Student Assembly

MINUTES
Cornell University Student Assembly
November 11, 2010
4:45pm — 6:41pm
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: A. Savion, V. Andrews, G. Block, A. Brokman, M. Danzer, R. Desai, C. Feng, A. Gitlin, M. Gulrajani, J. Kay, R. Mensah, A. Nicoletti, S. Pendleton, A. Pruce, N. Raps, U. Smith, A. Yozwiak

Voting members excused absent: A. Bajaj, M. Finn, C. Jenkins,

Voting members unexcused absent: D. Kuhr, T. Lenardo, J. Rau

III. Approval of Minutes

The minutes from November 4th, 2010 were approved.

IV. Open Microphone — Ray Mensah

R. Mensah invited any community members to come forward for the open microphone session.

Two students came forward to talk about their humanitarian organization, Big Red Relief, which will be hosting an event with the Pakistani Student Association this Saturday at Duffield. They would love to have SA members at their event. Tickets are eight dollars in advance and ten dollars at the door. Semi-formal attire.

V. Announcements/Reports

1. CUTonight and Welcome Weekend Reports — Adam Nicoletti

A. Nicoletti said that the SAFC met with these groups on Monday. CUTonight does a great job of providing good programming on campus. However, they might be experiencing over-allocation because they have such high rollovers from previous years. Therefore, they are encouraged to use their liaison more to prevent over-programming.

Last year, Welcome Weekend’s allocation was reduced to decrease their 25,000-dollar surplus. In order to decrease this surplus more, they should remove the 12-dollar registration fee for clubs at Club Fest and they should also consider hosting an event in the spring.

VI. Business of the Day

1. Resolution 40 — Recommendations to Faculty Regarding Mental Health and Well-Being of Students

R. Desai called on students, community members, alumni, faculty, and staff to foster new behaviors to encourage people to seek help when they are going through hard times. This echoes what President Skorton said in a recent edition of the Daily Sun. Everyone associated with Cornell has a responsibility to improve the mental health of this university. Therefore, there will be two resolutions that will go through the Faculty Senate to improve student mental health. These resolutions call for a reevaluation of the student-teacher relationship. One of the improvements is for teachers to plan their exam schedules with their students in mind so as to prevent multiple exams in one week. This will eliminate stressful situations and provide a more accurate assessment of student performance and therefore Cornell performance.

There was a call for acclamation for an amendment to the resolution proposed by a Cornell professor. No dissent. The amendment passed.

U. Smith said he was pleased everyone was working together on this resolution. However, he was concerned that professors would decide to give their exams sooner to students with exam conflicts, so students may not have enough time to prepare.

R. Desai said that he would consider this and discuss it with faculty. He and other SA members have already talked extensively with a number of faculty members and mental health experts at Gannett.

Dean Hubble said the SA should make sure that the language of this resolution invites a dialogue between students and faculties. He envisions a situation in which students engage in more effective planning of their coursework so as to eliminate stress, but also one in which faculty works to aid their students as well.

S. Pendleton is concerned with the precedent of having the exam at least one week away from the original test date. He thinks this may be too restrictive and professors may not be able to cover all of the material on the exam beforehand. A less strict limit, such as four days, might be a better way of proceeding.

S. Pendleton motioned to amend this aspect of the resolution. Students should be given an alternative time to take an exam so as to alleviate any potentially stressful situations.

There was a call to question. Call for acclamation. The amendment passed.

There was a call to question for the resolution. Dissent. The call to question was withdrawn.

A. Brokman motioned to amend to include alternative time for taking exams for situations when students would be absent due to family or religious obligations.

There was a call to question and a call for acclamation with no dissent. The amendment passed.

A. Brokman motioned to amend the reasonable percentage of a student’s total grade the exam would have to be in order for that student to schedule an alternate test-taking time.

A. Pruce said that many prelims are worth 15 percent of a student’s grade, so this would be a reasonable percentage for a student to have the option to take the exam at another time. R. Desai said that, ultimately, the faculty would decide these details, so SA members shouldn’t nit pick at the details so much right now.

A. Gitlin asked if the amendment would be for the percentage to be higher or lower than it is currently listed in the resolution.

A. Brokman said he thought 15 percent should be the new standard instead of 20 percent.

Call to question. Call for acclamation. Seconded with no dissent. By a hand vote, the amendment does not pass.

Call for acclamation. Seconded. No dissent. Resolution passed by a roll call vote of 15–0−0.

VII. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn. Seconded with no dissent. V. Andrews adjourned the meeting at 5:16pm in order to prepare for the Cornell Caring Community Celebration.

Respectfully submitted, Allison Bazinet