Student Assembly

Kristen Welch (kmw49), Representative from the College of Human Ecology: I spoke to many of my constituents on Thursday before the SA meeting. Many of those students had mixed feelings about the appeal to overturn the appropriations committee’s decision on the reduction of Cornell Cinema’s funding. Many of the students I spoke with voiced a concern about having the SAF money go towards paying for student jobs. Aside from this concern, many Human Ecology students supported giving more funding to Cornell Cinemas. Thus, after their Director Mary said she would not use SAF money towards student wages, I believed that the major concern of many Hum. Ec. Students was ameliorated. Thus, as a College whose commitment includes focusing on student health and happiness, I voted to over-turn the appropriations committee’s decisions to reduce the Cinema’s funding, since I feel they provide a safe, fun, and diverse activity for students to enjoy. Please feel free to contact me with any questions! kmw49@cornell.edu

Nikhil Kumar (njk38), Vice President for Internal Operations: I voted in favor of upholding the Appropriations Committee’s decision of funding Cornell Cinema at $8.60. My main reasoning was that students’ activity fee money should be funding student activities, not University institutions. Cornell Cinema is housed in the Arts & Sciences School’s Film department. It receives almost 20% of its operating budget, presumably to cover portions of staff salaries, from the University’s academic department. It does not make sense that, while the institution is a University institution, the portion the University pays is only about � of what the Student Assembly was asked to allocate. Put simply, the funding request represents an attempt to place more of the burden of the cost of the Cinema onto student shoulders. Funding the Cinema at $8.60 (or lower, as I would have supported) forces either the University to contribute its fair share or the Cinema to restructure to be more efficient. Ideally, the way to do that would be to place more authority in its student leaders, rather than its paid employees. So, ultimately, I decided that $8.60 is both a more appropriate financial burden for students to bear and an appropriate sum to force Cornell Cinema to place more responsibility in its student leaders’ hands.