Student Assembly

Minutes — September 22, 2011
Cornell University Student Assembly
4:50pm — 6:10pm, Willard Straight Hall

I. Meeting was called to order at 4:50pm.

Roll Call

Voting members present: S. Balik, G. Block, D. Brown, A. Chopra, R. Desai, A. Gitlin, R. Gitlin, D. Goldberg, M. Gulrajani, G. Hoffman, J. Kay, D. Kuhr, A. Meller, J. Mueller, D. Muir, A. Nicoletti, A. Pinkney, N. Raps, J. Rau, P. Scelfo, U. Smith, E. Szulman, N. Treffeisen, A. Wolford, E. Yeterian

Voting members unexcused absent: S. Breedon, J. Lee

II. New Members’ Oath of Office

• The pledges for the new members Oath of Office would be done in the SA meeting the following week.

III. Approval of the 9/15/11 Meeting Minutes

• The Minutes from the meeting on September 15 were approved.

IV. Open Microphone

Jesse Mcelwain made some announcements on plans for the Cornell Tech campus in NYC:

• Mcelwain said that a representative from the Cornell Sustainable Design recently met with the provost and the Tech Campus ad hoc committee regarding the Cornell Tech Campus in New York City
• We already have a lot of support from the Provost and the Funding Office for this. Mcelwain thus felt the need to inform all tech companies on the East Coast to illustrate Cornell’s expertise at tech entrepreneurship. This is a very good opportunity for Cornell and Cornell students to get involved.
• Mclewain also felt the need to reach out to the student body as a whole and garner support. He said they needed to get students involved and support the administration.
• What gives us an edge over Stanford is a lot of Cornell students are physically present in New York state with the Cornell Weil Medical College Campus. Mcelwain said that Cornell as a New York State school is in a better position to have a campus in NYC.
• There is at the moment a Planning marketing campaign for Cornell students and NYC residents. This is a good networking event in NYC with tech companies there. It will also prove to be a good chance for students to get involved as we need representation there.
• E. Szulman said that an Ad Hoc committee is working on planning, marketing and publicity. Over the next couple of days, they would work at advertising Cornell paraphernalia to publicize the event.
• Mcelwain emphasized that they are looking for support from all students, and that needed to start from solid resolutions from assemblies to help advertise the issue.

V. Announcements/Reports

Flooding in Owego — Alex Bores

• A. Bores informed the SA of the disaster going on in Owego, with extensive flooding, no food or basic amenities.
• He asked for the Cornell community to reach out and render services. He presented transportation facilities to drive students including Shortline buses offering transportation to and from Owego. He urged students to go there and help people. Bores reiterated that the need was great to get there and offer services.
• R. Desai said that if people were interested in reaching out, there were transportation facilities being offered to go and help people. If anyone was interested in going to Owego to help, they could send an email at jdm1@cornell.edu.
• There were families stranded, people suffering in shelters and aid is hard to disperse. Students were thus needed to disperse goods, aid and other things.
• M. Gulrajani said Greek communities were sponsoring buses for the weekend for students to get to and from Owego.

Elections Update — Adam Raveret

• A. Raveret, the director of elections, announced the new members to the SA.
  • Freshman: Ross Gitlin, Donald Muir, Peter Scelfo, Emily Yeterian
  • Transfer: Jae II Lee
  • College of Engineering: Abraham Meller
  • College of Agriculture and Life Sciences: Sarah Balik
• In the next 2 weeks, Raveret will be working on changing and clarifying election rules. He will pass around emails announcing changes to election rules and procedures.
• N. Raps commended Raveret on doing a great job with the elections. This election marked the highest number of people voting as about 3000 students voted.

Arts & Sciences Event Recap — Jon Rau, Dara Brown, & Erin Szulman

• D. Brown informed the SA that the Ice Cream Social went off pretty well. It was advertised in Page 3 of the Cornell Daily Sun, got a lot of good feedback and was a great way of advertising the student body and about the tasks it did and the responsibilities it had.
• N. Raps said that the representatives from the different bodies should get together and organize such events more often.

