Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, December12, 2009
4: 30 � 6:00 p.m.
163 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

C. Walcott called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m.

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.
Voting Members Present: I. Akinpelu, A. Brokman, K. Laden, A. Nicoletti, E. Strong, L. Lawrence, W. Ghiorse, M. Hatch, E. Loew, E. Sanders, C. Walcott, R. Wayne
Voting Members Absent: J. Cetta, J. Spiegel, B. Webb-Binder, S. Zhang, K. Spieser
Non-voting Members Absent: B. McKinney A. Craig, M. Walsh
Also In Attendance: P. Beach, A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell, Y. Zhang

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions.

III. Approval of Minutes from Nov 18 Meeting

M. Hatch moved the minutes. E. Loew seconded. The minutes were unanimously approved.

IV. EA Caucus for Exec Member

Currently there were no EA members present at the meeting (L. Lawrence had said he would be late). E. Strong said he has asked the EA to send more representatives.

R. Wayne said James Blair, who had served on the UA and retired as a faculty member, may return as a staff member.

V. Elect New Vice Chair

K. Laden nominated E. Strong as the vice chair. M. Hatch seconded. There were no other nominations. E. Strong was approved by acclamation to be the new vice chair.

VII. Committee Updates

K. Laden said the Charter Review Committee met last week and set a timeline through February. The schedule is set so in the future members could plan in advance, since few people were able to attend. Plan to review the charter line by line. Members can bring opinions to their executives.

E. Strong said TAC has met twice now. At the last meeting, broken parking meters were discussed. There was also a presentation from TCAT.

R. Wayne said L. Lawrence went to the last CPC meeting on his behalf.

VIII. Drilling Resolution from M. Hatch

M. Hatch said the comments raised at the last meeting had been incorporated into the revised resolution. He moved the resolution.

E. Strong read an article that Cornell has not leased land for drilling. M. Hatch said they had considered leasing but are not currently.

C. Walcott asked how similar this resolution is to the one being presented to the Faculty Senate. M. Hatch said it is very similar but it is good to have a slightly different version from the UA. W. Ghiorse asked about the status of the resolution in the FS. M. Hatch introduced the two representatives who sponsored the resolution in the FS. They have submitted the resolution to Bill Fry and hope to have it voted on at next week’s meeting.

W. Ghiorse mentioned that most of the discussions has been about the cons and asked if there are any pros for leasing other than the economic gains. Linda Nicholson, one of the guest representatives, said that is why more information is needed. The process is going too fast and we need to be more cautious. E. Sanders asked if we would be able to stop the drilling if most residents around the area have already signed the lease.

C. Walcott asked the UA is ready to vote on the resolution. There was no dissent.

The resolution was passed by a vote of 9–0−1.

IX. Curriculum Resolution from R. Wayne

R. Wayne said things are taking place with the biology curriculum that people should be aware of. C. Walcott asked why this was not coming from the FS. R. Wayne replied he thought it fit within the UA charter, then moved the resolution. A. Brokman seconded.

E. Sanders asked if this had been through the Education Policy Committee. R. Wayne said he teaches in the biology department so he is aware of the change, but he doesn’t know how it happened.

W. Ghiorse said the Arts and Sciences chair started this in 2008. The Biology Curriculum Transition Committee has been meeting for about a year and has put together a tentative report. The UA could invite the committee’s chair, Ron Hoy, to talk about this. Some of the recommendations have already been put in place. As of now, BioG101–104 will be gone next fall.

M. Hatch asked if the undergrads want to jump in on this. He suggested having this re-considered in early spring.

Discussion about this resolution was suspended temporarily at this point because President Skorton and VP Bruce arrived at the meeting.

VI. Business of the Day — Open Discussion with President Skorton

There was a quick round of introductions around the table.

D. Skorton said he has spent a lot of time thinking about the future. He has been meeting with different groups of students at student “office hours.” He said it was very important to focus on shared governance and thanked Tommy Bruce and Kent Hubbell for getting the task force reports online.

W. Ghiorse thought the transparency of the process has been good. Yesterday he had a really good meeting with the Provost. Even though the news was bad and the budget cut could get worse, the process was very open and a lot of the chairs in the room were happy with it.

E. Sanders said it was good to have the summaries of the task force reports online but thought it would be best to have the full reports in department chairs’ offices. D. Skorton asked to make a note of this. E. Sanders said she felt the online versions have been sanitized. Perhaps if this was more public all along, the financial crisis might not be as severe and Cornell would not be worse off than other Ivies. D. Skorton disagreed with this and said many are in the same situation.

A. Brokman asked if the President would be willing to send out a summary of budget cuts to the Cornell community. D. Skorton said absolutely, decisions will be made known. He explained many universities do not have strategic plans because lots of decisions are better made at a local or departmental level. But somewhere an overall decision has to be made, especially during these hard times.

M. Hatch asked what role the assemblies can take on to be more empowered and get more done. D. Skorton said there will be a very small percentage of occasions when an executive decision will be made. The majority of the time, there will be broad discussion before a decision is reached. The vast majority of the time, the executive will endorse or slightly tweak the resolutions received. Someone should keep track of the percentage of how many resolutions are sent vs. how many are approved. D. Skorton said he would be happy to attend the meetings more frequently if they were short visits.

M. Hatch raised the problem of getting enough EA representatives at the UA. The employees don’t have release time from work or get any credit for participating in the UA. He asked if there could be some encouragement from the senior administration for more participation. D. Skorton said with the layoffs, staff members have even more responsibilities so it is harder to get away for meetings. It may help to have a better understanding of the assemblies and the importance of participation.

E. Loew asked if Cornell is considering to have some joint activities with Ithaca College, maybe curriculum sharing. D. Skorton said the administration should not get involved with this; the faculty and the staff members can handle this better. Gannett and Cayuga Medical Center already share some things.

A. Brokman asked if the President could read resolutions and make revisions before the resolutions are presented in the assemblies. D. Skorton said that would put the President’s power in the shared governance. It is better to get the assemblies’ opinions together before sending in a draft to the President.

A. Nicoletti asked if there is discussion about AEM becoming its own school. D. Skorton said Dean Hubbell is having panels and this will be an open process. We need to make the right decision and get budget for next year. This will be a multi-year plan.

IX. Curriculum Resolution from R. Wayne

C. Walcott returned to R. Wayne’s resolution. He agreed this has not been very transparent. R. Wayne wanted to have a blog or a webpage similar to the Campus Code page.

W. Ghiorse said the resolution asks for more information, which cannot be a bad thing. E. Loew said there is all kinds of information out there. He was not sure how much this resolution can do functionally. M. Hatch said this can at least show that someone is watching and being critical.

By a vote of 11–0−1, the resolution was approved.

There was a brief discussion about to whom this resolution should be sent. It was decided that it would be best to send it to the President, who can forward it to the Provost.

R. Wayne wanted to send a note of thanks to the president. C. Walcott said he would be glad to convey that message.

M. Hatch brought up the Cornell Daily Sun’s mistake in saying the UA removed the discrimination clause from the campus code. The clause was never in the code in the first place. K. Laden said J. Cetta already has a response written up.

X. Adjournment

W. Ghiorse moved to adjourn. R. Wayne seconded. C. Walcott adjourned the meeting at 5:55 p.m.