Student Assembly

Minutes — Student Assembly
September 26, 2013
4:45pm — 6:30pm
Willard Straight Hall

I. Call to Order

U. Smith called the meeting to order at 4:48.

Members present

S. Ali Khan, S. Balik, J. Batista, Y. Bhandari, G. Block, E. Bonatti, T. Drucker, R. Gademsky, I. Harris, M. Henderson, J. Hudson, M. Lukasiewicz, S. Lutsic, Y. Ma, N. Mileti, A. Murphy, C. Pritchett, U. Smith, M. Stefanko, T. Talbot, B. Thompson, N. Tulsky, N. Vasko, A. Zhou

Members excused

L. Liu, T. Hittinger, L. Wershaw

II. Approval of September 19, 2013 Minutes

Minutes approved by unanimous consent

III. Presentation: Big Red Bikes (15 minutes)

Muj Powell (mdp95):

• Mission: campus bike sharing system that is accessible, convenient, and affordable to everyone
• Currently 3 stations: Uris Library, Mann Library, and Appel
• Maintenance: monitoring — up to 40 daily bike checks a day and repairs — average 1.26 per day
• Temporary closure: Cornell Outdoor Education (COE) does not have the resources available to monitor safety checks and volunteer labor is not reliable for the size of the program
• Cornell has be notified through email, signage, and press release — currently working to hire a supervisor and port-time maintenance technicians and hope the program will be back up in a week
• Once reinstated, the COE maintenance staff will implement a full operations procedure (monitoring, response, preventative maintenance) and will continue expansion and upgrade efforts
• Hope to have an automated card-swipe system for checking out bikes instead of checking out at a manned desk — this will ease expansion as well
• T. Talbot: What can the SA do to help?
  • In case things fall through with COE, would like SA advice on where to go next

IV. Open Microhpone

William Jackson, President of MGLC

• Here to explain the byline funding situation of MGLC
• Over the summer, a new advisor was instated and 2 eboard members were lost due to personal reasons — VP Finance and VP Communications
• Very difficult to obtain financial information for the application, as the VP Finance had the most knowledge
• VP Finance was in Korea for a surgery, so she was unable to submit materials until after the deadline
• There will be a resolution creating an extra deadline for byline funding for organizations with extenuating circumstances brought to the SA next week
• N. Vasko: When you knew of the extenuating circumstance two weeks before the deadline, why was the rest of the E-board not alerted?
  • At the time, it was thought that the deadline would be met and didn’t want to unnecessarily bring up the circumstance

V. Announcements and Reports

USB Update — C. Pritchett

Still meeting with byline funded organizations. Some groups already have their Diversity and Inclusion Plans (DIPs) worked out. Currently working to get a diversity training schedule for SACIDI so that they will be qualified to review the DIPs

SUNY SA Update — M. Henderson

Looking to set up a platform for SUNY students who are interested in possibly transferring to other SUNY institutions. Looking into DegreeWorks software which is supposed to simply the transfer process. Also, the SUNY chancellor is working on Open SUNY — the blending of aspects of online education with face-to-face communication and feedback from schools and businesses

Elections Committee Update — A. Muglia

Congratulations to the 5 new members: Syed Ali Khan, Yamini Bhandari, Seth Lutsic, Nick Mileti, and Alexander Zhou

Community Life Committee Update — M. Stefanko

Working on Student Court, on CU There, with Student Disabilities Services, with ALLY, and on environmental issues

Appropriations Committee Update — G. Block

The committee will be seeing Outdoor Odyssey, Cornell Minds Matter, and North Campus Programming Council at the next meeting

Dining Committee Update — R. Gademsky

No new update since last week

Leadership Meeting Update — S. Balik

Meeting with President Skorton and Vice President Murphy to discuss issues that are common between all the assemblies

New Documents Announcement — J. Berger

New documents providing information on parliamentary procedures are available that will be very helpful to reference during SA meetings

VI. Oath of Office for New Members

U. Smith led the new members in the Oath of Office

VII. Business of the day

Appropriations Committee Recommendation Cornell Concert Commission — G. Block

• Rollover is under $10,000 which tells the Committee that CCC really understands how much money they need - $12 is the max, so will continue funding at that amount
• Motion to approve, seconded
• CCC approved by a vote of 22–0−1

Appropriations Committee Recommendation — Cornell University Programming Board — G. Block

• CUPB brings a number of talented (non-musical) acts to Cornell. They don’t think more money will increase the impact of their organization so they are maintaining their request at $7.50.
• The Committee recommended that CUPB look into larger shows in Barton and Bailey but understand that they are working within constraints
• Motion to approve, seconded
• CUPB approved by a vote of 23–0−0

