Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Monday, September 22, 2008
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall
5:30–7:00pm

I. Welcome and Introductions

Michelle Leinfelder called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

M. Leinfelder welcomed everyone to the first assembly meeting of the year, introduced herself as the President, Mario Guerrero as the Executive Vice President and Deondra Rose as the Vice President for Operations of the GPSA. She then introduced President David Skorton and Vice President Susan Murphy to the group.

II. Open Discussion

- President Skorton and Vice President Susan Murphy M. Leinfelder welcomed President David Skorton and Vice President Susan Murphy. President Skorton welcomed everyone back to campus. He thanked M. Leinfelder for being on the provost search committee. He then said he wanted to discuss what the university was doing to manage the unsettling issues of the economy. He said there are cuts in the state budget coming, but they do not know how much the cuts will be. He assured everyone the university is developing plans for how to deal with the cuts. He then emphasized the fundraising campaign was going well-over $2.3 billion. He concluded by saying the university’s investments are not as good as they were, but the university’s financial outlook was still positive in many ways.

Vice President Murphy said she wanted to talk about graduate student life issues and the Graduate Community Initiative. She said the university is working on the areas identified by the GCI working groups. She said career services, housing, communication and a graduate center were the main topics. B. Wickes was to take a lead on the graduate life and programming and S. Murphy said she would refer to her to gather information. She said the graduate center was the most challenging because the university Master Plan gave ideas, but they are a long way off.

M. Leinfelder asked for questions/comments from the members.

M. Guerrero asked about LGBTQ services, and the search for a new director. He said earlier today he received an e-mail saying the center was closed but even before it closed, the hours were sparse. Dean Kent Hubble said they were planning to hire a temporary director, but the search for a permanent director would be a national one, and would take several months. He said he would welcome the involvement of GPSA members in the search.

J. Kupferschmidt asked about having a graduate center and if the university was considering a location for it near East Hill Plaza. S. Murphy responded the university envisions in the next 10–15 years, an area for grad students not near East Hill Plaza, but on East Campus.

M. Guerrero brought up the issue of communication among undergraduate, employee and graduate assemblies. He said he discussed this in a leadership breakfast with representatives from other assemblies. They said they also have this same issue, and they would all like to see some solutions such as having access to a complete graduate list-serve. He said in the beginning of the year, he wanted to send out e-mails to the graduate student community to explain what the GPSA was doing with their student activity fees, but he was not able to get the whole community on a list-serve.

S. Murphy asked if the GPSA wanted to put information out or if they wanted to make it available so people could find it. M. Guerrero answered both, because he would like to send out e-mails to say why it was important to be on the list-serve, but also give people the information on how to find what they needed if they did opt out of the list-serve.

S. Murphy said the university takes a very conservative approach about campus wide e-mailing, but she said she would discuss this issue with Vice President Tommy Bruce. President Skorton agreed people will stop reading emails if they receive too many. He said the graduate and professional student community was such a diverse group it was difficult to promote communication. He said printed materials like the Cornell Chronicle could help with this problem. He suggested the GPSA think of other ways where there would be minimal or no cost. He asked them not to forget about the students at Weill Cornell Medical as well as PhD students. In response to this, M. Leinfelder said the GPSA was trying to represent students in Geneva, in addition to those in Ithaca, and have kept in touch with some students at Weill. She said she discovered students at Weill do have their own representative body, activity fees and so on.

A. Sikora asked if contributions to the university were mandatory or considered in tenure reviews. President D. Skorton said no, gifts would never be used as criteria for promotion or tenure. He said at CU, like at most campuses, the majority of the money raised comes from alumni with only a small portion coming from faculty, staff, or students. President Skorton asked them to e-mail him if they ever heard this again.

A male guest asked if there was a way PE courses would not show up on transcripts, the way they used to not show up. S. Murphy said the no-grade option was no longer available. Students either audit classes or take them for a grade. B. Wickes added that they have always shown up on official transcripts.

A. Sikora commented when people took a PE course for non-credit and did not show up a few times, they were charged $20. S. Murphy said since enrollment was limited, a person who was taking up a spot should attend or will be charged.

The discussion was over and M. Leinfelder gave thanks to both President Skorton and Vice President Murphy and to those who are not members of the assembly but still attended.

