DRAFT MINUTES
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
4:30 — 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order
M. Hatch called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m.

II. Introductions and Roll Call (5 mins)
Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.
Present: B. Liddick, R. Orme, L. Lawrence, J. Blair, M. Hatch, E. Loew, A. Stroock, R. Wayne, N. Brideau, S. Pardo, A. Craig, M. Fontana, K. Laden
Not Present: P. Mahoney, E. Sanders, R. Stein
Also In Attendance: A. O’Donnell, A. Epstein, B. McKinney, M. Walsh, E. Shin

III. Call for Late Additions of May 7, 2008 (10 mins)
M. Hatch called for late additions to the agenda. M. Fontana asked to add Peoplesoft/ Schedulizer difficulties and Academic Integrity committee. L. Lawrence asked to add concerns regarding the new childcare center.

IV. Approval of Minutes - May 7, 2008 (10 mins)
M. Hatch asked the members to review the minutes from the UA meeting on May 7, 2008. M. Fontana made a motion to approve the minutes. K. Laden seconded. The membership voted and the minutes from the May 7, 2008 UA meeting were unanimously approved.

V. Report on Caucus for Chairs of Delegations: Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional Students, Faculty, Employees (15 mins)
M. Hatch asked if the delegations wanted to reaffirm their chairs to the executive board for the coming year. The delegations confirmed that M. Fontana stays as undergrad chair, S, Pardo stays as graduate chair, R. Orme stays as employee chair and M. Hatch stays as the faculty chair.

VI. Election of Chair and Vice-Chair of the UA (20 mins)
M. Hatch said neither the Chair nor the Vice chair had to be elected from the executive committee. He noted the system that accomplished the most had a Chair and a Vice chair, not four chairs (EA, GPSA, SA & FS) sharing the responsibilities on a rotating basis. He went on to say the four-chair system sometimes caused some confusion for the chairs and also for the Office of the Assemblies (OA). E. Loew said the four-chair system was developed several years ago to help with lack of functioning committees. A. Epstein said the four-chair system was not supported by the OA unless the role of each chair was formally defined, and the Charter was rewritten to be in accordance. M. Hatch briefly outlined the duties of the Chair and the Vice-chair. He then called for nominations for Chair. J. Blair nominated R. Orme as Chair. The members voted and R. Orme was elected as Chair. L. Lawrence nominated M. Fontana as the Vice-chair. K. Laden seconded. The members voted and M. Fontana was elected as Vice-chair.

VII. Discussion about UA Committee Liaisons: Campus Planning, Transportation, Codes and Judicial, Campus Store, Health Services, CURW, Family Services (30 mins)
M. Hatch confirmed all known committee liaisons. He added Health Services and CURW were the two committees that were not staffed. M. Hatch asked M. Fontana’s thoughts on committees that are not presently staffed. M. Fontana said even though some committees are not staffed they are working well and for those that are not, the liaisons need to take an active role in making sure they are functioning. M. Hatch said that one of the things that was suggested last year was that certain committees, unless they are active and functioning outside of the UA and unless the UA feels the need to get them started, there is no need to energize them. M. Fontana added that they could add language to call a committee “dormant” but they could be reactivated if needed.

E. Loew said some of the committees were not the UA’s, and in addition, whether a committee exists does not matter as much as the issue of whether the committee cares to report to the UA. M. Hatch replied the UA has a responsibility in the charter for these committees and therefore should have responsible liaisons working to bring issues from the UA to the committees and vice versa. J. Blair said that UA could not escape the committees unless the UA wants to go to the President to ask for them to be removed.

M. Hatch asked that members get to know the liaisons to their committees to see where they discharge their responsibilities. He then asked A. Epstein if the UA needed to include Family Services as a part of the Charter and A. Epstein said it was already in the Charter. M. Hatch asked the members if they needed to go back to the idea of “dormancy.” M. Fontana then commented he sees there are three levels of committees: dormant, visible and functioning. The committee discussion continued, and a few questions were raised about what committees the absent UA members were on.

M. Hatch said the next agenda item was from L. Lawrence regarding concerns with the childcare center. L. Lawrence said he is on the Employee Assembly (EA) and some employees have come to him to say the costs of the center were too high, even with assistance of the childcare grant.

