Minutes
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
Monday, February 23, 2009
Big Red Barn Greenhouse
5:30–7:00 P.M.

I. Welcome and Introductions

M. Leinfelder called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. She thanked everyone for coming and welcomed President Skorton and Vice President Murphy.

II. Open Forum

President Skorton thanked M. Leinfelder for having them at this meeting. He began by sharing several updates on the current financial situation at the university. He said the university is facing about a $200 million/year shortfall on the Ithaca campus out of a budget of $2 billion. The university is now working on a 10% correction through both budget cuts and revenue enhancements. The overall responses to the situation have been to cut budgets and canceling staff and faculty salary increases. The only two exceptions are, the graduate student stipend will be increased by 3.3%, and staff members who earn $40,000 or less will get a one-time bonus. The university now is cutting budgets, in general, 5%. He said his office and the Provost’s Office are cutting 10%. A large amount of uncommitted reserves will be drawn within next 18 months. On the revenue side, the university has decided to raise undergraduate tuition by 4%, which is lower than the percentage raises in the recent past. Since tuition is 36% of the overall operating fund of the university, any decision about increasing the overall size of the student body has to be done with very careful consideration. VP Murphy said she will be holding meetings starting in March to consider this change. They stated students will be a part of this important conversation.

President Skorton said the most difficult thing right now is to slow down faculty hiring, which will hurt the university both in terms of the workload of the faculty, and in terms of graduate students finishing their programs and entering the job market. President Skorton said he will do his best to be as open and informative as he could. He said he will try to send a message with updates out every four to six weeks through email.

B. Lawrence asked whether the graduate school would still get funding for inter-campus research between Ithaca and Weill in NYC. VP Murphy said the budget reduction proposal had not come out yet, but it should be coming next week after the meeting with the dean of the graduate school.

Regarding the question whether the two-year rebound seems a little optimistic, President Skorton said they are taking a very conservative approach. The university is also thinking about borrowing more money to help with the balance sheet. By doing so, the university would develop funds to use rather than draining other funds down further.

Regarding the question about the retirement of aging faculty, President Skorton said there would be a significant retirement rate over the next few years. On the staff side, there will be layoffs, but they are trying to minimize them as much as possible.

K. Capossela asked whether corporate philanthropy will help at some point. President Skorton said this is usually a small portion of school funding. Although it is hard in this kind of economy, Cornell is traditionally among the most successful universities in terms of philanthropy. He said he is very confident about it rebounding in the long term.

M. Guerrero said three administrative positions in the LGBT Resource Center have been vacant for a quite long time, and some resources have been cut back. The community has felt reactive instead of proactive. President Skorton said he hopes to have a solution next week after their meeting with the school deans. He said they are very aware of this and will figure out what is best for the entire student body.

President Skorton concluded that as they move forward in the planning process, a leadership group like the GPSA could help the university figure out innovative ways to save money over the next few years. After the meeting on Monday, March 2nd, an exact plan regarding the entire budget for the university will be out. There will be more discussion to follow to determine what is going to happen in future fiscal years, which start in July.

Other items from open forum K. Hermans said that the vet school would be holding an event this Thursday. Also volunteers are needed in the vet school’s nursing home for animals.

C. Mansfeldt said the Faculty Senate did not pass the resolution regarding the construction of Milstein Hall. It will be brought up again next month.

III. Old Business

1. Approval of Minutes

M. Leinfelder asked a motion to approve the minutes. It was seconded. The minutes were passed by a vote of 11–0−1.

2. Executive Updates

M. Leinfelder asked members to keep promoting graduate student housing on campus. She said she and B. Wickes will have a meeting regarding this issue tomorrow and hopefully will learn more about occupancy and the rates for next year.

3. Committee Updates:

a. Student Advocacy Committee
B. Forster said Student Advocacy is working with CIT to help graduate students with the new project “Ensemble”, and will assist with a trial run among interested graduate students.

