Student Assembly

MINUTES
Cornell University Student Assembly
April 5, 2007
4:45 — 6:30 P.M.
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 4:45 p.m.

II. Roll Call

Present: Mazdak Asgary, Chris Basil, Daniel Budish, Sarah Boxer, Mark Coombs, Shivaun Deena, Kate Duch, Maddie Ehrlich, Danielle Fernandes, Adam Gay, Roger Gousse, Elan Greenberg, Vincent Hartman, Ryan Lavin, Grace Leonard, Neal Nisargand, Ahmed Salem, Rammy Salem, Sarah Santana, Calvin Selth, CJ Slicklen, Kwame Thomison, Gene Weinstein

Excused: Remy Roizen

Unexcused: David Crockett, Jos� Gonzales

III. Open Microphone

M. Coombs asked if any members of the community would like to speak.

No one came forward.

IV. Approval of the Minutes

The chair moved on seeing that there were no minutes to approve.

V. Announcements/Reports

Slope Day Programming Board Announcement — M. Chua

M. Chua announced that T.I will be headlining Slope Day, with TV on the Radio opening.

S. Boxer congratulated the Slope Day Programming Board on a job well done. She asked how the Daily Sun found out that T.I. was coming before the SA did.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that the board was uncertain as to how the Daily Sun found out that T.I. was coming. The board was however positive that none of them had leaked the information.

D. Budish asked if any steps were being taken to prevent the leakage of information in the future.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that it is extremely difficult to prevent the leakage of even extremely guarded information. All members of the board sign a confidentiality agreement and they try their best.

M. Ehrlich thanked the Slope Day Programming Board and said that the selections are fantastic.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that an additional opener, to be announced shortly, will be joining TV on the Radio.

Convocation Committee Announcement — J. Stanitz

J. Stanitz announced that Soledad O’Brien, former anchor on CNN’s flagship morning program American Morning, will be the speaker at this year’s Convocation.

’07 — ‘08 SA Internal Elections Reminder — K. Thomison

K. Thomison announced that the SA would be holding internal elections on April 9 to select next year’s executive committee and on April 16 to select next year’s committee chairs.

Forum w/ President Skorton Reminder — K. Thomison

K. Thomison reminded representatives that President Skorton would be holding a forum that evening, April 5, at 7 p.m. in Mallott Hall, Bache Auditorium.

K. Thomison also announced that the University Diversity Council Working Group will be conducting a forum in the Alice Cook House from 7:00 — 9:30 p.m. on Monday, April 9. The main topic of discussion will be the recent controversy regarding the racially themed parties on campus.

RIAA and File Sharing in the University Update — Tracey Mitrano

Tracey Mitrano, a DMCA registered agent, said that the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA) has a new strategy for addressing copyright violations. The RIAA sends campus Internet Service Providers (ISP) “settlement letters” with Internet Protocol addresses of alleged offenders requesting that the ISP forward letters to users whom they allege have infringed upon RIAA copyrights. So far Cornell has received no settlement letters. Cornell University already acts on Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices as a matter of university policy. She said that should Cornell receive a RIAA “settlement letter” it will treat the letter as a DMCA notice so long as it meets all the legal elements. As already is practice, the Network Operations Center will forward the “settlement letter” together with Cornell’s standard DMCA notice letter to the user. The Code of Conduct requires a response internally as a matter of policy. She said that the decision to communicate with the content owner or not is left up to the discretion of the user completely. He or she may want to seek legal counsel before making this decision. She said that Cornell University has a policy of not monitoring the network or hard drives of computers connected to it for content and does not generate DMCA notices. She said that unless served with a proper subpoena, Cornell University does not release the name of a user to the content owner upon receipt of a DMCA notice. T. Mitrano said that in addition to “settlement letters,” the RIAA has also sent a number of “preservation notices” to many colleges and universities requesting that the ISP preserve contact information for persons associated with an Internet Protocol address they allege is being used to violate their copyright. Cornell has received some preservation notices. If Cornell University receives a “preservation letter,” which requests the holding of basic contact information for the individual but does not meet all the elements of a DMCA notice, the Office of University Counsel has requested that the DMCA agent forward those notices to their office. She said that unless served with a proper subpoena, Cornell University will not release the contact information based on the preservation notice alone. She said that the costs of copyright infringement can be very high. It is recommended that students who receive notification of infringement contact the content owners and settle. On average, $4000 is collected upon settlement.

