Minutes
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
Voting Meeting of the GPSA Voting Body
Monday, January 25, 2010
Big Red Barn
5:30–7:00 P.M.

I. Welcome and Intro

The meeting was called to order at 5:32 p.m. Guests and new faces were introduced.

II. Old Business

a. Approval of minutes (Nov. 16 & Dec. 7)

B. Forster made two changes to the November 16 minutes. Both sets of minutes were moved by B. Heavner. Seconded by D. Walden. The two sets of meeting minutes were approved.

b. Exec updates

B. Forster said the ad hoc committees on mental health, met this evening. E. Strong said that they have met with EARS and CAPS. They’ve been reviewing the situation with grad students. It is a three semester training schedule. They are looking to get people wanting to train and make graduate students aware of services. B. Forster said that the committees were all filled. E. Gutierrez said that the communications meeting is Wednesday. She is looking forward to bringing your own mug to TGIF.

c. Standing committee Updates

Advocacy — C. Mansfeldt said that they have launched an effort to start the interview for a feel of student voice and opinions. They will be compiled into a document available off of the GPSA website and blog. They could be distributed by the graduate school to incoming students.

Appropriations — D. Walden stated that they have started on working on the activity fee website. There was an email sent around with changes to the activity fee rules. The purpose and goals of the website is to give more information on the activity fee, what groups get and what they give to grad students. It is a communications tool which provides more transparency.

Events — S. Murugesan said there will be ice skating this Thursday in conjunction with new grad student orientation. One other thing, early in February, the committee is hosting along with Cindy, at the Johnson school, a social event at Level B. There is an entrepreneurship seminar at Weill 226. GPSA is sponsoring. Ed Strong emailed on this. Finance Commission — A. Sikora said that the next meeting is Feb 1st and Friday is the last day to submit budgets. The office hired a new person to replace Neusa, Michelle VandeBogart.

d. Student Trustee Update

There was a meeting of the trustees. M. Walsh said that on Wednesday to Saturday they met in NYC. They talked about the earthquake in Haiti. Weill has a footprint in Haiti. There is a clinic associated with AIDS and research has turned into triage. A. Craig has organized a concert, all proceeds go to Haiti. The board approved two new programs; a joint degree in human development and law as well as a plant breeding and business management at TAMU. They approved the grad and undergrad activity fees. Grad tuition stayed the same, while professional school tuition went up 4.5 %. They approved a new med school building that should be completed in 2014.

Dean Hubbell said that on Thursday, there will be a vigil at Sage Chapel that will include students who were in Haiti during the quake. There are professors who do research in Haiti and they have 6 Haitian students. All are, to the best of his knowledge, safe. The confusion was incredible. International SOS will go in and bring students out. They went in to find students. They didn’t find them, but the students were able to get out on their own.

e. Reimagining Cornell update

B. Forster said that after the December 7th meeting, where they discussed sending a letter to Provost Fuchs, he took the comments and combined them into one massive letter and sent it to the Provost, the trustees, and Dean Hubbell. A copy was sent to GPSA members through the drop box. Concerns included Hasbrouck, TA-ships, the grad field system, an emphasis on urban design in AAP, finances versus quality of education in CALS, the increased recruitment of high school students for summer session, and CIPA. It was sent to the provost and hopefully he’ll speaking on it next Monday.

N. Evensen opened the floor for discussion. M. Walsh said that the budget makes sense on the surface. There will be a final report in the next week or so. Dean Hubbell gave an explanation of the Provost’s summary.

N. Evensen said that Provost Fuchs and Ed Lawler will be at the next advisory body meeting.

B. Forster asked if the advisory body formed by the provost has met. C. Clarke said that they met in December, but they haven’t heard anything since.

