DRAFT
Council of Representatives
Big Red Barn
October 16, 2006
5:30–7:00 p.m.

I. Cornell Dining Sampling (5:00–5:30PM)

People from the Cornell Dining came to the meeting and brought Cornell Dining sandwiches for the assembly members to taste.

II. Call to Order

M. Walsh called the meeting to order at 5:30p.m.

III. Cornell Dining Services Discussion

V. Younger introduced himself and said the reason he came is to show the graduate population some of the new things done at the Big Red Barn.

V. Younger said they evaluated the Big Red Barn during the summer and developed a new concept. They call it the �five star sub,� but then received several comment cards from students stating how they would like the traditional deli to return. He said as of last week, the traditional Big Red Barn deli was reintroduced.

V. Younger said he wanted to share awareness and is looking to provide an environment for the graduate population. He wants to know whether or not having the five star sub and traditional deli is good for the Big Red Barn. V. Younger said he would like to get feedback and know how to get information to the grad students. He also hopes to make a meal plan for the graduate students.

M. Moyer said she noticed that a lot of sandwiches have meat. She said there are very limited options for vegetarians or people who don�t eat pork.

T. Kveragas asked if people are interested in having tofu and BBQ setan and making their own sandwiches. He is the senior executive chef.

A COR member said they are interested in a grad meal plan.

V. Younger replied by saying the executive choice plan is valued at $500. The minimum amount a student can put is $200–250. This plan also allows students to forgo taxes.

M. Walsh said the 14 meal plan is expensive for grad students. He said people would like to see more flexibility in Big Red Bucks.

V. Younger said they hope to have a new plan structure in which Big Red Bucks is the main focus.

J. Kellog (?) asked what kind of response will there be if there is a meal plan that meets all of the needs of the grad students. He also wanted to know what is the COR�s sense of demand of what they want in a meal plan.

Tamara from Human Development asked if it is possible to just put money into a plan, and just have it rollover during their time at Cornell (e.g. 10 years). Or if the plan can be more like a charge card and be bursared.

V. Younger replied that the money does roll over. But at the end of academic year, what is rolled over will be lost.

C. Sander suggested citi bucks and maybe grad students will be receptive to it.

V. Younger mentioned there is Hughes dining hall in the law school.

A COR member replied by saying that Hughes isn�t really open during dinner and that there are very limited options.

V. Younger replied that maybe the grad students want a meal plan with BRB�s that rolls over into years and citi bucks can also be used.

E. Spero said what Tamara described is using the Cornell Card. She mentioned that maybe rather than losing people, they go to Martha�s because the deli gone in the Big Red Barn.

V. Younger said that he agrees, he said he was seeing an increase of traffic at Trillium and Martha�s. V. Younger said that if you don�t know about the Big Red Barn, you don�t know about it. He said he is trying to get information out that the Big Red Barn exists.

E. Spero said she eats a lot of soup and a big variety of soup would be great.

A COR member from the city and planning department said people bring lunch because the food doesn�t seem to be fresh.

V. Younger said salads and everything is made daily at RPU and transferred. He said people can get the perception that things are not fresh because everything is packaged.

M. Moyer talked about a possible dining plan in which it is like a debit card, and students can add money anytime and at end of semester if there was any balance over $2 then money can be mailed back as a check.

A COR member mentioned competition and as an undergrad at MIT, food trucks were the main source of food. She said what was great about it, was that the food was international and everything was below $5. The COR member said it was combination of price and international food, which would be something that she�d want.

V. Younger mentioned that at Trillium they have the Asian Wok.

T. Kvergaras talked about the new dishes at trillium and went into detail about them. He also mentioned the various international stations at Trillium such as the Italian station and named some foods offered at each station.

V. Younger said at some smaller venues like Martha�s for example, has a rotational menu in which there are different types of food per semester.

J. Kellog (?) said some trucks in other schools don�t have to pay money to the university or be part of a union structure which cut down a lot of costs.

K. Chan said he thought selection is important. He said nothing is open late at night except the ivy room. K. Chan said he understands there is a lot of selection, but he also knows everything closes before 3pm.

