DRAFT Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
4:30 � 6:00 p.m.
229 ILR Conference Center

I. Call to Order

M. Fontana called the meeting to order at 4:36 p.m.

II. Roll Call

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet. Present: M. Fontana, M. Hatch, S. Pardo, L. Lawrence, B. Liddick, R. Wayne, J. Blair, K. Speiser, K. Laden, N. Brideau, E. Sanders, E. Strong, A. Frieden, A. Craig, R. Stein Not Present: R. Orme, E. Loew, A. Strook, C. Robertson Also In Attendance: A. O’Donnell, A. Epstein, E. Shin, T. Fahey, D. Roth, D. Koyanagi, M. Amundsen, K. Wolf, D. Lieb, J. Kiefer, M. Cummings, R. Lacey, B. Knuth, S. Schmidt

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

SA

A. Craig said that SA discussed Gorge Safety issues, election rules, their budget and SAFC funding.

GPSA

There was no report.

EA

There was no report.

FS

M. Hatch said President Skorton gave a presentation on finances at the university. The main discussion was about finding a balance between sustainability and finance.

M. Fontana said the UA’s intention was to bring together important offices at Cornell to facilitate the important discussions between facilities and planners. He then asked for a report from CJC.

K. Laden said CJC met two weeks ago and went over topics of the semester. The main discussion was whether they wanted jurisdiction over swimming in the gorges.

IV. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

V. Business of the Day

CJC Update — 5 minutes

K. Laden said the CJC had K. Zoner report on gorge safety and JA Board was having a staffing drive. The next meeting will be tomorrow and K. Zoner will have a report regarding the resolution about swimming in the gorges to review. Also a professor wanted to bring up the issue of the online reputation.

Campus Planning Update — 5 minutes

R. Wayne gave kudos to the Campus Planning Committee (CPC) and the Sustainability Team. After the last meeting, he contacted Barbara Knuth and was told Milstein Hall is on the agenda for the next CPC meeting. Sustainability is a low priority for Milstein. They also had presentations from the CU Agricultural Experiment Station on sustainability initiatives, and one on the large animal-testing complex and it explained how it would be a student-run business. R. Wayne reported there was some discussion about the size of the complex.

TAC Update — 5 minutes

E. Strong reported they have meetings on the third Friday of every month. At the last meeting, they looked at issues for future meetings. Also, the Ithaca Carshare program is going well, there is about 2,0000 members currently. He added that a Vanpool program has just been launched. In order to increase bike safety, the Big Red Bikes program was looking to get more bike racks. They have noticed the biking info on the web is not user friendly. Ed noted that Lois Chaplin was dealing with these issues, and it would be good to invite her to a future meeting. He said there is a “bike committee” that meets once a month and a “bike plan” that has not progressed. CU EMS wants to have an educational program on bike safety so it is not just a drivers’ problem. He said there were issues of safe biking on campus, infrastructure makes it difficult to make good bike paths. He said Congress has passed a bill to give incentives to workers who bike to work. He said that they would discuss more in the future meetings. E. Sanders suggested there were many options on campus where more bike racks could be located.

t-GEIS/TIMS Presentation — 15 minutes

D. Lieb gave a presentation on t-GEIS/TIMS with K. Wolf. He said that this was a process that has taken 4–5 years and his report was from the last night’s board meeting. He explained that this project is looking to identify potential strategies to mitigate CU’s further transportation impacts on the community and promote a transportation system with greater participation in alternatives to SOV commuting. This initiative was a public planning resource with a wide variety of uses and would provide a strategic framework for CU community transportation investments. He said they wanted to be proactive on this. He said there might be a slight delay in the process because of financial constraints. They were looking at multi-use trails and fixing pedestrian roads in the event of population growth. He said the 10 million dollar commitment the President promised is still coming, but might come slower than was expected. He said if CU provided some money, then other entities were likely to provide additional funding. He explained that they met with the UA a couple of times during the early phases to help with the survey process. T-GEIS focuses on transportation systems beyond the campus and the expected study period is 10 years. The Campus Master Plan will guide the long-term physical development of the Ithaca campus and the study period is 30–60 years+. t-GEIS will be put on pause while the Master Plan is put in place. K. Wolf said that t-GEIS was looking at commuters coming to campus. They were also looking to enhance on-campus pedestrian roads and how to make it easy for people to commute. They also had specific recommendations for bike networks off campus. D. Lieb explained three hypothetical population scenarios. He said a third of CU commuters were already participating in programs that used alternative modes of transportation. He also said some local subsidy needed to go into the vanpool program. He said eventually federal money will subsidize it, but there is a 2-year gap so CU will be providing seed money for a regional vanpool program. He also mentioned last fall, CU began providing no-fee evening and weekend bus privileges for all undergraduate students. He affirmed CU was committed to a long-term program that would provide one-year no-fee bus passes to all new CU students.

Project Design and Construction Presentation — 15 minutes

J. Kiefer introduced two of his colleagues and gave a presentation on campus construction projects since 2003 and into the future. There were discussions and questions on sustainability and campus building plans. M. Hatch asked how big the impact of new thinking of practices of sustainability would be and K. Kiefer replied that CU was ahead of the curve on sustainability compared to other Ivies.

President’s Climate Commitment Implementation Committee Presentation — 15 minutes

D. Roth said they focused mostly on the Climate Action Plan. President Skorton signed this one and a half years ago. This year they announced greenhouse inventory areas that needed a lot of effort in order to achieve climate neutrality. He said they were looking to deliver the Climate Action Plan next year. He said their website has an “idea exchange” in order to have every idea that people bring to them in the catalogue. Recently, there was also a student sustainability event led by M. Walsh. He explained they will frequently pull together staff and students to filter through all the ideas that are submitted. The committee will have more info on five major areas in the spring. NYCERTA was putting up half of the planning funds and CU is contributing the other half. They plan to deliver this action plan in September 2009 and have more specific plans after the winter break. They also hired an external consultant to work on this. He then answered questions from the members.

Discussion of sustainability coordination and potential resolution — 15 minutes

M. Fontana wanted to discuss the role of the UA body. K. Speiser said she was interested in helping Dean Koyanagi leverage his communications efforts. M. Hatch said that this could be done as a representative body. A. Craig asked what sort of things needed to be looked at now, given the current financial nature. He said the sustainability issue should not prevent students from getting the education they needed. J. Blair said maintaining student-aid and scholarships was a priority on President Skorton’s list. He also said that building would not necessarily bar students from getting the education they needed because it would activate economy, create jobs and generate a lot of revenue and taxes, especially during times of depression and recession and they could use this to leverage a lot of money to aid students and a long-term sustainability. He said that unless there was an issue, they did not need to create one. S. Pardo said the UA would send e-mails and invite people to bring this issue to the next executive meeting.

VI. Additional Items from the Floor

None.

VII. Adjournment

S. Pardo made a motion to adjourn. E. Strong seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 6:07 p.m. by M. Fontana.