DRAFT MINUTES
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
4:30 — 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

M. Hatch called the meeting to order at 4:45pm.

II. Roll Call

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.

Present: N. Brideau, A. Craig, M. Fontana, M. Hatch, K. Laden, R. Orme, E. Sanders, E. Strong, R. Wayne
Not Present: L. Lawrence, B. Liddick, E. Loew, P. Mahoney, S.T. Pardo, R. Stein, A. Stroock
Also in attendance: A. O’Donnell, A. Epstein, D. Arnold

III. Business of the Day

- Selections of Chairs of constituencies: Faculty, Employee, Undergrad, Grad

There was a discussion about whether the members should elect the four executive board representatives of the constituencies and then choose the UA chair and vice-chair from this group, or if they should first elect the chair and vice-chair and then elect chairs for the constituencies who the UA chair and vice-chair did not represent. R. Orme said the UA needed to clarify the charter for next year so that issues like this are less ambiguous.

The undergraduate student representatives caucused briefly and chose M. Fontana as the undergraduate student representative on the executive committee.

The graduate and professional student representatives caucused briefly and chose S.T. Pardo as the graduate and professional student representative on the executive committee.

R. Orme said they should hold off on filling this position until the next meeting since only one employee delegate was present and the other employee delegates had not discussed which member they wanted to represent them on the executive board prior to the meeting.

E. Sanders nominated M. Hatch as the faculty representative on the executive committee. The nomination was seconded and M. Hatch was chosen as the faculty representative.

- Discussion about UA Committee Liaisons: Campus Planning, Transportation, Codes and Judicial, Campus Store, Health Services, CURW, Family Services

There was a discussion about whether they could appoint liaisons when they didn’t have quorum. They decided they should instead spend the time discussing how committees would function.

A. Epstein said representatives from the Cornell Store have shown interest in re-assembling the Cornell Store Advisory Board. Other committees, such as Health Services, have indicated that the committees are ineffective. It appears that several of the UA committees have not been adequately staffed for several years. If the committee was on the books, they had to staff it and, if they couldn’t get enough interest for staffing committees this year, they should reevaluate the system in a way that would allow the UA to exercise its legislative rights over these areas via an active committee. Some committees, such as Health Services, were not staffed by university assembly members but by constituency assemblies; this may not be the best method since there is no way for the UA to assume responsibility for staffing issues. Additionally, the people serving on these committees don’t have any overlap with the UA membership, which makes it difficult to convey discussions held in these committee meetings to the UA. It would be useful to explore the idea of using liaisons to monitor what’s going on in these areas and report back to the UA. If they do try new systems, these should be formally executed through charter changes.

There was further discussion about this issue. M. Fontana said one solution would be to have a liaison responsible for maintaining relationships with individuals in each area and, if an issue came up, they could form an ad hoc committee to address it. R. Wayne said having flexibility to only address issues when they come up could be helpful. E. Sanders agreed, saying they have to be realistic about the time people are willing to commit. A. O’Donnell suggested requiring each committee to present a report at each UA meeting, so that the UA was frequently updated on each committee’s action. M. Hatch said that each committee is convened and staffed differently and has different responsibilities and response systems; they should get more information about responsibilities they want to exercise in these areas by having one person examine each committee to bring back a report. A. Epstein said it seems that the assemblies have lost understanding of processes. It’s important that they adopt formal, clear, written processes and get the system back in line. M. Hatch said this would be an important issue in the new year.

IV. Approval of the Minutes

- April 30, 2008 Minutes

M. Hatch asked the members to review the April 30, 2008 minutes. M. Fontana made some corrections to page 2. E. Sanders corrected a typographical error on page 3. R. Wayne moved to approve the minutes with the changes. M. Fontana seconded the motion. The April 30, 2008 minutes were approved with three abstentions.

V. Call for Late Additions to Agenda

M. Hatch called for late additions to the agenda. There were none.

VI. Business of the Day (Cont’d)

- Welcoming of new members

M. Hatch welcomed the new members to the assembly meeting. He also mentioned which assembly seats were still vacant and the steps that were being taken to fill them.

- Election of Chair of UA and Vice-Chair of UA

M. Hatch said they should focus on electing the Chair and Vice-Chair now that they had quorum.

In response to E. Sanders’ request for clarification on how they would proceed, M. Hatch said they would elect the Chair and Vice-Chair of the UA and if one of the individuals selected was of a constituency that was already represented on the executive board, the Chair or Vice-Chair would replace this initially selected representative. There was further clarification.

