Student Assembly

MINUTES
Cornell University Student Assembly
February 12, 2009
4:45 — 6:30pm
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall

I. Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 4:46 pm

II. Roll Call

Representatives Present: V. Andrews, N. Baker, C. Basil, A. Brokman, A. Craig, E. Cusick, E. Diakow, A. Garcia-Verdin, M. Heinz, N. Junewicz, N. Kumar, A. Latella, R. Lavin, M.McDermott, G. Mezey, T. Miller, N. Raps, R. Salem, E. Shannon, B. Smith, R. Stein, Y. Yao

Representatives Excused: L. DeLencquesaing

Representatives 1/2 Unexcused: O. Sandoval

Liaisons Present: A. Miller, S. Tata

III. Approval of the Minutes — February 5, 2009

There was a call for acclimation. It was seconded without dissent. The minutes were approved.

IV. Open Microphone

No one chose to speak.

V. Announcements/Reports

Greek Update — Allen Miller

On Saturday, there was the AD White leadership conference. It’s a traditional outdoor event. There’s a Greeks go Green campaign to promote sustainability. Along safety lines, they’re continuing with CU ride alongs. They made revisions to the event management guidelines for better safety. They’ve also talked about judicial transparency.

Appropriations committee report —VP Mezey

The committee met Tuesday. They voted unanimously to fund Zimride. The cost was $45,000 at a $5,000 discount. They have a Facebook and website application. He also had an update to the task force meeting. They will start having meetings Tuesdays at four.

VP Miller said that the goal in the long term is to collect data from the gracious package and when the financial situation has settled down, they hope to help split the cost with the university. He knows it is a large amount of money, but hopefully down the road it’ll be funded by the administration.

R Lavin reminded that it takes a 2/3 majority to overturn an appropriations committee decision.

Zimride Announcement & PR Marketing Plan — Tony Miller and Nikki Junewicz

VP Junewicz replied that they are promoting this via Sun ads, Facebook ads and all the normal means of PR. However the committee has had new ideas and they wanted to share them. Stephanie Regionni ‘10 said that they had a guerilla marketing plan. She thought of putting the Zim car around the arts quad, on a tree, etc. Tom Naples ‘11 said they want to do chalking around the campus like the Wiggio campaign. Other ideas are t-shirts, club presidents for dissemination to their gorups (such as Cornell Ski and Snowboarding, Outing Club, and sports teams).

A Craig was wondering if maybe a sun editorial or column was possible instead of an ad. S. Regionni said that they did write an op ed piece that the Sun didn’t run, but will consider that option.

R Salem asked if there was an itemized budget from the $45,000. VP Mezey replied that it’s a service and setup fee and it’s customized. Also the price is for the ability to use the service restricted within the Cornell committee. R Lavin said that John Zimmer will finance the PR Campaign.

Elections Announcement - M McDermott

53 elections packets have been signed out as of noon today. They don’t have information to say if it’s a record number, but the office said it’s considered high. Email’s gone out to all candidates. As a reminder, the deadline is 12:30 pm Monday for election materials. Monday Afternoon and Tuesday, if you have free time, they need to run the signatures. Please come into the office then to help if you’re an election committee member. If you’re a candidate, you can’t help. If you’re not running and feel like helping, please do so.

VI. Business of the Day

Transfer Survey Email — Andrew Brokman

In front is the email for all transfers and the survey he’s looking to send. The surveys are stratified for the fall 08/spring09 as to a different one. It’s the first two questions that are different. Policy people worked on it and they made sure to have no biases. Simply want to gauge opinions.

VP Mezey replied that one of the things that’s concerning for transfers is associating with a “class of” and the freshmen all get added on. But the transfers don’t have the option to have the “have you sought out association with the class of” people. A Brokman replied that was not the goal of the survey. This is housing and first year living experience but that is an issue of concern.

R Stein would like to echo VP Mezey’s comment, it was something she tried to deal with last year and was told it was impossible. She thinks it’s great and has filled out the survey. She urges everyone to approve and wouldn’t see a person who would be bothered by this.

N Kumar said this was a great job and echoed R. Stein’s comments.

R Salem think it’s a great idea. Since the person distributing this can email all the transfers, does a transfer list-serve exist? R Lavin clarified that the registrar has the capability of emailing all transfers or all of a certain group of students due to their system. It is not a list-serve per se.

VP Basil called to question. It was seconded. VP Mezey dissented. R. Lavin chose to not recognize the motion and let VP Mezey explain his dissent.

VP Mezey thinks it’s important for transfers to identify with a class. He wants to add three questions regarding this. A Brokman agrees that it’s an issue, but for a different survey. He thinks it’s a separate issue and could use the same survey service but doesn’t think it’s a good for now. VP Mezey doesn’t think they’ll get another survey. A Brokman acknowledged that possibility, but the personal list-serves, can get it out to 200 in his grade and five hundred in other grades of transfers. He doesn’t think it’s necessary for this survey.

