Senate General Body Meeting #22 — Minutes (03/04/25)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #22March 4th, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Prisha Agrawal, Oluwakemi Abiodun,Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Deryck Yin, Lucy Landry, Omar Gharibb. Unexcused Absentees: Moses Frumkin

2. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Health and Wellbeing

b. Admission & Student Affairs

c. IT Services

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)

b. Advisor Report (2 min)

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
7. First Reading
8. Second Reading

a. Senior Memorabilia - Chair Tim Huang

b. Copa America

c. Junior Formal CO-OP WITH HOPTHON - Chair Tim Huang

9. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
10. 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.112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #22March 4th, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Scott-Bates Commons Salon BMINUTES

11. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Prisha Agrawal, Oluwakemi Abiodun,Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Deryck Yin, Lucy Landry, Omar Gharibb. Unexcused Absentees: Moses Frumkin

12. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Health and Wellbeingi. Vice Provost Kevin Shollenberger and representativescame to the meeting to update us about their initiatives asHealth and Wellbeing.ii. Some enhancements include:

1. Open access and self-scheduling
2. Mental Health Services (MHS), Assessment and

Occupational Therapy Services

3. Well-Being Coaching
4. SDS Working Group - HAWG

iii. Roanna Kessler talked about open access andself-scheduling updates. By calling 410-516-3311, you caneasily connect to all offices of Health & Wellbeing.Regardless of your school, you can go to whichever clinicis best for you.iv. Jennifer Howes said that they checked the statistics to seewhich students go to an office that is not their primarycampus, which came out to be 25%.v. Through the patient website, students can also scheduleappointments. More than 25% of appointments arescheduled online.vi. Individual appointments, executive functioning, timemanagement, planning and organization, and otherworkshops are organized for occupational training(whether for sports or research). There will now be aclinician focusing on psychological assessments.vii. Jacki Stone complimented the Well-Being Day.Well-being coaching was introduced, where students canget training on stress management, mindfulness, sleephygiene, social connections, and well-being prioritization.viii. Cathy Axe launched the Hopkins Accessibility WorkingGroup in Fall 2024. They are gathering inputs fromstudents in order to see how they can prioritize therecommendations they are receiving. They want to makesure they are coordinating the changes, such as pathwaysblocked off. They are hoping to prioritize accessibility.They want to hear about the barriers students face, soreach out to HAWG@jh.edu for accessibility concerns.They are doing benchmarking and checking what otheruniversities are doing. Since all students have their ownspecialized guidelines, they are trying to maximizeaccessibility by checking other comparable institutionsand reaching out to organizations.ix. They are working to be a more data driven organization.x. WSE Senator Ivan-Alexander Kroumov asked whygraduate students use the behavioral services more oftenthan undergraduate students. Stone is not sure, but sheguesses it is because graduate students are more innumber. Kroumov said that he heard that there isn’tenough faculty to support everyone in a way in a study hehas been working on, so he asked this question to see ifthere is a similar situation. Stone said that they don’t havea staffing issue. This coaching service is not therapy, andit is complimentary. There is no waiting list.xi. Media Senator Tyler Turner asked if there is a certainamount of therapy one can get. Howes said that there isno specific number and it is goal-driven. Psychiatrydoesn’t have any limits either.

