Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse January 28, 2002 5:30–6:30 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 P E P Virginia Augusta P P P P P P Pat Carr P P P P P P Rob Chesley A A P A A A Tyrell Haberkorn P E P P P P Karsten Hueffer P P P P P P Gavin Hurley P P P P P P Bhaskar Krishnamachari A A P P E E Joan Moriarty P P P P P P Aaron Saathoff P P P P A P Elisa Salas P P A P A P Outi Salminen P E P P P P John Sebastian P P P P P P Jeff Siegel A A A P A A David Toomey P P P P P P Others Present: Victoria Blodgett, Phil McPheron, Bonnie Bailey, and Margaret Heavey

I. Call to Order Pat Carr, president of the 2001–2002 GPSA, called the meeting to order at 5:34 p.m.

II. Open Forum There were no items for open forum.

III. Approval of GPSA Minutes Approval of the GPSA minutes was postponed.

IV. Committee/Officer Reports A. Diversity Council V. Augusta, CALS (Social Sciences) representative, reported she recently went to her first Diversity Council meeting. She summarized that the group seems to have a broad mission. For example, one of the members from Campus Life wanted to hold diversity training sessions. A purpose of the Council is to continue with this type of programming and help in developing direction. However, there doesn’t seem to be a definite mandate. The next meeting will be geared toward the Asian community and a speaker will be brought in. They also discussed having members of this Council go to different units to work with how they are currently addressing diversity issues. The Council is working to come up with an umbrella statement.

K. Hueffer, Biological Sciences and Graduate Veterinary representative, questioned the broadness of the Council. He wondered if international students were represented.

V. Augusta replied yes, the group aims for global representation. A lot of people have good ideas; implementation seems as though it will be a challenge.

B. Committee Openings�an Impassioned Desperate Plea: Library Board, Council on Alcohol P. Carr again brought up the existing vacancy on the Library Board and updated members that no one has come forward to indicate they would be interested in filling the seat. P. Car commented he had hoped a grad student from Humanities would be interested in serving on the Library Board. He also said he felt it important for grad students to have representation at the Council on Alcohol.

K. Hueffer inquired if any grad or professional student could serve on these committees.

P. Carr responded yes. He noted that the last time the university re-vamped the alcohol policy, grads were not included early in the process. Grads became involved late in the process and sent the policy back for revisions. It wasn’t the most amiable of processes and involvement early on helps alleviate problems later.

V. Blodgett, Director of Graduate Student Life, commented that grads are underrepresented on many university committees. She stressed it was important that they volunteer to serve and help make their presence felt.

P. McPheron, Director of Graduate and Professional Student Housing, interjected that he believed S. Murphy, Vice President for Student and Academic Services, had said the GPSA does have a representative.

P. Carr responded his name was probably listed by default.

D. Toomey, A&S (Humanities) representative, stated mild interested in the Council on Alcohol position. P. Carr said he would send him more information.

P. Carr announced J. Sebastian, At-Large representative, must resign from the General Committee (GC) of the Graduate School because they’ve begun meeting at a time when he cannot. The meetings are now Mondays at 9:00a.m. The GC handles policy and legislative issues related to graduate student life.

J. Moriarty, Other representative and a member of the GC, noted the GC meets once per month for approximately two hours. There are around 15 faculty members present and it is important for the grads on the committee to be committed as there is material one must read and it is important to be prepared.

V. Augusta acknowledged she might be interested if no one else really wanted to do it.

S. Adam, A&S (Physical Sciences) representative, stated he might also be interested if no one else came forward.

P. Carr said he’d gather names for the exec’s to consider and let the group know the decision. Anyone interested should contact him. He commented it would be ideal to move quickly as the General Committee was meeting the following week.

C. Executive Committee P. Carr reported that B. Krishnamachari, Engineering representative, emailed him and stated he’s having trouble making the meetings. B. Krishnamachari wrote he’d try his best to attend.

P. Carr told members that B. Krishnamachari has been a very involved member in the past and because there is only a little time left this year. Consequently, he felt reluctance to replace B. Krishnamachari at this point. He asked if members objected to not accepting B. Krishnamachari’s resignation.

There were no objections and B. Krishnamachari remained a seated GPSA member.

P. Carr stated the GPSA executive committee would meet with S. Power, Interim Dean of the Graduate School, on Friday.

P. McPheron asked the name of the graduate representative on the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC). He commented there are some transportation issues grads would probably want to know about.

B. Bailey, Office of the Assemblies, responded she would email P. McPheron with this information.

A. Saathoff, CALS (Biological Sciences) representative, stated TAC is a committee of the UA. He said he’d report back to the GPSA if he hears anything.

V. Business of the Day A. Official Position on Unionization P. Carr distributed a draft resolution statement regarding the GPSA’s position on unionization and asked for comments.