A Garcia-Verdin is a transfer and doesn’t feel confused as to which class she identifies with. She thinks there are greater issues and this one can be addressed later on.

V Andrews called to question. It was seconded, but there was a point of information asked.

R. Stein asked if people as a general whole receive class of emails. M McDermott replied that it’s a huge problem, so transfers who enter traditionally have issues. Normally they email class councils to get on the list-serve. Newer ones are getting onto it because the issue’s been raised.

The motion was seconded without dissent. By a hand vote of 20–1−0 this was approved.

R Lavin said to see if they can address the class council email issue in another way.

Email Server Changes Presentation — Greg Menzenski

G. Menzenski is here with Beth Lyons and would like to talk about the ensemble project.

It’s a code name for a collection of products that’ll deliver email to students and faculty/staff. For students, they will have Google applicationss and Microsoft things. It is more contemporary. The one now doesn’t have some of the functionalities (like a calendar) and is a substantially larger mail inbox, opportunities for collaboration files, and real time chat about files. If you have a portable phone or intelligent device, it’s cumbersome to integrate in the Cornell mail system. This will be easier. This didn’t come directly from CIT. There were two task forces charged with different solutions. The faculty/staff one began in 2007. The student related one started in the beginning of 2008. It contains 7 or 8 students who remain fairly active. They did a survey about how to use email and communicate. That is part of what fed that. They would like input on things before they’re deployed, would like for a wide spectrum of input and at the moment, the members on the advisory board are leaning toward the tech-y side. Although they’re proceeding with technical deployment, they have not reached a point of signed agreements in the legal sense. They’ve followed examples of schools that have deployed both Microsoft and Google. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. Email will remain as netid@cornell.edu but the catch is, after you graduate, they have the opportunity to present ads on the interfaces. Business model is that they can tell advertisers that they reach ivy league grads. After you graduate, your existing email account goes away. On these accounts you keep them and don’t have to deal with that hassle. Email will remain as it is today. Most important project deadline is to have this for incoming students by April 1 for new students. Plan to make this available to existing systems around that date, possibly earlier/later. Accounts essentially the same. Functionality is a little simpler in that the collaborations are easier to do within the cornell.edu domain. By offering both, the customer will benefit as they compete. For this to take place, the person will go into the who I am interface, will select Cmail (google) or Umail (the Microsoft) or both. They will migrate mail to one vendor. Email will migrate under the covers. The expectation is that email should migrate within hours, but they haven’t tested if it’s all done in one night. They will make the legacy email account available on a read-only basis for thirty days. That way they can confirm that everything gets there. You don’t need to be on campus when this is done. They would like more student representation. They don’t know how to gauge the students.

M McDermott said that one of the biggest concerns of alumni was that they have to do forwarding service and don’t like it. From the older alums, they don’t use email. If you could explain how it’ll affect alumni. G. Menzenski said that they have given approval so when you graduate and become and alumni you have the accounts. However, they’ve tabled doing anything with existing alumni.

VP Miller said that a lot of people have a Google account. Will it mess them up? G. Menzenski said that no, you can still route everything just like now. In that sense, it’s more meaningful for new students who won’t have the existing account. It could be to your benefit. Schools that have offered both are University of Virginia, University of Indiana and Drexel. Simple things that aren’t at the first out offering but could take advantage of when they become available. Routing options stay the same.

A Miller thanked him for coming. He cautioned that it sounds very complicated and cautions to have lots of instructions.

His email is gm228@cornell.edu.

R. Lavin added that they do have the CIT committee. If you ever need to use them, they’re there.

Cornell Sustainability Initiatives Presentation — Mike Walsh

M.Walsh introduced himself. He’s he graduate student trustee and a PhD candidate in biological and environmental engineering. Sustainability is very imp to him. This is an agreement from about 600 universities to reach carbon neutrality in the next couple of year, and basically create institutional structure to reduce carbon commissions. The first tangible item was carbon inventory. They measure of how much greenhouse gases that Cornell produces. This was completed in 9/08. Next is target date for climate neutrality or no net greenhouse gases. Cornell released about 319,000 metric tons of CO2. 56% is on site combustion. They use enough electricity to power 11,600 homes. Two smaller pieces are commuting and air travel. They’re in the middle of stage two. They have a team of administrators, faculty, and students. Areas of focus are green development, energy conservation, fuel mix and renewables, transportation, carbon offsets, sustainable decisions and base case —modeling financial outlook.

They’ve been trying to understand where the value is for the university and what benefits are there. They’re doing this because of the different scenarios for the next 50–100 years. The worst case scenario is rapid increase in greenhouse gases, increase in global temp of 5–7 degrees. That’s all thermal, not counting polar ice caps and sea levels. The aim is the second category. 2–3 degree increase, 1m rising sea level. There are a lot of problems with this, but this is the realistic scenario if steps are taken. To do that, everyone needs to mitigate by ~80%. Cap and tray systems are a way to manage pollutants. These work well with nitrates and sulfurs. By 2050, they have to lower carbon footprint by ~75%. Financial exposure predicted under these legislations. The cost is around 180 million dollars to adapt to climate change.

