Minutes
University Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
4:30 � 6:00 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

C. Walcott called the meeting to order at 4:38 p.m.

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

II. Approval of the Minutes from February 9, 2011

The UA approved the one change from E. Cortens. R. Ataya moved the minutes. E. Strong seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved unanimously.

III. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

R. Ataya said he had more development to share with the UA regarding the Bias Response Program.

IV. CJC Resolution — G. Drobkov

Gleb Drobkov and Mary Beth Grant from the CJC said the CJC had recently voted on 3 amendments to the Campus Code of Conduct. G. Drobkov said that all were necessary and long awaited. G. Drobkov then went over the changes listed in the resolution regarding the deadline for appeals, indefinite suspension and deferred sanctions. Gleb and Mary Beth fielded some questions and thee was a brief discussion among the UA members.

C. Walcott called the resolution to question. The resolution passed by a vote of 11–0−1.

Bias Response Program

R. Ataya said there will be a meeting next week to discuss the questions and the format of the forums on the Bias Response Program. He asked for a volunteer to help facilitate the conversations between all the parties involved. E. Strong gave a brief explanation and noted the dates when forums will occur. R. Ataya said they want the participants to feel comfortable. He asked to have food at the meetings, and there could be breakout sessions so people could join in late without much fuss. He said he was open to other ideas from the members if they had any. R. Wayne suggested a diverse menu to appeal to a wide variety of participants.

V. President Skorton and Vice President Bruce

The UA welcomed the President and VP Bruce. President Skorton said he had received a copy of the new UA charter, and said it is now going through a review. C. Walcott explained the changes were made to make the charger simpler and clearer. He noted that Jim Mingle’s office had reviewed it also. One change he wanted to mention is the chairs of the assemblies will now be asked to sit on the UA to improve communication between the assemblies.

D. Skorton said he recognized the need for more communication, especially with the grad students. He said the faculty and staff members have had a lot of exposure, but the graduate and professional student community is lacking. T. Bruce said there is a real opportunity to expand communication in this community. He said they have worked hard to re-energize the Paw Print and are now looking to advance communication with grad students in a similar way.

R. Wayne said the UA passed a resolution last month to increase communication. He said he feels there seems to be some neglect concerning communications with incidents with the CCA, Africana, etc. A. Brokman agreed and said there are several issues that stick out in people’s minds but due to his position, he knows it is not hard to get in touch with President Skorton. He then said there needs to be more communication between representatives and their constituents, maybe through an email alert system. T. Bruce said there are also other venues. First, he suggested a “digest” version of actions to be published in a regular column. Second, he said we are working on some new strategies like myCornell, a new platform on computer that would also help get the word out. T. Bruce commented that the community needs to know what the UA is doing in order to keep the system vibrant.

J. Blair said there was an occasion recently where the Sun refused to publish some information about the forum regarding the UA charter changes. T. Bruce said every Friday the Cornell Chronicle is emailed out and it would be great to have information about the assemblies in there.

H. Howland said some elderly retired professors don’t have computers and have to pay $50 for the paper subscription of the Cornell Chronicles when it was promised in the past to be free. C. Walcott agreed that as an emeritus faculty member he too has fallen off many email lists. T. Bruce said he will look into this.

G. Yorgakaros asked about the observance of Presidents’ Day. D. Skorton said the Faculty Senate is responsible for the academic calendar. C. Walcott noted the Dean of Faculty has a committee currently working on this. D. Skorton said this process needs to be more clear and there should be more well known way to get calendar concerns heard. C. Walcott said he will ask the Dean of Faculty to find out more about this. D. Skorton said a lot of universities struggle with which holidays to observe.

J. Blair then asked if we are still on the positive path for economic recovery. D. Skorton said a group of administration is monitoring the progress. Money saving is already happening, and we are working on more difficult avenues now. He estimated we are about 2/3 or � of the way there. On the revenue side, philanthropy is also up. Remarkably, last year was the highest year ever, with $30 million. Unfortunately, there was a tuition increase, but the trend is clearly downward and it now costs families less to come to Cornell than ever before. The president said stressed the importance of keeping financial aid robust.

J. Blair said he thought a student’s merit-based aid should not be subtracted from the grant they receive. D. Skorton said the short-term answer is to the use money from philanthropy and endowment because the cost has to be attenuated. He noted there was a 3-year plan in place before the financial crisis.

VI. Update from Mental Health Initiative

There was no update at this meeting.

VII. By-laws Discussion

J. Feldman suggested a committee for charter implementation. E. Strong said we need to revisit the Transportation Advisory Committee. With the change in committee structure, we need to make sure we don’t lose the resources and expertise of the people previously on committee. The UA should be involved as a final stop to make sure the committees are still meaningful. A. Brokman agreed based on his experience working on committees. H. Howland suggested making a priority list of the committees with their tasks in mind.

E. Strong mentioned the executive committee was involved in the drafting of the by-laws. A. Epstein said T. Bruce’s vision was so the committees would be more like the ones in Congress, where people don’t necessarily have expertise in the specific area the committee is dealing with.

R. Wayne asked about the existence of a childcare sub-committee. C. Walcott said it is not ruled out, committees can certainly still have sub-committees with specific purposes.

J. Blair suggested all the UA members read the current draft of the by-laws.

Charter Update

C. Walcott said the charter has been submitted to the President. The Provost’s office looked at it and has two reservations concerning some ambiguities. Jim Mingle, the University Counsel, responded to this by adding a few words. They were only clarifications, no major changes. R. Wayne suggested we invite Jim Mingle attend a UA meeting and give his perspective. C. Walcott said he will forward the email so all members can view the discussion.

R. Wayne suggested that we can have Jim Mingle attend our meeting and give his perspective. C. Walcott said he will forward the e-mail so all members can see the discussion.

VIII. Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 5:58 p.m.