year, not this academic year.

III. Executive Updates

Y. Yu wanted to thank M. Leinfelder for chairing the last GPSA meeting and members involved. She said Thurston Court is reopening for housing next year. Y. Yu said the Big Red Barn is closed for next semester and the new location is not decided yet. She said they will notify people once they know.

A. Richter has broken her right ankle and is discovering a lot of new things about the Cornell Health services such as CU lift. She said the diversity council is still meeting and there are diversity forums. A. Richter asked the assembly to send committee reports or if haven’t heard about committees to talk to her.

IV. Committee Reports

a. University Assembly Update: Tamara Pardo

T. Pardo said general notes from the UA meetings can be found on the Assemblies website. She said there are many instances in which violations of academic integrity arises, however Professors do not follow up because it is a big hassle so they let it go. T. Pardo said Dean Wilcock wants to form a subcommittee that has grads, faculty, undergrads, staff and the dean to discuss this issue. She said we could schedule a meeting to discuss issues of academic integrity the week of January 28.

V. GCI Update:

a. Sunny Power, Dean of the Graduate School

S. Power gave an update on the GCI. She said they have been meeting since the summer with people representing different areas of campus. S. Power said there is a myriad of covered in the GCI, and as a group they are getting together to see which issues are short/long term and how they can work on them. She said unfortunately the long term issue is the new graduate center but the Big Red Barn currently needs to be fixed. S. Power said they are trying to see if the Big Red Barn can be usable for the Spring. She said they are trying their best to find alternative places for graduate students.

B. Wickes said Trillium might be an alternative space for TGIF. She said there are some issues because it usually closes at 3pm and to open it later might cost a decent amount.

M. Guerrero wanted to know if the closing of the Big Red Barn was expected.

S. Power said that there were some emergency closings last spring and evaluations throughout. She said the University has been doing a master plan and the graduate center is in that plan.

M. Leinfelder emphasized that having a graduate center in the GCI makes it more apparent that people want a graduate student center.

Assembly members, S. Power and B. Wickes discussed the idea of asking the alumnae for donations. They also discussed possible locations for future meetings.

b. Brenda Wickes, Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Life

B. Wickes said she hopes that by the one year anniversary of the GCI there will be solid responses. She said groups that are involved in the GCI should write recommendations/reports and give it to S. Power and President Skorton.

S. Power said they are trying to figure out what they can do centrally at the graduate school level to help with academic issues because career services may not be enough.

c. GCI website discussion forum demonstration

M. Leinfelder gave a demonstration on how to use the website to find the GCI, and how to find the appropriate contact information. She also demonstrated where/how to make comments on the forum.

VI. Open Discussion: Items/Speakers for Next Semester

People can always send emails with ideas.

M. Guerrero suggested spending some money on communications to make the GPSA info look more professional.

A. Cowan said it would be good to discuss the campus code of conduct and what issues are of concern to grad students now that there is off campus jurisdiction.

M. Leinfelder said maybe the GPSA should do some leadership development. She added sometimes it is nice to take these skills that we have and build upon it.

A. Richter said she wanted to know how to make the CoR more “valuable.” Other schools also seem to want better connections with the Funding Committee.

T. Pardo said before the next elections she would like to have a talk about leadership in the GPSA and educate people new to it and on how to get more involved.

Y. Yu said next semester the charter is being updated, if people have complaints about the rules it can be amended.

VII. Adjournment

M. Leinfelder adjourned the meeting at 7:00p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies