The following concern sections of the UA charter that need updating or outright change. They are presented for discussion so that resolutions can be properly written and voted on at an upcoming meeting. The entire Charter in its current form can be seen at http://assembly.cornell.edu/UA/Charter.

Article 3. Officer.

Rationale: For at least the last three years the UA has been operating without a Chair and Vice-Chair as defined in Sections 3.1 and 3.2. Rather, an Executive Committee as defined in Section 3.6 has been leading the UA. It is proposed that that sections 3.1 and 3.2 and their sub-sections be deleted. Article 3 would be renumbered starting with current section 3.6. In addition to renumbering, the following changes to 3.6.X are suggested:

3.6 At its organizational meeting in the Spring semester, the UA shall elect an Executive Committee from among its members.

3.6.1 Membership:

3.6.1.1 The Executive Committee shall have four members, including one undergraduate student, one graduate/professional student, one faculty member, and one employee. These shall be elected by the members of each individual constituency by simple majority.

3.6.1.4 The Executive Committee shall serve a one-year term, beginning on June 1.

3.6.2 Authority during the academic year. The Executive Committee shall:

3.6.2.1 prepare the agenda for Assembly meetings and deliver such to the Office of the Assemblies in a timely manner.

3.6.2.Xa from among its members select a chair for each meeting of the assembly, regular or special.

3.6.2.Xb Draft letters or other communications to be delivered to relevant persons or entities as required and approved by the UA.

3.6.2.Xc Prepare an end-of-term report summarizing the activities and accomplishments of the UA during the preceding year and deliver said report to the President or his designee.

3.6.2.2 call special meetings of the Assembly when it deems necessary.

3.6.3 Emergency Authority:

3.6.3.1 During periods between semesters and during vacations, the Executive Committee shall be authorized to speak for the Assembly on matters of policy under the jurisdiction of the Assembly in those cases when in the Executive Committee’s best judgment, a delay would effectively result in no Assembly participation in a decision being made.

3.6.3.2 Before making any statement for the Assembly, the Executive Committee shall make its best effort to reach all members of the Executive Committee, including those not on campus for their opinion, and shall make its best effort to contact all members and chairpersons whose committees are concerned with the question at hand for their opinion. In its attempt to reach members, the Executive Committee shall be authorized to meet by conference call.

3.6.3.3 The Executive Committee shall follow the practice of inviting to UA meetings those who have a concern for the issue at hand.

3.6.3.4 Any such statement by the Executive Committee shall be reported in full at the first meeting of the Assembly following the vacation or mid-semester break. The report shall include the names of those members of the Executive Committee who participated in the action as well as the vote count.

Article 2: Membership.

Rationale: The Charter sets the size of the UA at 21 members - six undergraduates, three graduate and/or professional students, five employees and seven faculty. The reasons for assigning this distribution seem to be lost in history and need to be re-examined. Certainly, it has proven VERY DIFFICULT (read this as near impossible) to find seven faculty willing to serve and, of more relevance, actively participate! Based on faculty participation over the past five or six years, it seems more reasonable to reduce the faculty members to four. It is further suggested that the graduate and/or professional student, and employee representative number be adjusted to four as well in keeping with the idea of equality within the UA. It is left to UA to decide on the final number of undergraduate representatives although five is put forward for discussion purposes.

The following sections are affected by the proposed changes:

ARTICLE 2: Membership

The University Assembly shall consist of 17 voting members; five undergraduate students, four graduate and/or professional students, four employees, and four faculty. The following shall be members of the Assembly, without vote: The Vice President for Communications, The Vice President for Student and Academic Services, the Senior Vice President, another member of the central administration appointed by the President, and the Chair of the Minority Affairs Committee.

2.1 Members of the UA shall be chosen by and from within the membership of the constituent assemblies as follows: at least, but not limited to two each from the Student Assembly (SA) and Employee Assembly (EA), and one each from the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GPSA) and the Faculty Senate. Individual constituent assemblies shall determine a means of identifying/selecting/electing the remaining members as defined in Article 2 of the UA Charter. All members shall serve two-year staggered terms which should be contained within their constituent assembly terms, except for student members who shall serve one-year terms. The Faculty Senate should be thought of as one of the separate constituent assemblies. The UA shall be informed annually of the appointment procedures to be used prior to the appointment taking place. Vacancies shall be the responsibility of the constituent assembly to fill as soon as a vacancy occurs. (how should these numbers change given the number changes above?

2.2 A voting member of the UA may not serve concurrently as a University Trustee, or as a member of the Assembly’s standing committees and boards, except where specified in this Charter.

ARTICLE 1: Authority and Responsibilities.

Rationale: Of particular concern are sections 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3. 1.1 and 1.2 deal with the Campus Code of Conduct and populating of the Hearing and Review Boards. These sections are directly impacted by the Krauss report containing recommendations for changing the entire structure of the Code and its system of implementation and enforcement. These will need to be addressed when it becomes clear how the President wishes to act on the report. Section 1.3 deals with the legislative authority over policies which guide the activities of the Departments of Transportation and Mail Services, Cornell United Religious Work, University Health Services, and the Cornell Store. The UA was to set up committees or boards to propose and approve policies for these four Units. For a number of reasons, the assumed intent of this Section vis-�-vis ‘legislative authority’ has never been realized. Past discussions between the UA and the heads of these Units have shown wide variation in how the Units interpret Section 1.3 and how they want to interact with the UA. Only TAC continues to proactively work with the UA. It is time that section 1.3 be revised to better reflect the reality of the situation. It would seem to be unrealistic to expect that these Units, or their Administrative Overseers, would accept legislative dictates by the UA. However, it is still felt that decisions and policies by these Units and, perhaps others to be added during our discussions, should not be implemented without airing before a body by the UA. Perhaps the term ‘consultative authority’ can be substituted for legislative authority. The idea would be that all changes in policy or service by any Unit not dealing specifically with infrastructure or operation, but impacting the University Community as a whole needs to be presented to the UA for discussion BEFORE implementation. Ideally this would be concurrent with presentation to higher administration. The results of the UA discussion would be transmitted to the relevant governing body to ultimately be used to address final implementation. True, UA input, while obligatory before final implementation, would ultimately be purely advisory (this is how what we say now is treated). However there would be political consequences if the UA were ignored.