III. Open Forum

M. Leinfelder asked for any items for Open Forum. B. Wickes announced an Octoberfest event at Trillium on September 26th. There would be information available to help people register to vote. She said if anyone was interested in helping to contact her via e-mail.

M. Walsh congratulated M. Leinfelder for winning the 5K race.

IV. Executive Updates

D. Rose said they were near the end of committee appointments and thanked everyone who applied. She added there were still 14 spots available and would pass around a sheet that showed what was left and where people could find an application if they wanted to apply. She also said the Slope Day committee needed a representative and was meeting tomorrow and so anyone who was interested in that should go.

M. Guerrero then asked people to sign in and make sure their info was up to date. For those on CoR, a similar list will go around at the next meeting. He thanked M. Leinfelder for coordinating “Grad Night Out” last Thursday.

M. Leinfelder gave recaps on the Assemblies Breakfast and a meeting with Dean Gainor of the Grad School. She then thanked B. Forster, B. Wickes, and everyone else who helped with Club Fest. She said she got an email from a local restaurant asking to speak at a meeting. General opinion was meeting time was valuable and this would not be a good use of meeting time.

V. Committee Reports and Discussion - Brian Forster, Student Advocacy Committee Chair

B. Forster said on the GPSA website, the Pay and Benefits committee has been changed to the Student Advocacy committee. He said minutes from recent meetings were posted. He then handed out a draft contact sheet and asked people to read it over and e-mail edits to him or any of the other committee members. He said he had also posted minutes from an informational meeting with Gannett Health Services two weeks ago. He has encouraged Geneva students to be involved in discussions to make changes. M. Leinfelder said when some students went to Geneva in the summer they learned health care was the main concern for students there. B. Wickes said Geneva has pre-authorized care to anyone who is part of Geneva station so Gannett does not have to be contacted in case of emergency. B. Forster said the president of SAGES has invited Gannett representatives to meet in Geneva.

VI. Election of Events Planning Committee Chair

M. Leinfelder said the Events Committee was developed a few years ago. One of its primary activities is organizing the Grad Ball, but this year the GPSA hopes the Events chair will help them with Ivy Summit planning. Cornell will be hosting it next October, so the chair will need to get the ball rolling soon. M. Leinfelder added the Memorial room in WSH in already reserved for the Grad Ball.

M. Leinfelder announced she would like to open the floor for nominations. She said self-nominations were allowed, but explained the person needed to be on the GPSA or on the Council of Representatives. M. Guerrero added six people have already been appointed to the committee. A. Richter nominated K. Capossela. K. Capossela accepted. J. Kupferschmidt nominated B. Horgan. B. Horgan did not accept the nomination. M. Guerrero motioned to close nominations. A. Richter seconded.

K. Capossela introduced herself as a JGSM representative and said a few words.

C. Mansfeldt motioned to vote by acclamation. J. Kupferschmidt seconded. There were 13-yes, 0-no, and 0-abstentions. K. Capossela was appointed as the new Events chair.

VII. Budget Review - Joern Kupferschmidt, Funding Policy Committee Chair

M. Leinfelder explained it was important the GPSA knew where they were spending their money. J. Kupferschmidt handed out a “tentative” budget sheet. He said for the next GPSA meeting, he hoped to have an up to date version. He explained the projected budget was overspent, but he was looking for the causes. He said he had been authorized electronic access to the budget system, but it was very difficult to read.

M. Leinfelder proposed an increase in the budget for Ivy Summit. She also clarified the budget for Ivy Summit referred to this year’s attendance in October and the savings for Ivy Summit referred to the one next year that will take place at Cornell.

M. Guerrero proposed an increase in the budget for the retreat. M. Guerrero also suggested an increase for communications, so the GPSA could purchase a banner, bags, or other items with the GPSA logo on them.

A. Richter said since so much information was unknown she felt uncomfortable voting on the budget. M. Leinfelder said they were just discussing it until they had more accurate numbers.

J. Kupferschmidt said there was no process in the charter for the budget and asked people to e-mail him with thoughts.

VIII. Adjournment

M. Leinfelder asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. A. Richter motioned to adjourn the meeting. C. Mansfeldt seconded. M. Leinfelder adjourned the meeting at 7:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Elly Shin
Office of the Assemblies