III. New Business

a. National Association of Graduate and Professional Students

N. Evensen explained this is a nationwide conglomeration of associations like the GPSA. The GPSA is not currently a member. It involves perks, but in turn does charge a membership fee. N. Evensen put this before the assembly to see if there was interest. They have three main functions: to connect, resources and support, and advocate on members’ behalf. Connections would broaden to non-Ivy schools around the region and country. For the advocacy, there are bi-annual trips to DC to advocate to congress regarding affairs affecting grads throughout the nation. They have regional and national conferences and workshops. There were questions regarding the legitimacy and monetary involvements of the group. Brenda Wickes said the grad school says it’s reliable networking. She suggested they speak with deans to see if membership is a good idea. M. Walsh suggested forming a committee to research or having an already existing committee research this. N. Evensen said he is happy to look into it as part of the executive committee. He will report back at the next meeting.

B. Forster took over as chair.

b. Resolution 5 — Right to research.

N. Evensen said the point is in a climate with budget cuts, they would like to see certain published research made accessible publicly on the internet. This is one of the focuses of the NAGPS. Cornell is a signatory to the lobbying effort.

There was no opposition in formal debate and they moved into general debate. M. Walsh suggested this be sent to senators and congressmen as well. This was considered a friendly amendment. C. Clarke moved to pass the resolution. L. Schneider seconded. By a vote of 12–0−1 R. 5 passed with the proposed amendments.

c. Proposed Charter Amendments.

i) R.7 Geneva Experiment Station Representation The next two items were for discussion, not voting, because they are charter changes. For at least the past 2 years, there have been representative from SAGES attending GPSA meetings. Currently, there is no mention of a representative. B. Forster asks that the additional item be added to the charter so one seat on the advisory body given to a student from Geneva regardless of whether their field is being represented. There was discussion about whether this violates GPSA guidelines as well as the issue of students voting twice for members.

B. Forster said that he will keep this on the blog and if there are ideas on how to clarify, email him.  The main purpose is to ensure there is continued collaboration between here and in Geneva.  They have been faithful in coming to meetings.

ii) R.6 Cornell Cinema
B. Forster said that the resolution is in response to the activity fee discussion with Cornell Cinema. It was one of the hotly contested groups. There were 93 emails that came in only 24 hours before the final vote. Some of the concerns of the Cinema were keeping up the quality of programming. That said, he is asking for the addition of 2 comments under eligibility. First is collecting information on how many people attend the cinema and present the information to the GPSA. This was so they had a better sense of who is attending the event. The other is putting the GPSA on their advisory board. They are trying to settle the issue of the disconnect. B. Heavner asked if he’s spoken with cinema. B. Forster replied that as per charter they have informed them that such a resolution was present and they were given it ahead of time to read. The Cinema Representative said that they were fine with it. The only thing they wanted to clarify is that they want no micromanagement. B. Forster said that hopefully they will be able to work together and come to an agreement. T. Balcerski said that he was on the Appropriations Committee and they were talking about how they gathered data. The reason they weren’t able to give the kind of data was due to the same pricing structure. He is not sure the mechanism put in place unless there will be a pricing difference. The Cinema Representative said that he was told there would be a card swipe or something technological to fix this problem. B. Heavner asked for a data anonymization if at all possible. D. Walden asked how many people were on the advisory board. The Cinema Representative said that there were about a dozen. The point of the student advisory board is to make decisions on movies, it’s advisory. It’s applied for not elected. This was not voted on because it is a charter change and needs to be discussed at two meetings.

IV. Open forum

C. Clarke was working on restructuring the byline funding process and would like input. And questions should go to cec54@cornell.edu. Maryann reminded everyone that the GCA application deadline is this Monday. Questions should be directed toward her or Laura Davis. L. Schneider said that CIPA is organizing a team for relay for life. He suggested the possibility of a friendly competition between programs. He put up a post on the blog. N. Evensen said that one thing he’s been looking at as for charter changes is the number of seats on the GPSA and their meaning. He thinks that the numbers seem arbitrary and is advocating some sort of formula to include in the charter for why we have the number of seats we have. It is something which needs to be looked at.

V. Adjournment

C. Clarke moved to adjourn the meeting, C. Mansfeldt seconded. N. Evensen adjourned the meeting at 6:58 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Brittany Rosen