April is climate neutrality month and they look to disseminate information. In November was the neutrality event. There were 60 attendees, and 200 ideas were generated.

A Craig asked about LEED levels and what Cornell is striving for. M Walsh explained the LEED system, and what Cornell is striving for within it.

VP Miller knows that economic times get worse and worse. How much does it affect the ability to take on projects that can do better due to the financial crisis. M Walsh said that it would surprise you by cost recovery. Harvard put in 2 million dollars to a sustainability initiative and got a return of 7 million dollars. Some things have to be put on the back burner. Some steps reduce energy use which is important. As a British economist said the cost of doing nothing will be 20% of global domestic. Cost of DOING something is 1%. Global warming is the biggest market failure in the history of markets.

R Salem thanked for the informative nature. He asked if they needed anything such as student representatives. M Walsh said that they don’t need it right now. They’re looking for more participation in April. He will keep people informed.

Emlyn has been working with student group. One thing is student activities and organizations. They’re going into a review of how can we make clubs greener, use appropriate amount of space.

M. McDermott asked if it was tied into the long range master plan. M Walsh said that it is closely tied. This could be thought of as a Carbon/Energy master plan. McDermott asked if they are seeing interesting interactions with professors opposed to the cap and trading things. This is just the financial risk. It’s not the end all but is one of the things see coming. Not the drive. If a faculty member says it’ll fail/collapse, they would still do it.

A Latella wanted to clarify about LEED. The new lecture hall says it’s gold. How difficult is it to achieve. Only 16 buildings in the world are platinum certified. M Walsh said the goal is to be aware of impact on energy and environmental footprint.

By-Line Funding Process & Assembly Expectations Discussion — Ryan Lavin

To recap, Tuesday they met with advisors of byline funded organizations. They wanted to discuss byline funding, applications they’ll have to prepare. SA will review apps in the fall. Interesting question was will there be a cut, should we know anything. Want to know if they should expect anything. In past, there is no precedent for SA doing across the board cut. But they want info. What came out of it was that they need to set some expectations for the byline funded groups. Want to know if they should change the way to apply for byline funding. Nice to see the groups and advisors are willing to do this.

VP Mezey talked about the timeline. As it was, all app budget submission packets need to be submitted April 27. This is a little ridiculous/stretch for some organizations who have events occurring May 1 or not until summer starts. They changed it to April 27 for having a letter of intent to apply for funding due. This is to state what you’re planning on requesting. That would allow the summer for advisors to get financial information together for actual numbers. They thought of giving students a few weeks come fall semester and having applications for byline funding do on September 11, a Friday, at four pm that way they have 2–3 weeks to get last preparations together.

R Lavin said that it was change that everyone found it friendly. This will be brought up as an amendment next week. Next week resolution with changes that outline new calendar timeline suggestion proposal. The response was to be responsible without jeopardizing mission statement. Possibly saying something like, any increases should be as a result of cuts from shared costs, form the university, etc. For instance, a concert group that’s been having five a semester. Instead of expanding, but were cut money and ask for increase, that’s a viable increase. Increases for cuts, not expanding.

V Andrews asked what exactly are people re-applying for. R Lavin replied that it’s for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 years.

A Craig likes the idea. It urges groups to keep in mind rising costs, that financial aid will go down, increasing SA fee might be more of an expense than students are looking for. Think that some groups that just started may not have had the opportunity to apply at regular level. And to show specifically why want increase if you’re newly funded.

R Lavin said that he and VP Mezey will prepare a letter.

VII. New Business

R.23 Appendix B Changes — Greg Mezey

For a little bit of background, he met with a majority of the byline funded organizations. One day he, Ryan and other members sat down with each one and went through the appendix stipulations. Some changes needed to be made that were never voted upon. For instance, the athletics stuff was discussed last year but needs to formally be put into appendix b. Some are discussion points that were raised but never voted on. One is like welcome weekend, and OSC was “one group had to do this, the other had to do that.” They talked to both groups to take out some of that language. They spent a lot of time discussing with groups what would be most efficient for them and the student community as a whole.

R. Stein asked if he could highlight the specific changes. VP Mezey said the things related to SlopeFest were taken out. OSC must work with campus people was taken out. R Stein asked if that is so they can do what they want. VP Mezey said it will leave them free to decide.

The question mark represents a short statement to be added. It will be fixed.

R Salem asked currently, how athletic events are promoted. VP Mezey said it was decided on last year but never put into appendix B. R Salem said that it is also an increase in class council’s budget. VP Mezey said that the recommendation was brought forth by the class councils. These numbers are what they’re currently operating from.

VP Basil recommended to talk to athletics about not raising men’s varsity hockey prices. He knows that was a point of contention. VP Mezey will double check.

V Andrews asked where the money is coming from. VP Mezey replied that there is no increase. They money was just moved around.

VIII. Adjournment

R. Lavin adjourned the meeting at 6:25 pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Brittany Rosen