Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Minutes

Big Red Barn Greenhouse October 21, 2002 5:30–6:30 p.m. Attendance: 2002–2003 GPSA Members 8/26 9/30 10/21 11/25 1/27 2/24 3/24 4/21 Shaffique Adam P P P Daniel Dadoyan P A A Gerod Hall P P P Gavin Hurley P P P Lauren Mangiola P A P Kurt Massey A P P Timothy McConnochie P P P Andrew Miller A P P Joan Moriarty P P P Bryan Preston P A P Daniela Raik P P P David Schmale III P P P Andrew Schpak P P P Nab Sharif A P P Ariana Vigil A P P Robb Willer P P A Heather Wynder A P A Others Present: David Toomey, John Sebastian, Victoria Blodgett, Philip McPheron, Tyng Tsuei, Tammy Bishop

I. Call to Order J. Moriarty called the meeting to order at 5:35.

II. Approval of Minutes The minutes of September 30, 2002 were unanimously approved.

III. Announcements A) G. Hurley said that an email states that Tammy set up a discussion board to keep traffic at a minimum. The goals were set at the last COR meeting and he got very few responses. Please email Gavin if you are interested.

L. Mangiola said that she thinks the discussion board is very helpful and she uses it.

J. Moriarity said to thank Tammy.

T. Bishop said that the link to the discussion board is on the announcement page and is password protected.

B) S. Adam said that there will be a lecture from CRW at Anabel Taylor Chapel tonight. Lloyd Steffans will be speaking.

IV. Committee Reports A) J. Moriarty said that last week they looked at 3 cases of students who’s advisors were leaving. They saved 2 out of the 3 cases. They also approved the name change of the women’s studies department. A report about the ranking process of departments across the country is being done every 10 years andd it will be talked about at the next general committee meeting.

B) K. Massey asked if they are notified of when committees meet? Because he knows that he’s on one but doesn’t know when it meets, he’s on the JA committee.

J. Moriarty said that he should be notified, and she will check on it.

V. New Business

A) Stranded International Students S. Adam said that this is a result of new immigration laws and he wants to investigate how Cornell is affected. He met with the Dean of Students and ISSO and was told that 10 freshmen undergrads and 10 grad students were affected in that they were denied visas. In previous years it was about 1 or 2 people that were affected each year. As a result, there will be a forum a week from Tuesday at 11:00am in Founders in Anabel Taylor, sponsored by the Dean of Students, GPSA, ISSO, and CRESP. The point is to find out how it’s impacted Cornell students, like how many and how badly.

J. Moriarty said that she knows 2 grad students from Arabia who haven’t been able to return and it is a serious problem and we need to see what we can do.

S. Adam said that mostly Malaysian and Chinese are most affected. G. Hurley will email Muslim, Malaysian, and Chinese groups to see if they know of any cases.

L. Mangiola asked how are we going to publicize this issue?

G. Hurley said by email.

S. Adam said that Cornell has a lobbyist and he will be speaking at the Law School at 4:30 on the same day as the forum.

B) Advance Follow Up Issue J. Moriarty said that the plan for the Assemblies is to focus on main issues as a way to meaningfully come together. The 3 issues that were decided on were sustainable development, governance, and public service. The UA wants the GPSA to tell them what to focus on.

G. Hurley said that the meeting was on Friday morning and it was leadership from different assemblies. Somebody’s already dealing with governance and we need to identify 2 people per committee.

B. Preston said that at the UA meeting, they talked about what was the best use for assembly time. It was inconclusive and he hopes that time isn’t going to be wasted on more committees.

S. Adam said that initially the UA wanted to make it a project but the UA has other things to do so they decided the best thing to do was to have committees to focus on issues.

J. Moriarty said that public service deals with how to incorporate it more. Sustainable development deals with the environment and how do we grow responsibly. With employees, how do we reorganize Cornell and keeping in mind employee issues.

S. Adam said that hidden costs of development is a second angle.

J. Moriarty said the third issue, campus governance, deals with efficiency (committees), decreasing power and influence. This was prompted by what’s going on with the AAP.

