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Cornell University

Office of the Assemblies

University Assembly Meeting

Tuesday, September 15, 2026

  • Term:
    2026-2027
  • Assembly/Committee: University Assembly
  • Date & Time:
    Tue, Sep 15, 2026 - 4:45pm
    to
    6:15pm
  • Location:
    401 Physical Sciences Building/Zoom
  • Agenda:

    I. Call to Order
         a. Roll Call
         b. Land Acknowledgment of the Gayogo̱ho:nǫ (Cayuga Nation)
         c. Approval of the August 25, 2026 Meeting Minutes
         d. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

    II. Business of the Day
         a. Presentation from the Office of the Assemblies
         b. UA Liaison Nominations
              1. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Carbon Neutral Campus Steering Committee
              2. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Campus Operations Steering Committee
              3. Sustainable Computing Working Group
         c. UA Committee Vacancies within Constituencies

    III. Assembly Reports
         a. Student Assembly
         b. Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
         c. Employee Assembly
         d. Faculty Senate

    IV. Committee Reports
         a. Executive Board
         b. Campus Codes Committee
         c. Campus Welfare Committee
         d. Campus Committee on Infrastructure, Technology, and the Environment

    V. Liaison Reports
         a. Campus Planning Committee
         b. Coalition for Sexual Violence Prevention
         c. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Carbon Neutral Campus Steering Committee
         d. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Education & Engagement Steering
    Committee
         e. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Campus Operations Steering Committee
         f. Sustainable Computing Working Group

    VI. Open Forum

    VII. Adjournment
    UniversityAssemblyMeetingAgendaSeptember152026.pdf (79.86 KB)
  • Meeting Packet:
  • Audio Recording:
  • Minutes:

    I. Call to Order
         a. Chair N. Maggard called the meeting to order at 4:46 PM.
         b. Members Present: E. Akcan, A. Barnes, M. Benda, S. Bruyere, J. Butcher, E. Chaudhuri, C. Cornell, D. Freeman, A. Garcia-Ortiz, A. Haenlin-Mott, A. Keshri, N. Maggard, E. Porter, S. Resue, C. Schaffer, E. Snell II, C. Tarala, A. Vink
         c. Members Absent: N. Brennan, K. Kopko
         d. Also Present: R. Platt, J. Withers

    II. Land Acknowledgement of the Gayogo̱ho꞉no (Cayuga Nation).
         a. N. Maggard stated the UA’s acknowledgment of the Cayuga Nation.

    III. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda
         a. None.

    IV. Approval of the August 25th meeting minutes
         a. C. Tarala motioned to adopt the August 25th meeting minutes. The meeting minutes had been adopted with unanimous consent.

    V. Business of the Day
         a. Presentation from the Office of the Assemblies
              i. J. Withers spoke on the office’s duties, helpful resources, and noted that when emailing the office, please CC assembly@cornell.edu as well.
         b. UA Liaison Nominations
              i. Sustainable Cornell Council's Carbon Neutral Campus Steering Committee:
                   1. None.
              ii. Sustainable Cornell Council's Campus Operations Steering Committee:
                   1. None.
              iii. Sustainable Computing Working Group:
                   1. N. Maggard nominated himself and ceded the chair to A. Garcia-Ortiz.
                   2. The Assembly voted in favor of N. Maggard unanimously.
                   3. N. Maggard has been named the UA’s Representative to the Sustainable Computing Working Group.
                   4. A. Garcia-Ortiz ceded the chair back to N. Maggard.
         c. UA Committee Vacancies within Constituencies:
              i. N. Maggard reminded Constituency Assembly Chairs to elect representatives to any outstanding UA Committee vacancies.

