Student Assembly

Minutes - Student Assembly
December 5th, 2013
4:45pm — 6:30pm
Willard Straight Hall

I. Call to Order

U. Smith called the meeting to order at 4:45pm

Members present

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

Members tardy

L. Liu

Members excused

T. Hittinger

Members unexcused

Y. Ma

II. Approval of the November 21, 2013 Meeting Minutes

Minutes approved by unanimous consent

III. Open Microphone

None

IV. Announcements and Reports

AIDS Weeks Announcement — J. Batista

Very successful — over 13 partnering organizations.

Resignation Announcement — C. Pritchett

Will be resigning from the SA at the end of the semester. .The experience has been amazing and asks that people don’t underestimate the impact that the SA can have on the lives of Cornell students.

In the case of a resignation, the candidate with the next highest number of votes takes the seat, so Inge Chen will be returning to the Assembly next semester.

Communications Committee Update — I. Harris

Energy Court has received the spotlight for the week for reducing Cornell’s carbon footprint.

University Assembly Update — S. Balik

Had their last meeting of the semester

Appropriations Committee Update — G. Block

Will be approving the entirety of the SAF — thanks everybody for their cooperation during the process. Next semester they will be hammering out Appendix B

CALS Announcement — M. Henderson

Had a CALS outreach event with a very successful turnout

V. President Skorton and Vice President Murphy

• E. Bonatti: Is there a way to include international students in Cornell Tradition (it’s currently only for US citizens)? Understand that it ties in to financial aid
  • Previously, the experience was only available for students eligible for financial aid, but recently as the program has changed it has been available for those not eligible, so will look into making it available for international students as well
  • Will explore separating financial aid from the experience
• Bailey: Regarding the Campus Climate Survey, 73% of the Queer community have felt unsafe. What is the connection between the Administration and that community and will there be more immediate responses as opposed to long term initiatives to the feedback
  • Are going through a transition in the LGBT office
  • Waiting for more qualitative information before deciding what direction to go in
  • Open to having a longer meeting to discuss suggestions
• U. Smith: Regarding disabilities services, what plans is the administration making outside of the strategic plan to ensure that there are emergency services in place
  • The challenge is how quickly things can be implemented, especially considering the age of the some of the buildings on campus
  • There is a 5 year plan in place
• G. Block: Students are burdened with the expenses of many educational events and programs on campus (Orientation, Convocation, Awareness, etc.) where it seems like the Administration should be contributing.
  • Completely agree that the Administration should be more involved and will work towards that
  • However, in the specific case of Convocation, there would be discomfort for the Administration to spend what the students currently spend on a 15-minute speech
  • This is a conversation that should be ongoing
• Karan (current ALANA president, senior): As ALANA supports so many students on campus, will the Administration be providing any financial support?
  • Due to some financial constraints, the Administration probably cannot provide direct financial support
  • Would like the shared governance system to have their own conversations but once a decision has been reached, the Administration would be happy to work together with ALANA

VI. Business of the Day

Appropriations Committee Recommendation: Big Red Bikes — G. Block

• An increase was requested, but the Committee voted not to fund Big Red Bikes at all
• Ridership has declined in the past two years and the Committee was skeptical that changes would make the program more successful.
• Such a program might be successful if it were implemented throughout the entirety of campus, but with no guarantee of success, the Committee didn’t feel comfortable providing funds
• G. Block: Understands how the Committee reached their decision, but would recommend changing the allocation to $1.00, especially as this organization is still new.
• Mitch Powell (co-president): Demand isn’t the issue — supply is. Several changes have been made in the program to provide more consistency
• N. Mileti: For the two years the program has been around, they have done a very good job. Yes they have had blips along the way, but they are still developing and should be given more time to do so
• Motion to approve, seconded
• Appropriations Committee decision overturned by a vote of 2–21–0
• Motion for $1.00 allocation
• Motion for $2.00 allocation
• G. Block: Believes $1.00 is a good allocation because they can use that to create the self-automated check-out system. As there is still risk involved, $1.00 is probably safer then $2.00
• Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed
  • Vote to vote: 13–9−0, discussion continues
• C. Pritchett: Looking at the numbers, it seems like bikes are rented by the same people. The program is great, but might not reach most of the community and therefore might not be suitable to be funded by the SAF
• Motion for $1.50 allocation
• Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed
  • Vote to vote: 18–3−0, continue to vote
• Vote on $2.00: 1–22–0
• Vote on $1.50: 2–21–0
• Vote on $1.00: 23–0−0
• Big Red Bikes funded at $1.00