B. Forster recapped Resolution 5, which was presented by the committee at the last meeting regarding charter changes and working procedures. Following that meeting, it was agreed the resolution would be incorporated into the charter resolution. He asked for the following motion: “that GPSA acknowledge that the Student Advocacy Committee has complied with last year’s resolution R.8 by providing working procedures and charter changes, and that the Student Advocacy Committee has satisfied the requirements of R.8.” The motion was passed with a vote of 10–0−1.

B. Forster said the committee is following up with Gannett on graduate mental health care on campus.

M. Leinfelder added a comment, referencing the previous conversation with President Skorton. She said in the future, when writing resolutions, we need to be mindful of the economic crisis and to be sure to include specific action statements, for actions which will not incur large investment.

b. Events Committee K. Capossela said that the next Grads’ Night Out is on Thursday, March 12th. Volunteers are still needed for Grad Ball.

c. Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC): TCAT update
B. Heavner, a GPSA Council member from BEE, reported on the TCAT public meetings. He said TCAT is re-evaluating all routes for the coming ten yeas. There are only eight routes that are not changing. He said TCAT was being proactive and responsible in getting community involvement. He suggested everyone go to the website and check out the new route maps and give feedback through the online survey. For any other questions regarding the public meetings, he could be reached by email.

A brief discussion on this followed.

IV. New Business

1. R.7 Regarding the Student Assembly’s Moratorium on the Registration of New Student Organizations

Submitted by: J. Kupferschmidt, N. Evensen, and R. Lavin
J. Kupferschmidt recapped the concept of the resolution. A. Richter made a motion to pass the resolution. The resolution was passed with a vote of 11–0−1.

2. R.8 Regarding Support for the Observance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Submitted by: M. Guerrero and N. Evensen
M. Guerrero recapped the resolution. B. Forster made a friendly amendment on the date of the MLK Day. He suggested it should read the third Monday in January instead of the 19th of January. It was accepted. B. Forester made a motion to approve the resolution. K. Capossela seconded. The resolution was passed by a vote of 10–0−2.

N. Evensen asked to vote on his proposal to change the GPSAFC bylaws tonight. Considering the requirement to have a forum of 10 people for a vote, M. Leinfelder asked for a motion to change the agenda to look at the GPSAFC bylaw changes before looking at R.9. The motion was passed.

3. GPSAFC Proposed By-law Changes � Presentation and Discussion

N. Evensen said the new funding guidelines have three substantial changes. The first change is the raised funding maximum. The new by-laws say that groups are allowed to apply for a higher amount of money from the Finance Commission for various things. The second change is the new funding category graduate field groups. The third change is that instead of only being able to apply from one of the four categories: program, club sports, publications and social, groups can now apply across all categories for funding.

Comments and friendly amendments on wording were made and accepted. There was a debate on whether an assembly member counted as a field representative. More discussion followed. It was decided that an assembly member could count as a field representative, in the case that a field only has one graduate student. N. Evensen made a motion to vote on the by-laws and close debate on the issue. A. Richter seconded. A motion to proceed to a vote was passed by a vote of 11–0−1. B. Forster made a motion to approve the funding guidelines. It was seconded by K. Capossela and passed with a vote of 10–0−2.

A. Richter made a motion to extend the meeting by 15 minutes. The motion passed. Trying to be mindful of time, M. Leinfelder limited comments and questions to a minute each and responses to two minutes each.

4. R.9 Regarding Charter Revisions and Recommendations

Submitted by: A. Richter, C. Mansfeldt, and Charter Review Committee
C. Mansfeldt made a presentation on Resolution 9, which includes the purpose of the Charter Review Committee, some main changes in the charter, by-laws for review and some new funding documents.

Some discussion about changing the number of assembly members and how they are allocated followed. K. Capossela suggested forming a separate proposal on it. M. Leinfelder ended the discussion, noting there wouldn’t be a vote on the resolution tonight. This could be brought up again next meeting.

V. Adjournment

M. Leinfelder asked for a motion to adjourn. A. Richter moved to adjourn. N. Evensen seconded. M. Leinfelder adjourned the meeting at 7:17 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Yezi Li
Office of the Assemblies