Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse September 24, 2001 5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Attendance: 2001–2002 GPSA Members 4/23 8/27 9/24 10/29 11/26 1/28 2/25 3/25 4/22 Shaffique Adam P P P Virginia Augusta P P P Pat Carr P P P Rob Chesley A A P Tyrell Haberkorn P E P Karsten Hueffer P P P Gavin Hurley P P P Bhaskar Krishnamachari A A P Joan Moriarty P P P Aaron Saathoff P P P Elisa Salas P P A Outi Salminen P E P John Sebastian P P P Jeff Siegel A A A David Toomey P P P Others Present: Andrew Pleasant, Sarah Bernett, Victoria Blodgett, Kris Corda, Phil McPheron, and Bonnie Bailey

I. Call to Order Pat Carr, President of the 2001–2002 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:05 p.m.

II. Open Forum R. Chesley, JGSM representative, told members about the Big Red Venture Fund. This group provides selected MBA students at the Johnson School with the opportunity to manage investments in early stage, high growth businesses and to promote entrepreneurship throughout the extended Cornell community. The fund receives business ideas from entrepreneurs, including Cornell students, faculty, and alumni, for possible incubation services and “seed” investment. They are examining ways to better communicate and get ideas to the group. He welcomed suggestions from the GPSA on how to improve outreach to the community.

P. Carr stated the best way to reach graduates would be to go through the graduate field assistants. He added that not all fields have a COR member, thus trying to communicate directly through grads probably wouldn’t be the most reliable method.

V. Augusta, Education representative, suggested going to the 3rd floor of Caldwell to get the information.

O. Salminen, At-Large representative and GPSA Vice President, told members she has heard that there have been some problems related to health insurance. She heard that some departments are not paying the health insurance for their grads even though it is now mandatory. She wondered if people are aware of departments that might be doing this.

J. Moriarty, Other representative, asked how this is possible.

O. Salminen replied that she didn’t know, however this is information she was told by the bursar’s office.

A. Saathoff, CALS (Biological Sciences) representative, wondered if perhaps these students are actually not fully funded. He stated he understood this to be policy and if there are people not following the policy that it should be brought to the attention of the Graduate School.

V. Augusta agreed, adding that to be fully funded she thought a grad must have at least a 9-month assistantship with a stipend and an allotment for living expenses. She thought students needed to be approved through the fellowship office.

P. Carr agreed, saying one needed to be careful that the students in question are actually fully funded. The professor should have no control over the policy. He said this could be taken to the Dean if it’s true that the policy isn’t being followed.

K. Hueffer, Biological Sciences and Graduate Veterinary representative, commented that they ought to try to make sure that the people complaining are actually fully funded. He felt it important to verify that facts are correct before reacting.

O. Salminen replied that these facts were provided to her by the bursar’s office.

K. Hueffer asked if the bursar could supply names of people.

J. Moriarty wondered if the bursar’s office would be telling students what they needed to do.

O. Salminen told members she could write an e-mail to send to people to help clarify things.

P. Carr stated he would prefer to start with the source and get some facts before sounding alarms. He said they should be sure they know what they are talking about before making plans to do anything.

Members agreed.

III. Approval of Minutes A. Saathoff made a motion to approve the GPSA minutes from the August 27, 2001 meeting. J. Sebastian seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as submitted.

IV. Announcements K. Corda, Manager of the Big Red Barn, announced a new Dining Director named Victor Younger has expressed interest in making improvements to the Big Red Barn. Graduate student dining will be examined more closely and they are looking for a graduate student to assist them in identifying the needs and wants of graduate diners.

B. Krishnamachari, Engineering representative, volunteered. He stated he was the graduate student appointed to the Student Assembly Dining Committee last year and had surveyed graduate students on this very issue. He said he had electronic responses from that survey, but he has not yet had time to compile the results. He said he would be glad to provide this information for their use.

K. Corda said this was exactly the type of thing they could use and she was delighted with this prior work. She asked if V. Younger could attend a future COR or GPSA meeting to talk with students about dining issues in the Big Red Barn.

P. Carr asked which meeting they’d prefer. A COR meeting that has the larger group membership? Or, a GPSA meeting that is smaller in size?

It was felt that a COR meeting would reach more people and would be a better avenue to communicate.

O. Salminen suggested to K. Corda that it would be a good idea to consult with a nutritionist when planning meals at the Big Red Barn. O. Salminen said she believed Gannett had nutritionists that could be asked.

