Student Assembly

Whereas, the Student Assembly charter states under Appendix B Section I. “Each organization that receives funding from the Student Assembly (SA) is subject to Guidelines set by the Assembly in consultation with the Graduate & Professional Student Assembly (GPSA), these organizations, and the Cornell student body”;

Whereas, the SA and GPSA are each tasked with allocating and distributing the student activity fee to over 600 student organizations;

Whereas, in the fall of 2009 both the SA and GPSA voted unanimously to endorse the Cornell Climate Action Plan;

Whereas, the Climate Action Plan is currently aiming to reduce the institutions overall greenhouse emission level to zero;

Whereas, Cornell has already become recognized on the national level for its efforts in this area, having recently won the Nature Climate Leadership Award for Institutional Excellence;

Whereas, student organizations and other by-line funded organizations can have an environmental impact as part of their operations;

Whereas, the student activity fee should be use in a responsible and sustainable manner that is consistent with the goals and actions outlined above;

Be it therefore resolved, that Appendix A, Item IV (Procedure), Section A (Application), subsection 4 of the Student Assembly Charter be amended to read (with additions in bold):

• 4. By noon on Friday of the third week in which classes are held in a fee setting year, each applicant must submit in print and digitally in a single file, using forms provided by the Office of the Assemblies, a final application including:
  • mission statement, of the organization or program, not to exceed one page,
  • written organization profile, not to exceed three pages, including:
    • officers,
    • number of members, and
    • description of activities, programming, and events conducted in the present cycle, and
    • the environmental impact of the organization and steps taken to mitigate negative impacts.
  • summary of request for funding, not to exceed two pages, including a final funding request, and describing how the applicant intends to use funding and summarizing any changes if the applicant is a returning applicant,
  • financial statements for the past two academic years, the current academic year, and financial projections for the two years during the funding cycle1, and
  • an analysis of the current academic year’s financial statements showing hypothetical spending on each budget item in an organization’s financial statements if the organization received 10%, 25%, and 35% less funding than its current allocation

Be it further resolved, that the Appropriations Committee will include a notification of this new requirement in the announcement of the byline-funding application process to current and future byline funded organizations.

Be it further resolved, that the Student Activities Office amend their online contract for an organization’s official registration to be amended to include the following requirements:

• That the organization fill out a statement that details the possible environmental impact that may result from the organization’s activities and measures the organization will take to abate the negative impacts.
• That re-registering organizations fill out an environmental impact statement that includes an additional request for the organization to assess their environmental impact over the previous year.
• That the organization be asked to provide a name and e-mail address for their Sustainability Chairman; if none is provided, the President shall automatically be listed as such. The purpose of the Sustainability Chairman shall be to receive communications from the Student Assembly Environmental Committee and to ensure the organization’s practices are sustainable.
• That the organization be notified in the Student Activities Offices’ registration contract that the Student Assembly Environmental Committee will be reviewing the environmental impact statements for both completeness and compliance.

Be it further resolved, that the Student Activities Office forward the Environmental Impact Statements of every undergraduate student organization to the Student Assembly Environmental Committee.

Be it further resolved, that the Student Activities Office include multiple support documents on their website to help students complete the environmental impact statement. The documents shall include a sample statement of a large organization with various activities as well as a document that bullets the different things student organizations could do to become more sustainable. These documents will be easily accessible on the SAO website and included in the instructions for filling out the environmental impact statement through an html link. Model support documents will be forwarded to the SAO from the S.A.E.C.

Be it further resolved, that the Student Activities Office allow for a way in which the Student Assembly Environmental Committee could e-mail all listed Sustainability Chairmen with environmental-related messages approved by the Dean of Students Office.

Be it further resolved, that the Student Assembly’s Environmental Committee charge be amended as follows, with additional language indicated in bold, to account for the responsibilities detailed above:

Bylaw 7.7.a.1
Environmental Committee - The committee shall take the initiative in and have primary responsibility for debating and formulating recommendations on programs to improve Cornell’s environmental performance.
The committee’s charge is to serve as a conduit for community input regarding policies and services related to comprehensive, economical and efficient environmental programs on the Cornell campus, including programs to reduce both pollution and waste in the residence and dining halls. The committee shall further be charged with promoting awareness of waste production and management, and establishing goals for increasing campus reduction of waste, reuse, and recycling. The committee shall further be charged with reviewing the environmental impact statements submitted in the registration forms of all undergraduate student organizations. In reviewing these statements, the committee has the responsibility to e-mail the organization’s President and Sustainability Chairman if their organization’s environmental impact statement is incomplete or requires clarification. The committee shall also review challenges submitted to the Student Assembly by individual members of the Cornell community alleging that an undergraduate student organization is either not complying with its impact statement or engages in specific practices that are not sustainable. Challenges could be sent via e-mail to any member of the committee or any member of the Student Assembly Executive Board and need only include the name of the organization being challenged and a statement describing the alleged violation. Once the challenge is forwarded to the Student Assembly Environmental Committee, the committee can request to hold a hearing with the officers of the student organization in question. If the student organization refuses to comply with either a committee request for a hearing or information, then the committee shall vote on whether the non-compliance is severe or pervasive. If a two-thirds majority of the committee find the non-compliance to be severe or pervasive, the committee shall submit a formal request in the form of a resolution to the Student Assembly to either financially penalize the group in their next funding cycle or cut off the official registration of the non-compliant student organization.

Be it further resolved, that upon passage this resolution be forwarded to the Executive Board of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) so that they may be aware of the Student Assembly’s support of the similar resolution adding this provision to the GPSA’s appropriations procedure,

Be it further resolved, that the Student Activities Office will include a notification of this new requirement in the announcement of the registration process to all student organizations.

Respectfully submitted,

Andrew Brokman ‘11
Chairman, Student Assembly Environmental Committee
At-Large Representative

Roneal Desai ‘13
Student Assembly Minority Representative At-Large

Michael Walsh
Ph.D. Candidate