MINUTES
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
GPSA Discussion Meeting
Monday, April 18th, 2011
Big Red Barn
5:30–7:00 P.M.

Area Designation Caucus Discussions

I. Welcome and Introductions

Everyone went around the room and introduced themselves.

II. Business of the Day

a. Faculty Senate ad-hoc committee on the Academic Calendar Update

The Faculty Senate wants to optimize the calendar and tweak things so the spring semester has an additional break for students. This is in direct consequence from last year’s events. The document explains the objectives. They do have to follow New York state regulations. One semester is 67.5 days and one is 69 days. They want to balance so instruction is equivalent in both semesters. They’re looking at adding in an extra half-day for Thanksgiving, as well as in various other locations to break up long periods of instruction. Right now, there has been an 8-week span with no breaks. They are also going to be looking at shortening exam and reading periods, restructuring how finals week looks, as well as shortening senior week. The end result could mean holding May commencement two weeks earlier than it is, meaning starting the semester one week ahead of what we have right now. Everything right now under considerations, there is no formal plan, not even a recommendation, just ideas.

K. Albert asked what was the motivation to move away from Memorial Day? C. Heckman said the largest drawback is Cornell needs volunteers to staff events that weekend and Memorial Day/weekend is a day a lot of people want to enjoy with their families. If you shift it ahead one week, there is the potential for bad weather. Also, there would need to be coordination in order to have Ithaca College and Cornell’s graduations not be the same weekend. On the positive side, undergrads would get a head start on internships and jobs.

What’s the timeline for the discussions? C. Heckman said that they wouldn’t be able to affirm any changes before September of 2011 simply because we’re all out of session. He doubted it would even make the first meeting. That would be the earliest time line to approve it. Then, enacting any new calendar, for some changes has to be 2 years out, a lot of changes 3–5 years out.

C. Heckman said they’re looking at reducing winter break from 5–6 weeks to 3–4 weeks. N. Little said that summer research is handy for them, but feedback was that for international students, shortening winter break makes it hard to get home. C. Heckman said he had received a few other emails to that effect. He noted they have to make 14 different calendars. The faculty is also concerned about grant writing and NSF deadlines. They’re trying to find times where we can do anything with the period. They recognize issues but still looking at as a way to let us do other things.

They haven’t talked much about the front end of winter break because of Christmas. The long winter break goes back to the oil crisis of 1973. It was not intentionally done for calendar reasons, and was meant to save money because of oil prices. A lot of calendar items are there because of historical legacies. If there are any questions or comments, contact C. Heckman.

III. Approval of the Minutes

a. Minutes of April 4th, 2011 Meeting

C. Clarke, B. Heavner, and N.Yakubu are unseated for the final meeting. Also, due to charter changes, they can reseat members. Asia Sikora was reseated. Total number of voting members is 16.

E. Cortens motioned to approve the minutes. It was seconded by B. Forster. The minutes were passed with no opposition.

IV. Announcements and Reports

a. Executive Updates

T. Balcerski said in response to the press about lack of representation of graduate students in the Willard Straight Hall Student Union Board, the GPSA in the last four years has no record of being requested for representation. They are now working in a proactive manner, looking to see that graduate and professional students are going to be involved next year. It will be in the letter from the old execs to the new execs. B. Forster said the Guidebook document is on the website and explained where to go to see it.

J. Swartz said that they are still planning the Cornell Caring Community celebration, on Ho Plaza. It will be Tuesday, April 26th.

b. Committee and Liaison Updates

• i. Finance Commission

B. Hartshorn said the FC deadline is Friday, 4/22. The following week it will be looked at by graduate students. Anyone who wants to help, please do on the 30th.

• ii. Student Advocacy

B. Forster updated on behalf of M. Hawkins. They met last week, and some students have been emailing him and the Advocacy group about the closing of the ceramics studio. Any requests to help with that from the mental wellness group has been sent to advocacy and M. Hawkins is setting up a meeting with Dean Hubbell to discuss that.

• iii. Events Committee/Programming Board

N. Baran said even though the GPSA year is ending, there are still a few more events for grads. One is the Iron Chef competition on the 28th of April. They are also hoping to do a mixer at a local bar with IC grad students some time in the next few weeks. If anyone interested in the Programming Board, there will be an open forum Thursday at 5 pm in Uris 202. It is one of the steps that they have to complete in order to apply for byline funding, but also will be helpful for feedback.

• iv. Sustainability Committee

Their last meeting was in early April, and the last one of the semester is coming up soon. They are currently in the process of registering with SAO as an independent group for next year.

• v. Ad-Hoc Survey Committee Update

E. Cortens said as of today, there have been 592 responses of the 1000 sent out. They are still hoping for 80 percent return rate. One final reminder email will go out this week. Also, they had announcements via the fields and the Big Red Barn. R2 mandates they have a preliminary report, which will be put together and circulated via email. Over the summer, they’ll continue to meet and put together a final report for next year’s GPSA and Appropriations Committee. They will do a presentation at the first or second meeting of GPSA next year.

• vi. Ad-Hoc Emergency Graduate Student Fund Committee Update

They are required to submit a report. C. Mansfeldt went through it. The recommendation is the GPSA inform and educate, remain in contact with administrators and that it’s circulated to next year’s communications and advocacy committees.

• vii. Student Trustee Update.

Elections will be from 8 am on 4/27 through 10am on 4/29. Please vote. All are undergrad candidates, but all students elect student trustees. He encouraged everyone to vote. All candidates have websites. Some particularly mention grad student issues.

