Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
12:15–1:30 p.m.
Auditorium of Robert Purcell Community Center (RPCC)
Minutes

I. Call to Order

Everyone was welcomed to the meeting and David Lieb, the Assistant Director of Transportation and Mail Services, and Bill Wendt, the Director of Transportation and Mail Services, were introduced to the assembly members and attendees.

II. Business of the Day

a. Transportation presentation — Bill Wendt, David Lieb (12:30–1:00)

B. Wendt introduced Spring Buck, their Outreach Coordinator. He said the last time D. Lieb met with the assembly, he presented the Transportation Generic Environmental Impact Statement (t-GEIS). They will not present this again, but they are proceeding with the project, which is a two-year effort with the town of Ithaca. He and D. Lieb have had discussion sessions focused on completing the document so they can have it to the town planning board by April. Consultants have been working on the project and it is a fairly extensive inventory of the town and university’s transportation programs. The impact the university will have over the next decade as the population grows and commuting increases is significant. The numbers they are working with in the t-GEIS are hypothetical and depend on many factors. This is a beneficial activity and it helps them identify mitigation measures, ways to save individuals money, ways to improve services, and ways to expand their programs.

The t-GEIS will lead to the development of their Transportation Impact Mitigation Strategies (TIMS), a document of the strategic improvements they want to make on campus regarding transportation. The Campus Master Plan process has slowed the development of the TIMS, because they want to make sure the TIMS works with the Master Plan, so they want the Plan to be resolved first; the trustees should be meeting tomorrow to come to a resolution on the Master Plan. They expect to update the TIMS every five years, as they move ahead.

There are many sustainability initiatives happening on campus right now and they are heavily involved in that effort. The President mentioned that by next fall he hopes to have many individuals commuting in a vanpool. This is a program that will be new to upstate New York because of some of the obstacles posed by the state such as insurance regulations. They have overcome the major insurance hurdles and hope that their “Ithaca CarShare” program can be launched this summer, as well as the van-pool program, which he thinks would be the next best thing to public transit, especially for people whose areas are not served by public transit. The vanpool program would be launched in a two-year pilot program with an outside company. The initiative would provide incentives to encourage employees to use it.

They are also working on more “flex-time” and “flex-place” arrangements with M. Opperman’s team, which they think will make the campus more sustainable. The university has an existing policy but they are examining it for improvements because the less people driving to work, the better it is for the environment.

They are also looking at improving the campus and the surrounding environment for bicyclists and pedestrians. He highlighted some of the areas and routes, which could be developed to be friendlier to cyclists and pedestrians.

Within the t-GEIS, they’ve also identified problem traffic intersections that are close to the campus. They pose problems mainly for safety reasons. They are working with the Ithaca Conference Transportation Council to identify projects that the university could help fund along with the municipality and state. The President announced the initiative back in October; they hope to have a list by spring, and first year of funding would begin July 1 and this should be a 10-year joint effort.

He was given a base line emissions estimates for commuters. He didn’t understand the numbers much, but our ‘energy people’ seemed excited about it, indicating that we’re doing a relatively good job controlling emissions already.

The cost of gas and diesel is obviously having a big impact on T-CAT service and their ability to expand its services. T-CAT uses its entire fleet during peak commute hours and the Board of Directors is working to make the community aware of the problems they face in adequately serving the community. They’ll really need to find some good funding opportunities and hope for the best regarding the economy. But they’ve had some encouraging meetings between the Tompkins, Cayuga and Cortland counties regarding working together to improve transportation.

D. Lieb said T-CAT would be the guest at the next Transportation Advisory Committee meeting, so employees should relay any questions they have to their respective employee assembly representative so that these can be addressed at the meeting.

The CarShare Program is an initiative growing out of the community’s desire to reduce reliance on single-occupancy vehicles. They think they have finally found an insurance carrier willing to work with them so they are looking forward to having the program in effect by summer.

There was a brief question and answer session. B. Wendt and D. Lieb described the CarShare Program, which is a short-term car rental service which multiple locations enabling members to rent cars for errands thus discouraging them from having a car, as well as the difficulties posed in implementing the Park-and-Ride program. They also addressed attendees’ ideas about reducing costs, such as using smaller buses and purchasing buses locally. These ideas are not necessarily feasibly or substantially cost reducing, and they addressed issues raised about the lack of designated parking for employees, the quality of buses on rural routes and giving A-Lot parking permits to temporary staff, citing lack of resources, space and the need to satisfy the parking needs of several groups on campus.

b. NCAA recertification process, power point presentation (1:10–1:30)

M. Opperman said the NCAA’s re-accreditation process is a process that Cornell is required to undergo every 10 years in order to participate in intercollegiate sports. The first part of the process requires a very detailed self-study followed by a series of open forums to relay the findings to the community. Afterwards, the university will submit a final report and an external review team from the NCAA will come in afterwards to do their own examination. They’ve completed the preliminary findings so now they’re reporting to a variety of groups about what they’ve found in the self-study in order to solicit feedback. She and John Siliciano are chairing the steering committee for the process.

