Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
701 Clark Hall
4:30PM-6:00PM, Wednesday, 27 September 2006

I. Call To Order (00:01:30)

J. Marwell called the meeting to order at 4:43 p.m.

II. Roll Call (00:01:35)

Present: T. Bishop, A. Chatterjee, K. Duch, J. Glenn, R. Kay, L. Lawrence, J. Marwell, R. Orme, E. Russell, R. Wayne, K. Whalen

Absent: P. Dusseau, A. Gay, H. Granison, O. Hammer, E. Loew, Y. Yu

Also Present: A. Epstein, C. Walcott

III. Call for Late Additions to Agenda (00:02:15)

J. Marwell asked if there were any late additions to the agenda.

K. Whalen said she was interested in serving as liaison to the Budget Planning Committee, and she wanted to know whether appointment of liaisons to such committees would be discussed at this meeting.

J. Marwell said that could be discussed at the end of the meeting.

IV. Introductions (00:02:38)

J. Marwell asked each member to state his or her name and the constituency he or she represents.

Discussion continued.

J. Marwell mentioned that A. O’Donnell could not attend the meeting this evening but will be playing a major role in the assembly, and she encouraged those present to go to the Office of the Assemblies at 109 Day Hall to meet A. O’Donnell.

V. Executive Report (00:03:41)

Quick Review of UA Structure (00:03:41)

J. Marwell provided a brief overview of the role of the University Assembly. She said the University Assembly has representatives of all constituencies on the Cornell campus. The assembly coordinates with several committees.

J. Marwell asked if a copy of committee descriptions and associated details was available.

A. Epstein said he forgot to include it in meeting materials, but there should be a listing in all new members’ binders.

J. Marwell asked each member to review the list of UA committees and email her three ranked preferences of committees on which to serve as liaison of UA. She added that the intention is for liaisons to report back to the UA regularly on the activities of the committees.

Plans/Goals for the year (00:06:00)

L. Lawrence asked if the structure of the leadership of the UA would be changing, and if so what sort of charter change considerations were being made.

J. Marwell responded that this is a topic of discussion for the chairs of the assembly, and they intend to develop recommendations over the year to bring the practices of the assembly in line with the charter or to propose amendments to the charter which will accommodate the practices of the UA.

T. Bishop provided a historical perspective, saying that the UA had operated outside the rules for the past two years and that it was time to revise the charter to reflect these changes. The goal is to try to see what works or doesn’t work. She said it is time to either re-write it or revise it. There have been no changes since 2003.

J. Marwell said that review of the charter would include consideration of whether task forces established in past years should be added to the charter or whether they duplicate the function of existing committees.

J. Marwell said another goal was to foster stronger ties between assemblies. She said she hoped to shape a joint graduate-undergraduate event and wanted to hear any ideas other members might have.

Design a budget (00:09:05)

J. Marwell said that another goal is to develop a budget for the year. She said this goal has been discussed in the past.

Public relations (00:09:30)

J. Marwell said that another goal is to develop a public relations committee. At the most recent Assemblies Leadership Breakfast, there was discussion about creating space for assemblies reports in the Cornell Chronicle. The group would produce a regular press release for the publication.

Suggestion to invite President Skorton to a meeting (00:10:15)

J. Marwell said that another goal is to invite President Skorton to one of the meetings.

R. Wayne said he thought it would be a wonderful idea to invite President Skorton to speak if the assembly had an issue to discuss with him.

Implications of Krause Report

J. Marwell said a major topic that arose last year was the Krause Report, a complete re-writing of the Campus Code of Conduct. She said the report was released in April, but UA members have been unable to obtain a copy of it.

C. Walcott said that he hoped that UA could devote time to discussion of the report over the course of the year. He said the revision changes the code to a more positive tone from “thou shalt not” to “thou shall and should thou fail…” He said that he would do anything he could to expedite discussion, and that he had a copy which he could forward to the UA for distribution by e-mail.

T. Bishop suggested that he forward the information to A. Epstein to email to the full assembly mailing list.

C. Walcott said he would.

Discussion continued.

C. Walcott said the related issue of academic integrity has not gone away and he would also like to see the assemblies discuss that.

R. Wayne asked whether C. Walcott would prioritize the Code of Conduct over Academic Integrity.

C. Walcott responded that there was some overlap between the two. He thought the Code should be a higher priority for the assembly because it truly affects all the constituencies represented in the assembly.

Call for first meeting of CJC, TAC (00:15:10)

J. Marwell said that several committees had to be called to order to begin conducting business for the academic year. She announced that the Codes and Judicial Committee was now called to order.

