Minutes
University Assembly
December 4, 2002
International Lounge, WSH
4:30 — 6:00 pm

I. Greetings and Call to Order

K. Reardon, Chair, called the meeting to order at 4:45 p.m.

Attendance:

Present: Stephanie Adams, J.S. Butler, Pat Haugen, Tammy Johnson, Josh Katcher, Alan Mathios, Timothy McConnochie, Peggy McKee, Bryan Preston, Ken Reardon, David Schmale III

Excused: Melissa Hines, Carl Jones, Jr., Ellis Loew, Leti McNeill, Dena Ruebusch

Absent: Umair Khan, Michael Matly, Jane Mt. Pleasant, Gregory Pratt

Also Present: Hope Mandeville, Katrina Nobles, Bridget Tracy

II. Introductions

K. Reardon, Chair began the meeting by running through the agenda and starting introductions.

Representatives from the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity explained that they were charged $30 for tables used for fundraising on Ho Plaza for a child with Leukemia. The Willard Straight Administrative Board would not refund the money because the fundraising was not for a charitable organization.

A. Mathios motioned to address this issue and P. McKee seconded.

H. Mandeville told them that the SA or Willard Straight Administrative Board might be more appropriate bodies to address regarding this issue, but asked the UA if they could give them their opinion of the situation

K. Reardon suggested that if the Board or the SA denies them the funds that they try donating the money through a charitable organization, such as local church.

III. Reports

Staff Report

K. Nobles reminded the UA to respond to RSVP emails in order to make sure there is quorum.

University Assembly Reports

Representatives from the Campus Planning, Committee on Committees, and Financial Aid Review were not present to report.

B. Preston reported that the Assemblies System Review Committee would meet shortly before or after the winter break in order to go over some consistency reviews.

P. Haugen reported that the Campus Store Administrative Board met on November 26, 2002. Greek merchandise is being handled by an outside company. Overall, the textbook reservation program has not been as successful as hoped, but the Johnson School has had good participation. The Store is looking at ILR and Architecture for the program. There has been a faculty adoption initiative. Sales were down the first quarter, presumably due to new warehouse bookstores in the area. The Board is not thrilled with the UA’s preplanning meeting memo request.

K. Nobles reported on behalf of E. Loew for the Codes and Judicial Committee that they had not met and were planning to convene during the study period to reorganize the Code of Conduct and make it searchable via the internet.

H. Mandeville said that the Committee on Committees plans to meet in January to interview Review Board Candidates for the CJC.

K. Reardon said that he was out of town for the CURW’s last meeting and would try to make a written copy of the meeting available.

A. Mathios said that the Health Services Committee was meeting the second week of December and that he received no feedback about the preplanning memo.

K. Reardon asked if the Health Committee was involved in the Slope Day Committee.

A. Mathios answered that it was one of their agenda items that the Committee constantly works on.

K. Reardon asked if they had discussed recent issues of wellness and the Asian American community.

A. Mathios answered that it was not brought up at the previous meeting where they discussed a current survey to assess health services needs with a focus on minority populations. He asked Ken if there were specific points he should bring up at the next meeting.

K. Reardon said that he had heard about the issue through an undergraduate but was not aware of specific details and would like more information in order to lend the support of the Cornell Community.

P. McKee reported that there has not been a meeting for JAMIC since the last UA meeting and that the meeting scheduled for Monday was postponed.

K. Nobles reported for D. Ruebusch on the Transportation Advisory Committee that there had not been a meeting since the last UA meeting and that they had not commented on the preplanning memo.

J. Katcher asked if there was any discussion on Cornell’s funding portion of the bussing system.

K. Nobles said that there was not and suggested emailing Dena.

Constituent Assembly Reports

D. Schmale reported that the GPSA passed a resolution that forms a Pay and Benefits Committee to research dental and optical benefits, among other items, for Graduate and Professional students. The Committee should be up and running by the next GPSA meeting.

K. Reardon asked if they were interested in amending the Cornell Health Plan or seeking independent options and new policies.

D. Schmale said that it was to look at new options. The Committee will involve GPSA and other interested parties including KCYW.

K. Reardon said that Paul Glover, a local civic leader, researched low cost options for dental care for the Ithaca Health Fund Program and might be a valuable resource for the GPSA.

J. Katcher said that SA discussed election reform, passed a resolution supporting clean energy sources at Cornell, and met with Dean Hubbell to discuss Slope Day.

S. Adams explained that the resolution was introduced by Kyoto Now! in order to create an endowment which alumni could contribute to for the purchase of wind energy. The endowment would be created and managed by Cornell.

A. Mathios asked if there would be a net increase in the cost of energy.

J. Katcher responded that an increase of $600,000 would take place, and that the endowment would cover that additional cost.

There was a discussion of the pragmatics associated with alumni donations, endowments, and the University’s agenda. A relatively large sum of money must be raised in an endowment to cover the estimated $600,000 in wind energy that would be purchased from outside sources. The SA representatives noted this and replied that it is something the students support and care about.

T. Johnson said that the EA discussed seat alignment in there last meeting and filling mid-year vacancies. They were also looking into electronic voting.