C. Basil asked if DC++ was illegal.

T. Mitrano said that DC++ is an intranet file share program. It is completely illegal.

C. Basil said that it was his understanding that since DC++ was an intranet as opposed to an internet, it was unable to be monitored by outside agents.

T. Mitrano said that outside agents do not police DC++ because they are not law enforcement. They are private companies trying to protect their copyrights. To due so, the private companies hire agencies of people who reverse file share. Copyright is both a civil and criminal offense and it is possible for the private companies to turn violators over to law enforcement. She said that at this time, it appears that content owners do not have access to the DC++ network. However, content owners have gained access to private networks in the past and continue to gain access. Just because they do not have access today does not mean that they will not have access tomorrow. The material on DC++ is not as a rule legal.

A member of the Cornell community asked if students will be alerted as to when content owners have access to DC++.

T. Mitrano said that she imagines that it would be a very newsworthy when content owners gain access to DC++. Although she was unsure of whether or not the university would make an announcement, she said that the university would certainly not withhold the information.

M. Asgary asked if there has been a significant increase in prosecutions compared to the past two years since Cornell has not provided a free file sharing program in this time period.

T. Mitrano said that there has been an exponential rise in the number of notices. This rise may or may not be related to the fact that Cornell no longer has free legal music downloading service. There has been an exponential increase in number of notices across college campuses. The Chronicle of Higher Education published an article that listed top 25 recipients in high education of DMCA notices. Cornell was not in the list. The University of Rochester which has a legal service was still on the list.

M. Asgary asked about how a legal music downloading program could become a part of the Student Activities Fee. He asked if it would be the primary role of the students or of the administration to get the machinery going on the idea.

T. Mitrano said that there would be representatives from a number of administrative offices. She mentioned that donor money could be used to help pay for the services on the part of Information Technologies. She recommended further conversation on the topic.

S. Boxer said that if T. Mitrano’s department would like to apply for byline funding they should have a student liaison.

Spring Break Bus Program Review — V. Hartman

V. Hartman said that on Friday, March 16, the northeast storm came across the region causing flight delays and cancellations. Despite the storm, the buses ran and students made it to the airport. The problem was, however, that many of flights were canceled and students had no way of returning to Cornell or to the airport later in the week. He said that he was able to arrange a bus ride back to Cornell at 4 p.m. on that Friday. He organized this service on the spot and a PA announcement was actually made at the airport. The complications he mentioned could not have been predicted and overall, the program was a success. If students used Ithaca Airport Limousine, they had to pay for two roundtrips if their flights were canceled. Another issue that arose was that on the returning Sunday, bus drivers let a few students who did no have tickets on the bus out of pity. The SA did break even and made a slight profit which will roll over into the program next year. V. Hartman said the main thing he would like to do is to ensure the longevity of the program and will be meeting with Susan Murphy and Dean Hubbell to discuss the program’s future. The way he sees it, the SA can turn the program in to a more SA oriented review committee like the SAFC or they could make it into an organization under the Student Activities Office like what they did with Slope Day in 2003. Either way, he feels that there needs to be a permanent advisor so that there is always a knowledgeable and experienced individual working on the program. He would also like to work on expanding the program.

C. Slicklen asked if students who had missed their buses could be refunded money since the SA made a profit.

V. Hartman said that the tickets explicitly state that money will not be refunded. Refunding is not really a possibility because there is no way of knowing who missed the bus.