    VI. Assembly Reports
         a. Student Assembly
              i. The Student Assembly attended Club Fest and sparked high interest levels, specifically for the Student Assembly’s 14 different committees.
              ii. The Student Assembly passed 4 different pieces of legislation and are working on legislations related to academic policy and international students.
         b. Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
              i. The GPSA met again on September 14th and filled some vacancies within Committees, such as the role of Vice President of Appropriations.
         c. Employee Assembly
              i. The Employee Assembly met for the first time on September 2nd and hosted Thorsten Joachims, Ben Maddox, and the Cornell AI Initiative.
              ii. The Employee Assembly discussed 5 open Employee Assembly seats and began the search to fill those vacancies, elected Committee Chairs set expectations and finalized members for the semester, and the Executive Committee discussed taking on nominations to campus initiatives.
              iii. The Employee Assembly tabled the Budget Allocation Resolution to the next meeting and canceled the meeting on September 16th due to planned absences and other university commitments.
              iv. The Employee Assembly’s next meeting will be on October 7th, where Gordon Barger and his team will present on projected endowment benefit changes for staff.
         d. Faculty Senate
              i. The Faculty Senate last met on September 9th and are currently promoting the campus-wide lecture series, with the Rhodes Professorship Program being relaunched this year. The Senate has been trying to utilize shared governance bodies to inform the campus community about these lectures.
              ii. The Faculty Senate mentioned new academic integrity programs being put into place, such as the new Academic Integrity Reporting Tool and the Accepting Responsibility Program, where for minor infractions, students will also have to participate in a workshop aimed to guide them through strategies to decrease academic integrity violations. There has been u dates on the AI initiative, so the Senate had been working through internal
    processes that have a direct referral to Committee procedures as well.
              iii. In a month, the Senate Educational Policy Committee will propose a revision to the timeline of dropping classes to earlier in the semester, motivated by the perception that too many students are loading down with more classes than that are reasonable. There is a resolution with a well developed report about these changes on the Pending Matters section of the
    Dean of Faculty website.
              iv. C. Schaffer addressed comments from the University Assembly regarding:
                   1. The Accepting Responsibility Program – mis-incentivizing people to accept appeals even if they are not in the wrong.
                   2. Moving the drop deadline to earlier in the semester – Concern of collecting student feedback after the proposal had been written up rather than beforehand, little student input within the report underutilization of qualitative questions, how this can impact students who want to take classes to explore their interests and the university’s core trait of “any person any study,” consequences of capping classes, the meaning of a “W” on student transcripts, and the possibility of including the Student Assembly’s Academic Policy Committee within the discussion.
                   3. Utilizing the UA as a place to exchange feedback and that complex resolutions like this should include more constituencies and representation.
         v. Regarding staffing, C. Schaffer encouraged other constituent bodies to be active about identifying people and placing them on committees that make decisions and to be public about it.
              1. Encouraging people to reach out about problems and being efficient about the problem may increase the perceived legitimacy of the Committees and governance bodies.

    VII. Committee Reports
         a. Executive Committee
              i. The Executive Committee met last week and prepared for President Kotlikoff and Kyle Kimball’s upcoming visit. The Executive Committee submitted a drafted agenda along with topics for discussion.
              ii. N. Maggard reminded the Assembly to fill out the survey that was sent out.
         b. Campus Codes Committee
              i. The Campus Codes Committee met with the Office of the Assemblies and talked about how the Committee had operated in the past.
         c. Campus Welfare Committee
              i. The Campus Welfare Committee met on September 16th and were working to fill the Committee’s vacancies to ensure enough that there is enough representation on the Committee. 
         d. Campus Committee on Infrastructure, Technology, and the Environment
              i. The Committee planned to address the resolution regarding single-use plastics and will report back with more updates next meeting.

    VIII. Liaison Reports
         a. Campus Planning Committee
              i. No updates.
         b. Coalition for Sexual Violence Prevention
              i. No updates.
         c. Sustainable Cornell Council’s Education & Engagement Steering Committee
              i. No updates.

    IX. Open Forum
         a. A. Garcia-Ortiz opened the floor for a discussion regarding the new initiative of moving the drop deadline to earlier in the semester, especially surrounding grades.
              i. The Assembly discussed cultural divides between definitions of success, the university’s core values, whether the goal is to learn or to get a good grade, and the importance of achieving a 4.0 in the context of today’s world.

    X. Adjournment
         a. E. Chaudhuri motioned to adjourn the meeting. The meeting had been adjourned with unanimous consent.


    The meeting was adjourned at 5:57 PM.
    Respectfully Submitted,
    Kathy Yao
    Clerk of the Assembly

    Sept 15 UA Meeting Minutes.pdf (136.37 KB)