Graduate and Professional Student Assembly

Business Meeting Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse April 23, 2001 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Attendance: 2000–01 GPSA Members 4/24 8/28 9/25 10/30 11/27 1/22 2/26 3/26 4/23 Debbie Anderson P P E A A A A A A Virginia Augusta A P P P P P P P P Pat Carr P P P P P P P P P Erica Doerhoff P P P 1/2 Stefan Hames P P P P P E P A P Sergei Krasulya P P P P P P P P A Bhaskar Krishnamachari P P P P P E A P A Krysta Levac P P P P P P P P P Aaron Saathoff P P P P P P P P P John Sebastian P P P P P P P P P Lidija Sekaric P P P P P P P P P Eric Sprague A A A A A A A A A Lakshmi (Vatsa) Srivatsa A on-leave — resigned 8/00 Andrew Thomas A P P A P P P P P Lotus Wang P P P A A A P A P Jessica Ward P P P P P P P Krista Zanetti P P P P P P A P Others Present: N. Solorzano, A. Ramos, N. Guidotti , S. Chavez, T. Gwathmey, K. Hueffer, A. Somerville, L. Brooks, D. Demaine, M. Gayne, A. Pleasant, P. McPheron, B. Bailey, and M. Carvalho.

I. Call To Order P. Carr, At-Large Representative and President of the 2000–2001 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m.

II. Open Forum B. Bailey reminded the outgoing GPSA members that they received an invitation for the May 3rd President’s Reception and they should RSVP by Thursday, April 26th if they have not already done so.

V. Augusta, CALS Representative, reported that she attended the Faculty Senate meeting last week and they were discussing soliciting faculty for ideas regarding a new classification of emeritus status faculty. V. Augusta thought grads might find this of interest and wondered what the statuses might evolve into and how people could then serve on committees. She said that if anyone knows of any problems in their departments to please let her know so she can present those ideas.

III. Approval of GPSA Minutes The March 26, 2001 GPSA minutes were approved as submitted.

IV. Officer and Committee Reports A. COR L. Sekaric announced that the COR notes could bring people up-to-date if they did not attend the last meeting.

B. Executive Committee L. Sekaric announced that Walter Cohen, the Dean of the Graduate school, is leaving his position at the graduate school. L. Sekaric said that Walter would be staying on at Cornell as Vice-Provost. Since he has done such a great job supporting graduate students, they would like to write up a couple of sentences acknowledging appreciation of his services and also get him a gift. L. Sekaric asked if anyone would like to help her write something for Walter.

S. Hames, Division of Biological Sciences Representative, made a motion suggesting that the writing be left up to L. Sekaric and P. Carr on the GPSA’s behalf.

P. Carr asked if there were any objections to having L. Sekaric and P. Carr write something thanking Walter. There were no objections and the motion was unanimously approved.

C. Ivy GPSA Conference J. Sebastian, Arts and Sciences (Humanities) Representative, presented the idea of taking approximately $1,500.00 out of the GPSA fund to put towards hosting the next Ivy GPSA conference at Cornell in October.

P. Carr added that the cost would cover the conference room and food, but guests would be required to pay for their own rooms.

A motion was made to spend up to $1,500.00 for hosting the GPSA Ivy Conference at Cornell.

K. Levac, Other Representative, asked if J. Sebastian was commandeering this event.

J. Sebastian replied that he would be happy to do this.

P. Carr asked if there was any further discussion. There was none.

P. Carr asked if there were any objections. There were no objections.

The motion was approved by acclamation.

D. Other Committees D. Demaine, Crop and Soil Sciences Representative, and a member of the Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee (SHIAC), announced that he had sent out an email to get a sense of how people felt regarding abortion being included in the student health plan. D. Demaine said that some people also forwarded the e-mail to their constituents and he got a lot of e-mail responses.

P. Carr made a comment about the process, stating that A. Bova, Director of Risk Management, didn’t want to tell the Cornell Coalition for Life “no”. Instead, he asked the members of the Cornell Coalition for Life to go to the assemblies with their concerns. In other words, A. Bova did not approach the assemblies to ask what they wanted to do; instead he let the Coalition approach the assemblies and is waiting to see if the assemblies feel they wish to do something about this. P. Carr said he felt the assemblies did not have to act on this one way or another if they don’t want to.

D. Demaine responded that A. Bova told the Cornell Coalition for Life specifically to approach the GPSA. D. Demaine wasn’t sure if A. Bova was waiting for something from SHIAC.