K. Hueffer felt the last resolve clause should say “�that the GPSA shall actively work�”

E. Salas, Veterinary representative, questioned how active the GPSA’s role would be?

P. Carr replied he thought things would become clearer later in the semester. He noted that other campuses have had antagonizing exchanges on this issue. In contrast, Cornell’s GPSA meet with the administration regularly throughout the year and have forged a good relationship. He doesn’t foresee this changing or becoming strained.

V. Augusta inquired if the GPSA would sponsor a forum or debate on unionization.

P. Carr replied yes; keeping in mind that the GPSA should work to be a neutral presence.

V. Augusta responded it seemed the GPSA would be promoting an outcome.

P. Carr disagreed, saying the GPSA would be promoting discourse. He motioned to add the word “actively” to the resolution as K. Hueffer had suggested. There were no objections and the word “actively” was added to the last clause.

P. Carr asked members their opinion on referring to NAGPS in the first therefore clause.

K. Hueffer stated it should be omitted.

O. Salminen was in favor of keeping the reference to NAGPS as they have good information.

P. Carr asked members if they would like to vote on this. A vote revealed six in favor of keeping NAGPS in the clause, with three opposed.

V. Augusta remarked they should add language to clarify that GPSA sponsored discourse would be even and equitable.

A. Saathoff agreed.

T. Haberkorn. AAP (Social Sciences) representative, suggested amending the resolution to include, “equal representation” or “balanced representation.”

K. Hueffer expressed concern over the meaning of “resources” found in the last clause.

A. Saathoff suggested adding the following language, “be it further resolved that any GPSA involvement shall provide equitable and reasonable treatment for all parties.”

V. Augusta enunciated, “the GPSA shall work to actively maintain an open and on going discourse between all parties, supporting a balanced perspective and shall not devote any of its own resources to securing a particular outcome of any vote.”

K. Hueffer expressed concern over the potential for confrontation with administration as a result of this resolution.

J. Moriarty stated the law supports that grads are employees.

E. Salas remarked the GPSA should strive to make this statement as neutral as possible.

V. Blodgett suggested simply saying the GPSA supports the right of employees.

Members favored V. Augusta’s suggestions for the fourth clause.

P. Carr invited additional comment on the third clause, “supports the right of graduate students to unionize.”

T. Haberkorn suggested, “�to allow the right�”, not saying the decision is felt. It must be kept as broad as possible.

A. Saathoff interjected that saying one has “the right” does not imply support for either side.

D. Toomey suggested amending the language to say “�to choose to unionize�”.

K. Hueffer stated he supported “the right to choose” clause.

J. Sebastian questioned if using that language would mean the GPSA does not support those who choose not to unionize?

K. Hueffer then suggested modifying this to say “�to choose whether or not�”

J. Sebastian asked why the GPSA was doing this resolution.

P. Carr responded he has been repeatedly asked about the opinion of the GPSA on unionization. He felt it would be helpful to have a formal statement.

J. Moriarty added that other schools have historically asked their GPSA-equivalents to make a statement.

V. Blodgett suggested “�to choose or not to choose�”

G. Hurley questioned NAGPS’ wording on this topic.

P. Carr encouraged, “�to choose to unionize�”

A. Saathoff suggested, “�supporting a choice�”

J. Moriarty remarked, “�supporting a process�”

E. Salas noted she liked “the right” better. She doesn’t see the difference between choice and process.

K. Hueffer emphasized the importance of making the statement very clear. There seems a great risk of parts being taken out of context or used in propaganda.

T. Haberkorn stated she didn’t think it necessary to add, “�to choose�”

P. Carr summarized the three choices for amending that part of the clause. They were “to choose to”, “while maintaining a neutral stance”, or leave it the same.

The majority of members favored, “while maintaining a neutral stance.”

The text of the resolution reads as follows: R.4

Resolution Regarding GPSA Position on Unionization

Whereas, The Cornell Association of Student Employees is working to unionize student employees at Cornell; and

Whereas, The Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) is concerned with matters affecting all graduate and professional students;

Be It Therefore Resolved, That, in concurrence with the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, the GPSA, while maintaining a neutral stance, supports the right of graduate student employees to unionize; and

Be It Further Resolved, That the GPSA shall actively work to maintain an open and ongoing discourse between all parties, supporting a balanced perspective, and shall not devote any of its own resources to securing a particular outcome of any vote.

Respectfully submitted,

Patrick Carr GPSA President

As unanimously passed by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly on 01/28/02.

B. Social Event Planning This item was not discussed due to time constraints.

C. Creation of Standing Rules This item was not discussed due to time constraints.

VI. Adjournment P. Carr adjourned the meeting at 6:48 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Margaret Heavey Office of the Assemblies