Also available in pdf Δ

University Assembly Meeting Minutes
October 26, 2005
4:30 � 6:00 p.m.
Clark Hall Room 701

I. Call To Order � E. Loew
The meeting was called to order at 4:40 p.m.

II. Roll Call
For roll call see Attach: 20051026Minutes.pdf Δ

III. Approval of minutes
There was a motion to accept the minutes from August 31, 2005 and September 28, 2005 by unanimous consent. It was seconded. There was no dissent. The minutes were approved.

IV. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda � E. Loew
There were no items.

V. Announcements and Reports � O. Hammer
J. Vertesi said that Gwen Curtis has resigned from the assembly.

Executive Board Report � J. Vertesi said that they had the leadership breakfast this morning with Steve Goldin. They discussed the vision of the campus plan and how it will change in the next 25 years. He said that they should be sure to remember the Cornell we have now because it will be changing quite a bit. There is a lot of emphasis on research, research facilities, and technology to support research. He also discussed a lot about the staff�s role in running a place like that. He was a very inspirational speaker and handled it well when he was grilled a little about sustainability. They have also met with Peggy Beach to talk about staffing of the Office of Assemblies. At the last meeting, they discussed a joint assembly meeting. They had originally envisioned this meeting at the beginning of the year, but now they will have to put it off. They are now considering February and would like to talk about what the focus of that meeting should be. They can�t do an agenda setting meeting for the year, but they can check on what the assemblies are doing and have done so far.

Academic Integrity - O. Hammer said they have not been able to meet with Charlie Walcott to get more direction but they plan on doing so this week. She asked if anyone else had anything to input.

R. Kay said that he received an email a few days ago from Arts & Sciences with a link for professors about checking for and recognizing plagiarism. He said he wasn�t sure what else they are doing on that, though. He has talked to Dean Walcott a couple of times also. Transportation Committee � J. Feldman said that everyone should have gotten the emails Leon sent out.

K. Tschiderer said that they met and came up with a few topics for forums and they want to move ahead and hold one soon, within 3–4 weeks. They plan to invite Dean Koyanagi, the head of sustainability at Cornell and then see what responses they get. Leon has seen him speak and said he�s very good. Before they hold the forum, though, they need money for advertising and other expenses.

J. Feldman said they have created a tentative schedule, which Leon was supposed to bring. They have been working with Dean Koyanagi to see what they want to try and get out of this forum. As far as publicity goes, they hope to put ads in the Sun and send information to listserves. Since these forums were charged to them by the president, they are hoping there is a possibility of him taking a role in publicizing it through something like a mass email. They do not like to do mass emails all the time, but they do have the ability in certain circumstances, so maybe he�ll make an exception.

P. Dusseau asked if they could outline what their budget needs might be. Then they can see what they can do.

J. Feldman said that Leon�s department has agreed to front the money for the forum this time and get reimbursed.

J. Singer said that some of the other topics they had come up with include programs that dissuade people from bringing cars to campus (and the possibility of banning freshmen from doing so) and the issue of the Redbud people being prosecuted. They are really hoping that this first forum will shape the rest of them and generate ideas.

J. Vertesi asked how they can make sure it becomes a fruitful discussion.

J. Singer said that in the agreement, it mentions members of the administration, so it would be best to include them. They also are planning to have some students and maybe David Leib to keep it neutral.

P. asked how they plan to do this in terms of coordinating. Do they want to coordinate with Opal.

J. Feldman said right now it is just in progress. They hope to finalize it next week and will have all the details.

O. Hammer asked them to just send her the information once they meet so they can help them out. She said that all the representatives should go to their constituent assemblies and advertise to them, get them to come, and have them advertise to their groups.

