Student Assembly - Resolution 29 (2024-2025)

Checking Our Pulse

• Term:
  2024-2025
• Assembly:
  Student Assembly
• Status: Submitted to the President
• Abstract: This resolution amends the governing documents to change the language of the Pulse Committee.
  
  Sponsored by: Zora deRham ‘27, Adam Vinson ‘25, Niles Hite ‘26, Davian Gekman ’27, Nicholas Maggard ‘25, Christian Flournoy '27
  Reviewed by: Executive Board, 02/02/2025
  Type of Action: Internal Policy
  Originally Presented: 02/06/2025
  
  Current Status: Adopted by the Assembly, Unanimous Consent, 02/20/2025
  
  Whereas, the Pulse Committee was created in the Spring of 2024 with the mission of combatting “all forms of bias including but not limited to sexism, racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, and transphobia.” It was given a secondary mission of improving the assembly's connections with the student body through the funding of programming and projects;
  
  Whereas, as it is currently structured, Pulse is unable to achieve these goals. The committee is too large, reliant upon liaisons, and includes a voting member from an organization that does not exist;
  
  Be it therefore resolved, Article VI, Section 5(C), of the Bylaws of the Student Assembly, or its successor section, be struck in its entirety and replaced with the following, conditional on the acceptance and implementation of Resolution 7:
  
  Campus Pulse Committee
  A. Charge: This committee shall serve as a programmatic body to increase the availability of resources to address the pressing needs of the Student Body. The charge of the committee shall be as follows: combating bias on campus and creating community conversations that will work towards increasing empathy and cross-cultural dialogue between individuals and groups on the Cornell Campus, implementing programming and infrastructure to address the pressing needs of the campus community, providing financial support to ongoing projects and programs focused on improving campus climate and school spirit, creating resolutions focused on improving campus climate and school spirit, engaging with various organizations and leaders of special projects to explore ways to support their initiatives to enhance campus climate and foster school spirit, including but not limited to financial support, and writing a monthly memo about their work, which will be distributed to the greater campus community via the Student Assembly newsletter.
  B. Membership: The committee shall consist of a Chair, the Vice President for DEI, the Women's Issues Representative, the LGBTQIA+ Representative, one Freshman / Transfer Representative, the President of ALANA or their designee, the Residential Student Council Liaison or their designee, the Student Athlete Liaison or their designee, one of the Minority Representatives, two additional voting members of the Assembly, and three additional community members, who shall not be affiliated with any organization otherwise already represented.
  C. Chair: The Chair of this committee shall be elected by the Assembly. The Vice Chair shall be the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The Chair shall contact and coordinate the membership of the Committee in coordination with the Vice President for DEI within the first two weeks following the election of the Chair. The Chair shall communicate all Pulse Committee updates to the Student Assembly President at least once every two weeks following the first committee meeting. The Chair shall meet with the Vice President for Policy at least twice per semester to discuss directives of the Student Assembly legislation and advocacy. Updates from these meetings shall be reported to the full Executive Cabinet. The Chair shall meet with the Vice President for Finance in advance of all financial decision making. Updates from these meetings shall be reported to the Executive Board. The Chair shall meet with the Vice President for Communications in advance of all outreach and to aid in event planning.
  
  Be it further resolved, the Pulse Committee be deemed to have priority over other committees for funding requests against the $400,000 allocated pursuant to Resolution 75 of the 2023-2024 Term of the Student Assembly.
  
  Be it finally resolved, the $400,000 allocation authorized by Resolution 75 of the 2023-2024 Term of the Student Assembly be moved to the Student Assembly Reserve Account, and any such language moving such funds to an endowed account be considered rescinded.
  
  Respectfully Submitted,
  
  Zora deRham ‘27
  President of the Student Assembly
  
  Adam Vinson ‘25
  Executive Vice President of the Student Assembly
  
  Niles Hite ‘26
  Vice President for Finance of the Student Assembly
  
  Davian Gekman ‘27
  School of Industrial & Labor Relations Representative, Student Assembly
  
  Nicholas Maggard ‘25
  Deputy President of the Student Assembly
  
  Christian Flournoy ‘27
  Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion of the Student Assembly
  
  
• Resolution File:
  Resolution 29□ Checking our Pulse.pdf (183.37 KB)
• Supporting Documents:
• Sponsors: Zora Patterson deRham (zpd3), Adam Sawyer Vinson (asv33), Niles Hite (nh353), Davian Samuel Gekman (dsg247), Nicholas Maggard (nm557), Christian Elijah Flournoy (cef223)
• Reviewing Committee: Executive Committee