R. Salem asked V. Hartman to discuss the Ithaca Airport Limousine Service.

V. Hartman said that he was uncertain as to the exact prices and policies of the service but stated that students were better off financially using the SA Bus Service even if their flights were canceled.

VI. Business of the Day

Slope Day Programming Board Announcement — E. Rapoport

E. Rapoport said that all the information that she will provide at the meeting is available at slopeday.cornell.edu.

The Director of Slope Fest gave an overview of the plans for Slope Fest. Slope Fest is the area full of novelties, fun and games. They will be having two airbrush tattoo artists, snapshot photos, photo key chains, a money machine full of food tickets, Jacob’s ladder, skee ball, pitch burst, high striker, a cupcake wheel, and soda ring toss. For food, smoothies, cotton candy and urban legend ice cream (vanilla ice cream with a Coke swirl scattered with Poprocks) from the Cornell Dairy Bar. They will also be having a raffle contest between 12 and 1:15 p.m. with an amazing prize to be announced at a future date. Class of 2010 is putting on a Cornell Idol Contest for students and there will also be a Stroll Competition. Guests and alumni need tickets that can be purchased online starting on April 18 at 8 p.m. The costs of these tickets are both $25. She also said that the Slope Day Programming Board will be purchasing food tickets from Cornell Dining that they will sell online to alleviate lines. Cornell dining has done a really amazing job this year in expanding the menu.

C. Slicklen asked if students’ ID cards would be swiped when they enter the slope.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that there are simply not enough ID scanners to scan all cards upon entrance. She said that ID cards will be scanned at all beer tents and if individuals present an invalid ID card, they will be kicked out.

R. Salem asked how handicap accessible the Slope Day Events are.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that they are currently working on developing an accessibility plan. Accommodations will be made for anyone who needs them.

M. Coombs asked for an elaboration on the dining tickets.

A representative from the Slope Day Programming Board said that Cornell Dining will be printing up the meal tickets in association with athletics. This year the tickets will be actual tickets to prevent the counterfeiting that occurred last year.

Cornell Concert Commission Presentation — E. Rapoport

M. Chua, the executive director of the Cornell Concert Commission (CCC), said that the CCC works to bring large scale musical acts to the Cornell Community. In the past year, the CCC was responsible for bringing five major concerts to campus including artists such as Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand, and The Strokes. There first concert of the 2007 semester will be the All American Rejects featuring OK Go and The Whigs. The tickets are available in Willard Straight Hall and online and will cost $18.

L. Rapoport said that CCC used about 5% or $6000 of its budget to co-promote small scale musical events. Organizations, some of which are SAFC funded and some of which are independent, come to the CCC requesting help in putting on their shows. She said that their budget for the year went really well. CCC is putting their extra money towards helping to pay for an opening band on Slope Day. Since two larger artists are performing at this year’s Slope Day, financial help is needed in securing a third band.

S. Boxer said that the purpose of the CCC coming before the SA is to both provide a review of their activity of the past year as well as to receive input for preparing their upcoming budget. She encouraged representatives to make suggestions and ask questions.

E. Greenberg asked if the original budget submitted by the CCC stipulated that leftover money could be used to further fund Slope Day. Since both the CCC and the Slope Day Programming Board receive byline funding from the SA, he wondered if the money could be better spent to promote small scale musical events put on by other organizations.

E. Rapoport said that the CCC always wants to co-promote smaller organizations on campus. She said that the CCC did spend $6000 funding smaller musical events. After funding the organizations that requested support, the CCC still had money left over. They did not turn away small organizations to contribute to funding a third band on Slope Day. The last couple concerts brought in more money than was expected and fewer groups than expected asked for small scale concert funding.

E. Greenberg asked why the additional money does not go back into reduced prices for students as opposed to supplementing the money allocating to the Slope Day Programming Board.

E. Rapoport explained how the CCC sets ticket prices based on the cost of putting on the show. The do not determine ticket prices based on the money that they have available. Ticket prices for students have not gone above $20 and she feels that the CCC has done a good job in keeping ticket prices low.

