DRAFT MINUTES
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
4:30 — 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order
R. Orme called the meeting to order at 4:38 p.m. He then announced there would be a change in the agenda in order to have the presentation from the Child Care Services Committee first.

M. Fontana replied he would like to go ahead with agenda item “IV” before the committee presentation in order to get brief reports from the assemblies while most people were still there.

II. Roll Call

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.

Present:R. Orme, L. Lawrence, J. Blair, M. Hatch, E. Sanders, A. Stroock, R. Wayne, S. Pardo, E. Strong, M. Fontana, K. Laden, A. Frieden, C. Robertson
Not Present: B. Liddick, E. Loew, N. Brideau, A. Craig, R. Stein
Also In Attendance: A. O’Donnell, A. Epstein, E. Shin, K. Rourke, Y. Levitte

R. Orme announced Alex Frieden and Cassie Robertson were elected as undergraduates to the UA as of today and then asked A. Frieden to introduce himself. (C. Robertson was not present) A. Frieden introduced himself and said he was glad to join the UA.

III. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

No late additions.

IV. Reports from Constituent Assemblies — SA, GPSA, EA, FS

R. Orme asked members if they had items for discussion.

SA — There was no report.

GPSA — S. Pardo reported they have had two meetings already. At the first meeting, they had a presentation by Human Resources. At the second, they hosted President Skorton and Susan Murphy, then discussed health care and other issues around the Graduate Community Initiative. The main issue on healthcare is Geneva students have to travel 1 1/2 hours to get to Gannett.

EA — L. Lawrence said on Monday, 10/27, the President will address staff members at Barton Hall. At the same time, there will be an Energy Fair going on in Barton Hall with representatives from Cornell and the Ithaca area. He said there will be more info available about this in PawPrint soon, and that he would send information to the list-serve also.

FS — There was no report.

M. Hatch asked about the vacancies on the UA. R. Orme said there are two vacancies for staff. As for undergrads, there were two vacancies but they were filled earlier today.

V. Business of the Day

� Report from Childcare Services Committee (#4)

A. Stroock said the committee is working on five position statements to describe its activities. One is still in draft form, but said a representative from the committee was there to present some of the data that will be included in it. He then introduced Yael Levitte.

Y. Levitte said the committee wants to focus on the accessibility, affordability, and hours of the center. She said there were 439 families that applied, but currently, the center is serving 218 families with faculty members having the largest portion.

She then explained the Childcare Grant is available to people whose household income is less than $150,000. She said that last year, only 20 families with incomes lower than $25,000 a year (3% of the total grant eligible population) received grant money. She added many grant eligible people did not/could not apply for the grant because the paperwork required was too overwhelming for them. Y. Levitte noted the lowest income families pay the highest portion of their income on childcare. J. Blair asked where the grant money came from, how they could get more of it, and how they could get the percentage down to 6–8% of income, especially for those on the low end of the pay scale. A. Stroock said the money comes from HR, and any additional money would have to be approved by the President and the Board of Trustees.

M. Hatch confirmed that Cornell owns the building and the land and the center is managed by Bright Horizons. A. Stroock said yes, and added there is a five-year contract with Bright Horizons in place now. M. Hatch asked why Bright Horizons was involved since having a management company obviously increased the cost of care. A. Stroock responded that who runs the center is not the problem- having quality care, lowering the cost, and increasing the number of people who receive grants is. R. Wayne asked how much Cornell pays Bright Horizons to run the center. A. Stroock said this was unknown to him or Y. Levitte.

Y. Levitte said there were still many people who could not afford the center even with the benefit of grant money. M. Hatch said the UA could do a resolution in support of increasing money for the grant. A. Stroock asked how the UA could generate more pressure on this issue. M. Hatch said that is what the resolution would do, and asked A. Stroock if he could prepare a draft resolution.

M. Hatch said he thought having an on-site center that had spaces available would be more important to faculty than the issue of money. A. Stroock noted the Provost had declined to have any reserved spaces at the center.

J. Blair said the resolution should show that Cornell University is committed to having a childcare center, has enough capacity to meet the needs of the Cornell community, and that nobody should have to pay more than 8% of their income. There should be campaigns to achieve the grant money and make that goal a reality within five years.

A. Stroock said HR and the President are committed to this issue and the UA could give them the leverage they need to get this on the agenda for the next board meeting.

J. Blair seconded a resolution. L. Lawrence said the UA should encourage other assemblies to support this.

� Convening UA committees (#2)

R. Orme said they still needed to convene some committees. He confirmed R. Wayne was the Campus Planning liaison, A. Stroock - Childcare Services Committee, B. Liddick-Family Services Committee, K. Laden-CJC and E. Sanders-Budget Planning Committee.

A. Epstein said the Hearing Board needs more students and employees to be appointed to it.

R. Orme asked K. Rourke to give a CJC update.

K. Rourke said one item up for discussion was students being in areas that were not designated for swimming. This could give authority for police to JA students. S. Pardo said he disagreed with this. K. Rourke said that this was not official, but it was up for discussion. She said another item to be considered was defamation, libel and slander or “reputational interest.”

A. Epstein said if they wanted to see the current Code, they could “Google” Cornell Code of Conduct. It is available in PDF format.

R. Orme asked members to e-mail him or M. Fontana with any agenda items for next meeting.

E. Sanders said in order to make the sustainability and alternative to driving issues work, they should make it safe and pleasant to bike and walk.

M. Hatch said these issues should be brought to Campus Planning Committee (CPC) and the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC). The UA could develop a resolution to support if needed. S. Pardo said there is time for these two committees to meet and bring issues to the UA at an October meeting, and move the Campus Store report to a November or December meeting. He asked if anyone had objections to discussing CPC or TAC at an October meeting if they could get things together, there were no objections. R. Orme suggested including this on the same day they discuss the Gorge Safety since they were talking about safety issues-the members agreed.

R. Orme asked the members to review the minutes from September 3, 2008. R. Wayne asked for one correction on page 4. R. Orme asked for a motion to approve the minutes. J. Blair made a motion to approve the minutes with the correction. M. Hatch seconded.

� Report from ad-hoc Committee to Consider Peoplesoft (#6)

J. Blair said he and M. Fontana came up with two basic questions; 1) is Peoplesoft meeting the needs of the University? and 2) is it meeting the needs of students? They have met with Susan Murphy and Polly McClure to get more information. J. Blair said he hopes to have enough information by our next meeting to help the members decide about a resolution. L. Lawrence said we should get info from actual Peoplesoft users.

� UA Handbook (#1)

Was not discussed.

� Formation of ad-hoc Charter Review Committee (#3)

Was not discussed.

� Report from Academic Integrity Drafting Committee (#5)

Was not discussed.

VI. Additional Items from the Floor

There were no additional items.

VII. Adjournment

R. Orme asked for a motion to adjourn. S. Pardo made a motion to adjourn. L. Lawrence seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 6:08 p.m.