C. Walcott asked if the Campus Planning Committee was active and if it was consulted in the ongoing development of the campus master plan.

T. Bishop said she thought they have. The campus planning committee is probably the most active committee on the UA. They meet regularly and all their members attend.

C. Walcott said he is concerned because he wanted to make sure the assemblies had input. He said he was relieved to hear they are working with the administration.

J. Marwell encouraged members to review lists of committees right after the meeting and sign up right away for the committees on which to serve as liaison.

T. Bishop added that the Committee on Committees no longer exists as it was disbanded by the University Assembly last year. She cited the articles of the charter which describe the committees of the University Assembly. She said the Board on University Health Services does not exist any more.

Discussion continued.

L. Lawrence asked if the committees would be reviewed at the next University Assembly meeting.

J. Marwell said that the status of these committees would be discussed at executive committee meetings before that date.

T. Bishop said she encouraged members to participate in these meetings or to provide feedback to their constituent chair if they had suggestions about changes to the roles of committees.

T. Bishop, in response to a question about vacancies in the university assembly itself, said that Ellis and she had previously tried to find out why the number of slots was selected for each constituency on the University Assembly and they had no success. The large number of vacant faculty seats is problematic for the assembly because it affects how many people must be present to maintain quorum.

J. Marwell added this would be a topic of discussion in ongoing executive review of the assembly’s charter.

L. Lawrence asked what the timeline would be for revision of the Charter.

T. Bishop said probably the whole year.

C. Walcott asked how the Charter is changed.

T. Bishop said any member of the assembly can propose changes in resolution form, be passed by the assembly, and then approved by the president of the university.

Discussion continued.

Academic Integrity (00:29:15)

R. Wayne said the questions around academic integrity are how do you get a person not to lie about circumstances around academic performance. For example, when a student’s seventh grandmother dies. While dealing with it, the assembly also discussed whether the code of conduct should change. He thought the discussions were among the best the assembly ever had.

L. Lawrence said that one of his concerns is that the assembly needs to bring closure or take action at some point in discussion. The discussion cannot go on indefinitely.

K. Whalen said that a focus should be on bridging the gap between assemblies. Right now the University Assembly is relatively disengaged from the other assemblies. She asked whether specific recommendations or proposals arose from the previous discussions of the assembly.

R. Wayne said there was an active discussion, but that such a discussion would take substantially more than two months to arrive at specific recommendations such as a draft honor code.

L. Lawrence suggested that leaders of respective constituent assemblies and the faculty senate could be invited in for periodic discussion.

C. Walcott said he wanted to share on observation that the discussion of academic integrity did not result in action was because there was not an executive officer who was empowered to move forward on this issue. One of his propositions to the president would be that he appoint a member of staff who could do the legwork for the issue.

J. Marwell asked what exactly C. Walcott wants to happen.

C. Walcott said the community should examine what other universities have done and decide whether an honor code might be useful or whether another approach might be more suitable. The preliminary discussion was very encouraging because undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff were all concerned. But there was no follow-up because no one really had the time to pursue it.E. Russell asked if there were specific fields in which problems were more severe.

K. Whalen asked what specific problems were discussed concerning academic integrity.

C. Walcott responded that there were increasing problems of plagiarism, falsification of medical excuses and other documents, misunderstandings about expectations of student conduct, and increased academic pressure. The question for the assembly was how the Cornell community should respond.

E. Russell asked whether problem is more pronounced in certain fields.

C. Walcott said problems have been especially frequent in the sciences but that these issues are affecting all fields. Some of it may be a communications problem. Students come from increasingly diverse backgrounds and their expectations and understanding of others’ expectations may be more varied than in the past.

L. Lawrence said the C. Walcott had recommended a book about cheating in America. He said that he had read it and found it very helpful. There is a problematic attitude that cheating isn’t the wrong unless you get caught.

A. Chatterjee said that he has read the book and knows of examples at other universities where honor codes have been highly effective. At other schools students help each other to cheat.

R. Wayne said that at another school he required students who were caught cheating to write a reflection paper. He said the discussion is often about relative ethics, that students often think their behavior is justified by life circumstances or that it isn’t even cheating.

Discussion continued.

L. Lawrence said if and when the president is invited, it would be helpful if everyone had read his inaugural address which lays out his vision for the university.

VI. Adjournment (00:51:40)

There was a motion to adjourn the meeting.

J. Marwell adjourned the meeting at 5:34.