xii. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair KarenVasquez Luna talked about the city constructions. She waswondering if these were being considered by Health &Wellbeing. There are also icing problems at some places.She asked if there was any discussion going on. Axe saidthat this is why it is important for people to reach out tothem and alert the office about the issues they notice. It ishelpful to know the issues as they might try to tacklethem. Since students know the habits of each other, theywould be better at noticing these. Her office is universitywide, so anything can be forwarded to her office for it tobe tackled.xiii. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Hernandez asked ifHealth & Wellbeing asked if they are working on breakingthe stigma against mental health. Stone clarified that allservices except for coaching receives a lot of demand fromundergraduates. She expressed the importance of mentalhealth and well-being, and said that she agrees withHernandez’s thoughts. Howes said that they partner andwould partner for events that targets to de-stress thecommunity and is relevant to mental health. Axe said thatthey are working closely with the Center for Diversity andInclusion to provide mental health support when needed.xiv. Cultural and Identity Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartzasked about the advertisement strategies for occupationaltherapies. She suggested sending out more emails aboutthat. Howes said that they are working on making somechanges to the website. Students can book anappointment for it through the portal. She said that theyare working on getting the word out. Axe said that theSDS news is also going out.xv. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty expressed howmuch she likes to work with their office and thanked themfor being here. She touched on the syllabi that have asection relevant to mental health at the very end, so sheasked how we can raise more conversations about mentalhealth in class. Stone said that they are working withFirst-Year Seminars in incorporating more mental healthinformation since they are in contact with studentsstrongly. They are also working on identifying distressedstudents. They are trying to leverage the successes theyhave in other areas to strategize in how to cooperate withfaculty. They are working on instructional technologies,and they were successful in getting 94% of the faculty towatch the video that was created for this. They like themodel that shows these statistics.xvi. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that he benefited alot from occupational therapy. He asked if students cansign up for a session individually. Howes said that thereare six open and six reserved slots every week foroccupational training since they only have twooccupational trainers at this time. The appointments arebookable online, and if anyone has any difficulty, they cancall Health & Wellbeing.xvii. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamanareferred to the vending machine at the Health &Wellbeing Office and asked if it could be extended to otherplaces. Shollenberger said that there is one in the RecCenter and another one has been brought to the D.C.campus.xviii. Two minute recess has been given to set the nextspeakers.

b. Admission & Student Affairs

i. Rachelle Hernandez, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, saidthat it is so nice to see everyone.

ii. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Ellen Chow, SeniorAssistant for Recruitment Alexis Glenn, Calvin Wise.iii. Many months ago, we started to have conversations aboutAffirmative Action and how we can deal with this decisionin the future. They met with various student groups likeSGA and BSU to see how they can partner in working onthis issue. Admissions has been doing a lot of work torecruit students. They will share how current students candemonstrate the Blue Jay experience.iv. x said that she appreciates the feedback and questionsthey’ve got. They are honored to talk to us as a largergroup. Enrolling a diverse class is a priority for theiroffice. They want to show an authentic view to prospectivestudents so that they can see what the experience is like.They want to broaden their reach and strengthen theirimpact.v. Kelvin and Alexis talked about two key initiatives thatallow partnerships with undergraduate admissions.Hernandez said that she’s aware SGA also brought upideas on student partnerships, which will be discussedlater.vi. Kelvin said that they are excited to have this as acontinuous initiative. Some ways students can engage arethe Blue Key Society, hometown visits, Blue Jay Days, andHARC. They hope to train the students and have thestudents go back to their high school to discuss theirexperience at Hopkins. They are continuing to plan theBlue Jay Days. They plan to stay connected with recentgraduates through HARC and have them present withthem.vii. Alexis described what Blue Key Society is. The Office ofUndergraduate Admissions’ official student program thatconnects prospective students with the Hopkinsexperience. They attend recruitment events, participate inconferences, respond to phone calls, and engage withstudents who have similar interests as them.viii. There are 120 students in BKS (108 are active while theremaining are studying abroad or doing an internship).ix. They have two daily visit student coordinators, who makesure that there are student presenters for informationsessions and make sure there are enough people for tours.Some other coordinator roles include new member,operations/international, marketing andcommunications, special events, visitor center, access anddiversity. Board members support the initiatives andassist with strategic planning. General ambassadorsengage with visitors through tours, events, and outreach.They want to make sure everyone gets represented asstrongly as possible.x. In Fall, there will be another recruitment process. Youneed to fill out the application on SMILE. It is open fortwo weeks. After BKS leadership reviews the applications,they announce the decisions. They take their trainingquite seriously as they want to make sure students feelconfident when they are talking to prospective students.xi. Student Coordinators serve as the Student Advisory Boardof Undergraduate Admissions Office. They target elevatedleadership, thought partners, high-impact programming,and event planning. Student Coordinators are aware ofwhat would be liked by students, so they offer great helpto the office. alexis.glenn@jhu.eduxii. Hometown visits are organized recruitment visitsfacilitated by Johns Hopkins students to their highschools or community-based organizations, where theyshare their Hopkins experience and engage prospectivestudents. Students can sign up by reaching out to Alexis.It is being promoted on HSA Instagram and Word fromthe Bird.xiii. Blue Jay Days are dynamic events designed to fostercommunity, highlight diverse student experiences, andshowcase the value of a Hopkins education for admittedstudents and their families. They aim to build communityand highlight academic opportunities.xiv. Kelvin talked about the Hopkins Alumni RepresentativeCouncil (HARC), which is a group of dedicated alumnivolunteers (who typically graduated recently) who assist

