Student Assembly

Minutes — February 28, 2013
Cornell University Student Assembly
4:45pm — 6:30pm, Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room

I. Call to Order/Roll Cal

A. Gitlin called the meeting to order at 4:47pm

Members present

S. Balik, J. Batista, G. Block,. E. Bonatti, G. Braciak. S. Breedon, I. Chen, M. Cho, A. Chopra, R. Desai, A. Gitlin, R. Gitlin, I. Harris, T. Hittinger, D. Iwaoka, D. Kuhr, T. Lovely, M. Lukasiewicz, J. Marshall, J. Mueller, C. Pritchett, P. Scelfo, U. Smith, M. Stefanko, N. Terrones

Members unexcused

J. Lee, D. Muir

II. Approval of the 2/21/13 Minutes

• Minutes approved by unanimous consent

III. Open Microphone

• Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler (Community outreach intern at LGBT Resource Center): 1000 Allies campaign — encouragement of the idea that you can be an sexual orientation or gender to be an ally with the LGBT community. Asks SA members to volunteer to take photos and give statements as to why they are allies. Photos and statements to be displayed in the WSH Art Gallery at the end of April

IV. Presentation by President David Skorton and Vice President of Student & Academic Services Susan H. Murphy ‘73, PhD ‘94

• Condolences to Joseph Quandt ‘15 who was found dead at the Watermargin Cooperaive on 2/27/13
• D. Iwaoka: What are your plans to reduce incidences that target the LGBT community? Also, the resolution calling for staffing of the LGBT Resource Center has had a lackluster response from the Administration
  • Looking to increase the robustness of the response system
    • Structuring a specific committee to focus on sexual violence
    • Building on response mechanisms
    • Understanding and advancing current operations
  • UDC will formally take on initiiatives as well as EECHS (Executive Committee on Campus Health and Safety)
  • Resource-limited in terms of staff
• D. Kuhr: A lot of roganizations are questioning what their status is in the non-hazing initiative. They are doing what they can, but how will they know if what they are doing implicates them?
  • The face that this question is asked means that there is more work to do on this initiative
  • The website is not just for the Greek system — everyone has access to it
• E. Bonatti: What is the progress of the internationalization plan?
  • Main thrust is to improve the experience of international students — one aspect of this is financial aid
  • Cornell’s abroad experience numbers are a bit low — push to increase that number
  • A large national advocacy effort will be rolled out soon — will not provide aid for current internal students but hopefully will for future ones
• Oscar Correia ‘15: Students are asking a lot of the Administration — is there anything that to be asked of the student leaders in the room?
  • Keep doing what they’re doing — important to maintain consistent communication, attend student leader meetings, and bring to light important student initiatives
  • Asks that members intervene when they see something bad or unsafe
• R. Desai: Students understand that the Administration can’t fund everything, but every month there are articles regarding the millions being put toward the Tech Campus — can it be confirmed that the Tech Campus isn’t detracting from the focus that should be placed on the Ithaca Campus?
  • There are multiple financial structures in place that make the Tech Campus financially independent
  • Willing to set up a meeting to discuss the topic
• G. Block: The University is going through the process of changing Policy 6.4 — what is the University doing currently to actively protect the accused?
  • So far this seems to be a good procedure, looking at the collaborative work and progress made
  • To be sure, nobody is complacent about this issue

V. Announcements/Reports

Elections Update/Voting Reminder — J. Weinberg

• Record breaking number of forums
• Encourages members to spread the word — want a high turnout

Tower Road Safety Initiative — S. Balik and J. Marshall

• Spoke with Dean and Facilities Assistant regarding improved pedestrian safety on Tower Road: more crosswalk signals, bike lanes, increase bus spaces, tc.
• D. Kuhr: Did you talk about the fact that the signal light keeps going out?
  • They said they were working on it

AAP Update — U. Smith

• Actively engaging students from all 3 departments for ideas for collaborative diversity coursework

Diversity Plan Update — U. Smith

• SADAC meeting coming up at the beginning of March
• Unity Hour (3/3/13) addressing diversity in the classroom: are we being a dead horse
• OADI social justice round table dinner (3/11/13) — encourages all members to go as the topic is whether or not student government is a helping hand or a hindrance to achieving justice

