Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Minutes
160 Goldwin Smith
August 25, 2003
5:30–7:00 p.m.

Attendance:

Present:Sam Flaxman, Gavin Hurley, Curtis Jirsa, Kurt Massey, Timothy McConnochie, Joan Moriarty, David Schmale III, Susannah Schmid, Ariana Vigil, Farbod Raiszadeh

Excused: Larry Boyd, Mark McGuire, Anne McNeill, Cate Taylor, Robb Willer

Unexcused:

Others present: K. Nobles, T. Tsuei, P. McPheron

G. Hurley called the meeting to order at 5:40. The meeting started off with everybody introducing themselves. No agenda was present, Gavin said that he figured we would just brainstorm ideas and introduce the concept of GPSA. An issue at hand is the vacancy of the secretary seat. B. Holmes wrote a resolution in regards to it. During the meeting they should also discuss COR elections. Gavin also discussed various ways of getting voices heard, mentioning that there are lots of channels, like general committee, and leadership meetings.

D. Schmale said that COR meetings are non-executive meetings of the GPSA. He is the chairperson. COR is important because there are a lot more people and constituents. He said we need to find a way to connect COR to GPSA and hopes to do that this year. He feels the executive officers should be present at COR meetings.

G. Hurley said he welcomes suggestions and comments on how the chairmen are doing. Fortunately, this year’s body has lots of experienced members. He asked people to have resolutions submitted by Wednesday before meetings for review. The schedule of meetings is up on the website and will go up on the final website later on. He asked people to please come to meetings because last year there were lots of problems with having quorum at meetings. Please contact the officers if you need to be absent, and everybody is entitled to 1 unexcused absence per semester.

G. Hurley said that the current charter doesn’t deal with vacancies left on the GPSA so B. Holmes made up a resolution addressing that.

B. Holmes said that he modeled his resolution after the SA’s charter. It suggests that the Vice President become President automatically in case anything should happen to the incumbent President, because the current charter doesn’t allow that to happen. It is important to have all positions filled and the secretary can choose to become Vice President or the body can elect a new Vice President in the event the President can no longer serve. Section 5.12 prevents the “dirty practice” of 9 people meeting secretly to elect someone, since the current charter allows 2/3’s of the body to be able to elect somebody to office.

C. Jirsa asked is the 2nd whereas clause necessary?

B. Holmes said that only Sections 5.9 to 5.12 are going into the charter.

J. Moriarty said that we are not voting today because this is a charter change, today is merely introductions.

B. Holmes said he is hoping to have a secretary by the end of September and will present this at the COR meeting for fair notice.

K. Massey asked can we send an amendment over the list-serv so that we can vote at the next meeting?

T. McConnochie said he believes that “written notice” means a hard copy.

B. Holmes said that in the past, that was interpreted to be e-mail.

T. McConnochie said that COR is technically a GPSA meeting.

? said that the language in 5.9 is open to interpretation.

B. Holmes said it needs to be held out in public, i.e. if the President is in a coma and can’t resign and is still technically a student.

K. Nobles said that anything not covered in the charter is in Robert’s Rules.

S. Flaxman said that this resolution only deals with the vacancy of an officer, what happens when somebody leaves the GPSA?

G. Hurley said they are elected from COR.

C. Jirsa pointed out that all language except in 5.9 said that officers are given an option — what if the VP doesn’t want to become President?

B. Holmes said that the VP and President have very similar duties so the transition would be easier and logical. He wants to avoid situations where a presidential election is needed mid-year.

S. Flaxman said that if they should force the VP to become President, then the VP can always just resign.

S. Schmid asked that if the VP resigns from being President, do they relinquish their VP duties too? Or should they get an option?

C. Jirsa said they can force the VP to be President until a new President is found, that can be an option.

D. Schmale said that we can make it known at elections that the VP may have to be President and let the responsibility be known.

B. Holmes said that the VP and President have very similar duties already.

G. Hurley said that the resolution is not formally on the table yet, it will be formally introduced at the next meeting. It is good to talk about it right now but this is not a final decision.

D. Schmale said they need to make clear where candidates are coming from, the GPSA or COR.

B. Holmes said he will check the charter.

S. Flaxman asked do we choose a new secretary first, or a new GPSA member, or do it simultaneously?

D. Schmale said we should elect a secretary first, then a new member.

B. Holmes said we can only elect GPSA at a COR meeting, so if an officer resigns in December, it will take 2 months until the next COR meeting.

K. Massey said we need full representation if electing a new officer.

B. Holmes said he is concerned about making replacement election standards higher than regular elections.

Phil McPheron introduced himself to the body, saying his function is to offer another viewpoint.

G. Hurley said that field rep elections for COR need to be done soon, since the first COR meeting is September 15th. He is working on an email to send to grads to remind them to get their COR reps ready. The old website needs to be re-vamped and he welcomes any suggestions and comments. The other thing to discuss is how/when to replace Lauren Mangiola, there is no time frame yet.

D. Schmale asked if anybody was interested in being secretary?

(no answer)

G. Hurley said the duties of the secretary in the charter are fairly loose.

J. Moriarty said when she was secretary, none of the duties in the charter were true. The secretary helps the other officers and is not as intensive.

B. Holmes said the GPSAFC usually meets after COR. The 1st meeting won’t be until September 22nd at 5:30 due to the fact that there will be new members not on committees yet. In the past the GPSAFC only included grad schools, but this year he wants people from the professional schools to be part of it too. He thinks it will raise awareness of what’s going on and add cohesion amongst the grads.