P. Dusseau said the committee did a great job.

Safety Taskforce � R. Wayne said they met a few weeks ago and decided on a three prong attack. First, they want to educate each individual person on campus the best they can. Second, they want to make sure the campus community is provided the best safety it possibly can be. Third, they want to have the present board committed to a safer campus. Some of their ideas for incoming freshman include a professional play that is short and fun that really gets people thinking. It is offered right now and put on by a victim�s advocacy group. It seems to have been pretty successful so far. He said he has talked to dean of advising of Arts & Sciences, who really wants to work on this issue and strengthen it and is interested in the work they are doing, such as the campus exchange program. He is finding out now if there is a way that the fee for CAPS can be waived so students do not have to worry about paying for care when someone from campus has attacked them. If they want to keep it personal, they should be allowed to and it is the university�s responsibility to make it available. Though CAPS only costs $10, those fees can add up.

O. Hammer said they current do that if there is a need or it is based on the situation.

R. Wayne said yes they do it, but it would be better if it was easier so students didn�t even have to worry about researching and applying for it. They also have ideas about better advertising for services and Gannett. Gannett is interested in making things better and helping with this initiative. They have discussed putting up stickers on the back of bathroom stall doors with information about victims� advocacy programs or giving out key chains or magnets with phone numbers and programs on them. They are talking to people who can really have input in this and they hope to come to the UA with a finished rough draft in December or January to hear further comments.

P. Dusseau asked if he could send out what he already has and get more feedback.

R. Wayne said he would send out the next revised version.

J. Vertesi said there were also issues of crosswalks, lighting, etc. Are they focusing on that at all?

R. Wayne said they chose not to do that this semester.

J. McCrindle said that in terms of publicity, they want to write an article in the Sun to see how people feel they should deal with this issue and get more feedback on what people on campus want.

L. Wang said that if anyone personally has an issue or has spoken with someone that does, they should send an email to the committee so they can have a better sense of what the important issues are.

Transportation Advisory Committee � O. Hammer said that because of all of the difficulties in the OA, they don�t have the contact information for TAC.

J. Feldman said he has already taken care of it. He got in touch with Doug Mitarotonda who was the liaison last year. He met with them and they had nice refreshments, but they found out that they really have no committee. They need two representatives from each constituent assembly and they have zero names; as a result, the committee is falling apart. He urged everyone to send him names of people who might be interested. He said he is in charge of looking for undergraduates. Right now they have a meeting scheduled for November 14 and plan to deal with parking on campus including the use of A and B Lots. They may also discuss the possibility of banning freshmen from having cars and the issue of bus passes. The biggest thing, though, is that they really need committee members.

C. Tschiderer said she may be able to help if they need her.

P. Dusseau asked if they can do a process check-in or do they have to be appointed by the assemblies.

Tammy Bishop said that the committee membership applications are located in her old office on the credenza.

J. Feldman said he hasn�t had much luck finding undergraduates who are interested.

T. Bishop told him to talk to Calvin Selth.

P. Dusseau asked if they needed to be appointed from the assemblies.

T. Bishop said no, there are representatives from the assemblies, but there are also members at large.

J. Vertesi said she would help and see if she could find people from the GPSA. She also said Sean might be interested. She said she would go back to the list of graduate students appointed to committees and email Jon.

J. Feldman asked what to do about staff and faculty.

T. Bishop said to go through the Employee assembly to find staff members. For faculty members, contact Sandy Suftin and tell her how many members you need; she will find them.

Cornell Store � K. Hover said he had a nice meeting with Thomas Romantic who is a fine person. The timing was good because the store has been trying to figure out how they can best reach out to all people on campus. The store sees its fundamental role on campus as providing textbooks, but things are changing dramatically. Book costs are going up dramatically and sales are going down. They are not sure why sales are going down, but it may be because of electronic publishing. The sale of textbooks as a whole is down on a national level. Also, there is a wider distribution of sales with people using online vendors such as Amazon. These changes are affecting how the store perceives its role on campus. He said that one problem they face is that some professors who are late in choosing books or don�t use books for more than one year are driving up costs. If they can work out some sort of agreement with teachers that they have to be willing to use a book for at least two or three years, that would drive prices down. They used to have a store administration board, but it disappeared a while ago because they couldn�t get consistent board attendance. With new people showing up all the time, they couldn�t accomplish anything. What they think might be useful is to use focus groups in places like North Campus, West Campus, and some offices to learn more about the changes and what people are really looking for. The people from the store seem very willing to reconfigure what they are doing to meet community needs, they just don�t know what those needs are. They aren�t sure what the UA�s role should be, but maybe they can help Romantic reach out and contact people or help with focus groups.