L. Mangiola asked who is going to lead and be in charge?

G. Hurley said the committees will choose their chair/co-chair.

J. Moriarty said they need 2 people per committee, and they can go to COR for members.

T. McConnochie asked if the intention was to staff now or next week?

J. Moriarty said that she’ll first gather volunteers, and then decide.

N. Sharif asked how often and when will they meet?

G. Hurlely said that idea right now is to form committees because they haven’t been formed yet.

G. Hall said he wouldn’t mind being in sustainable development.

S. Adam said he would be good for being on governance because he’s on the UA.

L. Mangiola volunteered to be on public service.

K. Massey said he would do sustainable development.

A. Vigil said she would do public service.

N. Sharif said he would do governance.

C) Parliamentary Procedure Review D. Toomey said he was concerned that the lack of parliamentary procedures make things cumbersome and things get lost and become more difficult, for example last time when they were working on the resolution on AAP. He made up a hand out on general meeting procedures and said following guidelines will make things run smoothly land fairly. He read from the handout and then passed out a hand out of an example.

D) Executive Elections G. Hurley said that a starting point for discussion would be a change in the charter but that can’t be changed until the next meeting. Right now you need 2/3 majority to be elected and we can either leave it, or move to a majority vote, according to the resolution. 2/3 majority vote is good because it lets people get to know everyone after the friendly formalities have thawed out. Amendments can’t be made within the scope of the original amendment in the same sitting. The final amendment Shaffique suggested, where the President should be 2/3 since it is a big position.

A. Schpak asked if we are settling on changes today?

G. Hurley said that they can’t today, but can have an idea.

B. Preston asked is there an assumption that everybody goes into the next round if nobody gets 2/3?

J. Moriarty said that’s what this meeting is about — clarification.

B. Preston said he would like to applaud the people who took the initiative and might want to think about adding a difference between initial vote and use that as a way of weeding people out.

G. Hurley said there has never been a 3way.

J. Moriarty said that there is just 2 for every position.

S. Adam said that the reason for the amendment is that it is useful for the President to come in with a 2/3 mandate. The VP and Secretary aren’t as important votes. Committees can make their own motions for 2/3 mandates.

J. Sebastian said that in the past 2/3 comes about because it is dragged one and people leave. One time quorum was even ruined and this situation needs to be addressed.

J. Moriarty said that she agrees and agrees with the flexibility that Shaffique is talking about and they need to have a set of workable rules.

T. McConnochie said the problem with 2/e is the possibility of breaking the system and they need mechanisms resolved by majority.

D. Toomey asked should the GPSA be set up so that people who win the most votes is President?

D. Schmale said that the problem is some people don’t want to be President.

B. Preston said the issue in the last election is some way to educate new incoming people to familiarize themselves with procedures and candidates before elections. Maybe a charter change will help?

A. Schpak said he thinks that’s a good idea because he couldn’t make an educated decision last year.

L. Mangiola asked is it possible to have a meeting a week later after the initial introduction of candidacy.

J. Moriarty said it would entail meeting 3 Mondays in a row at the end of the semester.

N. Sharif asked when would the meeting be held?

J. Moriarty said that the 1st meeting elects COR, the 2nd GPSA is selected from COR.

L. Mangiola said they could send email announcing candidacies.

S. Adam said he supports the idea of a meeting in between because the old GPSA can show the new GPSA the strings.

T. McConnochie said an alternative could be to take nominations after elctions.

J. Moriarty asked if this would be enough time.

L. Mangiola said you won’t know if you’ll be elected though.

D. Schmale said that the extra meeting is a good idea. The last meeting presenting issues is OK because you can still converse with people. An additional meeting will drag it out more.

A. Schpak said that an additional meeting might be repetitive and they should make it optional.

A motion was made to lay the resolution on the table, and it was 2nded.

D. Schmale said he wanted to remind people about the other positions based on majority votes.

E) K. Massey said that the Dean of Students had a meeting with AAP alumni and it was very frank and encouraging about what will happen. Architecture wanted to go alone so a team of faculty formed and found out it was financially impossible. Suggestions were presented to President Rawlings. Dissolution may not happen because Rawlings is open to what people are saying. The situation looks a lot better but is not yet resolved. This was a result of the action of the GPSA and student involvement.

G. Hurley said he will add the thing on elections to the discussion board.

D. Schmale asked about any effect on the resolution passed?

K. Massey said the Dean appreciates the effort that students put into getting involved.

VII. Adjournment

A motion was made to adjourn.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:35 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, Tyng Tsuei

Office of the Assemblies