Office of the Assemblies

Dear Nate,                                                                                                                                                                        

Thank you for sending me GPSA Resolution 14: Consensual Relationships Policy Revisited. Please extend my sincere appreciation to Ms. Waymack and members of the assembly for thoughtfully engaging on this important issue. As you note, in 2016 the Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Status of the Faculty and the Faculty Senate considered GPSA Resolution 7: Supervisor-Student Relationships. I’ve read the committee report and was encouraged to see several points of agreement and a willingness to continue working on this topic in the challenging areas where a consensus was not reached. 

I support your call for Dean Van Loan and the Faculty Senate to work with the GPSA to review the recommendations contained in Resolution 14 this fall. I also encourage GPSA’s further work with the Student Assembly and the University Assembly to address relationships between graduate/professional students and undergraduates, and between supervisors and supervisees. The dialogue that you are advancing is important to Cornell as an institution.

Sincerely,

Martha Pollack