Office of the Assemblies

Dear Varun,

Thank you for conveying to me Resolution 38: Establishing Formal Committee – Administrator Relationships. While I appreciate the Student Assembly’s efforts to connect with the administration, I am returning this resolution for reconsideration. 

I applaud the objective of strengthening assembly relationships with administrators, but there are no provisions within your charter or bylaws that grant authority to the Student Assembly beyond the undergraduate student body. As noted in the resolution, the role of “correspondent” creates an expectation imposed upon members of the staff community, over which the SA does not have purview. Perhaps your objective could be accomplished in another way; for example, the role of SA committees/chairs might be amended to include the function of maintaining a list of relevant staff/administrator contacts and reaching out to them with information and/or questions, as well as inviting them to attend relevant meetings when appropriate. This would avoid the complications of trying to formalize a staff role in the SA while still creating a mechanism to enable robust assembly/administration communication and interaction. I know that many administrators would welcome productive interactions that can help make the SA even more effective and help us be even more responsive to student concerns.

Sincerely,

Martha Pollack

Martha E. Pollack

President, Cornell University

300 Day Hall

Ithaca, NY 14853

Tel: 607-255-5201

www.cornell.edu