On March 19, the University Assembly (UA) Cornell’s shared governance group that represents students, faculty and employees considered three areas of business.
Regulating On-Campus Protests and Demonstrations
Most of the discussion focused upon the Interim Expressive Activity Policy which Day Hall released on January 24 without any prior consultation with the UA. The UA has been collecting public comment on its website and has previously met with General Counsel Varner. At the same time, the Faculty Senate held a meeting with Vaner and Provost Kotlikoff as well as started to vote on a resolution asking to hold the policy in abeyance until more detailed debate could be held on the policy.
The Student Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the suspension of the policy pending action by the shared governance bodies. Meanwhile, on March 11, President Martha Pollack and Provost Michael Kotlikoff issued a statement announcing further changes as well as the intent to “convene a group of faculty, students, and staff members to refine and propose a finalized version of an expressive activity policy that achieves these goals.” So, instead of the shared governance bodies moving the process forward, Day Hall wants a hand-picked group to redraft the policy. Members of the UA noted that it does not make sense to use an unelected group to do this in place of the duly elected shared governance bodies.
In response, Dean of the Faculty Eve DeRosa announced that the Faculty Senate plans to hold an election to choose the faculty representatives to this new group. She also announced that the UA should be “the appropriate space” for discussing this policy and collecting community comments instead of the Faculty Senate, because this topic affects the rights of students, faculty and staff. However, later in the meeting, she clarified that the process would include subsequent drafting by the General Counsel’s Office and then debate within the Executive Policy Review Group (EPRG).
Normally, UA resolutions are perfected in a committee and then brought to the full UA. However, for the expressive activity policy, UA Chair Shelby Williams proposed to have a “workshop” in the middle of the meeting to start a draft of the policy. This bypassed the Campus Codes Committee, which would otherwise have jurisdiction. She then appointed two volunteers to shape the notes from the workshop into a resolution for the next UA meeting in April.
The group discussed the need to improve the procedures and system to adjudicate people accused of breaking the expressive activity rules. The on-going Title VI investigation by the federal government may have motivated the January 24 interim policy. At that time, of all the Ivy schools, only Harvard, Penn and Cornell lacked a clear policy to regulate the time, place and manner of demonstrations.
Cornell’s current policies are unclear whether the Rules for Maintenance of Public Order were repealed when the Trustees adopted the new Student Code on December 10, 2020. Those rules covered much the same group as the new interim policy.
The new interim policy is not clear as to who will enforce the policy against violators. It could be that improper demonstrators would be subject to the Student Code and procedures. But harassment based upon ancestry might be enforced by the Title IX Office, which has very different procedures that lack due process and results in the Title IX Coordinator instead of a panel composed of five students, faculty and staff making the innocence/responsible determination.
Safety Shuttles
The UA also discussed the need for emergency transportation shuttles to take vulnerable students home late at night when they do not feel safe to walk alone. Previously, Cornell offered this service under the name “Blue Shuttle Service.” It was later shifted to student volunteers that would walk a concerned student home after calling from one of the blue light emergency phones.
The discussion broadened into a discussion of TCAT and how Cornell abandoned its own on-campus shuttle buses when it joined in the founding of TCAT.
IT Policy
Nicholas Maggard, Student Assembly Parliamentarian, has been meeting with Ben Maddox Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Cornell University’s Ithaca campus and Cornell Tech. Maggard and Maddox believe that there should be a standing UA committee to review IT Policies. Accordingly, Resolution 1 will amend the UA Bylaws to add a new standing committee. Previously, IT topics were overseen by the UA Committee on Infrastructure, Technology and the Environment. Because UA Bylaw amendments must be considered at two separate meetings, this change will come up for a final vote in April.
