Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 26, 2010
4:30 � 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

C. Walcott called the meeting to order at 4:35 p.m.

Roll was taken via sign-in sheet.
Voting Members Present: R. Ataya, W. Candell, J. Feldman, G. Yorgakaros, E. Cortens, E. Strong, M. Walsh, K. Baier, J. Blair, N. LaCelle, M. Hatch, H. Howland, E. Loew, C. Walcott, R. Wayne
Voting Members Absent: A. Brokman, C. Cunha, L. Lawrence, W. Ghiorse
Non-voting Members Absent: B. McKinney, A. Craig, N. Evensen
Also In Attendance: A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell, Y. Zhang

II. Approval of the Minutes from December 1, 2010

W. Candell moved the minutes. J. Feldman seconded. The minutes were voted on and unanimously approved.

III. Child Care Services Subcommittee Update — L. Croll Howell

L. Croll Howell was ill and will report to the UA at the next meeting.

IV. Charter 1–18–2011 Draft Proposal

C. Walcott reported the University Counsel office had reviewed the charter draft and some changes were made to it over the break. He said A. Epstein had been working on this, but everyone needs to review and see if we agree. C. Walcott said he would like to vote on the draft document at the next meeting. He also said the UA should go ahead with the forum idea. E. Strong then gave an update on the recent developments. He reported the charter draft document has been distributed to stakeholders so no one is surprised later when it goes to the president for approval. He then told the group changes would need to be made today so it could be voted on at the next meeting.

R. Wayne moved to remove Section 3.5 from the draft. He said the president’s authority is already clear. J. Blair said this section clarifies that any office the president delegates authority to will not have their hands tied by the UA. C. Walcott asked for a straw vote. The majority of the members were opposed to getting rid of the section.

C. Walcott noted that the language the University Counsel inserted at Section 3.1.3 is very powerful.

H. Howland said he felt the Cornell Association of Professors Emeritus (CAPE) and its sister group for retired staff should be represented on the UA. E. Strong asked for some background on these 2 groups. E. Cortens asked if this would be comparable to having a seat for professional students even though the GPSA represents both professional and grad students. M. Walsh said this could open the door to alumni and other groups. J. Blair suggested tabling the issue because it could be better addressed after the new charter goes into effect and we could change the membership more easily. R. Wayne said we could designate one of the faculty seats on the UA to CAPE members. A. Epstein said each assembly is free to appoint constituents as they see fit. E. Loew said we could ask the Dean of Faculty to appoint a seat or two for CAPE members.

E. Strong made a friendly amendment to change “university community” to “campus community.”

M. Hatch suggested changing “recommendations” in Section 3.1 to “resolutions” because “resolutions” sounded more forceful. A. Epstein said both recommendations and resolutions could be listed. J. Blair said if the president still needs to respond within 30 days, then we need to mirror the language in both sections.

E. Strong asked if people are comfortable with voting on the draft at the next meeting. R. Wayne suggested putting the draft out there for the community to see, for example putting the information in the Cornell Daily Sun. There was agreement on this. J. Blair said this makes the charter revisions more transparent. M. Walsh said we do need to educate the campus on the changes. E. Strong suggested a letter to the editor in the Sun, and said he would be happy to make himself available to answer questions at an announced time and place.

E. Cortens said he brought the charter issue to the GPSA at a recent meeting and received no comments.

C. Walcott suggested sending an e-mail to the constituents that included the URL to the charter draft. E. Strong suggested sending the e-mail, writing a letter to the editor, and announcing a conference room and time to come and ask questions. E. Loew voiced his fear this was too open and too many people would be involved and it would delay the process. He said he thought this would be counter-productive. J. Feldman agreed. J. Feldman then said he had taken this to the SA and received no comments either. E. Loew added if anyone has interest in the process or the Charter, that all UA meetings are open and all the information and recordings are available to the public on the website. K. Baier said she felt we shouldn’t open this up completely for comments, but could make the draft document more public.

R. Ataya said this would be one way to remove the characterization of the UA doing things behind closed doors. A. Epstein said Tommy Bruce was concerned that the UA share this widely with the campus.

E. Loew suggested changing “will” to “may” under Section 3.1.1. C. Walcott agreed. There was more discussion. The change was approved.

E. Cortens said the issue of proxy/absentee voting is not mentioned in the charter. Robert’s Rules say it is a bad idea. We should have a policy on this, and he recommended not having proxy voting. C. Walcott said if we stay silent on the issue, Robert’s Rules take effect, so he felt it was better left out.

E. Strong moved for the January 26 version of the charter draft. H. Howland seconded. It was unanimously agreed the UA will vote on the draft document at the next meeting.

New Business Item - Bias Response Program

E. Strong said the R. Ataya has been working with Lynette Chappell-Williams from HR on the Bias Response Program. R. Ataya said they are looking to review this program and work with assemblies to share the information. E. Loew asked what this program was. E. Strong said it reviews claims of bias incidents where someone believes they were treated unfairly. Cornell was the first to have this program, and they are “retooling” it 10 years later.

Old Business Item - Cornell Council for the Arts

E. Cortens reported some positive results for the budget issue with the Cornell Council of the Arts resolution that he mentioned at the last meeting. An informal meeting will be held tomorrow night to discuss the issue.

V. Adjournment

H. Howland moved to adjourn. R. Ataya seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 5:50 p.m.