Graduate and Professional Student Assembly Meeting

Monday, October 6, 2025

• Term:
  2025-2026
• Assembly/Committee: Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
• Date & Time:
  Mon, Oct 6, 2025 - 5:00pm
  to
  6:30pm
• Location:
  401 Physical Sciences Building/Zoom
• Agenda:

  I. Call to Order
  
  II. Roll Call
  
  III. Reports of Officers and Committee Updates
       a. Executive Committee
       b. Operations and Staffing Committee
       c. Appropriations Committee
       d. Communications Committee
       e. Finance Commission
       f. Student Advocacy Committee
       g. Programming Board
       h. Diversity & International Students Committee (DISC)
       i. Faculty Advising, Teaching, and Mentorship Award Committee (FATMAC)
       j. Special Grants Committee
       k. Graduate School
  
  IV. Presentation
       a. Presentation — Cornell Concerts
            i. Areli Esparza, Executive Director
  
  V. Appointments and Nominations
       a. Call for nominations for Internal Vacancies
            i. Master of Engineering Representation (one seat)
            ii. Master of Industrial and Labor Relations Representative (one seat)
       b. Call for nominations for External Vacancies within UA
            i. Campus Codes Committee (one GPSA representative)
            ii. Campus Welfare Committee (one GPSA representative)
            iii. Campus Planning Committee (one GPSA representative)
            iv. Transportation Heating and Appeals Board (two GPSA representatives)
  
  VI. Resolution 2: Funding Anabel’s Grocery
       a. Sponsors:
            i. Nicholas J. Brennan, President
            ii. Siim Sepp, Vice President of Finance
            iii. Anurag Koyyada, Finance Commission Chair
  
  VII. New Business
  
  VIII. Open Forum
  
  IX. Adjournment
  
  Prepared by AnaFernanda Cardenas, GPSA Executive Vice President

   

  GPSA Agenda_October 6th 2025 (1) (1).pdf (215.46 KB)
• Meeting Packet:
• Audio Recording:
• Minutes:

  I. Call to Order
       a. N. Brennan called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m.
            i. Members Present: V. Baruah, N. Brennan, B. Candelaria, P. Caruso, C.Chappel, J. Chobirko, E. Gallant, A. Garcia-Ortiz, I. Gatimi, M. Hassler, M.James, Y. Khaled, C. King, A. Koyyada, Z. Liu, Z. Lynch, C. Meffert, T.Nguyen, I. Smith, Y. Wu
            ii. Members Absent: A. Basquiat, A. Cardenas, A. George, M. Ortiz, S. Raimondi,K. Rohrbaugh, S. Sepp
            iii. Also Present: J. Withers, T. Lewis, A. Esparza, J. Minogue, I. Di Tomassi, D.Freeman, A. Coogan, S. Sharma, T. Bhujle
  
  II. Approval of the September 29th Meeting Minutes
       a. J. Chobirko moved to amend Section IV.h to correct the committee name from “Faculty Teaching, Advising, and Mentorship Award Committee” to “Faculty Advising, Teaching, and Mentorship Award Committee (FATMAC).” The motion was seconded and, hearing no dissent, passed by unanimous consent.
       b. Y. Wu raised a concern that, in the Open Forum section, only two names were recorded as speaking on an NSF issue, even though more than two members participated. The chair responded that the minutes did not reflect every speaker for the sake of concision and clarity.
       c. J. Chobirko moved to adopt the minutes as amended by unanimous consent. Hearing a second and no objections, the minutes were approved.
  
  III. Reports of Officers and Committee Updates
       a. Executive Committee
            i. N. Brennan announced that the GPSA is starting an informal WhatsApp group chat for the GPSA, meant to be a place to ask questions, share news, and build connections. The QR code to join was shared in the meeting room
       b. Operations and Staffing Committee
            i. Z. Lynch reported that a second round of committee assignments will be sent out after this meeting to account for newly elected voting members. Members who have not filled out the committee interest survey were asked to do so. Otherwise, they will be assigned to a committee
       c. Appropriations Committee
            i. None
       d. Communications Committee
            i. A. Garcia-Ortiz announced that Communications has received the updated list of all current graduate and professional students and has sent out the communique to that list. A. Garcia-Ortiz asked members who did not receive the communique to reach out for corrections to the list-serve. 
       e. Finance Commission
            i. None
       f. Student Advocacy Committee
            i. I. Gatimi announced that the committee is working on two resolutions: TCAT Access for All and Representation in Student Codes Advisory Boards. She also shared that the committee welcomes feedback and help from anyone interested
            ii. N. Brennan shared that, for graduate students, proposed changes to the Student Code of Conduct and procedures must be routed through the GPSA. Members were encouraged to attend if they want to influence the Code of Conduct 
       g. Programming Board
            i. None
       h. Faculty Teaching, Advising, and Mentorship Award Committee
            i. No major updates, as J. Chobirko is waiting on membership finalization. Heal so encouraged members to help circulate questionnaires to increase student body engagement
       i. Special Grants Committee
            i. J. Chobirko announced that several student organizations have reached out to the GPSA Grants email (gpsagrants@cornell.edu) with questions about grant opportunities and applications. He also shared that the Committee expects to meet again in about two weeks, and that members are encouraged to reach out if interested in serving as liaisons to organizations
       j. Diversity and International Students Committee
            i. On behalf of A. George, N. Brennan announced that DISC is in a recruitment phase, and that more information would be shared online. DISC announced plans for a Thanksgiving celebration. DISC is also exploring collaborations with the Office of Global Learning on topics like taxes and professional development for international students
       k. Graduate School
            i. T. Lewis shared that the Graduate School is aware of budget/funding pressures in various areas but confirmed that graduate student travel funding to present research will continue, with no anticipated cuts 
            ii. The Graduate School is entering admissions season and is actively working with graduate fields on admissions processes, targets, and practices for the coming year 
            iii. Professional development opportunities for graduate students remain an area of focus; students were encouraged to pay attention to those offerings
  