P. Carr asked if D. Demaine could check into that and D. Demaine replied that he would.

D. Demaine reported that at the last meeting, the subject of birth control pills was raised. A question was asked regarding whether birth control pills could be covered under the student health plan. The answer given was that the plan does not cover preventative care since it is costly. Someone would, however, be looking into the cost issues.

A. Saathoff, CALS (Biological Sciences), asked where the Student Assembly was with this same issue.

L. Sekaric and P. Carr responded that the SA has not yet come to this issue on their agenda. They believed it might be addressed at the next SA meeting.

S. Hames asked when the student health care contracts get renegotiated.

D. Demaine responded not until next December.

E. Minority Grad Student Recruitment and Retention A. Ramos, Microbiology Representative, passed around a statement about minority recruitment and retention that she said was supported by many minority organizations on campus. They propose that there is a problem with the number of minority graduate students on campus and the lack of dialogue between the students and the administration. They put the statement of the “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds” in the document and noted this was endorsed by the GPSA and SA in 1999. She remarked that this statement was put out and there was no more input or dialogue about the statement from students.

L. Sekaric wanted to clarify that the “Open Doors, Open Hearts, Open Minds” was put out by the Campus Climate Committee and there were students on that committee.

A. Ramos replied that she was aware of that, however, there hasn’t been dialogue since that statement was put out. This statement is their response to that lack of support from Cornell that minority graduate students receive. She asked the GPSA to support the statement so they could take it to the administration.

P. Carr announced the motion was on the table to endorse this document.

V. Blodgett, Assistant Director of Graduate Student Life, asked what role Associate Dean Terry Plater has played in the drafting of this document. Did A. Ramos talk to her about this?

A. Ramos responded that they did meet with her but it seemed as though the graduate school doesn’t have a plan or mission on this. In their statement, they are asking Cornell to develop a targeted recruitment plan since they do have money allocated for it. She felt the allocated money was being used inefficiently.

A member noted that other university’s comparable to Cornell have effective recruitment programs.

A member asked if this document was only targeting U.S. minority residents.

A. Ramos replied in the affirmative. They are only targeting U.S. minority residents.

A member cited an example, commenting that a Cornell recruiter was sent to California six times this past year. The opinion was that this is not the best way to recruit since it is a very unequal recruiting approach. What about the other states? Chicago was noted as an example city that has a very high minority population. The minority recruiting seems to be haphazardly done. They felt a better approach would be to go back to several different cities each year and build relationships and constituencies.

A member stated that Cornell recruits in coordination with where they have their alumni areas.

P. Carr asked if they knew the number of Cornell minority applicants? What about nation-wide?

A. Ramos replied that they tried to get the number but they couldn’t get it. She estimated it to be approximately 3–4% of the total applicant pool.

J. Sebastian commented that Dean Cohen does have those numbers as he has referred to them.

V. Blodgett said that her understanding was that Cornell basically follows the nation-wide trend and in terms of percentages, Cornell’s number of minority graduates is higher. She added that the whole number of graduate students has been decreasing nationally.

J. Sebastian asked if they had a specific plan in mind since their statement was very broad and general with no specifics mentioned as far as executable plans. He expressed concern with endorsing a document that doesn’t appear to really address the problems and set up an action plan.

A. Ramos replied that the problem is that currently the graduate school has an action plan but no philosophy or basic vision. They have experienced the inefficiencies. She added that action plans have been proposed to the graduate school and they are not given consideration.

N. Guidotti-Hernandez commented that they are students and are not being paid to come up with an action plan. The graduate school should be the one to come up with the plan.

J. Sebastian asked who they have been in contact with at the Graduate School.

A. Ramos replied Associate Dean Terry Plater and her assistant.

J. Sebastian commented that he and K. Zanetti, At-Large Representative, have been attending the General Committee Meetings of the Graduate School and Dean Cohen has shared a number of reports associated with minority students with them. He commented that Dean Cohen is clearly on top of the statistical information.

A. Ramos said that there has been a communication gap between the students and the administration.

N. Guidotti-Hernandez interjected that they have met with Dean Cohen. They are told they should be meeting with T. Plater. There seems to be a gap getting the communication through.

V. Blodgett suggested that they put together an action plan with this mission statement and give it to Dean Cohen.

P. Carr stated he would accept motions related to this document.

S. Hames agreed with J. Sebastian and thought they should put together an action plan.

P. Carr asked if there was any objection to the GPSA supporting this statement.

No objections were raised.

The GPSA supported the work behind the Minority Grad Student Recruitment and Retention document by acclamation.