E. Greenberg clarified that the money saved from year to year goes into providing a free concert for students in the fall.

E. Rapoport affirmed and said that it is stipulated in their constitution. A free concert is provided on the Arts Quad in the fall.

E. Greenberg asked if the money going from the CCC to Slope Day translated into any reduced fees.

E. Rapoport said that money will be used to pay for the third band that will perform at Slope Day.

M. Chua said that the CCC tries to allocate a proportion of its co-sponsorship budget to acts that will have the greatest exposure to Cornell students. Since Slope day is geared towards the entire campus, the CCC determined that it would be an appropriate use of their leftover funds.

C. Slicklen said that he shares E. Greenberg’s concern. He said that he would recommend having the CCC or the SA prohibit the exchange of funds between byline funded organizations in their constitution or charter respectively. Although he was not accusing anyone of misconduct, he was uncomfortable with E. Rapoport and M. Chua being so closely tied to both groups.

M. Chua said that the transfer of money was not collusion but rather a bureaucratic process. The CCC was approached by the Slope Day Programming Board who asked if they were interested in sponsoring the third act of the day to get the CCC more involved in Slope Day.

E. Rapoport said that although she has both budgets before she cannot just individually transfer the money. The decision was made by the entire voting body of the CCC. Although there are some similarities between the two boards, they are significantly different and opinionated. There were some people who expressed their concern in transferring the money and their concerns were addressed.

C. Slicklen said that he agrees with E. Rapoport and sees no problem in what she just described. He said, however, that the SA voted to allocate a certain amount of money to the CCC to be used by the CCC. He said that in the future the CCC, or any other byline funding group who wishes to transfer money in a similar way, should come before the SA and request to do so.

V. Hartman said that when organizations go to other organizations, they seek help as well as money. The CCC is great at putting on concerts and the Slope Day Programming Board will benefit from their professional input as well as their money. Co-sponsorships promote positive interactions between organizations. He thinks that the SA should not be running to put a wall between organizations and prevent them from co-sponsoring events. He acknowledged that there may need to be a more concrete procedure to transfer large amounts of money.

R. Lavin reiterated what V. Harman said. Co-sponsorship is not just transferring money from one group to another. It is pulling funds together to put on a better event. He said that he believed that it was a wise move on the part of the CCC to sponsor the third band for Slope Day. The CCC is improving Slope Day and in doing is subtracting from the drinking culture.

K. Thomison provided a point of clarification. He said that it has become standard practice for byline funded groups to co-sponsor events.

C. Selth said that he had no concerns regarding the co-sponsorship occurring on Slope Day. He said that by directing excess money to Slope Day, the CCC is reinvesting profit into something that benefits the students. He said that there is a sector of the Cornell community that feels that hip-hop artists are not representative of the students and their interests. He asked how this sentiment has played a role in the CCC’s selection of artists.

M. Chua said that he is the co-chairman of the Minority Concert Fund Advisor Board (MCFAB). The executive leader of African, Latino, Asian and Native American Program Board (ALANA) worked with the CCC to develop MCFAB because ALANA felt that the minority community was not adequately represented in the selection of artists. MCFAB currently works with ALANA on the selection of artists in hopes of choosing a more representative sampling.

C. Selth asked M. Chua to elaborate more on the selection of artists on the part of the CCC.

M. Chua said that the selection process is a lot of negotiation between organizations and artists.

C. Selth asked if MCFAB contributes funding when the CCC puts on a hip-hop concert.

M. Chua said no. The CCC has put on hip-hop concerts that they fund completely.

K. Thomison asked if the CCC receives funding from the GPSAFC.

E. Rapoport said yes.

S. Boxer said that she understand the relationship between the different groups. She said that she believes they are doing a great job and is not suspicious of any of their activity. She said suggested that the CCC take into account the comments made today because they will be presenting their budget to these individuals in the fall. It may not be a bad idea to e-mail the VP Finance explaining co-sponsorship activities.

