Question

Preamble:  

This question was posed in response to two emails that were sent on Tuesday, March 14, and Wednesday, March 15, 2017 to students who are eligible to vote in the anticipated union representation election. Not all Ask a Dean readers will have received those emails, because not all Graduate School students are eligible to vote.

Hi,

I am sending this message both as “Ask A Dean” and to the Union-Management Committee concern committee because the former seems responsive and the latter seemed to blackhole my previous concern, but I think the concern is equally addressable to both.

On March 14 @ ~10am Dean Knuth emailed me letting me know that my personal information was included in the Union Election Eligibility list. The arbitrator’s email address was @aol.com.

On March 15 @ ~12pm Dean Knuth emailed a correction that lists the arbitrator’s address @gmail.com.

Which address is correct?

Oh, and at ~9:30am on March 15, the group At What Cost emailed students that the arbitrator’s email address is @gmail.com. How would a group not involved in the election, not sanctioned by the university, and not organizationally involved in CGSU/AFT get the correct email address three hours before the correction notice gets sent?

Thank you,

Wanting-to-get-it right Graduate Student

Response

Dear Wanting-to-get-it-right Graduate Student,

The @gmail.com address for the arbitrator, from the March 15 communication, is correct. The second notice you received (March 15) was marked “corrected.” My apologies for the first, incorrect version.

We (the Graduate School) were given an incorrect email address which we used in the first email. We only learned later directly from the arbitrator that the @gmail.com address was the correct version. We revised the notice, sent it to the Union for their review and approval (as required by the May ’16 Agreement), then sent the corrected notice to eligible voters as soon as we could (despite Cornell being officially closed).

The arbitrator mentioned that he had talked already with some students by phone and rather than accept requests by phone he was telling all students who contacted him to send him an email. I assume he gave those students his correct email.

Thanks for asking the question. Enjoy the snow.

Barb

Barbara A. Knuth
Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School