University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
4:30 — 6:00 PM
701 Clark Hall

1.  I. Call to Order

M. Hatch called the meeting to order at 4:35 pm.

2.  II. Roll Call

M. Hatch said there was an attendance sign-in sheet by the door, and noted that with 10 members present, the assembly had quorum.

3.  III. Call for Late Additions to Agenda

M. Hatch asked for late additions to the agenda, but there were none.

4.  IV. Approval of Minutes

4.1  a. Wednesday, 31 January 2007

M. Hatch asked if anyone had any changes or corrections. L. Lawrence moved to approve the minutes. J. Marwell seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved.

4.2  b. Wednesday, 14 March 2007

M. Hatch asked if anyone had any changes or corrections. R. Wayne moved to approve the minutes. L. Lawrence seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved.

4.3  c. Wednesday, 28 March 2007

M. Hatch asked if anyone had any changes or corrections. L. Lawrence moved to approve the minutes. A. Richter seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved.

4.4  d. Wednesday, 25 April 2007

M. Hatch asked if anyone had any changes or corrections. D. Brown had a few corrections. M. Hatch asked if the UA could approve these minutes as amended by D. Brown. L. Lawrence moved to approve the amended minutes. R. Orme seconded. The minutes were voted on approved with the stipulation that D. Brown will submit his corrections to the Office of the Assemblies.

5.  V. Executive Session Closed to the Public

5.1  a. Welcome New Members and Distribute Binders

5.2  b. Discuss Frequency and Length of Meetings

5.3  c. Elections

i. Chair ii. Vice-Chair iii. Other members of Executive Committee

6.  VI. Business of the Day

6.1  a. R. 1 Resolution to increase size of student membership in hearing and review boards — M. Hatch

M. Hatch asked if there were any other questions. There were none.

L. Lawrence motioned to move to discussion and debate. D. Rosen seconded. There was no discussion or debate. A motion was made to vote. By the show of hands, there was unanimous approval with no dissent or abstentions.

6.2  b. R. 2 Resolution to appoint new members to the hearing and review boards — M. Hatch

M. Hatch asked if there were any questions on this resolution.

There were some questions regarding terms and appointments. A. Epstein answered them and cleared up the confusion. There was also a question of whether there is a process to weed out any students who may be in the system from serving. A. Epstein said there was.

By show of hands, all were in favor of this resolution. There was no dissent or abstentions.

6.3  c. R. 3 Resolution to renew appointment of the Judicial Administrator — M. Hatch

M. Hatch read the resolution.

R. Wayne offered that the term be extended to five years. M. Hatch said the current charter doesn’t allow the assembly to extend appointments beyond two years. He said the assembly could only act upon a recommendation from the President. It was noted that in the Presidents letter that he thought it wouldn’t be responsible of him to extend the term to two years because of the CJC’s ongoing discussion on the JA’s role in the Code of Conduct. Now that the initial report on the Code of Conduct is in, and the recommendation is to keep the JA’s office independent, his office has confirmed he would like the term to be for two years.

J. Marwell moved to insert M. B. Grant’s name into the first “be it therefore resolved.” D. Brown seconded this motion. M. Hatch accepted it as a friendly amendment.

L. Lawrence asked if M. B. Grant reported to the President. M. Hatch said she doesn’t report to the President, but the President authorizes her budget.

L. Lawrence asked who does her appraisal. P. Beach said there is no formal reporting relationship per the charter, but if there is a complaint about the JA, it is referred to the Ombudsmen. She added that M. B. Grant has, as a matter of practice, compiled an annual report and submitted it to the President and a few senior staff. L. Lawrence asked if the chairs of the UA receive a report. Many assembly members answered affirmatively. L. Lawrence then asked if the report was confidential. R. Wayne said if you ask her for it, she’d give it to you.

M. Hatch said one of new things that the Executive committee might do is have a more formal reporting procedure by the JA.

L. Lawrence said when R. Wayne mentioned the 5-year term, if the UA wanted to change that, could we make it possible?

M. Hatch said we could vote for a charter change.

D. Brown asked if charter changes needed to be approved by Trustees.

M. Hatch said they definitely need to be approved by the President, but he’s not sure about the Trustees.

L. Lawrence wanted clarification that JAs are usually attorneys.

P. Beach said B. Krause was a lawyer and so is M. B. Grant.

M. Hatch said currently the JA and the assistant JA are both lawyers. The Executive committee needs to address the problem of congestion of cases in the JA office.

M. Hatch said someone already moved for approval, and no one was opposed. There was unanimous approval of the amended resolution.

6.4  d. Appointment of Liaisons

M. Hatch said they began to discuss this at previous meetings. They already have a TAC liaison, and one of the things proposed was a Campus Planning liaison.

M. Hatch asked for a volunteer to be a liaison to the Campus Planning Committee. R. Wayne raised his hand. L. Lawrence seconded R. Wayne’s appointment.

M. Hatch said new members should volunteer to be a liaison to a committee they are interested in. He said it would be unfair for the Executive committee to decide for the entire UA whether the committees are useful and what the UA’s role for them should be. It’s the UA’s responsibility to have liaisons and call meetings whether they are meeting on their own or not. He added that Campus Planning, CJC, and TAC are the three groups that have liaisons.

D. Brown asked about the health center and campus store.

T. Bishop said she contacted people at Gannett, and found out the UA disbanded this committee a few years ago because of poor attendance and several other issues.

L. Lawrence said it’s up to the UA to decide on what we want to do, whether there should be hundreds of other committees or not.

T. Bishop said committees had been voted to be removed, but they’re still here.

R. Wayne said the UA met with Religious Works, Gannett, and the Campus Store, and they had a discussion on whether the committees felt that they needed us, but that nothing was ever voted upon. We didn’t vote because we felt there would be too many ramifications.

D. Brown said that just because we get rid of a committee, it doesn’t remove the UA’s responsibility over those areas. A committee is not necessary to take actions in those areas.

L. Lawrence said they ideally want to work in collaboration with all these different units.

P. Beach offered the services of the Office of the Assemblies to help committees that need to be reactivated, even if they meet only once a semester.

T. Bishop said the Cornell Store and Religious Works are going to come and do a presentation in the fall, and that she would be happy to ask Gannett to present also.

L. Lawrence said it will be good to have presentations. Above and beyond that, the UA needs to decide if they need to have those committees or not.

T. Bishop said the Campus Store disbanded due to poor attendance, but now they have needs for this committee.

P. Beach said the only other committee to be followed up on is the Public Safety Advisory Committee or they could just find a liaison to Cornell Police.

T. Bishop said they’re still active because she went to one of their meetings today. That committee is not under the UA.

M. Hatch said to T. Bishop that a report from her might be useful.

J. Marwell said to email the liaison or the faculty senate if anyone has any more concerns.

D. Rosen requested that when the people from the Campus Store and Gannett give their presentation, that they give the assembly something in writing prior to the presentation so the assembly can be prepared with questions.

J. Marwell asked that T. Bishop and D. Brown schedule their committees for the first meeting in August.

P. Beach asked if the assembly wanted their first meeting on August 22nd. A. Richter recommended August 29th. J. Glenn agreed. The rest of the assembly also agreed, except E. Sanders noted she could not attend that day.

7.  VII. Adjournment

R. Orme moved to adjourn. Another member seconded, and it was unanimously approved.

M. Hatch adjourned the meeting at 6:00 p.m.