E. Rapoport said that they will definitely take the suggestions made by the representatives into account. She said that when they present their actual budget, it will be clearer because numbers and graphs will be available. The SA will be able to see where the extra money comes from.

V. Hartman asked how MCFAB concerts do in relation to the concerts put on by the CCC.

E. Rapoport said that the CCC does not put money into the MCFAB budget. The MCFAB concerts have not does as well. The CCC has been working with ALANA to better promote the MCFAB concerts.

S. Santana congratulated the CCC on their selections and believes that the concerts they have put on serve a broad breadth of students. All students of all races enjoy universal music.

Cornell Concert Commission Constitution Approval

E. Rapoport said that they made two major changes to their constitution. She said that the CCC’s board elections occur yearly and happen when freshman have been at Cornell for three or four months. They feel that at this point, the freshman do not have a strong understanding of how their organization operates and have not completely adapted to Cornell as a whole yet. They are proposing that each executive board candidate must have two semesters of membership in the organization. They included a clause that states that the Executive Board Steering Committee may hear exceptions to this rule to determine eligible candidates.

R. Salem clarified that the CCC does not want freshman to run because they are not well adjusted.

E. Rapoport said that in the past freshman have ran for a position on the board but have never been elected. Running a concert is a very complicated process that requires a lot of experience. Freshmen simply do not have this experience.

R. Salem said that freshmen are capable.

S. Boxer asked if he had ever put on a concert for 13,000 people.

M. Chua said that there are only 6 executive board positions all of which are extremely time consuming. They hold their elections as early as November which does not give freshman the type of experience CCC would like their executive board to have.

R. Salem asked if elected freshman would gain the needed experience working on the board.

M. Chua said that being in the organization for a year will give them the experience to be great executive board members. He said that freshman have not been elected because CCC members feel that they do not have enough experience.

A. Salem said that he shares the same concerns as R. Salem. He does not see the point of the clause since freshman run and do not win.

A representative from the CCC said that when freshman lose they are less likely to rerun and often stop participating in the organization. The CCC loses members that could have been outstanding contributors in their later years.

A. Gay said that he believes that the clause is a great idea. Experience is important. He asked how you quantify experience.

E. Rapoport said terms of membership are stipulated in the constitution. To run for the executive board, individuals must have been a member for two years.

R. Lavin said that these organizations put on tremendous productions and does not feel that the SA is in the position to tell them what will and will not work. The clause will most likely cause freshman to participate actively in the organization from the beginning as opposed to deterring them.

E. Rapoport said that it was previously the duty of the production direction to assist in financial statement with the Artist’s accountant when necessary. The CCC moved this responsibility to that of the Finance Director reflecting a change in the organization structure.

M. Asgary asked if the term consensus in Article VIII-Parliamentary Authority could be clarified.

M. Chua said that it is not too important of a clause. It states that that all decisions will be made be made by consensus which means a plurality vote.

M. Asgary said that it Robert’s Rules different votes require different percentages and feels that it might be appropriate it amend the constitution to take into account Robert’s Rules. He also said that in Article 1 the constitution should read “funded by the Student Activities Fee, the Student Assembly and the Graduates and Professional Student Assembly”.

There was a motion to amend the constitution to reflect the change that M. Asgary said. It was seconded. There was no dissent. The constitution was amended.

C. Selth said that it was somewhat obnoxious on the part of the SA to nit pick the Constitution. He said that he felt like the two semester requirement was a good idea.

V. Harman asked why elections for the executive board were held in November instead of April.

E. Rapoport said that electing the executive board early in the year allows for the transfer of information. The new executive board must learn a lot from the current executive board and is able to do so by working together.

M. Chua said that a significant amount of planning takes place during the summer. This planning requires an experienced executive board.

There was motion to the previous question. It was seconded. There was dissent. By a vote of 18 to 1, the previous question was called. By a vote of 17 to 2, the SA voted to approve the Cornell Concert Commission Constitution.