H. Mandeville reminded the group that the Assembly Executive Committee would meet next Friday.

J.S. Butler said that the Faculty Senate had not met since the last UA meeting.

K. Reardon spoke on the future of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. In a meeting earlier that morning the Faculty Senate meeting regarding AAP was cancelled. The Provost has said that nothing will be brought about dismantling AAP to the Trustees without discussion in the Senate first, but this may not hold true.

H. Mandeville said that that evening Trustees were meeting with students in AAP to discuss the future and Michael Esposito was meeting with staff at noon the following day.

K. Reardon explained that there is an interdepartmental committee in AAP to discuss all of the options and redistributions possible including dismantling the college, reorganizing the college to an Architectural school with divisions of Art, or an attempt to integrate the programs more thoroughly. The faculty was to indicate their preferences amongst the options.

IV. Approval of Minutes

A motion was made and seconded to approve the minutes of November 20, 2002. The minutes were approved as amended.

V. Old Business

Feedback from letters to 4 Programs

P. Haugen stated that the Cornell Store was not against writing the letter to the UA, but wanted to make sure that their participation in the January process was valuable to them through consistent participation of the UA.

A. Mathios said that Health Services has problems with four-week waiting periods for non-emergency mental health care and felt that they do not have time to devote to more paperwork.

H. Mandeville asked what the format of the January meeting would be and stressed to make it valuable to the Program Directors, it must be a full assembly. She also asked if this meeting would be in place of the spring meeting.

A. Mathios asked if the annual report would be a sufficient document to present in January. It was produced in July of the previous year.

There was a discussion of the timeliness of the annual report which was not found to be a problem and a question of the length of the annual report. Some reports can be 70 or more pages; it was concluded that this was too bulky for the UA to sift through. While a single page document is more economical for the UA, it is still a time-consuming process for the various Programs to create a meaningful document representative of their mission statement and goals for the year. The UA agreed that having the Programs Directors meet with them in January was valuable in order for the UA to have input and information regarding their agendas. This was a result of a surprising and frustrating report from Transportation last spring. This meeting is a preventative and informative measure.

P. McKee suggested that the UA request the Programs’ most relevant portions of their annual reports.

A. Mathios said that the UA seems to be asking for a presentation and feedback session with the Program Directors and formal documents. Since the documents are time-consuming to create, why not ask for the documents that already exist and spend the meeting in discussion. This process stresses feedback and not writing.

K. Reardon suggested that the UA invite the Program Directors in January, summarize the material the UA already has from the Programs, ask for any concerns from the Programs via email, and have a group, perhaps the Executive Committee work on the format of the meeting.

H. Mandeville suggested inviting the Program Directors over two meetings instead of having all four come at once.

K. Reardon summarized that they would have the Program leaders come in January, that prior to the meeting the UA share what they have on their Program already, and that the Programs identify issues and supporting documents they would like to share with the UA.

P. Haugen felt that the UA should be clear on their Charter and consider changing the timeline to look at the July annual report in September and monitor their goals throughout the year.

A. Mathios felt that they should read over the Program’s annual reports and meet with them to discuss what has changed since the report was created, what concerns the Programs have. The UA should ask for an hour of their time for a discussion with the Program Directors and not ask for any new written documents, only a copy of their annual reports or anything more concise.

K. Reardon asked if this idea seemed appropriate and the UA agreed. They also agreed to have one meeting, not two.

Review of Taskforce Committees

K. Nobles said that Ellis Loew was Chair of the Sustainable Development Taskforce and that Public Service was planning on meeting at 6 PM tonight.

H. Mandeville said that Sustainable Development was planning on doing an audit and divided tasks last meeting.

T. Johnson, a new member of UA is the Chair of Public Service.

VI. New Business

Ombudsman Charter Change

P. McKee proposed the changes shown in the attachment for the Ombudsman in the UA Charter in order to keep the language consistent with the Code of Conduct.

J.S. Butler seconded the proposal.

The changes were approved unanimously.

Agenda Items for the January 21st Leadership Meeting with the President

K. Reardon said that last time he spoke about the UA’s priority committees, AAP, the graduate student unionization vote, and international students.

H. Mandeville suggested asking about a Budget Planning Committee that exists in the UA Charter but does not meet. The UA might ask why that is. It was supposed to be composed of mostly senior staff.

D. Schmale wondered about the status of the incoming President.

B. Preston suggested discussing the UA taskforces and their agendas.

K. Reardon said that he had already made them aware of the three groups and thought about inviting them to offer input.

B. Preston thought that since one of the topics is governance the Administration might be particularly interested.

P. McKee wanted to ask about recent loss of staff positions. It was rumored that $20 million of staff would be cut in staff positions and campus life.

A. Mathios said that these cuts may be from unfunded faculty raises.

P. Haugen asked what plans the University had to ease the impact of recent cuts in staff positions.

VII. Next Meeting

K. Reardon said that the agenda for next meeting would revolve around the Program Directors.

VIII. Adjournment

K. Reardon, Chair, adjourned the meeting at 6:00pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Bridget Tracy