P. Dusseau said it is exciting to know this is so timely.

K. Hover said they way they left the meeting is that they are now going to establish how they want to do the focus groups and if it looks like the UA can help, they�ll contact us. It isn�t so much that the store has things to tell the UA, but the UA and its constituencies may have things to tell them.

J. Vertesi asked if it would be worth bringing them to a meeting for brainstorming, or should they just throw ideas at him to take back.

K. Hover said it might be very useful to use the UA as a small focus group to begin with.

J. Vertesi suggested that the store offer a pre-order option for books that could be picked up or sent to the dorms. She said she thinks she has some other ideas she�d like for him to pass on. She said that while it might seem like a lot of manpower to pack all the books, it would also give them an idea a little bit in advance of what the demand for certain books is.

K. Hover said they already offer that option, but it appears that it is very unpopular here. They actually end up wasting time packaging the books that many students don�t even pick up. They have heard many students say that they prefer going into the stacks; it is more fun. The store actually loses times and money on preorders.

J. Feldman asked if they advertise that service.

K. Hover said he thought they had, but apparently not enough.

Christine Tschiderer said she prefers looking in the stacks in order to get the used books with the least highlighting.

J. Vertesi said that at her undergraduate school, they had the option of selecting that in their preorder.

E. Loew said that this raises an interesting issue abut the relationship between the UA and the store in the charter. The UA has fiscal responsibility, which means that the store should have come to them to report if there are fiscal issues. It might be another thing for them to look into for charter changes. He said in the meantime, if they still got annual reports from the store, he would have expected for them to tell the assembly exactly what Ken told them. It is important that if they do retain fiscal responsibility, that they make time for him to come. The UA is supposed to help resolve fiscal problems.

P. Dusseau said this is their problem. Is the original intent of the charter the same as their current need? That is why they�ve been trying new things.

E. Loew asked if the advisory board exists.

K. Hover said it had just faded away.

E. Loew said that was/is the UA�s committee. If it is going to be reformed, will it be a committee within the store with a UA liaison or will it be reformed as their charter specifies? At some point they need to determine what their relationship will be.

J. Vertesi said she thinks this is a great chance to see how the store might need them and it isn�t such a big deal since they have decided to operate outside of their charter anyway.

P. Dusseau said they could explore the possibility of having an undergraduate, a graduate student, a faculty member, and a staff member who are �on hand� to answer questions or partner on initiatives with the store. That way when they say things like they want to have focus groups, there will already be people in place as point people. That might be one way to change their charter after they test it out.

O. Hammer said she thinks that�s a good idea. The question is if they would want the people to be UA members of members at large of the constituent assemblies.

K. Hover said they should have a representative from the store at the next meeting so they can talk abut his and help the UA decide how to move forward.

