Senate General Body Meeting #13 — Minutes (11/12/24)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #13November 12, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES

11. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Amy Li, Tim Huang, Angela Xiong, Daarian

Rouhani, Arihant Singhb. Unexcused Absentees: Nayshawn Ferebee, Tarini Basireddy

12. Convening Business (15 min)
13. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

a. Motion to start the meeting and approve the agenda.

14. Public Input (3 min)

a. Survey from Leading Teams Class:https://jh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGzdoQATqywjKaGi. Vice President of the Senate Srigouri Oruganty said thatsome of the members of the SGA may have been hearingabout a student group that wants to investigate theirstudent engagement and SGA experience. They will takethese responses and suggest improvements. These arestudents in a class on leadership, which is a businessminor class.

15. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. Student Body President Stone Meng said that we nowhave two open Judiciary board positions. The chosencandidates will be voted on by the senate. Tiffany Mfumeinformed Meng that Achieve is now free. General Physicsand Chemistry courses on Achieve will be free.ii. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that there areattendance incentives coming up. She thanked Orugantyfor preparing the agenda and Meng for helping out. Wehave 2 more GBMs left due to Thanksgiving holiday andfinals week.iii. Meng said that Programming Chair Tim Huang wantspeople to help out with closet clean up. There is an SGAfinance workshop coming up this weekend. Lots oftreasurers in clubs don’t know how to apply for grants, sothis is a problem that needs to be resolved and attendingthis workshop can help. He asked people to sign up forLOTQ tabling.iv. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh asked where theinformation about the finance workshop is.v. Meng said that it is on our Instagram, but will be sharedon Teams.

b. Advisor Report (2 min)

i. Remarks from Jessica

1. She will be sending out the Homewood Student

Wi-Fi survey soon. This will be sent on the Teamschannel, then this data will be shared with thestudent body.

16. Non-Legislative Business (25 min)

g. Assistant Secretary Confirmations- Secretary Buse Koldas

i. Newly appointed Assistant Secretary Mischa Kumarintroduced herself. She is a freshman majoring inComputer Science. She wants to understand how SGAworks before running for a position. She is a good fit forthis role as she had similar roles in the past.

ii. Newly appointed Assistant Secretary Sunny Leeintroduced herself. She is a freshman majoring inMolecular & Cellular Biology and Computer Science. Sheis passionate about advocating for international students.She enjoys creating organizational templates. She had asuitable background for this position as she used to be thesecretary at a former student organization.

h. Senate Confirmations - President Nasreen Naqvii. The SGA confirmed some of the newly appointedsenators. Two of them are not here. Zaynab gotconfirmed.

i. Campus Surveillance Discussion- President Nasreen Naqvi and

Senator Yashas Mallikarjuni. Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator Yashas Mallikarjun willlead the discussion. He started with a short descriptionand went over the areas for potential concern. Thecompany that has been putting these is called LiveView(LVT) Technologies. They create portable securitytechnologies and they don’t coincide with the locations ofwhere the cameras are. They only created a solution thatis able to use AI and get charged with solar energy.Cameras can identify when a threat or crime occurs. Itsends all these video cameras to some location in thecloud. When it comes to the use of AI and facialrecognition, he doesn't know where this is going and can’taccess more details about this. Cameras areunderstandable, but people do not agree with facialrecognition and AI. He asked what the next step shouldbe. Should there be a resolution or should we seek moreinformation from the admin?ii. There was a motion for a 10 minute moderated caucusfrom Freshman Class Senator Kevin Xu, which wasapproved.iii. Xu asked Mallikarjun how he knows people do notapprove AI and facial recognition. He asked if there weresurvey results for this.iv. Mallikarjun said that this is just what he heard from hispeers.

v. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamanaasked if the people who don't like AI know this is notSkynet. He explained that these machines observebehavior: something that is indicative of crime or rapidmovements, someone running away with something, andmore. He said that these are practically pretty advancedring cameras, which he personally used in the past.According to Neelamana, when we talk about AI, it’s notsome sentient being; it’s just machine learning. When wesay students are not comfortable with these machines,Neelamana asked if the students are aware of this fact.vi. Mallikarjun doesn’t believe they are aware and suggestshaving a survey to test their knowledge. He elaboratedthat the intelligence and data used is not from Hopkinscampus; it’s from where it’s deployed. He also added thatAI can be discriminatory with facial recognition systems,so Mallikarjun wants to ask for more information.vii. WSE Senator Alex Kroumov sees this as a privacy issueand thinks that we should learn why this data is collectedin certain locations. He asked to clarify why they areplacing them there. According to him, if it increasessecurity, it could be a good idea, but he wonders whomanages the data.viii. Mallikarjun agrees and if the admin can provide somereason for it, he thinks it would be acceptable.ix. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu said that he isindifferent to the surveillance, but he thinks that theydisrupt the aesthetic because they look ugly. He wouldrather have something that looks better if they willsurveille us. He also agreed that transparency matters andwants the admin to shed light to it. Mallikarjun agreeswith his points.

x. Religious and Spiritual Life Senator Zachary Bahar saidthat he mainly heard aesthetic concerns. He agrees thatthere are no violent events happening at the main campusarea, but he pointed out that students get followed,especially women. He thinks that the cameras beingplaced at public spaces is useful.xi. WSE Senator Omar Gharib’s main concern is thetransparency in the actual product. He said that the facialrecognition part sounds “wack.” He asked whether an areais mandated by Baltimore county police if it’s on publicland. He also wondered if it is forced by the government ifit’s not on campus. He wants to get information on theway the data is used and how it’s stored as it is importantto know how we are being surveilled.xii. Freshman Class Senator Justin Pokrant agreed withDontu as he also doesn’t have a problem with them beingthere, but freshmen are upset that those lights shed lightinto the AMR windows day and night, which is a completeviolation of privacy. If the purpose of the blue flashinglight is to scare people off, then he doesn't think it works.xiii. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun said that ifthey are using AI, we should know the specifics as AI canmake mistakes, which she finds scary. She suggests askingthe admin. Mallikarjun suggested contacting CalvinSmith.xiv. Naqvi said that since their availability is very limited, weshould send an email quite early on. She said that if wehave a document ready and send the questions throughthat, it would be useful.xv. WSE Senator Amy Xu supports the points made ontransparency. Individuals who do not consent to theirfaces being recorded and stored could have the option ofnot having their faces in this system. She believes that weare not being compensated for the data that is beingtaken, so people who do not consent to this should get thisoption.xvi. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade has mixed feelingstowards the situation. She said that with AI, she witnessedcertain security situations that the school dismissed, soshe thinks it’s nice that these will be stored. She askedwhy these cameras are there and what they are being usedfor. Since AI can misidentify people of color and women,she said that depending on how JHU is utilizing it,hopefully they will take this into consideration.xvii. Neelamana disagreed with Xu’s point as not givingpermission is not conducive. He also disagreed with Xu ashe thinks we are not being compensated with the securitythose cameras bring.xviii. Gharib pointed out that this is a private company.xix. Neelamana believes that our data is not in their interest.Then, he motioned to extend the moderated caucus by 3minutes.xx. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin conceptualizes otherdegrees of security that go under this technology firm. Hesaid that their website states that the security footage willremain with the unit. He added that even just by sharing apicture of yourself, you agree with facial recognition beingused by you. All classes in WSE are recorded. It’simpossible to take people’s concerns about facialrecognition into consideration.xxi. Abiodun touched on the use of AI. She pointed out that wedid not know it was AI until we just learned it now in thismeeting, which she thinks is not acceptable. She alsopointed out that we signed waivers regarding our databeing stored when coming here.xxii. Gharib asked how Hopkins has the power to install theseon public land if they are not voted by the people of thiscity.xxiii. Neelamana said that parking lots do not count.xxiv. Gharib said that although these are situated on Hopkins’land, they record activity outside of campus.xxv. Bahar reminded Gharib that these are practically thesame as a CCTV camera in front of a store. They recordpublic land technically, but they do so to protect the storefrom robberies.xxvi. Mallikarjun wrapped up the discussion saying he will askfor more transparency and get answers to the questionsprovided in this discussion. He hopes to come back withanswers soon.

