The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/gpsa/page/4/)
A meeting on Monday led graduate students to question the administration’s commitment to shared governance at Cornell after frustration surrounding further details to President Martha Pollack’s presidential task force last week.
The STEM department’s lack of involvement in the protest reflects the department’s general silence on issues of race and diversity on campus, students said.
“There are very serious issues here, and one of them is the rights of individuals versus the emotional reaction of the community.”
“People of color have been leading diversity training, forming task forces, for years, and telling people how to treat us,” said Monet Roberts, grad. “And so I feel like this is the time where people who are not of color need to really step up.”
The proposed $20,000 spending is aimed to benefit graduate and undergraduate students without meal plans.
The Cornell Graduate and Professional Student Assembly launched the year with familiar and fresh items on the agenda.
Provost Michael Kotlikoff announced that the modified calendar proposed by the Academic Calendar Committee has been approved.
To the editor:
As faculty members in the Cornell University ILR School, we are deeply concerned about the conduct of the Cornell administration on March 26, the eve of the Cornell Graduate Students United election and on March 27, the first day of voting in the election. On both days, Cornell’s Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Barbara Knuth sent emails to thousands of Cornell graduate students with messages that interfered with graduate employees’ ability to freely exercise their rights to choose whether to be represented by the CGSU. In raising our concerns about Dean Knuth’s conduct, we draw on our expertise and experience in the field of labor law, labor relations and labor rights. Under the National Labor Relations Act, it is unlawful for an employer to make statements that would have the tendency to “interfere with, restrain or coerce” employees in exercising their rights to choose whether to unionize. Unlawful coercive statements by employer representatives include explicit or implicit threats that the employer may cut back on jobs if employees vote for a union.
Members of the GPSA had mixed feelings about this proposition. Some believed that this was an issue regarding the right of students to have an equal opportunity to succeed academically with regard to their peers.
According to the resolution, relationships “between students and individuals who might reasonably be expected to write them a letter of recommendation” and “who can directly control grades, academic progress or professional development” would be banned, with room for review in regards to gray areas.