Vas Mathur / Sun Staff Photographer

Gabe Kaufman '18 was elected University Assembly chair in a meeting yesterday.

August 31, 2016

University Assembly Appoints New Members for Upcoming Academic Year

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The University Assembly appointed new members to its executive and standing committees during its organizational meeting Tuesday evening.

In a 13-1-0 vote, the U.A. selected Gabe Kaufman ’18 as its chair for the 2016-17 academic year.

Prof. Ed Baptist, history, was chosen to be the U.A.’s executive vice chair. Kevin Fitch — who is also a member of the Employee Assembly — was elected vice chair for operations, and Ekarina Winarto grad was elected the ranking member of the assembly’s executive committee. All three members were elected via secret ballot.

The U.A. also appointed new chairs and representatives to its three standing committees — the Codes and Judicial Committee, the Campus Infrastructure Committee and the Campus Welfare Committee.

Mitch McBride ’17, the newly appointed chair of the Codes and Judicial Committee, said his priority as chair would be to “continue looking at the bill of rights.”

“I also think that we need to review code in general,” McBride said. “There are some constituencies, at least in the student community, that have concerns about certain rules.”

McBride added that as chair, he would make efforts to increase outreach from the CJC to the other campus assemblies so that their constituents can offer their perspectives on campus policy.

The two U.A. representatives appointed as CJC members alongside McBride were Becca Herz ’18 and Nathaniel Rogers grad.

The Campus Welfare Committee is responsible for addressing social issues and accessibility on campus, according to 2015-16 chair Ulysses Smith ’14.

“We were looking at how to centralize some of these [diversity] resources so that people would know where the … offices were,” Smith said. “We also helped out the LGBT programs.”

Smith was re-appointed to his position, and the assembly chose Prof. Ellis Loew, physiology, and Jordan Berger ’17 as the committee’s two U.A. members.

The Campus Infrastructure Committee — which will be headed next year by Jeramy Kruser, a member of the E.A. — oversees “sustainability efforts” and the University’s facilities, according to Loew, its former chair.

Loew said that the committee currently works with Provost Michael Kotlikoff and other campus governing bodies to execute Cornell’s Climate Action Plan, which aims to make the Ithaca campus carbon neutral by 2035.

The U.A. members appointed to the committee were Prof. Martin Hatch, music, and Marie Anne de Roos.