A lot of grad students have issues with needing to eat late at night.

J. Vertesi noticed a dining place in warren hall had been converted to coffee only and that people can no longer eat there. She said the agriculture school people are looking for something to eat at night.

D. Day said that Madden�s Caf� in Duffield would be a great place for marketing the Big Red Barn. He said there is also engineers in Duffield all of the time.

V. Younger said they are definitely unwilling to extend the hours for Madden�s.

D. Day said it�d be a good idea to open another dining facility in engineering quad since only Madden�s. have to compete with collegetown food.

A first year grad student asked what is so good about the meal plans.

V. Younger responded by saying taxes can be avoided with a meal plan. He said at the Johnson school not only are their meal plans helping them save the 8% taxes, they are also getting 5% off if they are eating at that venue.

That first year student keeps hearing about various dining halls and doesn�t know where all of the dining halls are. They suggested that maybe Cornell should have a point of reference at the law school of where all the dining halls are.

Another first year law student said that even if they knew about trillium and if they knew it has great food, it�s a hike from the law school. They said it is easier to just go to Collegetown. They said that if students knew about the tangible benefits, they might have more of an incentive to go out of their way to try the food.

V. Younger said he has an incentive for the rest of the group, if anybody goes to big red barn this week and say they were at the meeting, they get $1 off.

G. Curtis said that there are organic and local produce and organic coffee at North Star. She said Cornell dining should advertise the good products or have more locations with organic foods.

Tamara suggested having a coffee club card. She said with a coffee club card, students can sign up for a certain time period and if they go and buy lunch during that time, maybe they can get a free coffee or free soda.

D. Day suggested having meal plans in exchange for BRB�s. If there are meals leftover. People can change them into BRB�s.

IV. Open Forum

A graduate student in BEE said her main issue is transportation and how to manage the bus schedule and parking. She said they�ve changed all the visitor lots in central into flex so she needs to park very far away. She said the 2nd thing is the night parking schedule seems to be changing and lots on central are being limited. She said she is unsure how or why that is changing.

An assembly member asked what is flex.

J. Vertesi responded by saying Cornell parking instituted a flex permit. She said that people realized that �real� visitors to campus did not have parking since faculty is taking it up. Therefore flex is bought by department so �real� visitors have parking. She said that many students were effected by this issue.

Another assembly member said that buses that stop running at night is very inconvenient.

J. Vertesi said maybe people should start petitioning to get transportation survey numbers released.

S. Boutin said he had something on the deer issue. He said he had a faculty member ask what the GPSA opinion was about the deer issue. S. Boutin said he told the person that the GPSA didn�t really have a position, mostly apathy. He said at the university neighborhood council minutes it said that the GPSA took a position and is against to culling. S. Boutin said he is announcing this to see if the information is correct and that we should clarify our position. A. Chatterjee said he is going to write an email to tell them we have no position on the deer issue.

G. Curtis said she had tried really hard not to have a big discussion at the meeting about the deer. She said that the minutes being quoted were not the ones being taken by the secretary. G. Curtis said there was a lot of miscommunication and biased discussions at the meeting. She said that�s why she gave the GPSA the documents to make their own decisions. G. Curtis said the people who responded to her were opposed to culling. She also said that graduate students like methodology and their largest objection was that there wasn�t a methodology.

J. Vertesi said that no response is also a response. Shev said the GPSA will draft something to the neighborhood council to say they don�t have a position.

V. Executive Report

J. Vertesi said there are still a couple of positions available. She said she spoke to dean powers of the grad school and the main issues that came up was career services as well as child care. J. Vertesi said they have also spoken with President Skorton who is interested to coming to one of our meetings and extend it to a fireside chat. She said the trustees said they would like to come to TGIF and meet graduate students. J. Vertesi said they have also been meeting with the head of the student assembly and head of student trustees about trustee seat.