Appropriations Committee Recommendation: Welcome Weekend — G. Block

• Provides programming for the first week of school (after Orientation)
• The Committee felt that Welcome Weekend events are well run and well attended
• An increase was requested, but there were concerns about some unnecessary expenses
• The Committee also felt that Welcome Weekend could charge more per organization at ClubFest
• Committee chose not to allocate the increase and to keep the same amount from last cycle
• Motion to approve, seconded
• Welcome Weekend approved by a vote of 23–0−0

Appropriations Committee Recommendation: SAFC — G. Block

• The SAFC requested an increase from $84.16 to $90.00 and the Committee granted $88.17
• The strange $0.17 amount is to make it so that the SAF be as close to a whole dollar amount as possible
• Historically, the SAFC has been granted an increase for about $4 per cycle
• While there was a huge influx of new organizations this year, the Committee felt that the SAFC could work with the $88.17 and that they continue to make reforms to their funding process where possible
• Alykhan (co-chair): This year was a special case with the huge influx, and due to the amount set aside for all the organizations, Special Project Funding wasn’t able to happen, so a $1.00 would really make a big difference
• I. Harris: Can you speak more to how the cap for new organizations will affect things?
  • The plan is to cap new student organizations at $500 instead of $1500 which will hopefully be enough for use in Special Projects funding. So another $1.00 will still be very helpful in terms of funding organizations
• C. Pritchett: In full support of overturning the Committee’s decision especially given the number of student organizations applying for funding. Additionally, the SAFC has been working very hard and has adopted many suggested changes made by the Appropriations Committee
• Blaise (new co-chair): To put things into perspective, with the $1.00 increase and the approval of the new organization cap, 27 new organizations would be able to be funded
• Motion to approve, seconded
• Appropriations Committee decision overturned by a vote of 4–17–0
• Motion for $89.17
• Call to question, seconded
• Vote on $89.17: 22–1−0
• SAFC funded at $89.17

Appropriations Committee Recommendation: SA — G. Block

• Voluntary cut the SA’s allocation from $2.20 to $1.90 due to a large rollover account.
• There was talk of a greater reduction, but there was concern that that would inhibit farther growth.
• Looking at the potential to expand the Special Projects budget.
• Motion to approve, seconded
• SA approved by a vote of 23–0−0

R. 42: Student Activity Fee Allocation — G. Block

• The Appropriations Committee has spent a lot of time on this, all appeals have been heard, and the SAF allocation feels very comfortable and ready to be voted on
• The SAF is currently at $235, an increase of $6.00 (2.6%) from the last cycle which is within the constraints given by the Board of Trustees
• C. Pritchett: Motion to change ALANA’s allocation from $7.00 to $8.05
  • The $8,000 that ALANA was missing has been resolved — there was an error on behalf of the university accountant and that money is now accounted for
  • ALANA originally requested $1.68 for their e-board but have voluntarily cut that to $0.70 to allow for more funding for their umbrella organizations
  • Furthermore, the UPF provided no guidelines or restrictions to work within
  • G. Block: First off, he does not support any new amendment as decisions will be rash and will get at the process rather than the facts. Regarding ALANA, the Committee did grant more than projected for each event. Also, it seems the $8,05 is another randomly generated number when looking at the history of ALANA’s requests
  • S. Lutsic: While ALANA’s financial mistakes must be taken into account, it is the responsibility of the SA to support the multicultural community and therefore he supports the $8.05 motion
  • Bailey: Speaking as someone who works with a similar organization (HAVEN), a conversation needs to be had between ALANA and the Committee for the Committee to really understand the challenges that a multicultural funding board faces. The current standards to which ALANA is being held are unfair
  • J. Batista: Feels that there was a lack of trust on the part of the Committee and she fully supports $8.05
  • Call to question, seconded, dissent expressed
• Vote to vote: 16–5−1
• Passed by a vote of 19–3−0

R. 21: Public Relations Plan 2013–2014 — I. Harris. L Wershaw, T. Hittinger, J. Hutson

• Call to question, seconded
• R. 21 passed by a vote of 20–0−0.