MINUTES
Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
September 23, 2013
Bache Auditorium, Malott Hall
5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

I. Welcome and Introductions, 1 min.

The meeting was called to order at 5:38 pm.

Voting members present: D. Bunck, M. Carignano, M. Chen, G. Danies Turano, J. De Castro, M. Dumas, S. Hsieh, A. Moore, E. Murnane, E. Newbury, A. Powell, T. Sorg, C. Yao, C. Morris, A. M’nebhi

Voting members absent: D. Westgren, K. Bybee-Finley, M. Zou

II. Approval of the Minutes

1. September 9th, 2013, 1 min.

The minutes were approved without dissent.

III. Reports of Officers and Committee Updates, 10 min.

1. Executive Committee (M. Dumas)

If interested in external committees, email Christine Yao. She highlighted two executive committees- Big Red Barn, formed last year, and Academic integrity Hearing Board. She said it is a very interesting committee since it is the central park of student life. It was formed so graduate students can have an input on campus issues. She informed the GPSA that the Big Red Barn was offered money this summer for refurbishing and it would be great to have a graduate representative for that committee.

The other committee she addressed was the Academic Integrity Hearing Board which has 8 positions broken down into physical sciences, life sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Still looking for members from physical sciences, social sciences, and life sciences. She informed the GPSA that this committee only meets when there is a hearing that can vary between once a year to 3 times a semester. Therefore, it is not a lot of time commitment. It is an interesting way to get to know structure of policy and learn about the dealings of the large undergraduate school.

2. Appropriations (W. Kreuser)

Waited till the end to share updates.

3. Communications (D. Westgren)

Giovanna Daniel Torres shared updates. The committee has a successful meeting two Thursdays ago. They also distributed T-shirts this past Saturday for homecoming so that was another successful event. She informed everyone of the hiking trip in 6 mile creek coming up on October 5th and interested individuals can contact gpseugpsed@gmail.com. The Thursday before Halloween there will be a Zombie Lurch for which details have not been sorted out yet but we can start spreading the word. She thanked everyone for helping public events.

Elizabeth Newbury said that everyone interested in events can email Dana Westgren and should follow Facebook and events for any advertisements. Twitter is up and coming. Till then, she recommended that everyone follow the hashtag #cugpsa for more information on the GPSA.

4. Finance Commission (P. Mahanti & D. Kuhlmann)

Waited until end to share updates.

5. Graduate & Professional Student Programming Board (K. Bybee Finley)

K. Bybee-Finley was absent. No updates shared.

6. Student Advocacy (F. Doerflinger)

No updates available.

7. Faculty Awards (A. Powell)

No updates available.

8. Diversity & International Students (C. Carter)

There will be an event for this committee on Thursday at the Big Red Barn or at Mann Library. Dean of professional students is invited to speak directly at the event since it is hard for her to come to GPSA. She is very active in the department and excited to talk about diversity. She will share pointers and initiatives on diversity.

IV. New Business

1. David Bunck, GPSA Representative to the University Assembly, 10 min.

D. Bunck is the vice chair of student assembly. He said the GPSA is here to address graduate issues while the UA deals with everyone on campus. There are 3 standing committees in UA with 2 open seats and none of them are currently staffed. The voice of the graduate students is not at the table and important issues are decided upon without their input.

The 3 committees are campus infrastructure, campus welfare, and codes and judicial. Campus infrastructure deals with bikes, parking, and transportation on campus. Campus welfare deals with issues like diversity, healthcare, and general well-being. This committee will tart by looking at issues bias and sexual assault. They will start off by looking at a significant report ‘Incident Management Team Report’ submitted last year. The first meeting will be on Friday at 10 am. The Codes and Judicial committee works on anything that falls under judiciary.

They need a voting and one nonvoting member to sit on the committees. He said these are real issues that concern everybody. They involve little time commitment and have a huge impact.

E. Newbury added that these committees address on-campus and off-campus housing, an issue that concerns graduate students specially.

