Resolution R.18: Data Collection & Analysis

Whereas a major responsibility of the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA) is to allocate close to half a million dollars of funds collected through the student-activity fee paid by full-time graduate and professional students.

Whereas one of the goals in distributing the funds is to enable organizations to provision useful services which are in substantial demand and that are widely consumed by the graduate student population.

Whereas allocating those funds in a manner that is effective, efficient, and fair is a major concern of voting council members of the GPSA.

Whereas funding decisions are most effective, efficient and fair when they are based on sound empirical evidentiary data rather than data that is incomplete and/or selective.

Whereas the quality of data on the consumption of services available to the council has been at best both incomplete and selective.

Whereas the data that is available is provided by the very same groups who provision the service — a situation that presents an obvious conflict of interest.

Whereas public policy in general (not only funding decisions) benefit from having sound data available to the decision makers and creating a mechanism by which the GPSA collects consumption data may set a precedent for other data collection efforts on issues of importance to the graduate student population.

Be it therefore resolved that the 2009–2010 GPSA Council recommends to the incoming 2010–2011 GPSA Council to once again form the Data Collection and Analysis Ad Hoc Committee of the GPSA so that the later can oversee the creation of a scientific survey on a representative sample of the graduate and professional student community at Cornell, which we consider to be a worthy and important endeavor.

Be it further resolved that the 2009–2010 GPSA Council recommends to the incoming 2010–2011 GPSA Council to consider allocating $2,740 of funds from the GPSA budget for the purposes of financing such a survey.

Be it further resolved that this council recommends no money is to be used for anything other than paying respondents and the survey administrator, which will likely be via the Cornell Survey Research Institute. The pay to respondents is not to exceed $10 per respondent for refusal conversions.

Be it further resolved that that this council recommends that no money is to be paid to any members of the Data Collection and Analysis Ad Hoc Committee for their labor.

Be it further resolved that this council recommends that standards of privacy and confidentiality be observed in the handling, analysis, and publication of the data.

Be it finally resolved that copies of this resolution be sent to all incoming 2010–2011 GPSA Council members.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michael Genkin
GPSA Social Science Representative