Academic & Student Services Update — Natalie Raps

• N. Raps informed the committee that she had attended a Conference on student services, and of the decisions taken by Susan Murphy and the administration to cut back on finances incurred in the past academic year, in lieu of the recession of 2008.
• They had a consulting group come in to restructure funding and to streamline services provided to students through Conference Services, Athletics, Dining and Housing.
• They would restructure Housing in lieu of Graduate and Undergraduate programs.
• Dining has really bounced back from the restructuring implemented like in Bear Necessities in RPCC and Goldies in the Physical Sciences Building.
• Athletics are changing; 11 of the 36 groups are now self-funded.
• The administration wants the student body to be informed of these changes in financial policy.

Gorge Safety Update — Anisha Chopra

• A. Chopra said that one big call was to address the knowledge aspect of gorge safety. She suggested making a test similar to the alcohol safety test about gorge safety.
• The administration had enforced laws on enforcement and changes by Susan Murphy. One big call was to address the knowledge aspect of it with the Alcohol Wise and Gorge Safety tests and to help spread awareness on the issue.
• A. Chopra said that all committees with proposals would have to submit their proposals in the next 2 weeks and subsequent decisions would be made accordingly.

Dining Announcement — Erin Szulman

• E. Szulman announced an event on Wednesday, September 28th: Farm to You, a dinner at RPCC with a national chef dealing with sustainability, Bartin Seever.
• There will be a talk before dinner from 4 pm to 5 pm about sustainability.
• Dinner will be from 5 pm to 7pm. Erin said there would be lots of good food and urged everyone to come.

Cornell Caring Community Celebration (C4) Announcement — M. Gulrajani

• The Cornell Caring Community Celebration is an attempt by the SA to remind the public of stresses associated with the school and remind them to look out for each other. It was originally formed as a response to suicides and aims to reach out as a reactionary measure against suicides now.
• M. Gulrajani informed the SA he needs more SA members to be part of the event and to reach out to the student community and offer support.
• He also said that they would have a meeting for the Cornell caring Community the next week.
• They booked Ho Plaza and WSH Memorial Room for the Celebration event.
• It would have lots of student organizations like Cornell Minds Matter, free food, a carnival feel and activities to make everyone feel good.

Resident & Community Life Update — Ulysses Smith

• U. Smith stated that information on Cornell Resident and Community Life was to be found on the SA blog.
• Smith met with the Associate Dean of the Students, Joe Burke, who spoke about the Residential Student Congress, a representative group of students from the dorms who meet to discuss the concerns of student life.
• This year, the RSC will focus on using West campus as a programming center to assist students programming in this regard. They plan to use 104 West as a programming space.
• The RSC also hopes to reach out to different groups on campus and work in coordination with them. It also wants to increase late night programming.
• E. Szulman said the RSC would also bring this issue to the Dining Community, especially as Jewish holidays were approaching on November 2. It would also be discussing Housing and Cornell Emergency Services. It also raised the prospects of a smoke-free campus.
• Szulman added that the Cornell Emergency Response Team (fire safety) wants to work with SA.

Outreach Update — Ulysses Smith & Dan Kuhr

• U. Smith commended the A&S Outreach event.
• He informed the SA about Coffee hour at 4:30 every Thursday.
• He also spoke about Into the Streets, an event October 28–29, and urged everyone to register.

PR Update — Mohit Gulrajani

• M. Gulrajani said that the Communications Committee, in charge of PR for the SA, met for the first time yesterday.
• It handles the SA website and will soon have an active Facebook page with blogs and apps to garner more support from the different constituencies.
• Gulrajani asked anyone who wanted to be part of the Communications Committee to get in touch with him.

Tech Campus Update

• R. Desai said that plans for the Cornell Tech campus in New York were going well. He asked members of the SA to spread word about it, join the committee and get involved!
• Cornell’s application is due October 28. After that, the administration can’t talk, but students can. So between the 28th and the decision, the Ad Hoc committee is Cornell’s advocate.
• R. Desai asked for focus on promoting Cornell and its plans for a NYC campus.

Other Updates

• A. Gitlin informed the SA of Jog for Jill on Sunday at 10 am, a run for a Cornell student diagnosed with lung cancer.
• There will be a memorial service on Sunday at 2pm in the Keeton Dining Hall on West campus for Nathaniel Rand who passed away in an accident in the gorges this past summer.
• The Executive Board wanted to discuss plans for upcoming meetings and would send out schedules on Sunday. Anyone could attend these meetings.
• The Executive Board wished A. Nicoletti a Happy Birthday.

