Student Assembly

Minutes
Cornell University Student Assembly
April 29, 2010
4:45pm
Willard Straight Hall, Memorial Room

I.Call to Order

R. Salem called the meeting to order at 4:49 pm.

II. Roll Call

Voting Members Present: I. Akinpelu, V. Andrews, C. Basil, A. Brokman, M. Danzer, M. DeLucia, A. Gitlin, Z. Glasser, N. Junewicz, N. Kumar, A. Latella, J. Min, A. Nicoletti, S. Purdy, N. Raps, J. Rau, A. Raveret, R. Salem, U. Smith, K. Welch,

Non-Voting Members Present: A. Cowen, R. Rodewald, A. Flye

Voing Members Excused Absent: R. Desai, H. Yang

Voting Members Unexcused Absent: C. Moreno

III. Approval of Minutes

The minutes from 4/15 and 4/22 were approved with U. Smith’s change to the 4/15 minutes that no AAP student passed away.

IV. Open Microphone

No one came forth.

V. Announcements/Reports

1. Trustee Election Announcement�Rammy Salem

R. Salem congratulated Nighthawk Evensen who came forward and said he will be in touch at his trustee blog (trusteeevensen.wordpress.com) and will be holding office hours.

2. AAP Update�Ulysses Smith

U. Smith said that construction for Milstein Hall is ready to start. The building has some really cool designs. Anyone interested to see the pictures should contact him.

3. End of the Year Summaries�Vince Andrews

V. Andrews asked the SA members to write 3 memorable things from this semester and write a 200-word report on what they did this year for the newsletter. New SA members need to send Natalie Raps their information.

V. Andrews moved to change R 82 to business of the day. It was seconded without dissent.

4. Lights Out Cornell Announcement�Adam Raveret

Jolyon Bloomfield from the GPSA said that the effort to reduce inefficient light use on campus at night is ongoing since R25 was passed a few months ago. Currently the taskforce consists of him and 4 undergrad students. They have a website for documentation to mobilize student volunteers. It’s been running for a months and a half. 15000 lights have been turned off. $500 were saved from 2 buildings. The plan is to have volunteers go around turning off lights on campus at night and this could save 300 tons of CO2. Today we have 50 volunteers. The effort is going fairly well.

5. President David J. Skorton and Vice President for Student and Academic Services Susan H. Murphy (5:15–5:45pm)

President Skorton thanked the SA for a productive year and said it is important to have shared governance. S. Murphy said tomorrow at 12:30–2 pm there will be a forum to discuss the response to the crisis earlier this spring regarding the suicides.

I. Akinpelu asked what is the most sustainable practice concerning the fences on the bridges? What is the next step?

D. Skorton said the administration is still exploring ways to minimize the risks while restoring the views of the gorges. The fences will not stay up in the long-term future.

S. Murphy said there will be a consultation next week with experts concerning suicide clusters and prevention.

M. Danzer asked what steps will the university take to make Cornell not only a more diverse place but a more welcoming environment? D. Skorton replied it is important to go through the three steps of change: 1) know that we need changes, 2 ) learn from different groups on campus what changes we need to make, and 3) how to actually make those changes.

Andrew Walsh, a community member from the group Cornell against Sweatshops, said the university licensing committee canceled its meeting with the group regarding the Nike incident where Nike’s subcontractors violated the collegiate code of conduct by withholding worker pay and insurance money. D. Skorton said the administration will look into it. He personally is traveling to Qatar next week so S. Murphy will probably be the one to look into it.

J. Min asked about the predictions about the future academic cuts and which areas the cuts will affect. D. Skorton said that every part of the university has stepped back and cut down on budget. We are trying to avoid academic cuts by cutting from non-academic areas like administration and procurement. Next year, there will still be slower than optimal faculty hiring and continued staff shrinking. There will also be some differences in how services are delivered. Academic cuts will be decided by individual colleges. The administration is trying hard to be transparent.

A. Brokman asked about slow rate of responses to resolutions. D. Skorton said it has been an extraordinary year and there are a lot of things to take care of. He promised to try to speed up the response to the less complicated resolutions, but the complicated resolutions take more thoughts and will probably need more time.

VI. Business of the Day

1. R. 82- Upholding Cornell’s Codes of Conduct�Vincent Andrews, Fil Eden, William Peterson, Alex Bores, Casey Sweeney

F. Eden explained the situation with Nike’s subcontractors withholding pay and health insurance from workers.

V. Andrews made an amendment that changed “has determined” to “believes” in the resolution. The sponsors found it friendly.

