Dear Provost Fuchs, Deputy Provost Harris, and Dean Fry,

On behalf of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA), I would like to notify you of our action regarding the Cornell Academic Calendar, in resolution form, passed yesterday evening at our monthly business meeting.

As brief background, Dean Fry wrote to me last semester to explain the conversations being had by the faculty Education Policy Committee on potential changes to the fall semester calendar. I presented a resolution to the Assembly in November, and we discussed the pros and cons of suggested changes but postponed voting on the resolution until yesterday. The resolution expresses the sentiment of the GPSA.

Notice, the second “Be it therefore resolved…” statement is open-ended. We decided on this language because of varied points made during our November discussion, namely:

1. A student expressed that taking the Wednesday before Thanksgiving OR the extra day in Fall Break (presumably a Wednesday) would “cancel out” the added Wednesday during the first week. Perhaps this would help with semester lab schedules.

2. Another student mentioned that taking Labor Day might be a good option because the staff are off. Since it is the beginning of the semester, there are often logistical (course, enrollment) problems that arise on Labor Day that cannot be settled because staff are away. It might be a good idea to stay in sync with them.

3. Another student said that her general understanding from undergrads is that they would rather have the extra day off during Fall Break or Thanksgiving.

Another point, which was brought up in our discussion yesterday, again, involved what such changes mean for staff, both bargaining and non-bargaining. We did not include language on this because we are not fully familiar with these procedures, but we are sensitive to the fact that procedures probably exist.

In conclusion, we thank you for your consideration on this matter, and we look forward to continued cooperation.

Sincerely, Michelle Leinfelder President, GPSA

Michelle M. Leinfelder Graduate Student Department of Horticulture 159 Plant Science Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255–0883