j. Menstrual Product Initiative- Senator Omotara Tiamiyu

Menstrual Product Initiative.pptx

i. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu wants torelaunch the menstrual product initiative from Spring2024 again. She asked everyone with feedback to contacther. She aims to promote menstrual equity on campus,which was supported by SGA through a bill in the past. Itwas started by JHU Wings at 10 different locations by theGender Studies department. The map is in the slides.ii. She said that some of the issues with this project was thatsome stations were left unstocked, semi-functional orcompletely broken. She explained that the project relieson widespread support, comparable institutions, andunderstanding the necessity of menstrual products. Shelinked a JHU News-Letter article in case people areinterested. The project didn’t get enough support from theadministration back in 2016. She wants to revisit theproject and make it suit the needs of 2024.iii. She emailed Wings and spent 2 months collecting data,meeting with registered student organizations, BrittaniBrown and Custodial Services.iv. The products she found were very expensive. She alsothinks about an optional health education andpartnership information display. The model they decidedon using is in the slides with a video.v. The dispenser got placed, which is manual, large, easy touse and restock. She hopes to expand it to 5 newlocations. Restocking responsibility has been shifted fromstudent volunteers to the university. This initiative iscompletely funded by JHU. The previous dispensers gotdonated.vi. Tiamiyu’s goals are to improve the project and implementhealth education flyers to more locations. She wants toexpand to gender neutral restrooms and encourage morecollaborations.vii. There was a motion for a 5 minute Q&A, which passed.

viii. Executive Secretary Buse Koldas asked if Tiamiyucommunicated with other people from other campuses.She pointed out that there are a lot of people who conductresearch at the medical campus, so she suggestedreaching out to them.ix. Tiamiyu said that the School of Public Health used towork on this, but now they don’t. She’ll follow up withthem after Homewood.x. Oruganty said that Health & Wellbeing can help as theyhave a whole unit for this. She suggested to Tiamiyu tohave a conversation with custodial services about whythey haven’t been restocking it.xi. Tiamiyu will try to reach out.xii. Junior Class Senator Anisha Rasamsetty said that shedidn’t know this was a thing only in certain restrooms andasked this to be publicized. She suggested putting maps inrestrooms so people know where to find them. Tiamiyuliked the idea.xiii. Freshman Class Senator Sumire Sumi asked Tiamiyu togive more information about this past bill.xiv. Tiamiyu said that it wasn’t passed by her as it was fromthe past. She doesn’t know how to access it.xv. WSE Senator Amy Xu asked how big the cost barrier iswith the new dispensers.xvi. Tiamiyu asked if she’s referring to the locations ornumber of dispensers. Xu clarified saying why we didn’tchoose the battery ones.xvii. Tiamiyu said that they were too small to fit the stockingpart inside the battery ones. They weren’t more efficient,so it was just unnecessary.xviii. Meng suggested reaching out to custodial staff, too.Custodians don’t replace the stockings and differentbuildings have different custodians. MSE annex shouldalso have one.xix. Tiamiyu will share a survey that will include the locations.We will put them at the most frequently visited locations.xx. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair KarenVasquez Luna said that Peabody doesn’t have thisinitiative, so maybe we can reach out to them.xxi. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade said that there isone but it doesn’t get stocked regularly. Tiamiyu madenote of this.xxii. Hispanic/Latinx Caucus Chair Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgoasked Tiamiyu to contact the Violet Project, to whichTiamiyu responded that she has been working with themalready.