N. Kumar asked if the sponsors have contacted the Cornell Store about the apparel sold there. The sponsor replied they have talked with the Cornell Store manager.

I. Akinpelu asked if the sponsors know what the financial damage will be to Nike if Cornell severs the contract with Nike for collegiate apparel. The sponsors did not know the specific numbers but said the financial damage will probably not be too significant. The point is to send a message to Nike that this behavior is against Cornell’s code of conduct and will not be tolerated.

After a few more questions from SA members, N. Raps called to question. It was seconded without dissent.

The SA members voted 16–0−1 with a hand vote. The community voted 2–0. With a final vote of 18–0−1, the resolution passed.

2. R. 83- New SAFC Commissioners�Alex Latella, Justin Min, Dan Gusz ‘11, and Charlie Feng ‘11

C. Feng went over the resolution. N. Kumar asked for better communication between the SAFC and the SA and with that, he called to question. It was seconded without dissent.

With a vote of 14–0−2, the resolution passed.

VII. Unfinished Business

1. R. 75- Appendix B Changes�Matt Danzer and Mike Wacker ‘10

A. Brokman asked M. Wacker a series of questions regarding his column in the Daily Sun before his time ran out.

C. Basil said he was really pleased to see the balance in this resolution. N. Raps agreed and supported the resolution.

N. Kumar called to question. It was seconded with dissent.

By a hand vote of 14–5−1, the call to question was passed and the SA went ahead into voting.

By a vote of 16–1−2, the resolution was passed.

2. R. 76- Appendix A Changes�Chris Basil

C. Basil explained the changes. A. Nicoletti commented he thought the resolution was very through and made a call to question. It was seconded without dissent.

With a vote of 18–0−0 (proxies from M. Danzer, N. Raps, and R. Desai voting for yes), the resolution was passed.

3. R. 78- Establishment of the Student Assembly Public Service Committee�Adam Gitlin, Albert Lee ‘10, Anna Carroll ‘12, George Hornedo ‘13, Jacob Kose ‘13, Mavis Bortey-Fio ‘11, Maya Koretzky ‘13, Nathaniel Houghton ‘11, Rachel Greenspan ‘12

R. Salem said he will present a separate amendment to this resolution at the next meeting.

N. Kumar made an amendment to strike “By SAFC” in the resolution. The amendment was passed by a hand vote among the SA members.

There was a call to question, and it was seconded without dissent. R. Desai, M. Danzer, and A. Gitlin proxied yes. With a final vote of 16–0−0, the resolution was passed.

4. R. 79- SAFC Guideline Changes�Charlie Feng’11, Dan Gusz ‘11, Justin Min

Discussion about the resolution was postponed at first because C. Feng and D. Gusz were not present. Later in the meeting, C. Feng explained that the changes were mostly non-substitutive. There was a call to question and it was seconded without dissent. The resolution passed with a hand vote of 13–0−0.

5. R. 80- Student Assembly Elections Committee�Charlie Feng ‘11, Vince Andrews, Nikki Junewicz

V. Andrews explained that there are some radical changes to the membership. Two assembly members will no longer be the majority. N. Junewicz said the number of seniors changes from year to year, and seniors are automatically on the committee even if they may not be interested in elections. So this resolution removes the requirement for seniors on the SA to be on the elections committee.

R. Salem presented an amendment that would combine the class council and SA election committees. The sponsors were concerned that the class council currently has no connection with the SA. R. Salem withdrew the amendment.

J. Rau called to question. It was seconded without dissent.

By a vote of 18–0−1, the resolution was passed.

6. R. 81- Charter Revisions�Alex Cowen ‘10

The SA did not get to this resolution.

VIII. New Business

1. R. 84 Housing Lottery Time Slots

R. Salem said the previous resolutions about housing lottery excluded the mid-year transfers and this resolution corrects this oversight.

2. R. 85 Ivy Council

R. Salem said the Ivy Council has become an autonomous organization and should no longer be a part of the SA. It can apply for funding through SAFC

3. R. 86 Webmaster

R. Salem explained the resolution regarding the creation of the new position of the webmaster for the SA. A. Nicoletti asked why the webmaster should be on the exec committee. R. Salem said this makes for fast and easy communication and the SA website should be updated weekly.

N. Kumar asked if the webmaster would be a voting member of the executive committee. R. Salem said the webmaster would be ex-officio and nonvoting.

V. Andrews said that since the person will be volunteering their time on behalf of the SA, it is fair that they receive a position on the executive committee.

C. Basil moved to table the resolution and adjourn. It was seconded without dissent.

IX. Adjournment

N. Kumar adjourned the meeting at 6:19pm.