Minutes
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Monday, January 26, 2009
Big Red Barn Greenhouse
5:30–7:00 P.M.

I. Welcome

M. Leinfelder called the meeting to order at 5:32 p.m. She welcomed all to the first business meeting of the spring semester. M. Leinfelder introduced herself, M. Guerrero, and D. Rose as the executives.

M. Leinfelder said they printed fewer copies for this meeting and they will try to continue to do so in the future as they work to being completely paperless.

II. Old Business

1. Approval of Minutes

J. Kupferschmidt motioned to move the minutes to after committee updates.

2. Executive Updates

M. Guerrero wanted to let everyone know that there was widespread dissemination of GPSAINFO among graduate students, through the Graduate School. Some members of professional schools said they did not receive it. B. Wickes will check on that. M. Guerrero said he heard complaints about not getting Martin Luther King, Jr. day off. He believes it would be worthwhile to put out a resolution that the GPSA would support the holiday. He said he is going to work on that.

D. Rose wanted to thank people for submitting committee reports. If they haven’t, she asked that they please do. She is going to try to continue to send out the form 1–2 weeks prior to the first. The first could be the official due date for the forms. A Richter suggested checking the email list of committee appointees because she has not received reminders for committee reports.

M. Leinfelder said that Campus Life is still seeking Graduate Community Advisors for graduate residences. She added that applications are due this week. February 2nd is the due date for West Campus Graduate Resident Fellows. The Student Leadership at Cornell will be held at Willard Straight on February 8. She said if anyone would like to attend, she would see if GPSA funds could cover the cost. The applications are due online this Wednesday. As for Hasbrouck, they have been meeting with representatives from campus life. They have changed contracts for the coming year. Single students can sign contracts for one-bedroom-plus-study units, or two single, non-related students can share two-bedroom units. They want to fill the beds with graduate students. She asked that everyone please advertise this change widely. M. Leinfelder then announced President Skorton and Vice President Susan Murphy will be coming to the next GPSA business meeting. They will be staying for questions and answers.

III. Open Forum

B. Wickes announced that EARS is now seeking graduate students to serve in peer-support roles. Harvard has had a similar support system for 22 years. Training is underway and there were 35 interested people. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, at least 15 will successfully complete the training program.

Dean Hubbell wanted to say that everyone has likely read President Skorton’s article in the paper saying the university needs to reduce expenses. This will include budgetary reductions and layoffs to some extent, though they are looking to minimize those. He invited the GPSA to help think of ways to assist the university in the economic situation. A. Richter commented that she hoped cuts in budget do not lead to a massive increase in student activity fees, as has happened in the past.

IV. Old Business, continued

3. Committee Updates

a. Student Advocacy Committee

B Forster said that the committee met last week and minutes were posted on the website this morning. They met in November to begin working on revising publications regarding Gannett and Healthcare. They’re reviewing all the other documents and websites to make things clearer to grad students. They recently received an email from a graduate student regarding insurance dues and why they have to be paid up front. That will be discussed. The contact sheet is now complete and they are trying to get it posted onto the Assemblies Office or graduate school websites. Once it’s available, it will go out to everyone. He said the advocacy committee will be hosting a town hall meeting and they are currently looking for a day and time. There will be a survey from Advocacy for graduate and professional students regarding the town hall meeting. They will have a working procedure posted on the screen later in the meeting, to be shown with the discussion on R.5. He also thanked K. Caposella for her committee’s help.

b. Events Committee

K. Caposella said that tonight after this meeting is the events committee’s next meeting. She thanked everyone for the feedback. February 19 will be the next Grad’s Night Out. The last one in November was successful. If there are any major concerns about grad ball, reach out to her. Any advice or help is appreciated. Another suggestion was for a family friendly grad’s night out. She said they’re considering bowling at Helen Newman.

c. Charter Review Committee

A. Richter and C. Mansfeldt met with their committee on January 15. There is a list of task items being worked on. The big items are that they have been spending a lot of time amending the charter for more things that fit in working procedures. They asked the committee chairs to put together a set of working procedures. It was put into place that someone should be in charge of reviewing bylaws document with the chairs. Then it will be voted on before the semester starts. This allows the charter to be straightforward. Any specific suggestions, please contact them. The next meeting is February 5th. M. Leinfelder said the bylaws could be changed much easier; Charter changes take two meetings. A. Richter said the things that tend to change every year would be in the bylaws. It allows for things to be more time conscious.

