Student Assembly

Minutes - Student Assembly
October 10th, 2013
4:45pm - 6:30pm
Willard Straight Hall

I. Call to Order

U. Smith called the meeting to order at 4:45pm.

Members present

S. Balik, J. Batista, Y. Bhandari, G. Block, T. Drucker, R. Gademsky, I. Harris, M. Henderson, T. Hittinger, J. Hutson, L. Liu, Y. Ma, N. Mileti, A. Murphy, C. Pritchett, U. Smith, M. Stefanko, N. Tulsky, A. Zhou

Members tardy

T. Talbot

Members excused

E. Bonatti, M. Lukasiewicz, B. Thompson, L. Wershaw

Members unexcused

S. Ali Khan, S. Lutsic, B. Thompson, N. Vasko

II. Approval of October 3, 2013 Minutes

Minutes approved by unanimous consent

III. Open Microphone

None

IV. MECHA Presentation — Carmen Martinez ‘14

• Many people took offense to a poster advertisement from Ezra’s Army from the Cornell Football game last Saturday
• Concerned as to how the poster got approved
• Email outreach had a statement about participating in a Mexican photo contest, and the there was a prize for the person with the best costume
• The concern was brought to the Administration and it was quickly acted upon
• The advisor for Ezra’s Army said that the Athletic Department apologizes and that the event is cancelled — the apology was appreciated, but they want deeper steps taken to resolve the issue
• Attempted to reach out to Ezra’s Army to start dialogue and was met with some resistance — they didn’t want their hard-working members being attacked
• There was a half-paragraph in the Daily Sun with a response from the Head of the Athletic Department saying that he understood how the event was “a little offensive”
• With Halloween coming up, the SA can really lend a hand with this issue
• N. Mileti: Will dialogue be enough to resolve things?
  • Dialogue is a good start, but it hasn’t done much good. Would propose some sort of structural change for the administration — some sort of training for them to be able to identify and handle such issues
• N. Tulsky: There was some mention of a diversity requirement?
  • Would propose a similar diversity training to be promoted and enacted for students
• U. Smith: There will be a training for the Athletic Department. The main reason such trainings fail is that there’s no buy-in from leadership. So, as a note to the Administration, if employees don’t have any repercussions for their actions, why would students?

V. Announcements and Reports

FARC Update — Representative Murphy

The Students Helping Students Grant has grown to $1.3 million and only $10K was used last year. Looking to put the excess to benefit other things

Ivy Leadership Summit Update — L. Liu and T. Hittinger

12 Cornell students went to Brown last weekend — hoping to bring some of the many great speakers there to Cornell. The Round Table Discussion was great and revealed that other student governments had the same issues and successes as Cornell

Community Life Committee Update — M. Stefanko

Neurological ALLY training is moving forward and the plan is to hold it in February

Appropriations Committee Update — G. Block

Will be seeing ISB, EARS, and Club Sports Council after the break

University Assembly Update — U. Smith and S. Balik

The topic of conversation at Tuesday’s meeting was a report about the 11/19 Ho Plaza protests that were held

VI. Business of the Day

Appropriations Committee Recommendation: Cornell Cinema — G. Block

• The Committee felt that Cinema had done very well in improving their organization, but didn’t feel that lowering the price of undergraduate tickets was necessary
• Mary Fessenden (Director of Cornell Cinema)
  • DCP (Digital Cinema Package) was installed over the summer to enhance the viewing experience. That has brought an increase of $50 - $150 more per film along with an increase in maintenance costs and software upgrade costs
  • The installation drained $60,000 from the reserve
  • Agree with the Committee’s assessment that a $0.50 price cut was not necessary
  • Requested an increase in $0.60 to cover for the DCP technology
  • It has been 7 years since Cornell Cinema has gotten an increase and they were actually decreased recently
  • If the increase is received, some will go directly into a free screening of a popular title during study periods for the students
• M. Henderson: There were suggested ways of increasing revenue — why are those inferior to what is being proposed?
  • There has been a major restructuring, so the other proposals don’t really apply anymore
  • Ticket prices have recently be raised so they would prefer not to do so — plus, the revenue is volatile and not guaranteed
• J. Hutson: Cornell Cinema is a wonderful service to students and he urges the SA to overturn the Committee’s decision
• Matt ‘16: Cornell has a lot of fixed costs and DCP is great and very expensive, so not granting them the increase won’t help anything
• S. Balik: What’s motivating the $0.60 number?
  • DCP is new, so there’s no specific number — working off the $50-$150 film increase, and an estimate of a couple thousand in yearly maintenance/upgrades
• C. Cheng: If DCP is so expensive, why did you not wait to be granted an increase before installing it?
  • Films are no longer being produced on 35-mm prints so the installation was necessary
• N. Tulsky: This is a question of where the students want their $0.60 to go. It would probably be best to use that to increase the number of free showings, as Cinema offers a great range
• G. Block: Cleary, there is a need for a funding increase, and increasing through ticket price isn’t much different — it might be more appropriate as the students who utilize the service will be the one paying for the costs. A $0.50 increase would actually cover for the $0.60 request based on the average number of customers per week
• Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed
  • Vote to vote: 10–8−0
• Motion to extend, seconded, dissent expressed, motion withdrawn
• Motion to table until the next SA meeting, seconded
• Motion tabled by a vote of 16–0−2

Motion to suspend the agenda and present R. 15, approved

Resolution 15: Fall 2013 SAFC Appeals — G. Block

• Touchstones: SAFC voted that they erred in their decision 10–0−0: their was no specification for how to handle mileage or hotel fees for a production company, so the SAFC should have granted the expense
• Sitara: SAFC voted that they did not err in their decision 0–10–0: the advisor didn’t approve the budget through OrgSync and there was no proof of error
  • Durga Bor (advisor): she is an advisor for 6 organizations. OrgSync was a surprise and there was no

training for a very confusing system. She sincerely thought the approved the budget but didn’t realize until too late that she hadn’t

• J. Batista: On no personal note against Sitara, the objective of the appeals was to vote on whether or not the SAFC made an error, which they did not
• T. Hittinger: The error was extremely minute and the rules should be changed
  • G. Block: There are measures in place to maintain fiscal responsibility

• Ski & Snowboard Club: SAFC voted that they did err 10–0−0: there was an issue with extra documents
• Thread Magazine: SAFC voted that they erred in their decision 9–1−0: the budget was approved through a link instead of a comment, so it was legitimate
• Ski & Snowboard Club: SAFC voted that they did not err 0–6−0: the advisor didn’t approve the budget through OrgSync and there was no proof of error
• JAM: SAFC voted that they did not err 0–6−0: JAM requested their budget at 3:00pm the day before the deadline, the budget was sent in at 8:00am the day of the deadline, but JAM didn’t submit things on time
• CIAS: SAFC voted that they did err 6–0−0: Advisor approved through an email instead of OrgSync
• Mountains for Moms: SAFC voted that they did err 6–0−0: there was an issue with extra documents
• Motion to approve, seconded
• With a proxy vote from B. Thompson, Resolution 15 passed by a roll call vote of 14–4−2

U. Smith adjourned the meeting at 6:30pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Chelsea Cheng