R.16 Amendments to the GPSA Charter Concerning GPSA Membership

Whereas, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA), as discussed in our Charter, is a representative body established to “involve Cornell’s diverse graduate and professional student population in the Assembly’s decision-making activities” as they apply to issues affecting graduate and professional students at Cornell University.

Whereas, the GPSA currently consists of an advisory body of non-voting members and a voting body elected by members of the former;

Whereas, the advisory body was originally designed to serve as a discussion forum among voting and non-voting members regarding issues of concern to graduate and professional students at Cornell University;

Whereas, only the 19 members of the voting body are responsible for conducting all official business affecting graduate and professional students, including voting on resolutions to this effect;

Whereas, the current GPSA structure was outlined in the charter with the intention of creating an efficient voting body to conduct all official business, while facilitating discussion amongst the many diverse graduate and professional student constituencies;

Whereas the current GPSA structure instead has had the negative effect of creating several levels of bureaucracy that have inadvertently led to a hierarchical system — one that distantly remove the voting members and officers of the GPSA from the advisory body members and graduate and professional student community as a whole;

Whereas, Advisory Body members have no governing authority and thus are put at a disadvantage in terms of making the voices of their field members heard;

Whereas, a number of advisory body and voting body members have further expressed concern that (1) advisory body members are not sure of their responsibilities as field representatives, (2) no institutional provision exists that facilitates correspondence between field representatives and the voting council members that represent their fields and, thus, (3) advisory body members are not able to meaningfully contribute to GPSA policy-making beyond alerting their fields of pertinent happenings within the GPSA;

Whereas, problems of engaging non-voting GPSA members were designated as “perennial GPSA issues” by the GPSA since at least 1998;

Whereas, each graduate field, in addition to each graduate and professional student, has distinct interests that should be given voice;

Whereas, structural changes to the GPSA that designate voting privileges for all GPSA members and clearly articulate members’ responsibilities could increase engagement by all GPSA members when it comes to topics of concern to the graduate and professional student community;

Whereas, the graduate and professional student governments at many of Cornell’s peer institutions (including all Ivy League institutions, MIT and Johns Hopkins, etc.) allocate voting privileges to all field representatives to ensure that the views of each field are represented to the fullest possible extent;

Whereas, a working group consisting of advisory body and voting body members has been meeting over the last 2 months to discuss the rationale for and implementation of these structural changes;

Whereas, the working group has continuously updated the advisory body and voting body as to its progress;

Be it therefore resolved that the GPSA approve the changes to the GPSA Charter attached to this resolution to effect a more efficient GPSA that is more responsive to the input and concerns of all members and constituents;

Be it further resolved that the major structural changes in the revisions are the giving of equal voting rights to all GPSA members and the re-designation of member and officer positions and responsibilities.

Be it finally resolved that the GPSA forward this resolution to Kent Hubbell, Dean of Students, Alison Power, Dean of the Graduate School, and to President David Skorton for his approval.

Respectfully submitted,

Chris Clarke
GPSA social sciences representative

Steven An
GPSA non-voting representative

Nicole Baran
GPSA non-voting representative

Evan Cortens
GPSA non-voting representative

Yevgeniy Izrayelit
GPSA non-voting representative

Nighthawk Evensen
GPSA President