V. Business of the Day

a. Resolution 7. A Resolution to Revise the Funding Guidelines of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Finance Commission (K. Albert)

K. Albert said they circulated the resolution and now need the approval of the voting members. No one spoke in formal opposition. They moved to informal debate. T. Balcerski asked the presenter, for those not present at the last meeting, summarize salient changes. K. Albert explained what he believed to be the most salient changes. They are in funding caps within categories, clearing up confusing points, and improving readability. A. Sikora noted that those who submit annual budgets in the fall will be subject to a different cap. S. An said special projects could fix that.

C. Heckman moved to close debate and vote. N. Baran seconded. By a vote of 14–0−2, resolution 7 passes.

b. Resolution 9. Formation of a Graduate Student Programming Board (N. Baran)

N. Baran thanked B. Forster who wrote the majority of R9’s text. She went on to explain. The GPSA approves of the concept of this as a student organization, not as a committee. The chairperson will do everything they need to in order to apply for byline funding. They also said the initial charter of the organization will be submitted for the approval of the GPSA, for the whole GPSA will be in September of next year. But the executive board will approve initial charter before it goes to the SAO. The draft circulated last night, only one minor change which is that the GPSA will be able to staff the programming board, but won’t have the ability to remove members.

There was no one to speak against in formal debate. C. Heckman motioned to amend the first be it therefore resolved clause to capitalize University. That was not the correct terminology. The motion was withdrawn.

E. Cortens asked how the finances will work. N. Baran met with several administrators this morning. Ideally, the financial stuff will no longer be under the Office of Assemblies. Next year will be a transitional year because it won’t kick in until 2012–13 academic year. They have a full year before the programming board takes its full flight. T. Balcerski thinks the intention of the resolution should be known, whether ultimately it is desirable that at some future date, we won’t be hearing from the GPSPB in a formal capacity and will function as any other byline funded group. N. Baran said that was certainly a noble goal. It is hard to say what it will look like. Hopefully, as logistics get ironed out and we find a realistic administrative home, and it continues to be staffed with enthusiastic and participating grads, it shouldn’t be too difficult given the current structure.

E. Cortens motioned to close debate and vote. S. An seconded. By a vote of 14 — 0 — 2, Resolution 9 passed.

VI. Elections of the GPSA 2011–2012 Officers

The three executive positions have to be voting members.

The different positions were explained, including: GPSA President, Executive Vice President, Vice President of Operations, Counsel, Finance Chair, Appropriations Chair, Communications Chair, Programming Board Chair, Student Advocacy Chair, UA Delegates.

C. Mansfeldt opened up nominations for President. D. Evensen nominated E. Cortens. E. Cortens accepted. M. Tootill motioned to close debate. S. An seconded. The nomination was approved by acclamation. E. Cortens was named the president and took over as chair of the meeting.

E. Cortens opened up the nominations for Executive Vice President. K. Albert nominated N. Baran. N. Baran accepted. R. Adra motioned to close debate. S. An seconded. N. Baran’s nomination was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up nominations for Vice President of Operations. B. Forster nominated M. Hawkins. He is not in attendance, but he had submitted a statement if he was nominated, he would accept. S. An motioned to close debate. K. Albert seconded. M. Hawkins’ nomination was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up the nominations for Counsel. D. Evensen nominated T. Balcerski. T. Balcerski accepted. C. Heckmann nominated M. Walsh. M. Walsh declined. J. Bloomfield motioned to close debate. N. Baran seconded. T. Balcerski’s nomination was approved as Counsel.

E. Cortens opened up the nominations for Finance Chair. E. Cortens nominated M. Tootill. M. Tootill accepted. B. Forster motioned to close debate. Joe seconded. M. Tootill was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up the nominations for Appropriations Chair. M. Walsh nominated C. Heckman. C. Heckman accepted. R. Adra moved to close debate. It was seconded by N. Baran. C. Heckman was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up nominations for Communications Chair. J. Bloomfield nominated C. Ferkinhoff. C. Ferkinhoff declined. C. Heckman nominated S. An. S. An accepted. N. Baran moved to close debate. R. Adra seconded. S. An was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up nominations for Programming Board Chair. J. Bloomfield nominated Y. Chen. Y. Chen accepted. S. An moved to close debate. N. Baran seconded. Y. Chen was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up nominations for Student Advocacy Chair. B. Forster nominated R. Robbins. She accepted. T. Balcerski moved to close debate. A. Nash seconded. R. Robbins was approved by acclamation.

E. Cortens opened up nominations for the 2 UA positions. N. Baran nominated K. Albert. He accepted. P. Gutshall nominated S. Murphy. He too accepted. S. An nominated J. Bloomfield. He declined. N. Baran moved to close debate. It was seconded by B. Forster. K. Albert and S. Murphy were approved by acclamation.

VII. Open Forum

D. Evensen wanted to know if people knew what the Board of Trustees does. It was suggested that we bring back a biweekly column in the Cornell Sun written by the trustees. Starting this Wednesday, it will be back and in his first article, he will be explaining what the trustees do.

B. Wickes encouraged everyone to listen to the new communications person for inquiries for members on various committees. This is the way to represent grad students. It doesn’t need to be members of the GPSA. They have 2–3 committees where they’re still looking for members. Get involved!

B. Forster said that if you haven’t yet looked at the orientation guidebook, to please review it.

Alex Bores, who is running for undergrad trustee, wanted to say hi because often the undergrad student trustee doesn’t talk to the GPSA. He would like to start a dialogue with the GPSA.

T. Balcerski motioned to adjourn. J. Bloomfield seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 7:02 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Brittany Rosen