There are three subcommittees to address the three issues they have to examine: Governance and Commitment to Rules and Compliance; chaired by Nelson Roth, Academic Integrity; chaired by Rosemary Avery, and Equity and Student Athlete Wellbeing; chaired by Dale Grossman. The self-study began in the summer of 2007 and the subcommittee’s submitted their individual results in January. The revised draft report is due back to the NCAA in May and the NCAA will then send a peer review team in November to examine Cornell.

There were two issues under Governance and Commitment to Rules and Compliance. Regarding the first issue - Institutional Control - Cornell is in substantial compliance with all NCAA requirements. The subcommittee was concerned about updating the Athletics Department’s Compliance Manual and the timeliness of required compliance reviews; both issues have since been addressed. Regarding the second issue - Rules Compliance - Cornell is in substantial requirements with all NCAA rules. There was some concern that one booster club’s bylaws lacked specific reference to compliance requirements; this has since been corrected.

The area called ‘academic integrity’ was concerned with ensuring student athletes are treated as students who are also athletes rather than as athletes who are also students. The first issue - Academic Standards - examines the adequacy of student athlete academic standards, and the second issue — Academic Support — examines the adequacy of academic support services available to student athletes. Cornell is in compliance beyond all NCAA requirements. Recruited student athletes are held to the same admission and academic standards as students who aren’t athletes, and graduation rates among athletes and non-athletes are not significantly different. The academic support available to help student athletes is way above the standards.

The three issues they had to examine under Equity and Student Athlete Wellbeing, the most complicated area, were Gender Issues, Minority Issues and Student Athlete Wellbeing. Regarding Gender Issues, Cornell is in substantial compliance with all NCAA requirements. There was some concern about the adequacy of locker rooms and some practice and meeting spaces, though the availability of facilities was deemed equitable. Compensation for women’s’ and men’s’ sports coaches was based on market rates and so was considered equitable. The proportion of women athletes has grown and the subcommittee said Cornell needs to plan for growth in women’s athletic opportunities to keep pace with the anticipated increase in the proportion of women students overall. Regarding Minority Issues, Cornell is in substantial compliance with NCAA requirements, but the subcommittee was concerned that diversity among athletes lags behind the student population in general, particularly regarding Asian-American and African-American students. The committee recommends continued partnership with admissions in minority athlete recruitment. Diversity among the athletics staff has improved and was found to reflect university and nationwide trends and diversity recruitment practices in athletics were found to be fully sufficient. Regarding Student Athlete Well being, Cornell was found to be in substantial compliance with all NCAA requirements. Student academic support services are well integrated with university programs and all student athletes have access to and are made aware of these services. Athletic training and sports medicine services are equitably provided to all student athletes and meet all NCAA standards.

They are pleased with the results, and plan to present the report to the Trustees tomorrow. There will be an open forum on March 11. The report is due May 1, and then the peer review team from the NCAA will come in November. They can do one of three things: certify them, deny certification, or grant certification with conditions.

There was a brief question and answer session. M. Opperman and A. Noel addressed questions from the assembly members about how they compared to other similar schools, the consequences of being denied certification, and whether the process included examining whether student-athletes were treated equitably compared with student athletes. They also responded to one assembly member’s question asking if student athletes could only compete for four years; A. Noel said yes; ‘red shirting’ - a practice in which student athletes train harder in one year to the detriment of their academics and opt to make up the academics in a fifth year — is, theoretically, not allowed at Cornell, as a member of the Ivy League. Instead, they give the opportunity for a medical ‘red-shirt’- a medical hardship. If a student has a season-ending injury early on in the season, preventing them from competing that year, they apply immediately to the Ivy-League. If the application is thought to be legitimate, the student is allowed a fifth year only if academically they already had to stay for a fifth year to complete their degree, or participate in an internship.

M. Opperman said the staff always tries to do something special for sports teams that make it to the playoffs, so they’re trying to do a banner for the men’s basketball team. They’re trying to get it done before the team gets on the bus, so they will be in touch through the EA about signing it.

A. Noel said they had done it for the lacrosse and hockey team; the teams were surprised and thrilled to know that the staff cared so much about them.

III. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned.