Student Assembly

Minutes
Cornell University Student Assembly
September 8, 2011
4:49pm — 5:36pm
Willard Straight Hall, Memorial Room

I. The meeting was called to order at 4:49pm.

Roll Call

Voting members present: G. Block, D. Brown, R. Desai, A. Gitlin, D. Goldberg, M. Gulrajani, G. Hoffman, J. Kay, D. Kuhr, J. Mueller, A. Pinkney, N. Raps, J. Rau, A. Santagelo, E. Szulman, N. Treffeisen, A. Wolford

Voting members unexcused absent: S. Breedon, A. Chopra, A. Nicoletti, A. Ravaret

Voting members excused absent: U. Smith

II. Open Microphone

III. Announcements/Reports

a. Elections Update — A. Raveret

• There are 4 transfer candidates for 1 seat, 5 engineering candidates for 1 seat, 2 CALS candidates for 1 seat, and 33 freshmen for 4 seats.
• Campaigning is now officially underway.
• The next official event will be the candidate forum on September 15th.

b. LGBTQ-Greek Event Announcement — N. Treffeisen

• 30–40 people made it to the event on Labor Day. The event was covered by Slope Media.

c. Outreach Update — U. Smith

• Reminder: Inform U. Smith of outreach events in advance.
• There was a block party on Saturday that went well.
• There will be an Akwe:kon commemorative event on Friday, September 9th on North Campus.

d. Cayuga’s Watchers Update — J. Mueller & A. Gitlin

• J. Mueller: Cayuga’s Watchers, a collaborative effort by many student organizations, has been presented to SAFC.
• The first student meeting will be in Statler 291 tomorrow (9/9) night.
  • They will be talking about recruitment and advertising.

e. Byline Funding — A. Nicoletti

• If there are problems or concerns with byline funding, please contact SAFC (safc@cornell.edu) or go on the website.
  • Byline funding decisions will happen by 4pm Friday (9/9).
  • EMS, CUTonight, and Welcome Weekend will be heard first on September 22nd.
• A. Epstein added that the online portion of the budget is due 4pm Friday (9/9) and the printed supporting documentation is due 4pm Monday (9/12).

IV. Unfinished Business

a. Resolution 3: Greek-LGBTQ Relations Ad-Hoc Committee — N. Treffeisen

• An amendment was suggested: strike “Executive Board” in the “Be it further resolved” section and add “representative from” in front of “the InterFraternity Council,” “the Pan-Hellenic Council,” and “the Multicultural Greek Letter Council.”
  • Also, “Pan Hellenic” is not hyphenated.
• R. Desai requested more information about the resolution.
• N. Treffeisen said that last year was mostly a planning year. This year they are looking to implement their plans.
• M. Gulrajani said that this resolution is a good opportunity.

Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 12–0−2. Resolution 8 was passed.

V. New Business

a. Resolution — Altering SAFC Spending of Unused Funds

• Resolution was tabled.

b. Resolution 5 — Student Assembly Meeting Accessibility

• J. Kay said that more meetings should be accessible to everyone.
• J. Kay motioned to add U. Smith, D. Kuhr, P. Scelfo, T. Shear, and E. Drago as additional sponsers.
• T. Shear asked how meetings are generally advertized to the public.
• M. Gulrajani said that the SA generally circulates the information about the meetings for that week to the general student body and posts the information on the website.
• T. Shear suggested that the disability information be added to the information sent to the student body.

Motion to move Resolution 5 to new business of the day. 12–1−0: motion passes.

Called to question. Seconded. Dissent.

M. Gulrajani explained his dissent: He requested that the resolution be rephrased so that on the meetings open to the general student body be required to meet in accessible buildings.

T. Shear argued that anyone could end up disabled at any time so this should be required for everyone.

Dissent withdrawn. Vote: 10–0−3. The motion was passed.

c. Resolution 6 — Supporting the Creation of an official Cornell Mascot

• G. Block requested that Touchdown the Bear be the official mascot of Cornell.
• D. Kuhr wanted to know if this is a priority and how the student populace feels about it.
• G. Block said he knows that many people like Touchdown the Bear.
• E. Szulman wanted to know the effect of this resolution.
• G. Block said he felt it would show that the school could officially continue a long- standing tradition.
• J. Mueller wanted to know what the “official” instead of “unofficial” would do for anyone.
• G. Block said this would be a small step in the effort to maintain Cornell tradition.
• J. Mueller suggested that he go about getting the Bear the official mascot through a different route.
• R. Desai agreed with Mueller and asked what the Board of Trustees thinks of this.
• A. Bores from the Board said that he supports.

Motion to move to business of the day. Dissent.

D. Kuhr explained his dissent: Kuhr suggested asking the student body what they think before coming to a decision.

Call to question. Dissent.

D. Brown explains dissent: Brown felt that making an official mascot for Cornell is unnecessary.

Vote to move to business of the day: 5–5−3. The motion was not passed.

d. Resolution 7 — Creating the S.A. NYC Tech Campus Ad-hoc Committee

• G. Block suggested an amendment to strike “and one of the At-Large Representatives” in the first “Be it therefore resolved” clause.
• They are working with Slope Media to create a video to show what the NYC Tech Campus will do for the students and what the students will do for NYC.
• An ad-hoc committee would be good to advertise to the students and keep open communication between the students and the administration.
• This committee would represent Cornell on an unofficial level so that they could continue publicizing the students’ views past the official deadline in October.
• N. Treffeisen wanted to know what they have been doing.
• G. Block responded that they have been working on communicating with the administration.
• A. Bores urged the Student Assembly to reach out to Weill Cornell students. Also, the turnaround for this has to be very quick.
• A. Gitlin said to submit to the judging panel as soon as possible.
• G. Block said that the administration has given them time during the next game to show their video.
• J. Mueller wanted to know about their relationship with the administration.
• G. Block responded that the administration has given them mostly free reign and gave them some suggestions about connections and resources.
• R. Desai stressed that time is of the essence.

Motion to move to business of the day. Seconded. Call for acclamation. Seconded. No dissent. Resolution was moved to unfinished business.

Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 15–0−0. Resolution 7 was passed.

VI. The meeting was adjourned at 5:36pm.

VII. Executive Session

Respectfully submitted,

Miriam Asher and Chelsea Cheng