k. AP/DE Credits Survey -Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez

i. Executive Vice President Amy Li and Sophomore ClassSenator Jazzlyn Fernandez have been working on thistogether. Fernandez wants to send a rough draft of thesurvey. One of her projects was to make AP/DE creditsmore functional. She asked for the senate’s opinions onthe survey.ii. She went over the questions and asked people to tell her ifthe language feels pointed.iii. 5 minute moderated caucus motion from Hidalgo wasapproved.iv. Hidalgo said that some of the feedback she got on hersurvey made her decide to give statements and then askhow much they agree with those, so she suggestedFernandez to follow a similar format. She also asked whyIB credits are not included here. She will do so.v. Freshman Senator Justin Pokrant also asked to add Alevels and IB. Several people agreed with the point on IB.vi. Karen Vasquez Luna said that there’s a limit on how manycredits students can use. She said that it’s harder to getthese credits if you’re a transfer or dual degree student.vii. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin asked how professors viewAP credits. He said that there’s pressure on collegestudents. He also questioned if it is worthwhile to reachout to various departments.viii. Fernandez wants to hear feedback and come withstatistics before going to departments. She would ratherhave all the info up front before going to the department.ix. Frumkin agreed but asked to make note of how differentAP and IB classes are in different receptions. Thisconstitutes issues in different classes. Specificdepartments should consider what makes more sense tobe counted.x. Fernandez added that if someone has an AP Psychologycredit, it won’t substitute for Intro to Psychology but itwould at least allow you to use it for a different class.xi. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that AcademicAffairs committee discussed this. He invited Fernandez tocome to the committee meetings so that they can work onthis together.xii. Fernandez said that committee’s chair Sophomore ClassSenator Tarini Basirreddy knew about this initiative andthat she’s planning to attend the committee meetings.xiii. Xu asked about the dual enrollment credits. He askedwhat Fernandez wants to change in them and whether hewants the removal of the syllabus. Without the syllabus, itwould be hard to judge whether a class with the samename is equivalent or not.xiv. Fernandez said that it’s already hard to get them accepted.She asked to make it more pointed. With the currentsystem, someone decides if it counts or not, yet somethinga bit more concrete is necessary.xv. Xu said that in the case of humanities, this situation iseven more complicated. This is still the case in STEMclasses. Universities can provide classes differently, so hedoesn’t see how to get them approved. He hopes toexpedite it and provide information on the website.xvi. Fernandez said that she wouldn’t want to get rid of thewebsite. She just hopes to make the process moreconcrete and expedited.

l. Election Discussion Post Cohort Time- President NasreenNaqvi

17. First Reading
18. Second Reading

a. SARU Funding Bill- Vice President Srigouri Orugantyi. SARU Student Event Requestor London Lloyd is askingfor help in affording Lexie Bean’s speaker fee. They are aqueer trans survivor who went through abuse and nowworks on creating awareness. They will discuss transissues, sexual assault and the 2024 elections. They use artas a form of activism.ii. Motion to vote on the bill passed.iii. Motion to approve the bill also passed.

b. Affirmative Action Resolution- Senator Nayshawn and SenatorCynthiai. One of the biggest changes was the training aspect and DEItag on classes. They got feedback and how it would affectfirst-year students, so they took it in a different direction.Instead of asking for a new system, they believe that weshould expand on the pre-existing solutions. They hope tomake classes on this more accessible. They looked at a fewother schools and saw that Cornell University has a similarprogram where they have a semester long class. DEIcertificates require payment, so more funding will berequested on that. They renamed the resolution. Allcomments have been resolved. They need numbers on theallocations minority RSOs received, which they will receivefrom Advisor Charles Norman.ii. Hidalgo said that she will try to get specific numbers fromRSOs about funding, which she might ask TreasurerBrandon Benjamin about.iii. Xu gave a motion for a 10 minute moderated caucus, whichpassed.iv. Xu thanked Hidalgo for removing the DEI tag and creditrequirement. Replacement of the DEI training could beMyLearning modules, according to him.v. Hidalgo believes that students should be completing thisbecause it’s useful for them not because it’s a requirement.She wants people to choose to graduate from Hopkins witha certification in DEI.vi. Xu said that if Hidalgo believes there will be demand, thenthat’s fine. Xu believes that people would be less likely to geta class.vii. Hidalgo said that the first one would be mandatory, but therest wouldn’t be.viii. Xu commented on how long the resolution is and asked toshorten it.ix. Hidalgo is aware, and she’s writing this because she wantsthe administration to read. She’s working on Instagramslides, which she talked to Huang about. She will breakdown the 8 pages.