V. Committee Reports A. Funding Policy Committee G. Hurley, Engineering representative and Chair of the Funding Policy Committee (FPC), informed members they have begun the process to set the graduate and professional student activity fee. He summarized that the fee is set every other year and groups on campus ask the GPSA for money. These groups are called by-line funded organizations. It is the task of the FPC to review the requests for by-line funding and make recommendations to the GPSA. The GPSA will eventually reach consensus on this and forward their recommendations to the President. The GPSA must complete this process by their December meeting. He told members he had sent letters to organizations that currently receive by-line funding and asked that they return the appropriate information by Friday, September 28 if they still wish to ask for money. He is still working to set up a timetable for the FPC members to review the information and meet with the groups. He stated he hopes to present something to the GPSA at the October 15 COR meeting.

K. Hueffer asked G. Hurley if he would send an e-mail to FPC members as soon as the timetable is known.

G. Hurley replied he would do so.

P. Carr asked if the schedule could also be sent to GPSA-L.

G. Hurley asked if there were any questions from members.

There were none.

B. Dean Search P. Carr informed members that the search for the Dean for the Graduate School is still on-going. They have set their meeting times to Mondays from 4:15–6:00 p.m. This presents a conflict for P. Carr, who has been a member of the search committee, as GPSA meetings take place during those times twice per month. Therefore, P. Carr said he felt they needed to try to find a graduate student to take over for him on the search committee that is not a COR or GPSA member. He asked if anyone would like to recommend someone for this.

No one had any suggestions.

P. Carr said he was leaning toward asking a student in his department that he knows and can easily communicate with as he would like to ensure that communication stays good. Or, he suggested asking L. Sekaric, Vice President of the GPSA last year.

Members who knew L. Sekaric felt she would be a very good person to ask.

J. Sebastian suggested that K. Mowry, GPSA secretary for last year, might also be a good student to approach.

C. Other Committees O. Salminen told members the Communications Committee would be meeting immediately after this meeting. She said they would like to settle on postering locations and asked where they might use in the Big Red Barn.

K. Corda answered that they could use space in the foyer.

O. Salminen asked about obtaining space in Caldwell. V. Blodgett replied that she could look into this.

H. Tinnes, DEA representative, wondered if the GPSA could have their own bulletin board in the Big Red Barn.

K. Corda replied that adding another board might be a problem as space is tight.

VI. Business of the Day A. NYU Grad Student Relief V. Augusta told members that NYU is overcome with the recent tragedy that occurred September 11. She said she has looked at their website and, instead of giving what might be considered traditional kinds of information, they are communicating things such as how to get back into dorms. This tragedy has taken over. She stated she is not typically in favor of using GPSA funds for student disaster relief, but wondered if the GPSA might be interested in helping NYU graduate students in light of this extreme situation. She elaborated that she tried contacting the NYU Dean to see if there is a coordinated plan for providing disaster relief. She has not been able to verify information. She said she’d hoped to have more definitive information to bring to the GPSA meeting, but wondered if the group could discuss this conceptually instead.

K. Corda asked if the GPSA would like to do a fundraiser — perhaps at TGIF? She suggested they could ask people to give a $5.00 donation for this cause.

V. Augusta said she would like to see what efforts have already begun before planning a fundraiser.

R. Chesley said they did a fundraiser in JGSM and raised a few thousand dollars.

P. Carr asked if they wanted to take money from the GPSA accounts?

V. Augusta said she hoping to discuss different methods and was open to suggestions from the group.

V. Blodgett stated she felt it important to have a needs assessment to better understand the situation. She suggested perhaps working with other Ivies, such as Columbia.

V. Augusta agreed a needs assessment was very important. She stated she didn’t know if 10 graduates have been affected or 100. She also wasn’t sure of the best method to target this particular group of people to receive funds.

O. Salminen said she thought it an excellent idea to target graduates as the group to receive funds. She said she’d like to move forward with a TGIF fundraiser.

J. Moriarty suggested they consider giving a sum of money from the GPSA. Perhaps if a fundraiser was done the donation could either be supplemented with that money, or GPSA funds could be replenished.

S. Adam, A&S (Physical Sciences) representative, suggested the GPSA could advertise it would equally match funds from a particular fundraising event.

O. Salminen felt fundraising would be well received by the public.

V. Augusta asked the group how they’d feel if the fundraising effort was very successful and then the GPSA would need to take the same amount from their account to match.

J. Moriarty proposed donating $3,000.00 of GPSA funds for NYU relief.

A. Saathoff told members he wanted to clarify that he was not opposed to giving money for this cause. However, he felt they needed to be careful about two things. First, they need to make sure whatever funds they give to NYU would be channeled to graduate students. Second, he was uncomfortable taking such a high percentage of the GPSA funds for this cause when a needs assessment is still unknown. He added he felt uncomfortable with fuzzy numbers.

V. Augusta told members that $3,000.00 is a much higher amount than she’d been thinking. She thought they could band together with other Ivies in this relief effort.