4. Approval of the Minutes

On page three, it says that “� Harvard spent roughly $8,000 on Ivy Summit.” It was questioned whether that was the actual number. A. O’Donnell and M. Leinfelder would check on that.

There was a motion to approve the minutes pending the correction. It was seconded. With a vote of 16- 0–1, the minutes were approved.

5. R.4 Regarding the Cornell Academic Calendar

Submitted by: M. Leinfelder

M. Leinfelder said this is something the faculty senate has talked about. They would like the opinion of GPSA, SA, UA, and EA.

The floor was opened up for discussion, amendments, and voting.

M. Guerrero would say that generally we support beginning the fall semester one day earlier. He thinks they should leave the final choice of which day, then, to have off to other to decide, citing that, likely, students from different schools would have different suggestions. He motioned to amend the resolution to state “The GPSA supports beginning the fall semester on a Wednesday, and.” It was seconded. With a vote of 12–0−5, the amendment passed. A. Richter moves to strike the line about adding a day to the fall semester. With a vote of 11–0−5, the amendment passes.

More discussion followed.

It was accepted as a friendly amendment that “//” are replaced with “or” and then cancel out “or other”. M. Guerrero asked for another friendly amendment, that it would say: “with preference for a day that does not affect bargaining units’ work days.” A. Richter is hesitant to approve that because it’s not based on grad students. M. Leinfelder won’t accept it as a friendly amendment but would accept it with a vote. M. Guerrero made a motion to add “with a preference for a day that does not impact the working schedule of current bargaining units.” It was seconded. With a vote of 3 −3 — 11, the amendment does not pass. It was accepted as a friendly amendment to take out “interim”, as David Harris was no longer Interim Provost. There was a motion to approve the resolution as written. It was seconded. With a vote of 11–1−5, the resolution passes.

V. New Business

1. R.5 Regarding the Working Procedures and Responsibilities of GPSA Student Advocacy Committee

Submitted by: B. Forster and B. Horgan

Assembly members from last year wrote R.8, changing the name and focus of the Pay and Benefits Committee to the current Student Advocacy Committee. The resolution had two stipulations for the SAC this year: to develop a working model and to recommend further changes to the GPSA charter. SAC is requesting nothing be taken out of the Charter, just for some things to be added. They’re adding about the town hall meeting at least once a year. The other big part is the membership of the committee.

Discussion followed.

There was a suggestion about appointing members by default. Some discussion followed about reverting this to the charter review committee. M. Leinfelder ended the discussion, noting to email comments to Brian. This would be brought up again next meeting.

2. R.6 Regarding Mental Healthcare for Cornell Graduate and Professional Students

Submitted by: B. Horgan, B. Romero, and B. Forster

This came out of the council on mental health and wellness. There are several deficiencies in the Graduate and Professional students’ mental health programs.

Discussion followed.

Friendly amendments to the resolution were accepted.

It was motioned to approve the resolution. The motion was seconded. By a vote of 12–0−5, the motion passes.

Brian motioned to extend the meeting by ten minutes. It was seconded. By a vote of 12–0−3, the meeting was extended.

3. Discussion of FC Bylaws — J. Kupferschmidt and N. Evensen

J. Kupferschmidt explained the FC bylaws.

Discussion followed.

They asked everyone to please review the document and email any comments to N. Evensen and J. Kupferschmidt. The discussion will continue in the future.

VI. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 7:09 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Brittany Rosen
Office of the Assemblies