M. Walsh said talked briefly about a lobbying trip to Albany in the last GPSA meeting. He went into more detail about it (see last meeting�s minutes). M. Walsh said the lobbying will be sometime during the study period Dec 3–6. He said it will be an all day commitment plus educational experience.

M. Walsh said he would like to say there�s a huge increase in the number of grad students who signed up for hockey tickets. He thinks of it as a sign of better communication.

VI. Committee Reports

a. Pay and Benefits Committee

There was no update at the time

b. Finance Commission and Funding Policy

Y. Yu said they just had a finance commission meeting. She said they don�t have a comprehensive representative from the other schools.

c. Events Committee

E. Spero said Oct 24 is theFlemmie Kittrell address. She said they�re allowed to invite some grad students to eat dinner with the speaker and talk about diversity and higher education.

d. Communications

M. Walsh wanted to discuss things with people signed up for communications committee at the end of the meeting.

VII. Cornell Housing Discussion Regarding Hasbrouck � P. McPheron, S. Thrasher, K. Brown

S. Thrasher said K. Brown and her are members of the senior staff. She said she was at the meeting to answer questions about whatever is happening at Hasbrouck. S. Thrasher gave a brief overview as to what is going on with the Hasbrouck issue. She said Cornell feels very obligated by undergrads because it is mandatory to give housing to any 1st/2nd year student who needs housing. She said there will be one year where there will not be enough housing to offer to the 1st/2nd year students.

S. Thrasher said number of units that will be taken up at Hasbrouck is not exact because she is not sure about the number of people. They will also staff Hasbrouck with undergrad hall residence directors.

P. McPheron said there will not be a reduction of number of grad students in Hasbrouck.

S. Thrasher said the discussion about construction was 5 years ago�they were okay with the transfer center being knocked down with the transfer center building never being rebuilt. Now, the transfer students are very unhappy not having the actual building. They are thinking of moving the transfer center program to Hasbrouck who tend to be 2nd/3rd year students.

A COR member asked for a guarantee that transfers will only stay in Hasbrouck for a year.

S. Thrasher said it�s the plan because she said even if they keep it the way it is for more than 1 year, it cant benefit both groups. However, she said she cant guarantee it because there could be possibly other circumstances that interfere with the plan.

D. Day wanted a clarification as to whether or not all of the transfer students will be placed at Hasbrouck; because when he transferred he was put in cascadilla with about 30 other students and it was hard to integrate.

S. Thrasher said all transfers will be at Hasbrouck together.

A COR member asked what if the construction isn�t finished in time, then what will happen. They said because it seems like transfer students will move out of Hasbrouck if construction is finished. They said they would be more comfortable if they knew what Plan B is.

S. Thrasher said she will know in advance if something will not finished in time.

P. McPheron said one good thing is that they have a lot of experienced people working on the construction. He said 3 out of 5 of the new houses have already been opened on time.

D. Day said maybe Cornell can talk to private land owners at Ravenwood or Gunhill and guarantee spots to people if construction isn�t finished on time.

P. McPheron and S. Thrasher both said have considered that.

J. Vertesi said the new housing initiative is about undergrad housing. She asked if there is anything mentioned in it to protect graduate community needs. J. Vertesi asked is there anything on the graduate level? Or does the GPSA need to provide that.

P. McPheron said he would like graduate student at large�s input in terms of urging them to continue to look at kinds of needs for housing that grad students need on campus and off campus.

A COR member said they need to commit to a certain timeline. She said there is a lot of distrust towards Hasbrouck already and that there needs to be a commitment. a. R.3 A resolution regarding Undergraduate Housing at the Hasbrouck Apartment Complex Z. Wang gave a quick overview of the resolution.

M. Walsh said this resolution will be voted upon hopefully at the next meeting of the assembly. He said he would like everyone�s input.

VIII. Call for a new location for the next Council meeting

J. Vertesi said she would like to move the COR meetings so that it would rotate around campus. She would like a volunteer to host the next COR meeting. E. Spero suggested MVR. The room has to be free. The law school would like to do it. the vet school could probably do one too.

IX. Adjournment

M. Walsh adjourned the meeting at 7:02 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies