Student Assembly

MINUTES
Cornell University Student Assembly
October 28, 2010
4:45pm — 6:30pm
Willard Straight Hall, Memorial Room

I. Call to Order

V. Andrews called the meeting to order at 4:46pm.

II. Roll Call

Voting members present: V. Andrews, A. Bajaj, G. Block, A. Brokman, M. Danzer, R. Desai, A. Gitlin, M. Gulrajani, C. Jenkins, J. Kay, D. Kuhr, R. Mensah, A. Nicoletti, S. Pendleton, A. Pruce, N. Raps, J. Rau, U. Smith, A. Yozwiak

Voting members excused absent: C. Feng, T. Lenardo

Voting members non-excused absent: A. Savion

III. Approval of Minutes

V. Andrews asked assembly members to look over the minutes from the October 21st, 2010 meeting to vote on their approval at the next meeting.

IV. Open Microphone — Ray Mensah

V. Andrews invited anyone present in the audience to come forth and speak.

At the end of the meeting, Zach Murray ‘11, a student from AAP, asked for more SA involvement in his college. The SA should ask students about their experiences at Cornell.

R. Desai said that he wants to push for a survey of students to ask them about their diversity experience here. Any more specific issues could be answered by JAMIC.

Murray suggested reaching out to students to empower student voices. For example, the SA could host an open forum for students to come and say what’s on their mind.

V. Announcements/Reports

1. Charter Review Update — Michael Gould

M. Gould said he would be posting his review online soon.

2. Haven and CU EMS Reports — Adam Nicoletti

A.Nicoletti said that he and the appropriations committee are very impressed with CU EMS. They have shown terrific leadership and their conference was approved. They are also pleased with developments with Haven, which were discussed at a meeting this week.

3. Faculty Senate Update — Roneal Desai

R. Desai said that he met with the president of Minds Matter last weekend to address the Lift Your Spirits event, which will be turned into a mental health week. There will be a series of training sessions for students during this week. This resolution will be voted on next semester at a Faculty Senate meeting. Many groups will be reviewing this resolution in the next few weeks.

E. Cusick asked who was in charge of the Lift Your Spirits event.

J. Kay said she was the head of that committee. It has been renamed the Cornell Caring Committee Celebration. So far there has been a positive response to and several developments in the planning of the celebration.

M. Gulrajani said this event would be held indoors this semester. They need a lot of help promoting it.

N. Raps said there would be an entire week of publicity for this event. All SA members are expected to help out. The mental health week will be called “Students as One” instead. It will be held on November 11th from 5:30–7:30 in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight.

4. Arthur Spitzer, J.D. (5:00pm — 5:15pm)

Spitzer said he was a student at Cornell from 1967–1971, a time of great upheaval on American campuses. A lot of things changed in this short period of time. He discussed how such events as the takeover of Willard Straight Hall in 1969 ultimately led to the formation of a constituent assembly whose charter was to figure out how Cornell should change. This became the University Senate- a university-wide body including students, faculty, administration, and staff. He was elected to this Senate as the speaker in 1970–71. The first session of the Senate tried to kick ROTC off campus and changed the academic calendar to its current form.

Now, Spitzer is a lawyer for the ACLU who still finds that his years of experience in the University Senate come in handy.

V. Andrews informed Spitzer that there is currently a University Assembly that is similar to the University Senate he described.

A. Nicoletti asked how accepting the university was toward expanding the authority of the Senate.

Spitzer said they were skeptical about giving power to another group but they felt that things had to be done after the recent protests on campus. There was negotiation to form this group as a result of those events and the trustees were aware that they didn’t have much choice in the matter.

The Student Assembly thanked Spitzer for attending and sharing his memories with them.

VI. Unfinished Business

5. Resolution 26 — Clarification of Designated At-Large Seats

M. Danzer said that this is a charter amendment to clarify the minority seats, LGBTQ seat, and international seat. These are the undesignated at-large seats. This resolution fell through the cracks last year, so now he wants to assure full rights to all SA members.

R. Mensah said there might have to be approval from President Skorton to change part of their charter in this manner.

A. Bajaj asked for a clarification of what the LGBTQ acronym stands for.

M. Danzer said the “Q” is interpreted here to mean “queer”, rather than “questioning”.

A. Epstein said that SA legislation has ruled in the past that the “Q” stands for “questioning”.

The resolution was called to question. Seconded. The resolution was passed by a vote of 16–1−1.

6. Resolution 27 — Creation of the Greek-LGBTQ Relations Ad-Hoc Committee

M. Danzer said this resolution would create a committee between the Greek and LGBTQ communities to see what their overlapping issues are and how these issues can be addressed. He has reached out to numerous groups and has heard a lot of enthusiastic approval.

U. Smith said he is in favor of the intent of this committee, but he doesn’t know why the SA needs to form a specific committee to tackle these issues. Why doesn’t this fall under the purview of any preexisting committees?

M. Danzer said that this committee would only have to involve himself, so it wouldn’t stretch SA resources too thin. Additionally, this type of conversation couldn’t be done under the resources of JAMIC or ResLife because the overlap between these two groups is so unique that they need to be addressed in a separate, formal format.