Codes and Judicial Committee � E. Loew said the committee met last Wednesday and elected the chair, Kathleen Rourick and vice chair, Martin Hatch. Since they no longer have secretarial staff from the Office of Assemblies, they also elected an acting secretary. He said he doesn�t know what the future prospects will be from the OA. They talked about a report from Rich Helms, the previous chair, with a few items that had been pending or put before the UA and voted down (such as the inclusion of intoxication into the alcohol abuse policy). They discussed resurrecting that issue. For those who weren�t here last year, in the red book, the alcohol policy states having alcohol on your person as a violation but not just being intoxicated after you have gone and drank so are no longer in possession of bottles of alcohol. They wanted t incorporate that into the code as a violation. It was voted down at the last meeting last year mainly because the undergraduates were very adamant about it. They decided ultimately that the issue was probably dead and wouldn�t be discussed any further in terms of bringing it back to the IA. They also discussed the alcohol amnesty policy, which exists but is not written down explicitly anywhere. They decided to start by making it available in the policy notebook, but not yet in the campus code of conduct. He personally feels that simply putting it into the policy notebook wouldn�t require UA approval. There was talk about referring to the amnesty policy in the campus code of conduct, and that will be brought to the UA in the future. They are not exactly sure where it would go just yet. The JA�s office has requested that the committee look into the possibility of coming up with a mechanism for handling the requests of students to appeal under a University Hearing Board (UHB) when a hearing board can�t be formed. This happens more frequently than he thought, for example during study week. At this time, they can�t for a board because people are very busy. He didn�t know if a resolution will come out of this discussion, but the committee plans to work on it. Also, they held interviews today to fill four vacant positions on the hearing board. He is not sure how that went. He also got an email from Kathleen that without the help of the OA in getting out information and setting up meetings, the process has been difficult. The committee has a few other vacancies for undergraduates, faculty, and staff. The undergraduate representative plans to approach the SA in order to get more people on the UHB.

H. Granison asked if there was discussion at all about an honor code or what that will do about the judicial code.

E. Loew said the committee is aware of the discussions currently going on, but they are planning to operate as if nothing else is going on because nothing has been formulated yet. There has always been talk about rewriting the code; it is an endless process. Since it is the UA�s committee, if they made decisions about Academic Integrity, they could take it to the CJC to have it looked at.

VI. Business of the Day � P. Dusseau
Judicial Code Counselors Appointment Approval - P. Dusseau said that one of the UA�s responsibilities is to approve Judicial Code Counselors. They have recently appointed two new counselors, April Bullard and Marc Hennes. There was a motion to approve April and Marc. It was seconded. There was a vote taken via hands. The motion passed with no negative votes and only one abstention.

New Appointments to the UA � P. Dusseau said that there are some open seats on the assembly and they have people who are interested in them. They have two staff members. First is Tammy Bishop who everyone knows as the GPSA and EA coordinator for the past four years. She now works in the lab of ornithology and is free to be a member of the UA. Second is Rodney Orme who works in the registrar�s office in Day Hall. Jack Liou is a post doctorate researcher at Cornell this year who can fill an academic � faculty � seat. Sean Boutin is a GPSA representative to the UA to replace Gwen Curtis. She asked each of the candidates to say something about their interest in the UA.

T. Bishop said she loves the UA. She had been in the OA for four years mostly working on the EA and GPSA. She was also the secretary for the CJC and other random committees the UA has or had. When she left, it was not for reasons dealing with the assemblies themselves. She wanted to stay connected and she thought the UA was the best way to have that connection. She said she knows what the staff is going through � the few of them that are left and Lisa. She figured she could help provide them with some additional support.

J. Liou received his PhD from the University of Oklahoma. He is now an aerobic physiologist in Wing Hall. His interest in the UA is based in work he did in graduate school. He wants to be involved and contribute what he can to Cornell.

S. Boutin said he is a PhD student in government � American politics and public law. Now that he is in his dissertation, he has a bit more time to give to things like this. He thought it would be good to work with the whole university. He is very interested in transportation specifically. He wants to lend a helping hand wherever he can.

R. Orme said he works in the registrar�s office. He is interested in trying to find an outlet in which to contribute to the university. Some people suggested that he look at the UA and he thought it would be a good place to get involved.

There was a motion to approve all four people. It was seconded. A vote was taken via hands. All the new members were approved unanimously. The assembly gave a round of applause to welcome the new members.

O. Hammer said she wanted to put the new members on committees as soon as possible. She told them to email her at okh2 if they had any preference. She can put them on committees and get the contact information to them. Please say your first and second choices.

T. Bishop asked if they knew the immediate needs.

O. Hammer said she�d email out a list.

E. Loew asked if there were any assembly notebooks left for the new members.

L. Gilbertson said yes and she would bring them to the next meeting.

Denis Achacoso�s Memorial Service � P. Dusseau said she would send out the information about Denis�s memorial service. She said they really enjoyed having him here on the UA and he will be missed; he was a very valued member of the group. The assembly observed a moment of silence for Denis.