A. Vigil asked if GPSAFC representatives were limited to 1 person per field?

B. Holmes said no, the number of reps doesn’t matter, he wants to diversify GPSAFC.

J. Moriarty said the pay & benefits committee submitted 1400 signatures for dental and vision coverage at the end of last year. Although they now receive dental and vision option buy-in plan, the prices are steep relative to the survey and the average of other universities. The committee is working on a letter to submit to President Lehmann. Since the health plan can be revised each year, part of the letter states that the grads are unhappy with what was provided, that being the expensiveness of the plan.

D. Schmale asked what’s the big request by the committee to the university?

J. Moriarty said they haven’t met yet, but they are brainstorming. It’s clear that dental and vision are the most important, but they don’t know what’s is the 2nd most important.

G. Hurley said this semester we will be setting the activity fee. Larry Boyd from the business school is chairing the committee and is gathering money requests from other committees.

S. Flaxman asked if people got a letter from the university asking students to give over their rights to patents of inventions that come into fruition while being an employee of Cornell? The letter is very broad, and he thinks it’s a new thing. The language is vague enough that if you invented something in the privacy of your own home, Cornell can take that patent.

S. Schmid said she thinks she knows what that letter’s about and she believes the university doesn’t want students to use the university’s equipment and funding. If it’s invented at home, it’s ok, but she will check on it.

P. McPheron said that most employees got that letter and it has to deal with concerns over intellectual property. If you are using university resources and facilities, then something is at stake.

S. Flaxman said he unfamiliar with contract law and is not sure what the language of “place of employment” means in the letter.

G. Hurley wanted to wish happy birthday to Curtis.

B. Holmes asked what are we going to do with the endowment? The money is just going to sit there and accrue interest.

G. Hurley said last year they tried to pay the events planning committee informally with endowment money.

B. Holmes said they should decide what to do with the budget in conjunction with the endowment.

? said we should have somebody trained for Robert’s Rules.

G. Hurley said that we will see how things go and see if we can manage. The workshop was a great idea but will encounter lots of scheduling problems and raise the issue of finding somebody to be the trainer.

K. Nobles said she has cheat sheets made up if anybody needs help with Robert’s Rules.

B. Holmes said that the size of GPSA will be cumbersome to follow Robert’s Rules.

? asked will COR needs to follow Robert’s Rules?

J. Moriarty said they don’t conduct official business at COR, Robert’s Rules covers the GPSA.

G. Hurley said another problem is making COR meetings meaningful.

D. Schmale suggested that at the end of COR meetings, they should construct ideas to bring to the next GPSA meeting. The UA talked about having an assembly-wide training session in Robert’s Rules. The UA also divided into groups for individual projects and he was wondering if the GPSA can handle a theme for the year, i.e. surveying grad departments for stuff like funding.

B. Holmes said there are problems in the charter that need to be fixed. There are language inconsistencies. He is also concerned with the code of academic integrity and the campus code of conduct because students have no rights if they are accused of cheating and it is a horrible situation. The GPSA can’t be involved in academic matters but the UA can. For instance, in one case 2 hotelies forged a letter on Statler stationary and got free meals from restaurants. They were punished under the code of academic integrity and under the code of campus conduct. They were suspended for 2–3 years because there is no double jeopardy clause. This is a UA thing but the GPSA needs to be aware of the situation.

S. Flaxman said there have been lots of incidences of violation of academic integrity but professors are scared to death to enforce it because their jobs are on the line since cases are so difficult to prove.

G. Hurley said that another idea is a grad student represented trustee. Right now the student trustee is an undergrad, and they typically represent undergrads.

D. Schmale said the UA has already requested grad and employee trustees.

J. Moriarty said in the past, there used to be 80 trustees, then it was shrunk to 40, then increased to 60. The seats added weren’t constituent seats, they were for rich people.

K. Massey asked who modifies the number of trustees?

J. Moriarty said the trustees do.

G. Hurley said that Albany needs to approve but one way around that is to appoint trustee fellows.

D. Schmale said they should get on this right away and decide whether or not we want a fellow or an actual slot.

G. Hurley said that opponents to this have said that in the past, graduates never used the resources available to them and they should look at other avenues. We should look at other avenues and if they don’t work, then this will help strengthen our case.

B. Holmes said he wants to see greater involvement from the professional schools.

P. McPheron said that while we’re talking about how to get people involved, we should first ask why should grads get involved in the first place. He asked if the GPSA has a good grasp on what their constituents want.

K. Massey said he thought about that earlier and suggested they survey grad students about issues and problems.

D. Schmale echoed his sentiments, and thought the pay and benefits committee’s web survey was successful and they should try to apply that in the broader sense. He asked if it was possible to have a monetary incentive for students to fill out the survey, perhaps waiving part of the student activity fee?

B. Holmes said the charter says we can’t waive any part of the student activity fee.

K. Massey suggested we have a newsletter about current issues to inform students of what’s happening with the GPSA.

G. Hurley said they should email all the students and ask them what issues are important.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:05pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Tyng Tsuei
Student Clerk

Ideas:

� Intellectual property on university grounds
� Avenues for GPSA endowment
� Avenues for GPSA budget/funding allocation
� Robert’s Rules
� GPSA project theme
� GPSA charter
� Campus code/GPSA involvement in academic integrity
� Grad student trustee
� Grad & professional schools need/wants — survey?