V. Andrews said that this is a formal way to demonstrate that we are working on these issues.

E. Cusick said that the Greek Community would love to be involved in this committee.

A. Brokman thinks this would be a valuable committee even though it is small. It can still make a big difference. Having the title of an SA committee adds legitimacy for them to approach the administration.

J. Rau said that the ResLife committee has a spot for a Greek member, but they never come to the meetings. Why form another committee incorporating them, then?

M. Danzer said they shouldn’t call his proposed committee a failure just because the ResLife Committee cannot get an IFC or PanHellenic member to attend their meetings.

A. Pruce asked what issues they would be discussing.

M. Danzer said he hasn’t personally been exposed to any of the issues that may be discussed. But he has heard that there is tension and overlap in the issues of these two communities. This committee is the start of a large, broad, campus-wide conversation that needs to happen.

R. Desai said JAMIC reviewed this resolution recently and asked some similar questions to those being asked here. They voted to accept this resolution.

R. Mensah said that he was concerned that this resolution is very broad and the proposed committee may not have as much direction as he would hope for. However, it will expire at the end of the year unless they choose to extend its life. He doesn’t see how it would be a drain on the SA.

U. Smith said that just because “SA” is placed next to the title of a committee, it isn’t any more legitimate than another committee. The issues discussed by ResLife are very broad, but other preexisting committees oftentimes explore these issues in detail.

M. Danzer said the fact that LGBTQ or Greeks don’t show up to other committee meetings doesn’t mean that they won’t show up to this committee. This needs to be an ongoing and constant conversation.

A. Bajaj said that the size of a committee should have no bearing on whether or not they should pass the resolution. Cornell University needs to address these important issues because they are very pertinent to current events across the country. Give Danzer the chance to see if anything productive can come from this.

Called to question. Seconded. Resolution passed by a vote of 15–2−1.

VII. New Business

7. Resolution 32 — Appendix B Revision-CU EMS

A. Nicoletti said the appropriations committee met with CU EMS this week. They brought up that in Appendix B, there are two things wrong with a particular statement. EMS saves money every year toward the purchase of a new vehicle and they are requesting an increase from 20,000 to 25,000 dollars over the course of 2 years. However, this was transcribed as an error in Appendix B.

Ben Renard, Director of Operations of EMS said that they had planned to save $25,000 over two years. They will need to have two trucks to constantly cover calls.

D. Kuhr asked if it is true that the trucks cost 50,000 dollars.

Renard said that this is true because the trucks cost $25,000 and another $25,000 to outfit them.

R. Mensah asked if there is any way they will be able to extend the lifetime of their trucks to more than four-five years. He also asked what they do with their trucks after they cannot use them anymore.

B. Renard said that they try to sell their old trucks to local EMS agencies that run fewer calls than they do. This money then goes toward purchasing the next truck. By rotating trucks on a weekly basis, they hope to expand their lifetime, but they still experience a lot of wear because they are used so frequently.

R. Mensah asked how many of the parts of the old trucks can be salvaged and used on new trucks.

B. Renard said they try to save parts and the money from the old trucks is rolled over to buy new trucks.

M. Danzer asked if it is possible to transfer old sirens, etc to new trucks so that they don’t have to buy new supplies.

B. Renard said yes. They try to transfer some items, but other items are not feasible. Some lights go out after a few years and so they end up spending more money on items that are breaking repeatedly.

A. Chang, equipment manager, said the existing cabinetry, for example, will not fit into a new truck. They are continuously putting money into the older vehicle, so they think it would be more profitable to just replace it with a new vehicle.

A. Nicoletti said the appropriations committee voted by acclamation to support the revision of this error.

A. Bajaj asked if the reason they are asking for an increase in their budget was because they are experiencing more wear and tear on their trucks as a result of operating 24/7.

B. Renard said that this was correct.

A. Nicoletti said that there was just an error in appendix B.

Call to question. Seconded. By a vote of 17–0−1, the resolution passed.

VIII. Business of the Day

8. Resolution 33 — Addition of Student Representative to Assistant Vice Provost Selection Committee

R. Desai said this resolution is in response to a movement by the university to create a new Assistant Vice Provost position. This position will be the point person for Cornell in making sure that minorities on campus get the resources they need to succeed. JAMIC has been arguing for this type of position to be created for a while. It is disappointing that students didn’t get the opportunity to represent their peers in determining who the new provost should be. There was very little student involvement in this process. Currently, there is only one student on the selection committee. However, the resolution will create another student position on the committee, designated by the Student Assembly. Any student on campus should be able to apply for this position. Desai has already received 15 applications from students for the position. He will hold a group interview soon and will narrow down the applicants, allowing Vice Provost Brown the opportunity to select who she wants.

C. Jenkins motioned to amend the spelling in one of the resolution’s clauses.

R. Desai said that JAMIC voted to support this resolution. This was a largely JAMIC-influenced initiative.

A. Nicoletti said that he supports this resolution and moved for something similar last year.

J. Rau suggests emailing these applications to many list-serves to get more applications.

Called to question. Seconded. By a vote of 18–0−0, the resolution passed.

VIII. Adjournment

V. Andrews adjourned the meeting at 6:16pm.

Respectfully submitted, Allison Bazinet