Appropriations Committee Announcement — R. Desai

• Encourages members to attend meetings
• Regarding Resolution 34 last weeks, reports are currently being sent out to all the organizations
• Confirmation of Task Force co-chair nominations
  • Ali Yazdi (senior) and Kartik Das (junior)
  • R. Desai: More objective members of the Committee — both have expertise and managerial experience — voted 8–3 in Committee
  • A. Bores: What is your philosophy regarding how active the task force should be?
    • The plan is to be inclusive, engaging, and as transparent as possible — really looking to make everyone happy
  • D. Kuhr: Can you describe any experience you have had (outside the Committee) with these organizations?
    • A lot of work has been done off-campus
    • Has been a part of ICC
  • J. Batista: Why were they voted against?
    • C. Pritchett: Some felt they were too operational, some wanted younger co-chairs, some wanted at least one co-chair to be an SA member
  • M. Lukasiewicz: Feels that the co-chairs don’t provide a diversity of perspective
    • To clarify, chairs are separate from the task force — responsible for managing it and assigning appropriate members to meetings
  • G. Block: Has been critical of the Committee, but this nominees are extremely qualified — don’t see how them being financially oriented is a bad thing — if anything they will know how best to support the organizations
  • I. Harris: What are your other time commitments? What level of priority will the task force hold?
    • Part of the reason they were chosen was because they had the time to commit
  • Motion to table until next week
    • Vote: 9–16–0 questioning continues
  • C. Cheng: It’s clear that some members still have reservations about Resolution 34 — don’t take that out on the nominees. R. Desai’s opinion is to be trusted and the Assembly shouldn’t start of on a bad foot with the co-chairs by not trusting them
  • R. Gitlin: SA has voiced that things aren’t being done because of the focus placed on internal operations — this is one of those cases. Trusts R. Desai’s decision and believes they will to the job well
  • Motion to vote, seconded
  • Chairs confirmed by a vote of 19–0−7

VI. New Business

R.37: In Support of the Violence Against Women Act — N. Terrones, J. Batista, Emily Bick

• The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provides $1.6 billion toward investigation and prosecution of violent crimes against women
• The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE) is part of VAWA and calls for active prevention of violent crimes and a follow up process
• A. Gitlin and R. Desai commend sponsors for specifically pointing out a part of the legislation that calls for action from the university
• Resolution tabled at request of sponsors

R.38: Establishing a New Events Calendar — J. Batista, I. Harris

• There are a lot of great events on campus but everything is decentralized
• Current events website is underutilized
• Requesting a Pilot Program for the Events Calendar and to increase student usage of the system
• This is the initial step to see where this will go
• E. Bonatti: What is your response to the concern that there is already a calendar in place?
  • They are looking to work with the current calendar
  • One model they’re looking at is the Hotel School calendar
    • Benefits: centralized, Hotelees are automatically enrolled
    • Cons: private access
• G. Block: Students already receive a lot of emails — what makes this different from other event emails?
  • This will be more comprehensive and professional, if they choose the email route to notify students
• G. Lovely: Have you considered asking students what their interests are and them signing them up for corresponding events?
  • The idea is to utilize the current system and to get rid of constant reminder emails — this way students can just look up the calendar for what events they might be interested in
• G. Braciak: Have you worked with the undergraduate listservs and making sure all of those events are placed on the calendar?
  • Not yet, but that would be the ideal solution — to make everything streamlined
• A. Bores: Have you reached out to groups that have individual websites and ask them what they’ve found to be helpful?
  • No, but they will definitely look into it
• A Gitlin: Would you consider adding an amendment to consolidate everything into one email?
  • Will consider it, but the main goal is to have this resolution be the start of a bigger process
• C. Pritchett: Is it under the SAs purview to overlook all the emails?
  • Yes, as they are in communication with all the listservs
  • There are a lot of ways this can go — not just by email
• S. Balik: Concern that consolidation into one big email will be too long — what will you do to make it so that students actually read it?
  • They are looking at a lot of models — Brown seems to have the best one
  • Encourages members to reach out to sponsors to get involved
• T. Hittinger: Have you considered working with CIT as they are currently working on a relevant initiative?
  • That sounds like a great idea

R.39: In Support of the LGBTQ Ally Ambassador Program — D. Iwaoka, Emily Bick, J. Toledo, Carlin Van Holmes

• Idea behind this program is to have an ambassador in each chapter that people can talk to
• Panhellenic Council is in full support and will actively work to accomplish the initiatives
• D. Muir: Is the IFC on board?
  • The president is on board, but there is some hesitance from individual chapters — plan to present to them individually
• S. Breedon: Having Panhellenic as a sponsor and not MGLC and IFC makes them look bad — recommends getting them on board
  • There is positive support from both groups, but they want more clarification first
• N. Terrones: Concerned that there aren’t enough meetings to give out all the appropriate knowledge — what happens if an ambassador volunteer isn’t a good candidate for the position?
  • The Orientation Program isn’t so much an information session as a meet and greet forum for communication
• R. Desai: Strongly recommends a written statement of support if not co-sponsorship from MGLC and IFC

A. Gitlin adjourned the meeting at 6:35pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Chelsea Cheng