Minutes
Graduate & Professional Student Assembly
TOWN HALL - Discussion Meeting of the GPSA Advisory Body
Monday, March 1, 2010
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall
5:00—7:00 P.M.

I. Refreshments: Grads Mix & Mingle

II. Welcome & Introductions

The meeting was called to order at 5:20 p.m. They are composting now at meeting. Introductions and an overview of the agenda occurred.

III. Executive Updates

a. President: Nighthawk Evenson

They met discussing the role of a field representative. They all felt as if they wanted to do more but didn’t know how. They said that communication was a problem on all levels. They have been and will continue to meet every Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. in Mann Library to discuss this issue.

b. Executive Vice President: Erica Gutierrez

E. Gutierrez discussed composting. There are some updates to the website. The logo is going to be used on mugs to be ordered around spring break. Proceeds will go to Haiti or sustainability funding.

c. Vice President of Operations: Brian Forster

They have some of the letters submitted to the provost about the task force. At the last voting meeting, they voted on Resolution 8, the approval of a proposal to rejuvenate the Big Red Barn. It was also printed in the Sun. There was a second Resolution 7, which asked for a change in the charter asking for a seat from Geneva. The resolution did not pass, as it did not meet 2/3 voting criteria. There were questions as to when charter changes should be made. He wrote a letter asking that when charter changes are made, people look at that.

OLD BUSINESS

IV. Update from the Slope Day Planning Board: Travis Chapin

One of the 3 GPSA reps for slope day introduced himself and explained what the committee had done. If anyone has questions or comments, they should feel free to email him. They chose Drake and Francis and the Lights as acts for this year’s Slope Day which will happen on May 7.

V. Committee Updates

a. Events Committee: Srich Murugesan

Next Friday, March 12, is grad night at Cornell Cinema. They get in for two dollars. Later on, they’ll have a Grads’ Night Out. Save the date for Grad Ball on April 23.

b. Appropriations Committee: Dave Walden

They have the website for the byline groups up. It is not public yet but will be soon. There is a lot of information about by-line funded groups including the funding they receive and the services they provide. If anyone has feedback, email him.

c. Ad-hoc Sustainability: Erica Gutierrez

There will be a meeting this Friday, March 5th. She is graduating in the spring and the committee is still ad-hoc. Anyone interested in engaging and moving forward with the committee should know there is room to do so. The next meeting is from 1–3 pm at Sibley.

N. Evensen motioned to move C. Clarke’s resolution to the end of the meeting. It was approved.

TOWN HALL

Cresten Mansfeldt became the chair of the meeting for the Town Hall portion. They were charged with the Town Hall to discuss the GCI and Strategic Plan. Today, they will host an informal, town hall style meeting. He went through the rest of the agenda and introduced members of the Student Advocacy Committee.

VI. Introduction & Presentation on the Graduate Community Initiative (GCI)

Krishna discussed the Grad Student Center and its limitations. The main portion talks about how the Barn has a limited amount of space. The GCI promotes expansions and improvements. It talks about more storage space and technological improvements to the Barn. It also proposes the creation of other Big Red Barn-like places. This proposes dining hours until midnight, and a pub where grads and faculty can interact. Other suggestions include office space for the GPSA, meeting space for graduate groups, a reading lounge, a recreation space, and advancement night promoting interaction between grads and undergrads. Most of these suggestions are constrained by limited space in the Barn.

Billy discussed Career Services and Grad Student Initiatives. In addition to Big Red Barn improvements, the GCI also has improvements to the Grad Career Services. She had the chance to speak with the director of Career Services. They started keeping track of the number of grads utilizing career services. She suggested several different items to think about.

C. Mansfeldt covered the final issues. One such issue was integrating the graduate and professional communities. He wants to generate a more cohesive body across campus. They also wanted to create a graduate student housing community which is similar to the undergraduate style. They want to promote a more cohesive body across departments and colleges, including better communication. He also discussed several other issues. In addition to the specific issues, there were broader ones including housing, childcare, diversity, transportation, the environment, professional schools, and satellite campuses. They want feedback on where the grad community should be in 5–10 years.

VII. Group Discussions (Three tiers/Led by Student Advocacy Committee members)

They broke into four smaller groups to discuss the issues previously defined by the Student Advocacy Committee.

VIII. Regroup/Large group discussion

The groups reconvened to discuss their findings and formulate a list of comments that will be available on the website after the meeting and will be circulated to the list serves.

S. Murugesan said that his group discussed the Student Center.

B. Heavner said that the theme he heard was overall community building. He added that issues, which were not addressed were pay and benefits to help the university maintain a competitive graduate student body.

T. Balcerski said that grad students aren’t alone in this. All employees at Cornell are experiencing the same thing. They need to decide how to reach out to their peers and seniors in the Faculty Senate since they have a lot jointly riding on the issue.

M. Leinfelder said that her group talked extensively about pay and benefits. They did so in their focus group even though it might not be apparent in the reports.

M. Walsh thinks it’s a very important issue. They’re lucky to receive one of best stipends in country. What concerns him is the support benefits that a lot of graduates need.

B. Forster said that the Mental Health Committee has met with Gannett about EARS.

E. Strong said that they discussed integrating the graduate and professional communities. One topic discussed more sustained, prolonged initiatives for bonding.

M. Walsh said that there was a point in the GCI about a teaching development program.

N. Evensen said that he hasn’t heard much about actionable items.

C. Mansfeldt concluded the town hall portion of the meeting.

IX. Resolution 12 — Chris Clarke

This resolution deals with the Graduate Student Activity Fee. The resolution concerns a change in the charter to make the Activity Fee funding process easier. They want to change the wording so they can allocate a whole dollar amount rather than a whole even number.

Billy asked why the previous rule was in place. N. Evensen explained that it was due to accounting procedures. It originated with the undergraduate fee when spreadsheets were still done by hand and fractions were not wanted. There were also was concerns that parents were going to be calling in to ask about fifty cents. The bursar has neither concern anymore. The vice-presidents have authorized this change.

B. Forster asked if this is the only document with the statement in writing. C. Clarke consulted all four documents about the fee and this is the only one that stated it exactly. E. Gutierrez said that the voting meeting on March 15 will discuss this. They will also have the outcome of the town hall. There is only one more discussion meeting for the semester, April 5. There are two more voting meetings.

X. Open Forum

C. Clarke had an announcement. There is a professional development peer training course available. The center of teaching excellence does offer a course toward teaching training. It is open to all grads at Cornell. He asked them to email with any question at cec54@cornell.edu.

There is a celebration program which is interdisciplinary in entrepreneurship. It is going on April 15–16.

B. Heavner reminded people about the blog. He urged them to feel free to send posts to him or make a blog post themselves. At the moment only voting members are set up to post. Email posts to bdh32@cornell.edu and he can publish things.

N. Evensen said they’ve also got a forum going for the Ivy Summit. It started less than a week ago and is a way to communicate with peers at other institutions. He wanted to let everyone know that they are moving forward with the working group to focus on engaging advisory body members. He feels they are not integrating the seemingly disparate bodies. The next meeting is tomorrow morning in the lobby outside Mann Library at 9 a.m.

B. Forster said that GPSA Ad-Hoc Mental Health Committee is meeting next Monday at 5:30 in the Big Red Barn.

XI. Motion to Adjourn

N. Evensen motioned to adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 6:57 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,

Brittany Rosen