VI. Business of the Day

• A. Nicoletti spoke about the Appropriations Committee: every 2 years, this committee is charged w/ byline funding hearings and recommending appropriate funding.
  • 3 spots open for Appropriations Committee.
  • Public packets are online (except for certain groups).
  • Need 2/3 vote to overturn.
  • There are controversial issues-remember you represent the student body.
  • Remember that we have to be conservative and prudent about allocating funding.
  • Every group has an opportunity to appeal at this meeting.

Appropriations Committee Recommendation, CUEMS — Adam Nicoletti

• EMS on campus. Fully funded by student activity fee and grad student activity fee. Asked for $.06 increase because of cost of gas, repairs, and other similar issues. Committee supported.
• Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 22–0−0. Passed $.06 increase.

Appropriations Committee Recommendation, CUTonight — Adam Nicoletti

• Funding board to fund late night, non-alcoholic programming on campus. Asked for $10 again. Committee suggested $.50 cut because they always had excess money. Hopefully the surplus would be decreased if they had less to work with. CUTonight decided not to appeal here.
• G. Block: are they just going to be able to fund fewer events with the same amount of money?
• A. Nicoletti: they are looking to make it more efficient. Also, they only fund all requested or nothing. Maybe they can change this to make their funding more efficient.
• G. Block: supporting this decision.
• R. Desai: As an ad hoc member of the appropriations committee, the goal of this was not to cut programming, but to make money allocation more efficient.
• D. Kuhr: students want to get the most for their money so we should support the cut.
• Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 21–1−1. Passed $.50 cut.

Appropriations Committee Recommendation, Minds Matter — Adam Nicoletti

• Requested $.50 more and committee agreed to $1.50.
• G. Block requested more information about CMM. Why did CMM apply for more money?
• President of CMM: They are planning on expanding and adding programs.
• A. Gitlin: if interested in CMM activities, look online.
• J. Mueller supported CMM and their request.
• Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 23–0−1. Passed $.50 increase.

R. 9: Off-Campus Promotion of Medical Amnesty — John Mueller

• Change last clause: “provide up to $500 of…”
• %43 of Cornell Students live off campus. There is a new good samaritan law in New York like the medical amnesty rule on campus. J. Mueller wants it to be advertized to students who live off campus.
• Landlords support this.
• Reason for the money amount-the number of actual apartments in Collegetown is not known.
• P. Scelfo: is NYS supporting this?
• J. Mueller: Not that he knows of. The only thing he’s seen is in news/cable/at Ithaca College.
• A. Gitlin: also local police are focusing on the information.
• Law went into effect Sunday.
• A. Meller: Seems like this would catch on well, so it doesn’t seem necessary to be everywhere.
• J. Mueller: if it’s everywhere, it will stay there and it will stick more if it’s in more places for more time. $500 is not that much for what he’s trying to do and he’s trying to be frugal.
• E. Szulman: What happens in the 2 months between when it went to effect and when it was passed?
• J. Mueller: those 2 months already happened. It is in effect.
  • How much money is in the budget?
  • Nicoletti: we have about 16 thousand dollars in the budget for special projects.
• R. Gitlin: agrees with it.
• Call to question. Seconded. Dissent.
  • P. Scelfo explains his dissent: we should see if NYS is going to be doing this so we don’t have to.
• Vote to vote: 20–2−2. passed.
• Vote: 20–1−1. Resolution passed.

VII. New Business

R. 10: Amendment to the Standing Rules — Aaron Santangelo

• Chance to put 2/3 vote rule into official rules.
• A. Nicoletti: just closing a loop hole.
• D. Kuhr: What does this do?
• A. Santangelo: for a report w/ an action, we need to adopt it or overturn it by a 2/3 vote.
• A. Nicoletti: It was never put anywhere, so now we can be official about this rule.
• Motion to move to business of the day. Seconded. Call for acclamation.
• Call to question. Seconded. Vote: 23�0–1. passed.
• What this is:
  • Charter is what sets us as the SA-who we are, why we’re here, what our goals are.
  • Bylaws: How we run meetings, general procedures.
  • Standing rules: basic rules for governing the group other than bylaws.

VIII. Meeting was adjourned at 6:10pm.

Respectfully Submitted,

Miriam Asher and Shriya Patnaik