VII. New Business\\ L. Lawrence asked if it is still possible to add something to new business. Upon approval, he said that there is a memorial service and candlelight vigil planned for Rosa Parks. It is being co-sponsored by many organizations. He was approached to ask the UA if their name can be used as a sponsor. It would be just the name, no money would be involved.

There was a motion that the UA in name only be one of the sponsors of the memorial service and candlelight vigil for Rosa Parks. It was seconded.

K. Hover said he thinks he is inclined to vote positive, but he would like to know a little more about what it is.

L. Lawrence said it is scheduled for Tuesday, November 1 at 4:45 p.m. � 5:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel. The other sponsors include Cornell United Religious Works, Africana Studies, the EA, NAACP Cornell Chapter, and Ujama. Bob Harris, professor of History in Africana Studies will speak. The president of Cornell�s NAACP will speak. Donna Goss, chair of the EA, will speak. They also plan to have a minister there to speak.

J. Vertesi asked how they get around �sponsoring� when they can�t give any money, or is that a concern. If their sponsorship doesn�t include financing, she doesn�t want to give a false image to the rest of the community that the UA has money to give out.

L. Lawrence said it shouldn�t be a concern.

A vote was taken via hands. The motion passed unanimously.

L. Lawrence said he had another item for new business. He said that if they hold the forums in the Memorial Room in WSH, they will be charged $45 per hour because the UA is not a student organization.

P. Dusseau said that before he came in, she had asked the taskforce to come up with a budget.

L. Lawrence said that�s fine, but he wanted to know if he should confirm the booking.

P. Dusseau said yes, she is sure they can find the funding so it will be o.

H. Granison asked if there wasn�t any special UA rate.

T. Bishop said the OA usually pays if there is a charge.

L. Lawrence said they could cosponsor the forum with the SA, and then there wouldn�t be a charge.

T. Bishop said they could do that or cosponsor with the GPSA.

P. Dusseau said that she thinks they can do whatever they want, but the UA was the one who was charged with it so they should retain that control.

L. Lawrence said the student activity fee pays for student programs in WSH, which is why they don�t charge student organizations.

H. Granison asked if there is a limit on the amount of time or number of times a student group reserves the room for free.

L. Lawrence said no.

P. Dusseau said she doesn�t want to just �say� they�re cosponsoring; they can make sure they get the funding. If there are other advantages to cosponsorship, it would be ok. However, if it is just about money, it will be ok. If there is a larger issue, they can talk about it.

J. Vertesi said there may be a larger issue. The SA and GPSA were both charged to hold referenda.

O. Hammer said she had another topic that wasn�t on the agenda. They need reports from the constituent assemblies on what is going on there.

Faculty Senate � R. Kay said that they have been continuing discussion abut the secrecy of the issue of Lehman�s resignation; the provost joined them last time. Some fairly strong opinions were shared.

H. Gransion asked if the issue was the secrecy of the dismissal or the secrecy of the Presidential Search Committee.

R. Kay said many people were �outraged� at the trustees� letter in response to the senate vote asking for them to reconsider the agreement not to divulge any details about the resignation. It has been totally opaque and the senate just wanted to know if there is some way it could become at least translucent. They trustees basically said no.

P. Dusseau asked if there were legal issues with that.

R. Kay said they did discuss those.

E. Loew said that their wanting to know is not just out of curiosity. They are not being asked to decide what they want in a new president, but they don�t know because they thought they knew what they wanted last time. How can they say what they want if they don�t know what went wrong? That was the context of the discussion. The faculty really cares about this, not just as dirt to publish in the Sun.

GPSA � J. Vertesi said they are doing byline funding. There is a movement to change their fee from $62 to $66. As long as the Student Activity Fee goes on, their meetings are boring and routine. They will soon start to work on parking issues. They are also starting to plan the Grad Student Ball and a Research Fair.

