MINUTES
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
Business Meeting of the GPSA Voting Council
Monday, November 16, 2009
Big Red Barn
5:30–7:00 P.M.

I. Welcome and Introductions (2 min.):

The meeting was called to order at 5:29 p.m. People who were present at the meeting introduced themselves and President Evensen explained parliamentary procedure would be adhered to during this meeting in order to get through a number of items in a timely fashion.

II. Old Business:

1. Approval of minutes (2 min.)

B. Heavner motioned to approve the minutes from the October 19th meeting. C. Clarke seconded. The minutes were approved.

2. Executive updates (4 min.)

a. President, Vice President Operations The Provost asked to create an advisory committee to discuss the strategic planning involved with Re-Imagining Cornell. Several GPSA members are serving on it. The Provost will be speaking on Re-imagining Cornell at the GPSA Advisory Body meeting in February.

B. Forster emailed people about task force reports. They are going to collect results and present to the SA and GPSA and then solicit feedback. He encouraged people to go to Day Hall to read the reports for themselves.

3. Standing Committee Updates (4 min.)

a. Advocacy, Appropriations, Events, and Finance Commission Events — S. Murugesan said that Grad’s Night Out is this Thursday night. He asked people to get the word out. He said he will be sending out an email with the details.

Advocacy — C. Mansfeldt said they are following up on the issues from last semester.

Finance Commission — A. Sikora said that the deadline for anyone submitting annual budgets to GPSAFC is Wednesday, November 25th.

4. Remaining votes on by-line funding (i.e., EMS, Athletics, and Slope Day) and consideration of the full activity fee (70 minutes)

EMS requested to be funded at $1.77. They were recommended by the Appropriations committee to receive $1.77. B. Heavner asked if EMS was a student organization or a campus service. The representative from EMS replied that it is student run and 100% volunteer. If they lost their funding, they would probably be forced to disband. C. Mansfeldt motioned to end debate and move to a vote. C. Clarke seconded. By a vote of 17 — 0 — 0, the motion passed.

Athletics requested to be funded at $7.00. This is up $1.00 from the previous allocation cycle of $6.00. It was noted this was the first increase Athletics has requested in eight years. They explained what they would be providing for the increased activity fee. They Appropriations committee recommended them to be funded at $7.00. After some discussion, C. Mansfeldt moved to close debate and vote on the allocation. A. Sikora seconded. By a vote of 17 — 0 — 0, the motion passed.

Slope Day was suggested at $2.82. They requested $4.00 and the Slope Day Committee suggested that $3.24 is equitable.

B. Heavner asked if the data from the survey would change the recommendation. The response from the Slope Day committee rep was that it would not. They indicated they would be charging tickets if not funded. Dave Walden did request a menu of funding amounts and the Appropriations Committee has not seen anything to date. M. Gafarou asked if they were funded at $2.82 would graduates still have to buy tickets to attend. The rep from the Slope Day committee said that they would likely charge grads tickets at a reduced price. If they were funded at $3.24, there would be no tickets for grads.

There was more discussion on specifics of the Slope Day allocation.

J. Beekman motion to close debate and move to a vote. C. Mansfeldt seconded. By a vote of 16–1−0, the members agreed to vote. The members voted and the recommendation of $3.24 was approved by a vote of 11–4−2.

They went to the main motion, which is R.3 on the entire activity fee. B. Forster made a motion to enforce that all amendments have to bring the activity fee to an even whole number (as dictated in the charter due to the Bursar’s office). B. Heavner moved to acclimate. A. Sikora seconded. There was no opposition.

D. Walden presented the resolution, R.3. E. Gutierrez acted as chair. N. Evensen proposed an amendment. He wanted to move to $9.35 for Cornell Cinema, $4.00 to Slope Day, and $27.37 to GPSAFC. Evensen noted that the SA promised to raise their allocation to Cornell Cinema to compensate for any loss of funds to Cinema from a GPSA reduction from $11.00 to $9.35. Evensen indicated he believed this would present a beneficial situation that generated the most utility overall.

The merits of the amendment were discussed with members of the GPSA and community and opinions fell on both sides of the debate.

N. Evensen motioned to move to a vote. B. Forster seconded. By a vote of 5–12–0, the amendment failed.

B. Forster proposed an amendment as follows: Cornell Cinema would receive $11, Slope Day would receive $3.12 and all others would stay the same. He explained where his numbers came from. S. Murugesan said that he understood the idea of the previous amendment. His suggestion was to work with the SA again to make the numbers better.

C. Mansfeldt wanted to know if Slope Day got permission from the administration to charge graduate students. He then moved to extend the debate to 7:15 p.m. S. Murugesan second and they voted 16 — 0 — 0 to extend the discussion to 7:15 p.m.

B. Forster motioned to close debate on the amendment. A. Sikora seconded. By a vote of 7–6−4, the motion passed.

C. Clarke wanted to move this until next month in order to work with the SA more.

B. Heavner called for a reconsideration of the vote. J. Beekman seconded.

C. Clarke then motioned to extend the meeting to 7:30 p.m. It passed.

By a vote of 9–4−3, the motion to reconsider the vote passed and the amendment to the resolution was withdrawn. A new amendment was put forth that changed the allocation to Cornell Cinema to $11.05 and the allocation to Slope Day to $3.07, with all other allocations remaining intact. E. Strong called the resolution as amended to question. A. Sikora seconded. The vote to close debate was 14–2−1.

By a vote of 14–1−2, the activity fee (R.3) was approved.

III. Adjournment

D. Walden motioned to adjourn. A. Sikora seconded. The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted,

Brittany Rosen