2. Parag Mahanti & Daniel Kuhlmann, GPSA Finance Commission Chairs, 15 min.

D. Kuhlmann said they committee is still looking for more members. They meet 6–7 times a year for a couple of hours each time. There are 3 spots open for anyone who would like to join this committee. He explain how FC funding works; there are 3 channels through which GPSA funds are disbursed- summer budgets, annual budgets, and special projects. The FC gets money from roll-over as well as line alignment. The current budget for 2013 is $300,000 which includes a rollover of $122,000 from last year. The FC gives out money through the GPSA to fund field organizations and interest organizations. He went into details to compare budget from last year and estimates this year’s calculations. The two types of organizations that receive funding are interest organizations and field organizations. Organizations can receive field funding based on field membership. Funding sub-categories include

1. Program (speaker event production, reception, publicity)
2. Club sports (equipment, facilities, rental, tournaments)
3. Publication from a club
4. Social (parties)

Organizations in their first year are on probation. Their funding is limited to $450. For special project requests, requests must be submitted and approved prior to event.To be considered, request proposal must be submitted the Friday before that month’s FC meeting. Applications are to be submitted via OrgSync. All organizations must be registered and profile should be completed on OrgSync by September 30th. To contact FC, email gpsafc@cornell.edu He said the FC will be conservative about ffund allocations this year.

OrgSync will be replacing Dashboard systems and all the old budgets will be transferred over to OrgSync. Someone in SAO will do it and there will not be a need to enter budget again. However, if a new budget is being requested, it will have to be updated on OrgSync.

3. Resolution 1, Approval of the Bylaws, 15 min.

Nicole Baran explained that Bylaws have to be passed for the GPSA to be a legitimate organization. Grammatical errors in the resolution were passed by a vote of 15–0. By a vote of 15–0. the resolution passed without any other debates or amendments.

4. Resolution 2, Approval of the Internal Budget, 30 min.

M. Dumas explained approval of the Internal Budget entails how much each committee will be receiving. William explained that byline funding is a lot of important work. Byline funding is a $40 fee graduate students pay each semester that funds a lot of committees which don’t get enough money from GPSAFC. The groups who receive funding from them include Cornell EMS, Cornell Concert commission, Cornell Cinema, Cornell Insurance, Big Red Barn, Cornell Athletic and PE, University Program Board, Operating Budget Finance Commission Programing Board, International Student Board, and Student Orientation. He said if anyone wants a say in where their money goes, they should think about joining this committee. The committee for byline funding meets once a month so time commitment is low. He need one voting member on his committee.

They will meet this fall no later than 5th regular GPSA meeting. Allocation process will be finished by the last day of classes. He needs 5 people on this committee.

He informed the GPSA that in the operations budget food is still biggest expense of budget. the overarching goal of the committee is to reduce debt using the rollover money. the requested budget is $15,000 but it will have to be limited to $14,000.

They will increase the money allotted to general meeting foods. Addition of diversity and awards committees has added to the amount of money needed. Some money is also needed to send 3 people to NAGPS and Ivy Summit, which will add value to the organization. Extra dine and discuss event and group wellness events for other groups were added to the budget.

The considerations to bring down the surplus include:

1. placing a strict limit on committee food to $8 per person.
2. limiting travel expenses.
3. encourage collaboration and co sponsorships.
4. only partially fund new programs.
5. wait for a GPSAF byline increase to compensate.

There was an amendment to change food allotment for GPSAF to include more potential members, proposed by Daniel Kuhlmann and seconded by Doerfinger. GPSA realized that the amount allocated was for the requested number of people. D. Kuhlmann then withdrew the amendment.

Elizabeth Newbury proposed tabling proposal to give members a chance to look over budget and time to absorb this. Nicole Baran informed the GPSA that budget must be approved in the second meeting according to the bylaws.

Chavez from the diversity committee raised a motion to increase the number of meetings to 6 instead of 4. He wanted to increase amount allocated for food to $336. This motion was seconded. With a vote for 15–0, the motion was passed.

Nicole Baran recommended that the money allocated for the Ivy Summit should be put aside for discretionary travel trips. This motion was seconded. With a vote of 15–0, this vote was passed.

Debate on the budget closed at this point and the GPSA moved into the vote for overall budget. With a vote of 15–0, the amended budget was passed.

V. Open Forum, 4 min.

Nicole Baran explained the Ivy Summit, which is an annual meeting of all the Ivy Leagues and MIT. It is an opportunity for all groups to get together and talk about common issues and meet new people.

National Association for Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) os am organization that represents all graduate and professional students. It is responsible for lobbying groups for GPS. Became very involved with a lot of issues- federal budget and ho that would affect GPS, visas for international students. It is important to get involved in these events in order to stay informed. It is a large organization with leadership positions available at the national level. Both Ivy Summit and NAGPS meet November 8th. Decisions regarding who will attend these events will be made in the near future.

Chavez announced that the Symposium will be held on Tuesday, September 24th and the Reception will be 6–7:30 in BioTech G01.

There will be a meeting for graduate and professional women next Monday at the Big Red Barn and all members are welcome.

Motion to adjourn by M. Dumas.

Respectfully submitted,

Aastha Wadhwa