J. Feldman asked if Slope Day Programming Board had come to the GPSA for funding.

J. Vertesi said no.

T. Bishop said they are applying for GPSAFC funding. It would be something big for the GPSA because in order for Slope Day to apply for money from the GPSA, they had to have been a GPSAFC funded group for a certain amount of time. And in order to get GPSAFC funding, there has to be 40% graduates involved in a certain activity, which isn�t the case with Slope Day. That is why they didn�t apply to the GPSA.

SA � J. McCrindle said the SA is also in a byline funding year and allocating the Student Activity Fee. It has been a fairly touchy subject of cutting budgets that need to be cut and giving more money to people who need it. Right now the fee is around $160 and is dangerously close to being the highest in the Ivy League, which is bad news.

J. Feldman said it will probably jump to about $190 - $200 next year. He said there is also a resolution that has been submitted to the SA to suspend the funding for the Cornell American in order to conduct an investigation of student publication funding. It is a very hot button topic. Any resolution that they pass needs to be narrowly tailored and have a clear focus.

P. Dusseau asked what the issue is.

J. Feldman said that the American is funded by the SAFC and the SA is in charge of the SAFC. Due to clerical errors in their budget last year, this group received a 10% cut from their funding, and that was a huge issue. With the backlash from their �Color of Crime� article concerning racial relations on campus, there have also been a number of forums that have come out of it. One SA representative felt it necessary to take it a step further and conduct an investigation.

S. Boutin asked what the investigation will consist of.

J. Feldman said he did not remember exactly, but it is related to freedom of speech issues. The Student Activity Fee funds the SAFC which funds the Cornell American. Because of that, every undergraduate pays for the newspaper to be published. There is some concern over whether we should fund them at all.

L. Lawrence asked what byline funding is.

J. Feldman said that groups that are byline funded - there are 26 currently for the SA � request a certain amount of money from the Student Activity Fee paid by each student at Cornell. This includes groups like Cornell Cinema and CUEMS. If the appropriations committee approves a request of one of these clubs, it is then reviewed by the SA. If they approve it, then that amount of money is given to them from each undergraduate. Therefore, if they request $3, it is really 3 x 14,000.

J. Vertesi said the finance commissions are also funded through this byline funding process. The finance commissions then go on to fund other student groups. Other larger groups get a piece of the pie from the beginning, through byline funding.

H. Granison asked why they were disappointed to hear about Slope Day not requesting funding.

J. Feldman said they strongly encouraged the Slope Day Programming Board to go to the GPSA because the graduate students can come to the event and they don�t pay anything. This upsets many of the undergraduates who do pay each year as part of their activity fee for Slope Day. To hear that they didn�t even try is disappointing.

T. Bishop said they were encouraged to do so two years ago as well.

J. Feldman said he is very offended that they wouldn�t even try.

J. Vertesi said that not enough graduate students attend to make it worth spending activity fee money on.

T. Bishop said that the programming board is going to the GPSAFC, which they also did two years ago. However, they were rejected then because there were told there was no way to prove how many graduates go.

J. Feldman said there is a survey going on now which will hopefully be useful in the future. Last year there were 14,000 people who attended Slope Day and he knows that every single undergraduate was not there. Those extra people had to come from some group.

R. Orme said that they do supply the card swipers, which might be one way to track how many graduate IDs were swiped.

L. Lawrence suggested having volunteers at the gate keep track of the numbers of grads in the future.

J. Feldman said that something does need to be done about the situation.

J. Singer said the card swiper idea might work since all graduate students would be of age and could have bought alcohol.

EA � L. Lawrence said there was recently an event to raise money for Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims. A lot of employees volunteered to pack personal care kits to ship to the Gulf Region. Also, each semester two outstanding employees are recognized for their outstanding contributions by the George Peter Award. The EA is beginning to work on that for this semester.

VIII. Old Business
Discussion about UA Membership Numbers (Faculty and Staff) � P. Dusseau said that given the new appointments, they won�t be having this discussion.

IX. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:04 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
Lisa Gilbertson
UA Clerk