Minutes — February 14, 2013
Cornell University Student Assembly
4:45pm — 6:30pm, Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room
I. Call to Order/Roll Call
A. Gitlin called the meeting to order at 4:50pm
- Members present
- S. Balik, J. Batista, G. Block, E. Bonatti, G. Braciak, S. Breedon, I. Chen, M. Cho, A. Chopra, R. Desai, A. Gitlin, R. Gitlin, I. Harris, T. Hittinger, D. Iwaoka, D. Kuhr, J. Lee, G. Lovely, M. Lukasiewicz, J. Marshall, J. Mueller D. Muir, P. Scelfo, U. Smith, M. Stefanko, N. Terrones
- Members excused
- C. Pritchett
II. Approval of the 2/7/13 Minutes
- Minutes approved by unanimous consent
III. Open Microphone
IV. Announcements/Reports
Elections Update — J. Weinberg
- Deadline for candidate materials: Monday at noon
- Currently working on a bunch of initiatives regarding vote turnout and education
Financial Aid Announcement — D. Kuhr
- Encourages students to pick up financial aid materials now as the deadline is in the middle of finals — will be putting up posters around campus, etc. to increase awareness
Appropriations Committee Announcement — R. Desai
- Will be seeing the three big programming boards: Slope Day, Cornell Concert Commission, and Cornell University Programming Board
- Not open to the public — financial reports are confidential
Collegetown Community Plan Update — D. Iwaoka
- He and Eric Silverberg gave a presentation at the Collegetown Council meeting on Tuesday — mostly well received
V. Business of the Day
R. 34: Amendment to Appendix A of the Student Assembly Charter — R. Desai, D. Muir, C. Pritchett
- A. Gitlin steps down as the Chair and passes control to EVP J. Mueller
- Summary: attempt to formalize the Appropriations Committee procedures during non-by-line funding years
- Organizations are required to have hearings with the Committee
- VP Finance gives detailed report on recommendations given, including a vote total from the Committee
- Follow up task force: meet with organizations after repot is given to follow up about feasibility and progress
- U. Smith: Aren’t there liaisons to each of these organizations? How much should the SA be involved in internal operations of these groups?
- Liaisons are not meant to be involved in operational positions — merely a form of communication between the SA and the organization
- E. Bonatti: Strongly feels that the reports be made available to the whole SA so that everyone s involved
- Feedback given to groups seems irrelevant to the SA — reports would be recommendations to the future Appropriations Committee — it would be up to their discretion as to whether or not to follow them. If given to the SA, they might feel obligated to follow up with the recommendations
- D. Kuhr: Believe this is a good idea. Take for example the issues with Outdoor Odyssey last semester — a lot could have been avoided had these task force meetings happened
- D. Kuhr: Motion to amend : B.3: add “and the Student Assembly” after both instances of the word “Committee”
- Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed: another amendment to add
- M. Lukasiewicz: Motion to amend: B.3: add at the end “However, the report should remain confidential within the Student Assembly and the Appropriations Committee”
- Believe reports should be confidential because they are not final decisions, but rather conversational pieces
- D. Iwaoka: SA is a public meeting — don’t see the benefit of confidentiality, especially since the SAF affects everyone
- Call to question, seconded
- Vote: 1–20–1
- Amendment fails
- Call to question, seconded
- Vote: 25–0−0
- Amendment passes
- A. Gitlin: Believe it’s the right of the SA to keep a check on the Committee. Motion to amend: C.1 add “and the Student Assembly will confirm” after “The Appropriations Committee will appoint”
- R. Desai: Not opposed to the amendment, but think it is inefficient. On the same page, motion to amend: change “The Appropriations Committee will appoint” to “The Vice President of Finance will appoint”
- Amendment passed by unanimous consent
- A. Gitlin: As an organization, you wouldn’t want two random people coming and telling you what to do — SA should have the final stamp on the appointed co-chairs
- R. Desai: To clarify, the co-chairs are not going around giving personal opinions — they are to physically write down how organizations are responding to recommendations
- D. Kuhr: This motion strives toward transparency which is what the SA has been working really hard on
- G. Lovely: Believes the SA would only approve people they are familiar with — believe the VP Finance should be allowed discretion in his decision
- Call to question, seconded
- Vote: 21–3−1
- Amendment passes
- G. Block: Believe this isn’t the way to go about things. There have been concerns about the Committee having too much power — this would only give them more. Believe the responsibilities laid out in the resolution should be given to the liaisons. Also, the follow-up task forces seem to focus on organizations that are doing poorly — focus should also be placed on organizations that are doing well to help them improve
- R. Desai: Do not believe liaisons have the insight to follow up on Committee recommendations. They won’t provide more transparency than a public report
- D. Iwaoka: Supports G. Block: the relationship between the SA and the by-line funded organizations will greatly improve if liaisons are sent to do the follow up. The report is a good idea, but the task force idea seems invasive
- E. Bonatti: Motion to strike all of Section C
- R. Desai: Many organizations want multiple meetings if they are not happy with Committee recommendations — the task forces will greatly alleviate the pressure on the VP Finance
- M. Stefanko: There is a misconception that the task force is a consulting group — it is clear that they will have no influence, their purpose is merely as a feedback mechanism
- Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed
- Vote to vote: 14–10–1 Discussion continued
- U. Smith: Agree in theory with the resolution, but the task force is stretching the limits of the Committee. Motion to commit to the Appropriations Committee
- R. Desai: This has been discussed for the past 4 weeks in the Committee — everything should just be hashed out in the SA
- Motion withdrawn
- Clerk Cheng: SA is harping on giving more power to a committee they have already given power to. It’s a great idea to provide a continuous mode of communication between the Committee and the by-line funded organizations. The task force might not be implemented in the right way (makes sense for liaisons to be involved, even if indirectly)
- J. Marshall: Believe this is a good idea — why not use students that specialize in these topics to help the organizations
- E. Bonatti: Withdraws motion
- J. Marshall: Motion to amend: C.2 in the last sentence add “and their respective liaisons” after “The Task Force”
- Approved by unanimous consent
- A. Gitlin: Believes this is a great idea, but even though the Committee has grappled with it a lot, the SA still needs more time
- Call to question, seconded
- Amendment passes by a vote of 21–0−1
- Motion to table, seconded
- Point of information: committing the resolution means that the sponsors can edit it before bringing it back. Tabling means no edits can be made — the same version of the resolution will be brought back
- Motion passes by a vote of 13–12–0 Resolution tabled
VI. New Business
R.36: In Support of the Establishment of the International Student Center — E. Bonatti
- Thousands of international students are in support of this
- A. Bores: Nothing against the resolution, but believes it should be more direct
- G. Lovely: Shouldn’t this be a Sense-of-the-Body resolution?
- No, as this is a policy change under the ISSO
- M. Cho: What are the needs? Why not 626 Thurston?
- International students have different needs than minority students
- Language barriers, culture shock, etc.
- Motion to table, approved by unanimous consent
R.35: Increasing Member Accountability Through a Revised Initiative Tracker — J. Mueller, M. Lukasiewicz
- Requiring an initiative tracker for each member to increase communication, transparency, and accountability
- G. Block: Why should announcements be placed on the initiative tracker?
- Will be more strict with announcements — should only be related to what the SA is working on, therefore it is reasonable to put them on the tracker. Un-related announcements can and should be sent through the SA social listserv
A. Gitlin adjourned the meeting at 6:30pm
Respectfully submitted,
Chelsea Cheng