Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Monday, April 21, 2008
Big Red Barn
5:30–7:00pm

I. Call to Order

Y. Yu called the meeting to order at 5:37pm.

II. Approval of Minutes

Amendments were made to the March 24, 2008 minutes. 13 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions. The minutes were approved.

III. Open Forum

A. Cowan said he is the vice chair of the CJC. He said that the CJC has finally finished its work on the Code of Conduct. A. Cowan listed three big issues that they have been reexamining: 1) the access to council for the accused 2) standard proof in hearings and 3) who would have the final decision on penalties. He said the final decision that the CJC is proposing to the UA meeting this Wed is that the accused still has the full right to council wherever suspension/expulsion is on the table. However if suspension/expulsion is off the table, the accused can be represented by themselves or a Cornell attorney and not an outside attorney. The penalty decision is only fact finding will not be made appeal-able to the president by either party.

J. Kupferschmidt wanted to mention that President Skorton sent us a letter concerning R. 7 showing his appreciation of our effort. According to J. Kupferschmidt, the barn is supposed to last 20–30 years and this should allow a coherent vision and placement of the graduate student center in the master plan.

J. Kupferschmidt said the GPSAFC is still looking for people to help out on the big funding day. He said currently there are 160 applications and only eight people are reviewing (maybe ten). J. Kupferschmidt highly encourages people reconsider and help. He said lunch is provided and it starts at 12pm.

M. Leinfelder said the Earth Day Celebration is tomorrow and there is a transportation services meeting on Wednesday in which we need somebody to attend. She said there is another grad night out at Felicia’s and handed out flyers for people to distribute and hang up.

Y. Yu asked M. Walsh if he had anything he wanted to say since he was elected as the new graduate student trustee. If he had any commitments he’d like to make right now. M. Walsh wanted to thank everyone for their support and he is looking forward to working with the GPSA for the next 2 years.

IV. Executive Update

M. Leinfelder and A. Richter had no updates. Y. Yu said the SAO is having their ceremony tomorrow and if anybody is interested in knowing who is getting an award should go check it out.

V. Guest Speaker

a. Sunny Power (Dean of Graduate Students) — GCI working group update

S. Power started off by thanking the GPSA officers from last year and welcoming the new officers. She wanted to emphasize that there has been a lot of progress concerning the GCI. A progress report of the GCI activities was handed out. S. power summarized the progress for each section:

Career services — S. Power said this is a place where we made considerate progress. They have put people together from all of the offices in various colleges as well as the central office in Barnes Hall to provide better services and a more welcoming environment for graduate students. Career services has been trying to open up lines of communication specifically for grad students and trying to find out what graduate students need and what is the best way to serve them.

Housing — S. Power said there have been some small gains related to housing. The replacement of Maplewood is an issue and needs to be discussed, it can be a new and improved location for a housing development. The goal of this committee is to work with campus planning, campus life, real estate and off campus housing because graduate housing information in the master plan is way too far into the future, like year 2020.

Committee on student life and programming — S. Power thinks student life and programming is fundamentally important to the GCI but difficult to be specific about. We need to program jointly and put resources together and develop more activities that meet the needs of grad students.

S. Power said we are trying to form permanent committees to deal with the issues listed. If there are any questions please contact the people involved or in charge of the committees.

S. Power said she wanted to talk about the graduate community center. She said the administration is aware that the grad center needs to be built and acknowledges that it is important. However, there cannot be a final resolution on that issue because there are not enough resources at this point; there is no old building to be used or enough money to build a new building. Mainly S. Power wanted to emphasize that the administration is not going to just let this issue remain where it is, they are going to keep trying to think of ideas.

S. Power mentioned the pros and cons of fundraising. S. Power said if grad students are interested in fundraising, the administration is exploring the option of raising money through the annual fund or the grad school. She said if there are people very interested in trying to fundraise, they can form a committee to try and make this work.

VI. New Business

a. Approval of University 5 Year Academic Calendar

Y. Yu said it is in the bylaw that the academic calendar has to be approved every year.

M. Leinfelder said she received a comment over email stating the University gives five days off for Spring break while in the Fall we only get four or four and a half days. That person was wondering if the GPSA is willing to see if the day before Thanksgiving can be a full day vacation rather than a half day.

The sender of the email explained that the SA is going to give a similar recommendation. She suggested that if both the GPSA and SA are making this recommendation, the provost might be more receptive to it.

B. Wickes mentioned that we might need to count the number of days we are in class not days we have off because we are required a certain number of hours in school.

M. Walsh said should we can either pass the calendar right now and then send in recommendations or have an emergency meeting and pass it next week.

M. Leinfelder said the letter says that we need to review it, not pass it. M. Guerrero said maybe they can put it into account for future years to send us the calendar earlier, maybe a couple of meetings in advance so we could truly review it and give meaningful feedback.

Y. Yu said we do not need to approve the calendar, maybe we can send a recommendation.

b. Approval of GPSA Next Year Calendar

M. Walsh made a motion to include an August assembly meeting and he wanted to know why there is no August assembly meeting. M. Leinfelder replied, because classes will not start until August 28.

Y. Yu suggested maybe we should have something like an officer training before the first assembly meeting. M. Walsh suggested maybe the events chair and executive chair should have a retreat/informal meeting very early in the semester.

M. Leinfelder made a motion to approve the calendar for next year. R. Harbison seconded.

c. Big Red Barn Landscape modification — Michelle Leinfelder

M. Leinfelder said she sent out an e-mail about a landscaper and changes they are envisioning for the Big Red Barn. She listed some things they have already done such as replacing the old fence and having a metal decorative fence to put along the walkway so people would not step on the flower bed. M. Leinfelder said they are hoping to put some sort of screening around the dumpster to hide it and possibly getting rid of the BBQ structure and BBQ patio. She wanted a short discussion to see people’s thoughts and ideas for the space.

N. Brideau said he asked graduate students during TGIF and most people wanted more seating and not necessarily concrete seating but maybe seating on the grass. M. Leinfelder replied that grounds understands that the picnic tables are often used but in her opinion, mowing the lawn may be difficult.

K. Corda said she is very unhappy on how the dumpster is moved to right in front of her window. J. Kupferschmidt said maybe they could move the dumpsters some place else because it is where people usually hang out. K. Corda responded that the location of the dumpsters is the best just because it is by the kitchen and maybe it can be moved over a couple of feet.

B. Wickes said if we start investing a lot of money into making the Big Red Barn prettier, Cornell may not want to give us money for the graduate student center. She said we could still make it prettier but not invest so much money.

A. Cowan said he has never seen the BBQ pit be used and it seems quite dark and dismal. He suggested putting something that would allow more sunlight in its place.

J. Kupferschmidt said he likes the grass and would be very disappointed if anything happened to it and there was concrete in its place. Many assembly members agreed on how they really enjoy the grass.

d. Collegetown Vision — Edward Strong

E. Strong said there are a couple of committees that are examining the future of Collegetown. He has seen some drafts of the draft and they are definitely taking graduate student concerns into the plan. They want to encourage year round residents to live on the outskirts of Collegetown and continue having undergraduates in the center. E. Strong said graduate students may have a future in Collegetown because it may become a more graduate student friendly environment.

VII. Adjournment

Y. Yu adjourned the meeting at 6:54p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
YuhLi Tsuei
Office of the Assemblies