Some of the members said they would prefer to wait until there were more members present. R. Orme said the employee delegates would ask for a re-election if they were to choose the Chair or Vice-Chair without more employee representatives present.

M. Hatch said he would remain in the capacity of Chair over the summer in the event that something needed to be addressed; they could vote for the new Chair and Vice-Chair at the first meeting of the next academic year. R. Orme would be the temporary adjunct interim Vice-Chair.

- Selection of Liaisons to UA Committees: Campus Planning, Transportation, Codes and Judicial, Campus Store, Health Services, CURW, Family Services

M. Hatch said that R. Wayne had served as the liaison to this committee. He asked if anyone else had interest in serving as the liaison for this committee. E. Sanders said she would serve as the back-up liaison for R. Wayne and R. Wayne was re-elected as the Campus Planning liaison.

In response to M. Hatch’s statement that they had to choose a new liaison for the Transportation Advisory Committee, R. Orme nominated E. Sanders for the position and she accepted.

In response to A. Craig’s question asking how many members were missing from the current meeting, A. O’Donnell said nine people were missing. Several members expressed the sentiment that they should hold off on electing liaisons until next year since so many members were absent.

M. Hatch said A. Stroock had asked to continue on as the Family Services liaison and M. Fontana said he would like to continue being the Cornell Store Advisory Board liaison.

In response to M. Hatch’s question asking if there was any interest for being the Codes and Judicial Committee liaison, since he wanted to step down, K. Laden said he was interested.

There was another discussion about whether they should elect the new liaisons when so many members were not in attendance. It was determined that they should fill the positions now and if anyone wanted to challenge a position at the next meeting, they could.

M. Hatch said they still had to fill the Health Services and CURW liaison positions. D. Kurczewski had been the liaison for Health Services but he would not be returning.

E. Sanders suggested they have a discussion, with all of the liaisons present, about the issues they wanted each liaison to examine. The members agreed to do this at the next meeting, as well as review each committee’s responsibilities and their relationships to the UA. There was a brief discussion about some committee responsibilities and the UA’s past involvement with them.

There was a discussion about examples of issues that should be brought to the UA, not simply tackled by committees. M. Fontana suggested requiring liaisons to review internal committee meeting minutes, even if they can’t attend meetings, so that the UA can know what’s happening.

M. Hatch said they also had a Budget Planning committee. He reviewed the committee’s composition and responsibilities. He said he is sure this is an active committee and that, they should have a liaison who was required to at least review the minutes of this committee’s meetings such as M. Fontana had suggested, since they are suppose to report to the UA.

A. O’Donnell said that A. Stroock was actually the liaison for the Child-Care Services committee not the Family Services Committee, so they still needed to assign a Family Service liaison. B. Liddick was the previous Family Services liaison, but since he was not in attendance they would have to check with him to see if he still wanted to continue filling this position. She also said that S.T. Pardo had told her she wanted to remain as the Academic Integrity Committee liaison.

M. Fontana said the Academic Integrity committee was moving from more of an ad-hoc to a drafting committee. C. Basil would be in charge of this but he was unsure of the details.

E. Sanders said, in all of her time on the UA, the Budget Planning Committee has never reported to them and this seems like a committee in which very important issues would be addressed, such as funding unnecessary buildings instead of providing more financial aid. In response to M. Hatch’s question asking if she would prefer to be the Budget Planning liaison, E. Sanders said she would, but she would have to give up being Transportation Advisory liaison.

In response to M. Hatch’s question asking if anyone else would be interested in being the liaison for the Transportation Advisory Committee, E. Strong said he would be interested in doing this, especially in light of initiatives being implemented in Collegetown regarding obtaining satellite parking lots for students in Collegetown to discourage bringing and using cars on campus. In response to A. O’Donnell’s question asking if he would be interested in attending the TAC meeting in June, E. Strong said yes. M. Hatch suggested he also take some time to review the t-GEIS, and briefly highlighted some aspects of the document as well as their involvement with it.

In response to M. Hatch’s earlier inquiry about the Joint Assemblies Multicultural Issues and the Joint Assemblies Financial Aid Review Committees, M. Fontana said the former was not staffed and the Student Assembly did not appoint a Chair for it, and that the latter was staffed and active. M. Hatch said they would discuss these two committees at a later date.

In response to A. O’Donnell’s question asking if he was still going to be on the University Neighborhood Council, N. Brideau said yes. E. Sanders gave a brief history of this council.

The assembly members in attendance introduced themselves to one another.

VII. Adjournment

M. Fontana made a motion to adjourn the meeting. R. Orme seconded the motion. M. Hatch adjourned the meeting at 5:58pm.