Faculty-elected trustee Richard E. Schuler, professor of economics and of civil and environmental engineering, addresses board members, including Judith C. Areen, left, and Richard A. Aubrecht, during the discussion on the allocation in the student activity fee for NYPIRG at the board's open session in the Trustee Meeting Room of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art March 27. Robert Barker/University Photography
The Cornell Board of Trustees, after an extensive debate at its regular meeting March 27, voted overwhelmingly to endorse the $94 student activity fee set by the Student Assembly last November, including the portion of that fee allocated to the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
In other business, the board was advised that the administration is proposing a 5.9 percent increase in resident undergraduate tuition for the statutory colleges for the 1998-99 academic year.
The 31-4 vote endorsing the student activity fee -- and supporting student governance -- came when the board rejected a motion that would have rescinded the $6 per student NYPIRG portion of the student activity fee from the budget package approved for the endowed colleges in January. The NYPIRG allocation was to be used to establish a campus chapter of the controversial lobbying group.
"Let the record show that the board heartily supported the student governmental process and the administration," said board Chair Harold Tanner after the vote.
President Hunter Rawlings last December endorsed the $94 activity fee, including the $6 portion allocated to NYPIRG. He also asked the Student Assembly for an explanation of both the rationale supporting the NYPIRG allocation and the process the Student Assembly used to fund that group.
Some trustees questioned the legality of the allocation process, as well as the so-called "negative option" that gives students who object to the controversial lobbying group the option of receiving a refund of that $6. They pointed out that twice before, in both the 1970s and '80s, the board had turned down student requests to fund NYPIRG. At that time the board set the student activity fee.
After questions arose over the NYPIRG allocation at the January 1998 trustee meeting, Rawlings directed James Mingle, university counsel, to examine the legality of the allocation, the negative option and the process itself. Mingle upheld both the process and the negative option. He noted that in 1972 and 1980, when the board rejected a NYPIRG allocation, the board still retained authority to set fees as well as tuition rates. Subsequently, however, the board has delegated that responsibility to the president, who in turn delegated the setting of the student activity fee to the Student Assembly, Mingle reported.
Trustee Jerold Ruderman argued against the NYPIRG allocation because of the negative option, which he called unfair to the consumer. He moved to rescind the $6 per student NYPIRG portion of the student activity fee
But trustee Robert Kennedy seemed to speak for the vast majority of board members when he argued that student self-governance was at issue, not NYPIRG itself or the negative option. "This is a representative democracy. We must protect the fundamental integrity of representative democracy on this campus. It is vested in the Student Assembly, and it would be a black mark on this great institution to send this chilling message."
In other business, Provost Don M. Randel told trustees the administration is proposing the following tuition increases for the statutory colleges for 1998-99, subject to discussions with the State University of New York (SUNY) and passage of the state budget:
In January the board approved a tuition increase of 4.3 percent for the endowed colleges that set tuition at $22,780 for the 1998-99 academic year. Professional school tuitions and other fees for 1998-99 approved by the trustees are:
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