x. Mallikarjun agreed with Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz’scomment as Hopkins can not hire depending on race.xi. Hidalgo will implement this change.xii. Cultural and Identity Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartz askedif Hidalgo is planning to address the comments in thedocument.xiii. Hidalgo said that she will change the ones that she took anote of now.xiv. Neelamana asked if we should pass this and then let her dothe changes.xv. Hidalgo asked for a few minutes so that she can apply all thechanges and come back for voting.xvi. Responding to Religious and Spiritual Life Senator ZacharyBahar’s comment, Hidalgo expressed that the problem withHopkins is that they didn’t do enough about this situation.According to her, you can’t see all those other comparableinstitutions and suggest that Hopkins did exactly what theydid.xvii. Bahar said that we can not know if Hopkins was hit moredue to yield.xviii. According to Tiamiyu, the Senate is missing out on themessage it’s trying to give to the faculty. SGA is asking foractionable change. We might need to spend more time onthis and take the suggestions, but at the same time this hasbeen around for a month. She accepts that it is wordy andunderstands why. Some additional formatting might behelpful. What exactly are we calling them out for, Tiamiyuasked. She reminded the point that SGA doesn’t know theexact reason why they don’t know why they are not targetingthis with the same urgency. She suggested adding bulletpoints at the end.xix. Dontu asked if we should add a “tl;dr” at the end.xx. Hidalgo asked if the slides could be turned into that.xxi. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun asked to specifythe lack of funding. SGA does student organizationallocations, so we should make sure it is not in our control.xxii. Hidalgo said that she probably won’t put funding data as wedon’t have time.xxiii. Oruganty said that admissions came in and talked. Therewas a thousand increase in black student applications, somore students applied, but even less got accepted.Admissions said that they are getting emails for meetingsbut it’s hard to schedule several different meetings.Admissions prioritized faculty and admin over students,which is ridiculous.xxiv. Craig-Schwartz agreed with Tiamiyu on putting some quickbullet points.xxv. Neelamana said that it’s not confronting the reality of thelegal situation. So, he asked everyone to keep that in mindwhile voting.xxvi. Snell said that there are some things she agrees with, forexample, the fact that the university is already working onthis. There will be some edits to this. Both Brittani Brownand Norman are overseeing this and making the edits. Oncethis vote goes through, it wouldn’t be sent out right awaybecause administrators need to approve.xxvii. Frumkin asked to vote on the version that will be sent out.xxviii. Snell asked to get this tabled for next week.xxix. Tiamiyu asked everybody who made a comment today totake a look at this before they come to the GBM next weekso that the senate doesn’t have to talk about it here and cansave time. She asked to repost the links in the general chat.xxx. Neelamana motioned to table this bill.xxxi. Secretary Buse Koldas suggested a 10 minute cohort time.xxxii. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi gave a 10 minuterecess, which was approved.xxxiii. Snell asked to table this for next week. She wants the editsto be reviewed by Brown and Norman.xxxiv. Media Senator Tyler Turner withdrew the motion for the 10minute recess.xxxv. The resolution has been tabled for next week.

c. Lighting of the Quads Tabling- Chair Tim Huang

i. Fernandez and Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabreraprepared this bill.ii. There will be a spin the wheel, and people will gain a prize.iii. Koldas thanked Jiyun Guo for making the design.iv. Huang said that they will need volunteers for LOTQ. SGAneeds monitoring so that nothing gets stolen. Attendanceincentives will be provided. Motion for a 5 minute longmoderated caucus was passed.v. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia pointed out to the discrepancybetween a slot that said stickers would be free and anotherthat said they would be 100 USD. Cabrera said that it is amistake: 100 stickers for free.vi. The pig keychain spending was criticized, yet SGA’s voterevealed that the majority was in favor of having it.vii. Garcia asked which sizes we will buy, which will beascertained later.viii. Craig-Schwartz asked to increase the number of stickers. So,the number of stickers was increased to 150.ix. Meng said that more stickers means more time someoneneeds to wait for them although they’re free.x. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that sweatpantsare very size specific. She asked to increase scarves by 5 or10 and remove sweatpants. She also asked to get snacks todistribute.xi. Meng asked to vote on the amount.xii. Benjamin asked to switch sweatpants to sweatshirts and toswitch all regular keychains to pig keychains, which waschanged by Fernandez.xiii. Naqvi asked if we could table this bill; however, Fernandezsaid that we can’t.xiv. Nabizadeh suggested partnering with Hopkins Dining andgetting holiday themed cookies.xv. Cabrera is opposed to the food component as if wedistribute hot chocolate, people can get burnt. There will beother people doing snacks anyways.xvi. Vice President Amy Li said that we shouldn’t vote on theamount and that sweatpants should be switched.xvii. Fernandez said that they will be.xviii. Cabrera asked to approve the amount as the rest will beworked out later.xix. The bill was approved. Sweatpants will be changed tosweatshirts, but the amount will stay the same.

19. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
20. Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

Time-length and adjournment estimates are provided for the benefit ofguests at Senate meetings. However, SGA meetings are always slated toextend until 9:00 PM and SGA members are expected to remain in theSenate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before orafter the adjournment estimate.