Student Assembly

MINUTES
Cornell University Student Assembly
September 9, 2010
4:45pm — 6:30pm
Willard Straight Hall, Memorial Room

I. Call to Order

V. Andrews called the meeting to order at 4:45 pm.

II. Roll Call

Voting members present: A. Savion, V. Andrews, A. Bajaj, M. Danzer, R. Desai, C. Feng, M. Finn, A. Gitlin, M. Gulrajani, C. Jenkins, D. Kuhr, R. Mensah, A. Nicoletti, S. Pendleton, N. Raps, J. Rau, U. Smith, A. Yozwiak

Voting members absent, excused: A. Brokman

III. Approval of Minutes

September 2, 2010 There was a motion for acclamation. It was seconded without dissent. The minutes were approved.

IV. Open Microphone�Ray Mensah

No one came forth to speak.

V. Announcements/Reports

1. Human Ecology Update�Daniel Kuhr

D. Kuhr said Dean Alan Mathios announced the new HE building that is scheduled to open fall 2011. There will also be a new commons connected to the new building. The college is working on a dual degree program with the law school. There is also discussion with CALS about a new neuroscience imaging center, hopefully up and running by 2012.

2. City-CU Means Restriction Committee�Adam Gitlin

A. Gitlin said the committee is composed of representatives from the city and from Cornell to discuss the fences. Currently we are looking for undergrad representatives, preferably juniors and sophomores because they can serve 2 years. Please e-mail A. Gitlin for more info.

He also said that if representatives from different colleges want to update the SA on the developments of their colleges, they should feel free to add to the agenda.

There will also be a concert to benefit the Pakistani/Indian flood. It is co-sponsored by the SA so it would be great to have SA representatives go and show our support.

3. Dining Update�Jonathan Rau

Cornell Dining will have sample food next Tuesday. J. Rau also passed out coupons provided by the dining service.

4. ResLife Update�Ulysses Smith

ResLife prioritized what to focus on this semester. Past SA member N. Kumar asked to make sure there is follow-up with the housing lottery resolutions so there would be no shock when the lottery comes.

5. Election Update�Charlie Feng

All documentations were due last Tuesday. There are 22 candidates for the freshman seats, 7 for UA and 3 for the transfer seats.

6. CIT Update — Adam Yozwiak

CIT is looking to work with the conflict-free resolution sponsors to review the resolution. CIT committee will hold their first meeting tomorrow.

7. Hotel School Update — Savion Agard

The hotel school will review its curriculum. It will also combine libraries with ILR and the Johnson School and convert the current library to a student lounge because the student population has outgrown the current student lounge.

8. Ivy Council Update — Chauncey Jenkins

The Ivy Council is officially registered as a student organization. The g-body info session is next week. E-mail C. Jenkins at Chauncey.jenkins@ivycouncil.org for more information.

9. Dean of Faculty Update — Roneal Desai

R. Desai reported that Dean Fry and VP Murphy said they are working to have a more personal interaction between faculty and students. There was more discussion about helping students deal with stress by moving test dates, etc. There is a committee set up right now to re-design the academic calendar. An undergrad student representative is requested.

VI. Business of the Day

1. Student Assembly Response to University Recognition Policy Changes

V. Andrews said the ExCom met late Tuesday night after the forum and felt the SA needs to get more involved with the changes being put in place for the Greek system. These changes have the potential to affect the entire student body. SA should come in and facilitate a dialogue for students in and outside of the Greek system. It is important to have the changes benefit all students. SA will use its ability to request information from the administration to find facts. SA can also affect non-alcohol student policies to improve the freshman experience with non-alcoholic activities. Presently the SA is not looking to enforce a specific plan.

M. Danzer asked how much conversation has already happened. V. Andrews said the ExCom has not had any formal meetings with the parties involved. We will set up formal meetings and notify people about it.

U. Smith clarified that we don’t have that much problem with the content of the policy changes but rather with the fact that the university did not include the undergrad community in the discussions.

V. Andrews said we addressed that matter in our letter to Dean Hubbell and VP Murphy. The administration has heard of our grievances and is looking to include the SA in the dialogue.

U. Smith asked if the administration will only focus on the implementation of the policies and not work to reword the policies. V. Andrews said the SA will start over and approach the three main bullet points in a fact-finding manner.

A. Nicoletti stressed that this is not just a Greek issue; it affects the entire campus.

N. Raps said that after seeing how many people came out to the Greek forum, it led us to believe it’s not just the Greeks interested in the policy changes, so it is important to listen to all constituents.

2. Memorandum of Understanding Regarding SAFC Shirts

A. Nicoletti said that if the SA does not wish to see this in the budget anymore in the future, the office suggested the SA send this request as a memorandum to the office to be forwarded to future chairs of the SAFC so there is an understanding.

C. Feng said we should change the policy. Buying shirts every year seems over the top, but shirts are necessary to identify the commissioners at the help sessions and the hearings. He felt the memo should allow the new commissioners to get shirts.

R. Mensah said that the shirts are not needed. There are less expensive ways for identification, such as nametags. The funds could go to more worthy causes.

J. Rau agreed with R. Mensah that the shirts were unnecessary. The SA may have to fund the shirts this year, but this is a great memo to have for the future. He called to question.

C. Feng had an amendment to the memo that would allow only new commissioners to get shirts.

There was a vote for the call to question, which failed because it did not have 2/3 majority. The SA moved back to debate.