  IV. Presentation
       a. Presentation by Cornell Concert Commission 
            i. Areli Esparza (Executive Director) and Julia Minogue (Selections Director)presented on the Cornell Concerts Commission. The CCC is a student organization funded in part by the Graduate Student Activity Fee. CCC plans, promotes, and produces 5-6 concerts per year on campus, with an aim to bring on a wide range of artistsii. A. Esparza and J. Minogue fielded questions from members on the organization's institutional knowledge transfer, budgeting and ticket pricing, graduate student outreach and representation in ticket sales, and marketing strategies to attract graduate and professional students
  
  V. Appointments and Nominations
       a. Call for nominations for Voting Member Vacancies
            i. Master of Engineering Representative (one seat) and Master of Industrial and Labor Relations Representative (one seat), both now at-large
                 1. N. Brennan opened the floor for nominations. Z. Lynch nominated I. Di Tomassi; I. Di Tomassi accepted the nomination. A. Garcia-Ortiz nominated Alessandra; Alessandra accepted the nomination. I.Gatimi nominated D. Freeman; D. Freeman accepted the nomination. Hearing no further nominations, N. Brennan closed the floor
            2. Each candidate gave a two-minute speech
            3. Y. Wu moved to allow a three-minute question-and-answer with each candidate. The motion was seconded and passed, by a vote of 8-6-1
            4. Members asked candidates about their priorities, approach to representation, style of membership, time horizon for involvement in GPSA, and ability to communicate student body input. With question-and-answer time elapsed, N. Brennan circulated an electronic ballot to voting members
            5. D. Freeman and A. Coogan were elected to fill the Master of Engineering representative seat as at-large and the Master of Industrial and Labor Relations representative seat as at-large, respectively 
       ii. Campus Codes and Conduct Committee
            1. J. Chobirko moved to extend the meeting by 15 minutes, for a new end time of 6:45pm. The motion passed by unanimous consent
            2. Numerous members raised points of information on the responsibilities and details of the University Assembly-related external vacancies
            3. P. Caruso moved to open the floor for nominations for 45 seconds. The motion passed by unanimous consent
            4. C. King nominated herself to serve as the Graduate/Professional Student representative. Hearing no other nominations, J. Chobirko moved to close the floor for nominations. The motion passed by unanimous consent. N. Brennan closed the floor for nominations
            5. C. King was elected to the Campus Codes and Conduct Committee
       iii. Campus Welfare Committee
            1. P. Caruso moved to open the floor for nominations for 25 seconds, hearing objection, the motion failed. J. Chobirko gave a brief description of the position. P. Caruso made the same motion. The motion passed by unanimous consent
            2. S. Sharma nominated himself
            3. Hearing no other nominations, N. Brennan closed the floor for nominations
            4. S. Sharma was elected to the Campus Welfare Committee
       iv. Campus Planning Committee
            1. P. Caruso moved to open the floor for nominations for 30 seconds. The motion passed by unanimous consent.
            2. T. Nguyen nominated himself
            3. Hearing no other nominations, N. Brennan closed the floor for nominations
            4. T. Nguyen was elected to the Campus Planning Committee 
       v. Transportation Hearing and Appeals Board (two seats)
            1. P. Caruso moved to open the floor for nominations for one minute. The motion passed by unanimous consent.
            2. I. Smith moved to close the floor. Hearing no objections, N.Brennan closed the floor for nominations
  
  VI. Resolutions
       a. Resolution 2: Funding for Anabel’s Grocery
            i. As a sponsor, N. Brennan ceded the chair to Z. Lynch
            ii. Sponsors N. Brennan and A. Koyyada, along with Anabel’s representative T.Bhujle introduced a resolution to allocate $40k from the GPSA reserve fund to support Anabel’s Grocery’s subsidy fund, split into two installments: $25kfor the current academic year and $15k for the following academic year. The sponsors also presented on the history of Anabel’s and its recent operational challenges
            iii. Z. Lynch moved the GPSA into a five-minute question-and-answer period. Members asked the sponsors about the number of graduate students served by Anabel’s and whether grad student money would be used in proportion to grad student benefit
       iv. Z. Lynch moved the assembly into a discussion period, where members generally emphasizing Anabel’s Grocery’s importance for campus food security and the general value of the service it provides 
       v. J. Withers clarified that spending from the GPSA Reserve above $3,000triggers a special voting threshold under the bylaws, which require a two-thirds vote of the entire seated GPSA membership (voting and non-voting members), not just members present, for allocations above $3,000 from the Reserve
       vi. A headcount showed that the number of members present in the room and on Zoom was below the two-thirds threshold needed to legally pass the resolution at this meeting.
       vii. A motion was made to table the resolution to the next meeting so it can be brought back when the assembly can meet the required voting threshold.
       viii. Hearing no objection, the motion to table carried and resolution will return at the next meeting.
       ix. A motion was made to extend the meeting again by five minutes, for a new end time of 6:50pm. The motion carried by unanimous consent

  
  VII. New Business
       a. None

  
  VIII. Open Forum
       a. None
  
  The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m.Respectfully Submitted,Anthony WangClerk of the Assembly

   

  GPSA-Minutes-100625.pdf (210.62 KB)