Student Assembly

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

I. Call to Order/Roll Call

A. Gitlin called the meeting to order at 4:45pm

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, J. Lee, G. Lovely, M. Lukasiewicz, J. Mueller, D. Muir, C. Pritchett, P. Scelfo, U. Smith, M. Stefanko, N. Terrones

Members unexcused

J. Marshall

II. Approval of the 3/14/13 Minutes

• Minutes approved by unanimous consent

III. Open Microphone

• None

IV. Announcement/Reports

• Know the Power of Your Words Announcement — D. Iwaoka and R. Gitlin
  • April 4th, 7pm kickoff event in Schwartz Center — encourages attendance
  • Panel for discussion and Q&A
• AAP Announcement — U. Smith
  • Discussed many things, among them facilities:
    • Rand will be renovated
    • West Sibley will be studio space by fall 2014
    • Building food trailer (Vietnamese) on Milstein plaza — completion date set for 4/10
• Divestment Letters to President Skorton Announcement — S. Balik
  • Letters have been sent to President Skorton regarding encouragement of divestment
  • Had a good conversation with CIO and endowment committee regarding divestment
• Safety Survey Announcement — R. Gitlin and S. Balik
  • Survey was closed today — will be sending out data for analysis and will share report when complete
  • partnering with Office of Institutional Research
• Caring Community Celebration Announcement — G. Block
  • Format will be similar to Lift Your Spirits from 3 years ago — will be held on the Arts Quad with free food, club involvement, etc.
  • To be held 4/12
• Byline Organization Meeting Report — R. Desai, G. Block
  • Encouragement of organizations to hold late night events, especially to target freshmen
• Appropriations Committee Announcement — R. Desai
  • Will be seeing Welcome Weekend and Cornell Minds Matter next Monday
• UA Announcement — P. Scelfo
  • Voted on Campus Code of Conduct regarding student organization privacy: if an organization is found hazing, they will be found responsible on hazing.cornell.edu
• Trustee Announcement — A. Gitlin
  • Issues presented at the trustee meeting: safety (specifically BLUE), the LGBTQ Associate Dean position, and divestment

V. Business of the Day

• R.33 Re-affiliating Ivy Council — C. Pritchett, Jessica Barragan
  • They adopted an SA committee structure — the policy network would be beneficial to the SA
  • Cornell is the only Ivy whose Council isn’t affiliated with the student government
  • D. Kuhr: How will you recruit members?
    • An open application to the student body
  • R. Gitlin: How much was allocated to Ivy Council when they were affiliated? There should be a push for publicity and recruitment
    • Need about $300 total for transportation to both conferences
    • R. Desai: $1000 was budgeted
  • E. Bonatti: What will Ivy Council gain, aside from funding, from re-affiliation?
    • The purpose of the Council is to work with the student government on issues pertaining to student life
  • G. Block: Not in full support — sounds like the SA would be paying $300 for a 15-person trip to these conferences. Plus, the reason Ivy Council was un-affiliated in the first place was because no impact was seen. If the SA needs to communicate with other universities, they can easily do so without having to attend a conference
    • The Ivy Council will look very different than I has in the past — it will be a lot more active
    • Council will also be proactive — will research activities of other universities that Cornell hasn’t considered and help determine if it is something Cornell should also adopt
  • R. Desai: Went to a conference 4 years ago and didn’t see any takeaway, but things might be different now. How do you plan to include the student body and the SA? What will be the deliverable?
    • The Leadership Summit is open to the public, so any student can go
    • Information gathered from research and conferences will be very beneficial to the SA
  • U. Smith: The SA is rebranding itself — the Council should be given the same chance. They have a great reporting stucture and through the conferences will have access to a huge database that the SA has really benefited from.
• Call to question, seconded

VI. New Business

• R.43: Student Assembly Finance Commission Performance Tier Proposal
  • Tier system has been incredibly successful — many groups didn’t apply for the max amount in their tier — shows that groups were placed correctly
  • The performance tier provides an application for organizations to showcase what they bring to campus (club sports, cultural organizations, etc.)
  • Goal of performance tier criteria is to encourage groups to make an impact on campus
  • This is the first time that the SAFC has some subjectivity — before they had to abide by black and white rules
  • S. Breedon: When will this be submitted — end of Spring or beginning of Fall? Who will review the report? What does it mean to go above and beyond in terms of qualification? Is this the solution for groups that request a lot of money? Urges SAFC to create an example report for organizations to look at
    • Plan to submit it by end of Spring
    • ‘above and beyond’ is up to the determination of how the SAFC interprets the guidelines
      • Decision can be appealed if found unfair
    • The evaluation process will verify that groups are qualified before more funding is given
  • U. Smith: How much weight will be given to each of the criteria?
    • Devoting last part of this semester to figure that out
    • Main goal currently is to get the information out to the organizations
    • Proposition for all criteria to be weighed equal was shot down
  • D. Kuhr: Currently, criteria to advance a tier is to meet 90% of the current tier cap. Will this be the same for the performance tier? What Is the format of the application? Is there a limit to how many groups will be in the performance tier?
    • Yes, 90% requirement will be the same
    • No strict format — thinking to make it an open question format with possibly a word limit
    • No limit to the number of groups — don’t anticipate a large number of organizations to apply
  • A. Gitlin: Will the SAFC continue outreach to diverse communities? Will there be any training to the commissioners so that they will have a base understanding of diversity and inclusion?
    • Have 4 focus groups: econ/hotel/business/etc., freshmen, engineering, and minority organizations
    • Training sounds like a great idea
  • G. Block: What mechanism will be in place for the SA to make sure the SAFC isn’t providing too much money? Will this be able to be handled by the Appropriations Committee and the SA?
    • By moving through the tiers, it shows that an organization isn’t being overfunded — don’t see over-funding as a big concern
    • If extra time needs to be spent reviewing organizations, the Appropriations Committee and the Assembly will put in the time to ensure that everyone is properly funded
  • G. Lovely: How will the information be sent out?
    • Will target the organizations that qualify
    • Will offer to meet with officers and answer any questions
  • A. Bores: What is the benefit of having this as well as by-line funding?
    • Some SAFC groups are getting more than by-line funded organizations
    • Main difference is that by-line funding provides for a set of organizations with different goals than those provided for by the SAFC
  • D. Iwaoka: Have you reached out to Dr. Alexander or any other person of expertise regarding the diversity criteria? Great to include it, but it’s a bit rough in its current state
    • Have not, but will definitely do so

A. Gitlin adjourned the meeting at 6:11.

Respectfully submitted,
Chelsea Cheng