Appropriations Committee Recommendation — Slope Day Programming Board — G. Block

• Rollover is about $110,000 which is very significant
• Several things are in flux: GPSA no longer funds SDPB, and the date of Slope Day is up in the air due to the changes in the Academic Calendar
• Increased ticket sales will hopefully make up for lack of GPSA funding, but only have one year of data which is not enough to make a prediction off of, so the allocation will remain the same at $18
• SDPB agrees that if ticket sales are high and cover funding, they would reduce their request
• E. Bonatti: Is there a specific goal for their rollover? How is the performer for Slope Day chosen?
  • Rollover is for unforeseen costs that were previously covered by GPSA funding and ticket sales
  • Working within tight constraints for performers, so after the survey is sent out, SDPB does the best they can
• T. Talbot: What is the general spending habit of the board? Do they normally spend a lot of money?
  • The trend is that their expenditures have increased over time, but there is fluctuation year to year. Given that, the rollover isn’t completely unrealistic
• T. Drucker: How much did they receive from GPSAFC before?
  • About $6.00. The first year GPSAFC stopped funding them, their ticket sales increased by about $30,000 so it made up for the lack of funding, but the data from that one year isn’t sufficient to work off of
• Motion to approve, seconded, dissent expressed
  • Vote to vote: 14–5−1
• SDPB approved by a vote of 19–0−2

R. 8: Diversity Plan 2013 — 2014 — C. Pritchett

• Initiatives
  • Targeted outreach
  • Committee examination
  • Working with OADI to create a training session for SACIDI and SA
  • United Student Body
• G. Block: What will you do with the results of the committee demographic survey?
  • M. Lukasiewicz: The information will be passed onto the E-board and the committee chair for awareness of under-representation
• Call to question, seconded
• Resolution 8 passed by a roll call vote of 21–0−2

VIII. New Business

R. 10: Creation of University Student Court — Charter Changes

R. 11: Creation of University Studet Court — Bylaws Change

R. 12: Adoption of University Student Court Bylaws — U. Smith

• U. Smith steps down as chair and S. Balik assumes the position for the duration of the Resolution discussion
• Resolution brought to SA Spring 2013 and was committed back to Resident Life Committee (now Community Life Committee)
• There is an area in the current structure that is not there — a place to handle student vs. student organization does not exist
• Also there is no venue to resolve grievances with the SA — the current process requires a signed petition which isn’t right
• Additionally, the SA is currently creating, enforcing, and adjudicating its own bylaws, which it shouldn’t be
• E. Bonatti: What are the changes since the resolution was last brought to the SA?
  • To clarify, the previous resolution wasn’t rejected
  • Summer was spent gathering a lot of information and data pertaining to the resolution
  • This resolution creating a parallel body
  • Changes:
    • 5 justices instead of 3
    • Removal of fines except in one specific situation
• S. Ali Khan: How are the justices chosen? Why only 5 justices? How will cases be filtered?
  • Chief justices will be appointed by president with approval from the SA
  • Other justices will be chosen by a committee, on which 2 SA members will sit
  • 5 was a safe compromise for numbers — the original was 3
  • There is a decision process for which cases will be heard, so that minute issues won’t be brought up constantly
• G. Block: SA has legislative power given to it by the Board of Trustees — seems like the SA is creating a judicial body, which it shouldn’t be able to do. Seems like the idea of the USC is to mitigate conflicts — how is that separate from the rule of the Parliamentarian?
  • That’s exactly the problem — the SA isn’t a judicial body, and yet it is adjudicating its own bylaws and charter
  • The USC is completely separate from the SA
  • The Parliamentarian is good for during-meeting conflicts, but not for the rest of the student body
• M. Lukasiewicz: How are the SA members of the committee to select justices chosen? Why is the SA president the one to chose the chief justice? Why are there only undergraduate justices?
  • The SA committee members are chosen by internal elections, just like on other SA committees
  • President nominates the chief justice, but the entire SA must approve
  • The Court only pertains to undergraduates
• N. Tulsky: What is the volume of cases that would require such a body? Where does the judicial power come from?
  • Cannot make projections regarding volume, but as the gap is identified it would be a shame not to fill it
  • Power is filtered through to the USC by the Board of Trustees
• A. Murphy: Can you speak more on other schools that have this body?
  • Many schools have a Court along with their student government and most were created at the same time, so Cornell is retroactively creating the judicial body
• Motion to extend the meeting
• Meeting extended by a vote of 13–7−1
• J. Batista: What criteria will decision be made from? Why isn’t the USC going to be held in the JA office?
  • Same process as other hearing boards on campus
  • USC doesn’t fit within the responsibility of the JA office
• R. Gitlin: Would it possible for Mary Beth Grant (JA) or Dean Hubbell to speak at the next meeting so that the SA can hear their views?
• Motion to adjourn

S. Balik adjourned the meeting at 6:38pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Chelsea Cheng