V. Old Business and General Orders A) R.3 — Resolution on Improving the Big Red Barn A. Saathoff reported that he had the answers to a few questions that had previously been raised by members. One of the questions was who would be responsible if there were problems with the ethernet connections. He reported that CIT would be responsible if there are problems with the system. The second question revolved around what type of connections they would be. He answered that they would be 10-megabit connections. The question then raised was why install this older technology? The answer is that when the campus upgrades, these connections will be automatically upgraded also. He commented that the connections should still be fast enough for most of the work that would be done on these connections.

P. Carr asked if there would be cables across the walkway?

A. Saathoff responded that this resolution supports putting the ethernet connections on the black metal plating and would not have cables running across the floor. The alternate estimate provided had proposed placing the ethernet jacks along the building wall and that plan would have had cables run across the walkway, but that was not the one they were recommending.

V. Blodgett corrected that the location option was opposite. The plan supported by the resolution would have the ethernet ports along the building wall. Using the black metal plating would have meant the cables would be in the way.

A. Saathoff agreed and said the resolution favors the option that would not have interfering cables.

P. Carr asked if there was any further discussion. There was none.

P. Carr asked if there were any objections to approving this resolution. There were no objections.

The GPSA approved the resolution by acclamation.

The resolution reads as follows:

Resolution on Improving the Big Red Barn

WHEREAS, the Big Red Barn is the recognized Graduate and Professional Student center at Cornell University, and

WHEREAS, such a center should always strive to provide benefits that serve all graduate students, and

WHEREAS, the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly has a similar obligation to represent and serve all Graduate and Professional students, and

WHEREAS, recent GPSA and COR meetings have focused on possible ways to spend some of the budget surplus in a way that would benefit students, and

WHEREAS, the Big Red Barn is in need of certain renovations to update its technology in order to continue serving Graduate and Professional students;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the GPSA allocate $2907.00 to the Big Red Barn for the installment of Ethernet ports along the upstairs raceway on the black panel that runs along the tables, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any cost overruns are the responsibility of the Big Red Barn and that any unused funds will be returned to the GPSA and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that construction be completed no later than October 1, 2001, and if construction is unable to be completed by that date the Director of the Big Red Barn notify the GPSA, and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the GPSA delegate all CIT maintenance charges imposed on the installed ports as the responsibility of the Big Red Barn.

Respectfully Submitted,

Aaron J. Saathoff GPSA CALS Biological Sciences Representative

B) R.4 Resolution Regarding the Rental of the Red Commencement Gowns for All Cornell Ph.D. Graduates K. Levac, Other Representative, announced a couple of changes to the resolution. The first involved correcting a typo to correct the end of the 3rd line to read “Cornell Ph.D. graduates who ARE renting gowns�”. She said the last “be it finally resolved” clause would be deleted. She reported that she had spoken to C. Mabry, Commencement Coordinator, and they asked for that clause to be withdrawn. She said that basically it discussed those who purchase a black robe do not need to rent a red robe on top of that. K. Levac clarified that one could buy the black robes, however it was a rare occurrence.

J. Sebastian said he didn’t think that was true. He noted that people in his department bought more black robes than red last year.

J. Sebastian requested that the first “be it therefore resolved” clause be stricken because, although attempts to reach out to people were sincerely made, he didn’t feel it accurate to say that the poll was taken from a majority of the Cornell students.

This amendment was found friendly and the clause was removed.

P. Carr also noted that there needed to be an “s” at the end of “endorse” in the last resolved clause.

P. Carr asked if there was any further discussion or objection.

There was an objection, so P. Carr said they would vote on this issue.

The GPSA passed the resolution by a vote of 7 - 2.

The resolution reads as follows:

RESOLUTION REGARDING THE RENTAL OF RED COMMENCEMENT GOWNS FOR ALL CORNELL PH.D. GRADUATES

WHEREAS, all Cornell Ph.D. graduates are entitled to wear unique “Cornell red” gowns as part of the formal Commencement regalia, and these special red gowns are sewn by Collegiate Cap and Gown for Cornell University only, and

WHEREAS, Cornell Ph.D. graduates are currently unable to rent these red gowns for the Commencement ceremonies since all rental gown are black, and those who wish to wear the red gown must purchase it at a price of approximately $450.00, and

WHEREAS, the red gowns are available to eligible graduates at an increased rental fee ($40.00 - $45.00 for the red gowns as opposed to $12.00 for the black gowns), as is the case for graduates from the Law School, and

WHEREAS, the Commencement Committee has recommended that a complete switch be made for all Cornell Ph.D. graduates from black to red gowns, for aesthetic and administrative reasons, and

WHEREAS, of the graduate students who responded to an email poll asking them to choose between the black robes at $12.00 and the red robes at $40.00 - $45.00, at least 80% indicated that they would like to rent the red robes;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly endorses the Commencement Committee’s recommendation to have all Cornell Ph.D. graduates who are renting gowns to participate in the Commencement ceremonies rent the special Cornell red gowns, beginning in 2002.