P. Carr asked if people were proposing an amendment to the original proposal?

D. Toomey, A&S (Humanities) representative, asked if V. Augusta wanted to take these suggestions to NYU for their input.

V. Augusta said she did want to get more information from NYU. She added that she had hoped for the GPSA to give $500.00 and maybe try to supplement this amount with fundraising efforts.

K. Hueffer asked if they should postpone this discussion until the October 15 COR meeting to allow information gathering to take place.

O. Salminen replied that October 15 was too far away. She felt it important to move quickly.

B. Krishnamachari proposed an amendment to the original proposal. He made a motion to form a committee to review the issues and give them a cap on the dollar amount to be spent.

A member suggested setting the cap at $1,000.

P. Carr asked the GPSA if they were agreeable to this motion.

S. Adam seconded this.

An ad-hoc committee to gather information about the needs of NYU graduate students affected by the September 11 tragedy was formed. Members included V. Augusta, J. Moriarty, and B. Krishnamachari.

V. Augusta asked what kind of emergency budget Cornell has in place for graduate students. She indicated she would think NYU would have a similar budget in place that would be tapped.

V. Blodgett replied that was a good thought. She said if Cornell found itself in a similar situation that it would have money in its emergency fund to help students. She indicated that if it were short, they would probably come up with money from elsewhere in the university.

A. Saathoff suggested setting a lower cap from GPSA funds and adding that to fundraiser money. He proposed having the committee incorporate planning of a fundraiser in their charge.

K. Corda said her staff could help.

O. Salminen reiterated it was urgent to quickly move on relief efforts.

J. Sebastian stated he was not comfortable advertising a fundraiser until a needs assessment was done.

B. Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, asked the GPSA to clarify if they are authorizing expenditure of a set amount of $1,000.00 from GPSA funds, or authorizing the committee to use GPSA funds of up to $1,000.00 based on the results of the needs assessment?

P. Carr replied the committee has been given a set amount of $1,000.00. However, they may give less than that amount based on the needs assessment.

P. McPheron, Director of Graduate Student Housing, asked the GPSA if they were interested in knowing how their money is spent.

K. Corda suggested they put stipulations on the way the money would be spent.

P. Carr asked the committee to explicitly state the money is for graduate student relief for NYU students.

S. Adam stated the committee could iron these things out.

P. Carr summarized this discussion for the group and put it in the form of a motion. For purposes of NYU graduate student relief, the GPSA directs the committee of Virginia Augusta, Joan Moriarty, and Bhaskar Krishnamachari to spend $1,000.00, plus fundraising money if it so deems, for NYU graduate relief.

A vote was taken. The motion passed unanimously.

B. Graduate Instructors A. Pleasant informed members he would like to address the situation of Cornell’s Teaching Assistant’s. He noted that Cornell only recognizes the broad title of TA. He stated there are different responsibilities required of TA’s and he would like to propose splitting the broad term of TA into two different titles to acknowledge these differences. The first would encompass the graduate student who is the primary person for teaching a class. He suggested the title of Graduate Instructor for this level. The second level would continue to be called TA and would differ in that the responsibilities would not be as comprehensive. A professor would be supervising or teaching a large part of the time and perhaps the TA would assist or grade papers. A. Pleasant said he did not want to get into different compensation levels as that would make this issue much more complex. He told members he would like to approach the Graduate School about this and would like GPSA feedback.

J. Sebastian elaborated for members, stating that he teaches a freshman writing seminar. He is responsible for designing the class, teaching the class, and grading the papers. He stated there were other positions in his program where the TA might sit in a lecture and occasionally lead a discussion section or grade papers. He stated this would be an attempt to clarify the distinction in responsibility between the two and separate them by title.

J. Moriarty asked about situations such as math, where the classes are taught by grads, but the professor writes the exams.

A. Pleasant replied that he would think that situation would fall under the Graduate Instructor level.

P. Carr asked who would be responsible for deciding?

A. Pleasant said the Graduate Code of Legislation describes different types of assistantships. He stated he’d propose amending the language to add this distinction.

B. Krishnamachari asked for clarification. He stated he is currently co-teaching a class with another graduate student. He never saw a letter stating his title.

A. Pleasant answered that if there had been a letter it would have said he was a Teaching Assistant.

V. Augusta suggested adding the title of “Senior Teaching Instructor” if this is going to be changed.

A. Pleasant replied this would open up financial compensation issues.

O. Salminen commented that if the title of Senior Teaching Assistant were incorporated that its equivalent of Senior Research Assistant ought to be considered.

K. Hueffer remarked there might be problems trying to change titles for TA’s. He noted that some departments boast that they offer classes that have “no graduate student instructors”.

J. Sebastian stated a General Committee meeting was scheduled for the following Monday. He wondered if the GPSA wished to propose language that could be brought to the General Committee.