VII. Unfinished Business

R. 24 Resolution Regarding Bulk E-Mails — M. Coombs and C. Slicklen

M. Coombs said that the resolution establishes a process for SA representatives to use when they will to send out a bulk e-mail. A proposed e-mail would first go through the Communications Committee that would be obligated to meet to make a recommendation on the e-mail. In the next step, the recommendation of the committee would be presented to the SA which would then vote on whether or not to approve the e-mail. If the e-mail is approved, it would be sent to the appropriate administrator for final approval.

M. Asgary recommended changing the standing rules as opposed to the charter to implement the change.

M. Coombs said that when he originally introduced the resolution, he presented it as a change to the standing rules. However the entire assembly expressed that it would prefer that the change was implemented through a charter change.

M. Ehrlich asked how effective the actual process would be. It is very common for Cornell Students to delete bulk e-mails.

M. Coombs said that the resolution is not making a statement as to whether or not bulk e-mails are a good idea. The intent of the resolution is to set up a mechanism through which the SA can exercise its power to send bulk e-mails.

C. Selth asked if the sponsors thought it was appropriate for every single proposed bulk e-mail to be brought before both the Communications Committee and the SA. The agenda at SA meetings is often very full and if the Communications Committee approves of an e-mail it may not be appropriate for the SA to discuss every single proposed bulk e-mail.

C. Slicklen said that there are not very many proposed bulk e-mails so that discussion of them would not be a very frequent occurrence. He said that he feels that bulk e-mails should be presented to the SA to allow for a mechanism for overruling the Communications Committee.

D. Fernandes asked if the SA had ever succeeded in sending out a bulk e-mail.

K. Thomison said that the SA has never tried to send out a bulk e-mail.

D. Fernandes said she was hesitant to approve this charter change because there is really no way of ensuring that the e-mail will be sent out because bulk e-mails need to be approved by the administration.

C. Slicklen said that he thought it would be unwise on the part of the administration to reject an e-mail that the SA spent time discussing and approved.

V. Hartman said that he believes that the SA should have a process for sending out bulk e-mails.

There was a call to question. It was seconded. There was dissent. By a vote of 16 to 1, the previous question was called.

C. Slicklen said that the resolution is very important to ensure successful public relations and the effective and appropriate sending of bulk e-mails. The resolution also puts into place a system of checks and balances.

By a vote of 4 to 13 to 2 abstentions, the resolution failed.

VIII. New Business

R. 36 Resolution Regarding JAFARC — E. Feldman, R. Lavin, G. Leonard

R. Lavin said that the Joint Assemblies Financial Aid Review Committee is responsible for reviewing and granting requests for emergency grants of the Students Helping Students Fund. Currently all members of this committee including undergraduates and administrators are voting on the allocation of the fund. However since the fund is financed by the undergraduate Student Activities Fee, the only votes that should be counting are those of the undergraduate students. The resolution is not seeking to limit the voice of faculty or administration. Their concerns and inputs will still be taken into account but only the votes of undergraduates will determine the actual allocation of the SHS fund. R. Lavin said that he also attached an informal update of JAFARC’s activities to the resolution. JAFARC is working to clarify the role of the Financial Aid office in allocating the SHS Fund and has reiterated that in order to qualify for funding the applicant must be a registered, matriculated Cornell undergraduate student. There are also a lot of students looking for funding for summer programs and internships. Specific numbers regarding the endowment will be available at the end of the year.

K. Thomison thanked Ryan for the update and asked him if he knew how much money the SHS Fund received from a survey that allowed students to donate to it.

R. Lavin said that he was not sure.

K. Duch asked if information regarding whether or not students will receive financial aid will available since only undergraduate students will be voting.

R. Lavin said that when students submit an application request they will say what income bracket they are in. They will also indicate if they have any other means of paying for it. Voting undergraduates use this information to allocate funding.

IX. Adjournment

There was motion to adjourn. It was seconded. There was no dissent. The meeting was adjourned.