M. Danzer said the SA and other committees do their jobs fine without special attire. Thus the SAFC shouldn’t get funding for shirts. He encouraged the SA to vote against amendment.

R. Desai said he has been to the help sessions. He felt the shirts really help to tell who is who in the chaotic help sessions.

A. Gitlin said the majority of the student organizations are funded by the SAFC and if the SAFC feels the shirts help the process, we should fund them.

R. Mensah said he went to the help sessions and there was no confusion as to who the commissioners were. Even if there was, there are cheaper ways to eliminate the confusion.

A. Yozwiak did not support the amendment. He asked what other purposes the SAFC uses its administrative funding for. V. Andrews said the SAFC can spend its administrative funding on whatever it wants. A. Nicoletti explained the funding process and said currently the SAFC has no funding for the shirts and if the SA doesn’t fund them, the SAFC will not get more shirts.

J. Rau said the shirts could possibly help tremendously, but is there no other way for the commissioners to distinguish themselves?

N. Raps called to question for the amendment. The call was seconded. The amendment failed.

There was a call to question for the memorandum. It was seconded. By a vote of 11–5−1, the memo passed.

VII. New Business

1. R. 6 — Responsibilities of the Vice President of Public Relations

N. Raps talked about the Sun article that said the SA was ineffective. We need to try to reach out to students more. Few community members attend the SA meetings. When the SA was helping put on the concert to benefit Haiti, we couldn’t reach the student body. The Office of Assemblies is able to send e-mails to every student, but only for election purposes. The SA should be able to send out update e-mails to every student.

A. Gitlin said this will help the SA represent the constituents better. He saw the Sun article as a challenge. The author of the article is a co-sponsor to this resolution.

Andrews reminded the SA that because this was New Business, the SA can ask questions only.

U. Smith asked about the frequency of these update e-mails. How often do you plan to use the list-serv to update the students? Bi-weekly, every month? N. Raps said the resolution is only discussing general language right now. The class council sends out an update every month. The SA will probably do that as well because there may not enough information for bi-weekly updates.

R. Desai asked about the mass e-mailing process right now as opposed to after the resolution takes effect. N. Raps said it took 2 weeks. She had to talk to the registrar and specify what students to focus on and for what purposes. It was a very long process and there were lots of hoops to jump through.

M. Danzer said this resolution needs to have a check so the SA cannot use this list-serv for purposes like election advertisement. He said he will word this better into an amendment.

D. Kuhr was worried that the students will treat this as spam. A. Gitlin said the communication committee will be very discreet.

A. Bajaj asked if the sponsors have talked to the Office of Assemblies. N. Raps said no, we wanted to get some SA support first.

Asa Craig, the junior student trustee, said the administration won’t want to flood students so they become desensitized to mass e-mails in times of emergencies. A. Gitlin said the titles of the e-mails may have the sender organization’s name in brackets to let students know what type of e-mail it is.

2. R. 7 — Examining the SAFC Funding Process for Independent Student Organizations

V. Andrews stepped down temporarily as the president to present the resolution. It is to form ad-hoc committee to find facts about the funding process. If the committee found anything out of order, an ad-hoc committee will be formed next semester to actually change the polices.

A. Nicoletti moved to have this moved to Business of the Day so the SA could vote on it today. The motion was seconded and approved by acclamation.

M. Danzer was worried about the number of SAFC commissioners on the committee. Half the committee will be SAFC commissioners and this may be perceived to hinder the committee’s findings. He made the amendment to strike “and one additional SAFC commissioner” in the resolution.

R. Desai disagrees with the amendment. SAFC commissioners’ input is very important so he would like to see them on the committee.

D. Kuhr said the SAFC is very helpful and is not out to get the student organizations. The 3 vs. 3 balance is already a check in itself.

A. Gitlin said not that many groups appeal, so maybe this is not a systemic problem.

U. Smith encouraged the SA to vote the amendment down because the committee needs the balance of having SAFC on the committee. He called the amendment to question.

The amendment failed by a hand vote.

Nighhawk Evensen, the senior student trustee, said the GPSAFC does have a system with multiple allocations throughout the year and the SA may wish to consult with the GPSAFC. V. Andrews said the SA will look toward the GPSAFC as a starting point.

S. Agard made an amendment to add one appropriations committee member to the ad-hoc committee and to have the committee report to the appropriations committee before coming to the SA.

U. Smith disagreed with the amendment because this way the ad-hoc committee will have to confront both the SAFC and the appropriations committee.

A. Bajaj said the amendment allows more insight and balance with the addition of the appropriations committee member.

A. Nicoletti said it is not too much to ask for the committee to report to the appropriations committee a few days before coming to the SA.

M. Danzer supports the amendment. U. Smith called the amendment to question. It was seconded.

Desai wanted to amend the amendment and change the additional appropriations committee member to the chair to SAORC. He called his amendment to question. It was seconded. His amendment failed by a hand vote of 1–10–5.

A. Yozwiak called the original amendment to question. It was seconded. The amendment passed by a hand vote of 11–2−2.

A. Bajaj said the SA might want to amend the amendment so the appropriations committee member is a community member and not an SA member so the SA is not over-represented on the ad-hoc committee.

S. Agard called the amendment to question. It was seconded. A. Nicoletti called for acclamation. It was seconded without dissent. The amendment passed.

A. Yozwiak called the resolution to question. There was a call for acclamation; it was seconded without dissent. The resolution passed.

VIII. Adjournment

There were no more items on the table. V. Andrews adjourned the meeting at 6:14pm.