V. Blodgett mentioned that the title of “instructor” might present a technical hanging point. That is also associated with adjunct professors. She felt the timing of this suggestion to be good. She suggested that the GPSA put their proposal in the context of why they desire this change and articulate why they feel it important. For example, different title distinctions show advancement.

V. Augusta favored making the titles multi-tiered. She felt they would be better heard if they offered a number of different suggestions and would have more room to bargain with administrators than if they went in with only a couple of suggestions.

P. McPheron recommended that they check to see what has been done elsewhere. NAGPS might be a good place to check.

P. Carr asked if there was a hurry to make these changes.

A. Pleasant answered that he would like to have done something with this by the end of the semester.

P. Carr said they should bring this issue to the next meeting.

V. Augusta said she thought it important to bring ideas to the General Committee so they have a thought out idea.

A. Saathoff said he would like it to be more organized before going before the General Committee.

B. Krishnamachari stated he would like to see this brought back in the form of a GPSA resolution.

P. Carr asked members to give suggestions to A. Pleasant at afp5@cornell.edu.

C. GPSA/COR Meeting Times P. Carr said this meeting time was close to over and asked if the group would agree to extend the meeting length to briefly discuss the last item on the agenda.

This was agreeable to the group.

P. Carr stated the issue of changing the meeting time of GPSA/COR meetings had been discussed at the last COR meeting. He thought the issue had been settled, with the group deciding to keep the meeting time of 5:00–6:00 p.m. He said he was interpreting the request to change the meeting time in the nature of a standing rule and it would need a vote of 2/3 to change.

S. Adam commented that two of the COR members cannot attend 5:00 meetings due to conflicts related to seminars.

O. Salminen said that, although it is too late to do this year, they could ask departments not to schedule seminars during the time GPSA/COR meets.

A member suggested compiling a list of seminars and examining the days and times they are held to see when meetings could be regularly held that would be least intrusive overall.

B. Krishnamachari wondered if perhaps this had been done previously and that is why the GPSA/COR meets at the time it does.

S. Adam asked how many others had problems with the current meeting time?

Three out of the fifteen GPSA members indicated they had conflicts.

G. Hurley asked that if they consider a different meeting time that the group consider starting later, not earlier.

A. Saathoff noted that his impression from this same discussion at the last COR meeting was that there were many differing views and no time would be perfect for all.

V. Augusta wondered if this group might differ from COR?

A. member asked how the Law school is impacted. J. Siegel, Law representative, had originally broached the topic because he had a conflict with the time. Do law representatives miss the GPSA/COR meetings for required courses or are they electives?

Sarah Bernett, Law proxy for this meeting, stated that the classes are considered required electives. They are technically electives, however if they are in the area the Law student needs to concentrate in, they essentially become required.

J. Sebastian summarized that keeping the meeting time as is does not completely eliminate law representation. It only affects those law students who sign up for the required electives. Those students could try to find a replacement.

A. Saathoff reiterated that they would never adapt the schedule to perfectly suit all.

B. Bailey asked if changes the GPSA might make to the schedule would be long-term or for this year and this group only?

G. Hurley replied the changes would be for this year only.

P. Carr told members that the schedule is set by the GPSA each year.

O. Salminen stated she would like to change the GPSA meeting time to 5:30.

P. Carr stated it would need to pass by a 2/3 vote to change.

A. Saathoff asked who would benefit from this change.

J. Moriarty, S. Adam, and J. Siegel would benefit. It was noted that none of the GPSA members would lose by changing the start time of the GPSA meetings.

P. Carr stated they needed to have a 2/3 vote to change this. He asked B. Bailey how she would be affected if the meeting time changed.

B. Bailey replied that the focus of the group should be with the needs of the GPSA. She would be there to support them if the decision is to make the meeting time later.

K. Hueffer made a motion to vote to change the GPSA meeting time from 5:00–6:00 p.m. to 5:30–6:00 p.m. for the remainder of this year.

D. Toomey asked to amend the motion to not make the time change if E. Salas, Vet representative, was not able to make 5:30 GPSA meetings.

A. Saathoff asked if E. Salas was the only GPSA member absent at the meeting. J. Siegel was also not present, however he had sent his representative and already made his feelings known. All other GPSA members were present.

D. Toomey clarified that he would support the motion if it would not harm anyone.

P. Carr noted that E. Salas was at the COR meeting when this was last discussed.

P. Carr stated they would vote on whether to change the GPSA meeting time from 5:00–6:00 p.m. to 5:30–6:00 p.m. for the remainder of this year.

A vote was taken. The motion passed by a vote of 10–0−2.

P. Carr reminded members they could bring in another grad. from their field to replace them on COR. He clarified it is written in the GPSA Charter that when one assumes the responsibility of being on the GPSA that another person may be recruited to replace them on COR.

VII. Adjournment P. Carr adjourned the meeting at 6:21 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bonnie Bailey Office of the Assemblies