A. Stroock, the liaison to the Childcare Committee said the center is watching and collecting data on the population breakdown, and they plan to summarize and create a report on this. He explained tuition fees were set in advance and fixed, but agreed the center is inaccessible for many people. He added the committee might need the UA’s leverage to ask for more money to assist with the problem of accessibility. M. Hatch asked to get a report with statistics from the childcare center soon. A. Stroock replied the Childcare committee is developing five position statements to summarize their discussions, and that three out of five of them were finished. He concluded by saying he would get someone from the committee to come and speak to the UA about this, but representatives from HR or Bright Horizons, the management company that runs the center, should come to the UA also.

VIII. Setting of terms for members of Family Services Committee (10 mins)
M. Hatch said the UA needed to outline terms for the 15 voting members of the committee. He briefly went over the terms stated in the UA charter, but said he would like to wait for A. Epstein to come back to discuss more about this.

IX. Call for first meeting of CJC, TAC, Campus Planning Committee, and others (10 mins)
Done.

X. Additional items from the floor (10 mins)
M. Fontana said he had a meeting recently with the Registrar and some representatives from the Student Assembly (SA) to discuss issues related to Schedulizer and Peoplesoft. Schedulizer is a system that helps students construct their own course schedules, and Peoplesoft is the new Cornell system. He explained Schedulizer stopped working when Peoplesoft was implemented. He noted that Schedulizer had been accessing information about Cornell students without any authorization from Cornell. In conclusion, he said the Registrar said they were now working with the people from Schedulizer to create a written contract that would detail how the Registrars office would share information with them in the future.

J. Blair reported he knew students who used Schedulizer instead of the official CU system and found out later they had conflicts in their schedules. He said that one system needed to rule in order to avoid these problems.

M. Fontana said as of last week Cornell was allowing Schedulizer to use up to date course information. He also said while it was easier for students to use Schedulizer to construct their class schedules, it was also critical to check with Peoplesoft to make sure everything matched.

R. Orme reported Peoplesoft went fine during the spring semester when students did not need to add and drop classes, and the three-week testing period during the summer went well too. He said that Peoplesoft brought every department together in one system.

M. Hatch asked members opinions on investing some time in matters which the UA was deeply engaged in. There were 9 members who agreed to this idea. He suggested the assembly have two or three people present ideas based on their research bring issues to the UA and one or two people organizing. He asked who would be interested in doing this and M. Fontana, R. Wayne and J. Blair said they were. M. Hatch asked those three to move forward on this idea. The discussion continued about how UA should handle presentations on specific issues that affect the campus as a whole.

M. Hatch said he would ask A. Epstein to prepare language the UA could consider for terms for the Family Services committee. He said he would put that on the agenda for the meeting on September 24th. He then asked the members if the Schedulizer/Peoplesoft issue should also be on the agenda for September 24th, and members agreed it should.

The members began discussing committee terms. M. Hatch asked members to suggest terms, then asked members opinions on having the voting members serve three-year terms on a staggered basis with the exception of students. A. Stroock suggested two-year terms might be easier to staff. Some other suggestions were briefly discussed, but it was agreed that sending out a lot of e-mails every time someone did or did not renew their term could be time consuming. B. Liddick said he would be against term limits. E. Loew replied the UA did need a mechanism to remove members if needed. Members decided two years of staggered, renewable terms with no term limits would be best.

M. Hatch asked if there were any additional items for discussion.

M. Fontana said the Academic Integrity Committee that was formed last year by former Dean of Faculty Charlie Walcott needed to be staffed again this year. In response, R. Orme told M. Fontana to include faculty that were administrative advisors to students. J. Blair and R. Wayne volunteered to help with this.

M. Hatch asked whether there were any other issues.

L. Lawrence suggested they review their charter this year. J. Blair seconded.

B. McKinney then introduced herself as the new employee elected trustee. She suggested the UA look into the idea of a “smoke free” campus. She explained it would be beneficial for three reasons; the cost of cleaning up litter, the health of its population, and for sustainability. She said she would help put together a report to present to the UA for its review. M. Fontana said he would help coordinate this issue with the Health Services Committee.

M. Fontana said he is interested in discussing the issue of lowering the drinking age at a future meeting. He said he knows that President Skorton is not in favor of this, but many college presidents are and thinks this is an appropriate issue for the UA to discuss. Many other members agreed.

XI. Adjournment
M. Hatch asked for a motion to adjourn. M. Fontana made a motion to adjourn. L. Lawrence seconded. The membership voted their approval of this and M. Hatch adjourned the meeting at 6:02 p.m.