Respectfully Submitted,

Krysta Levac GPSA Other Representative

C) Proposed Changes to the Graduate School Code A. Pleasant, Communication Representative, said this proposal suggested making some changes to the Graduate School code and would provide additional instructions to the Dean on how to handle certain situations. A handout was distributed to members. He said he was looking for approval from the GPSA so this could be taken to the General Committee and the graduate school for further discussion.

P. Carr clarified that they don’t want the department or field to be able to change a students status or funding without students being aware there is an appeal process. Thus, they are proposing that cases be funneled through the Graduate School. It wouldn’t touch situations where the special committee changes ones status. He cited as an example that if one fails their A-exam that this would not be applicable.

A. Saathoff requested that the word COR be removed from the proposal since the GPSA is the voting body.

P. Carr said there was no objection to that change.

L. Sekaric asked if the grievance procedure addresses this.

A. Pleasant responded that he believed they used the current version of the grievance procedure when this document was written. He said he was told the 1st paragraph of the grievance procedure does address this, and perhaps one could interpret it that way, however he thought it doesn’t explicitly express it and the language should be more blatant.

P. Carr asked if there was any further discussion. There was none.

P. Carr asked if there were any objections. There were no objections.

The GPSA approved taking the document to the General Committee of the Graduate School by acclamation.

D) R.5 GPSA Resolution In Support Of Cornell University’s Commitment To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions M. Gayne, History Representative, said that after the agreement that the administration reached with the KYOTO protestors, she would like the GPSA to acknowledge the agreement and to support it.

A. Pleasant argued that this issue is important to graduate students since, if the administration does follow-though, the bulk of the impact would be in the high-energy consumption research building. He said this is where, numerically, a lot of graduate students are located.

P. Carr commented that his understanding was that with Lake Source Cooling, they were quite a bit below 7%.

A. Pleasant replied that the math was debatable. He clarified that 85% was just a reduction of the cooling load, not the overall energy load. He added that it’s not in comparison to 1990 levels. He said it’s possible to do this without spending money if they take 7–10 years to pay back because of energy reduction. He said they’ve been told it would go to committee, so they’d have to wait and see what happens.

P. Carr said they’d need to make sure graduate students are included in the committee.

P. Carr asked if there was any further discussion. There was none.

P. Carr asked if there were any objections. There were no objections.

The GPSA approved the resolution by acclamation.

The resolution reads as follows:

GPSA RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY’S COMMITMENT TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

WHEREAS, the Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly takes the position that cities, colleges, universities and other institutions must assume a critical leadership role in order to move toward resolving the global climate change crisis, and

WHEREAS, as representatives of Cornell University’s graduate and professional students, we applaud the fact that the Cornell University administration has committed to do everything within its ability - consistent with the University’s obligations for teaching, research, service and extension - to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions attributable to campus activities to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2008, and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that we support the effort to form a university committee that will include faculty, students and staff in order to monitor the University’s “commitment to make its best effort to achieve the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol standards and identifying additional steps that can be taken to make the attainment of this objective a reality.” We believe graduate students can and should play a productive role in such an effort, and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that we encourage the administration, faculty, staff and students of Cornell University to embark upon actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through increasing energy efficiency, appropriate renovation of buildings, encouraging changes in behavior, purchasing green energy, planning new construction wisely and increasing efforts to reduce and recycle solid waste, and

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that efforts to reduce the worldwide risks of global change on both the global and local level will require an enhanced understanding of physical, natural and social processes involved in global change scenarios. In order for Cornell to reach its stated goal of reducing emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels, we believe Cornell University must work to support related research opportunities and provide cross-disciplinary forums for students and faculty across the campus. The graduate student population is an obvious and crucial point of production for this type of research and educational activity, and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly is committed to serving as a resource to ensure that Cornell University meets and goes beyond the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Gayne, History Representative Andrew Pleasant, Communication Representative

April 23, 2001

VII. Adjournment

P. Carr adjourned the meeting at 5:45p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Melissa Carvalho, student clerk