the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in recruitingprospective students by sharing their undergraduateexperiences at events and through marketing materials.xv. Yashas Mallikarjun asked if they can see what groups aremissing in the community. Kelvin said that they engage ina lot of conversations with offices like Student Life towork on off-campus and on-campus recruitment. Theytalk about current students to hear what their experienceis like. By contacting Alexis, you can get involved withBlue Jay Connections. Mallikarjun asked if they mainlyengage with students through their advisory board, towhich Kelvin said that’s primarily what they do.xvi. Jacquelyn Slade said that she participated in events thatwere targeted to students with specific interests like arts.She asked if these continue and whether they’d likestudents who are in these programs to assist their work.Kelvin said that they would be more than happy to engagewith schools like Peabody.xvii. Kevin Xu asked if there has been any changes to theadmissions policies since the inauguration of the newPresident Trump and Supreme Court decision. Therewere some changes. xxx said that they figured outstrategies since the Supreme Court decision, and nothinghas been changed since the inauguration of Trump. Hesaid that things can change quite quickly, and they willtake action as necessary and abide by the law.xviii. Tarini Basirreddy asked about the outreach programs.She said that she’s involved with the science olympiad,and during their last tournament, she witnessed studentswhoxix. Kelvin said that Hopkins has so many differentconnections around the local Baltimore area, and they tryto engage with spaces. She said that they wouldxx. Hernandez asked every student who engages withadmissions to also include their advisor so that theserelationships are continuous.xxi. Omotara Tiamiyu said that she’s aware of the work ofadmissions in Maryland. She asked, in addition to these, ifthey could work in other parts of the US. She heard aboutHopkins through the internet as someone from the South.Kelvin said that they are students coming from all aroundthe world, and they want to engage with as many studentsas possible. Tiamiyu asked if there is any data they canreference to see where students come from and whichareas are underrepresented. Kelvin said that they arelooking at such data to see how they can extend theirreach. As an office, they have around 27 admissionsofficers who travel the world to recruit students. They aredoing recruitment travel for six to seven weeks in a year.xxii. Amy Xu asked to clarify what Hometown Visits are. Alexissaid that students go back to their high school ororganization and say that they want to talk to prospectivestudents. Whenever someone goes back, they can come tothe office to register the visit and get the necessarymaterials. Kelvin said that they want to expand theHometown Visits.xxiii. Nabizadeh asked about the Hometown Visits. Hewondered if alumni can also organize these visits. He alsoasked how they can sign up for Hometown Visits and BlueJay Connections. She said that only undergraduates cando Hometown Visits. For graduates, HARC exists. Theyare working on extending Blue Jay Connections to otherstudents, but for now, it is only for BKS. Alexis said that ifstudents email her, she can send the instructions to signup.xxiv. Cynthia said that there are students who are willing toshare their contact information to be contacted abouttheir organizations. She also asked if there are events thatare available only in English. Kelvin said that they areworking on the former, and that there have been someevents in Spanish in the past. They want to expand them.xxv. Neelamana said that the university administration workson expanding democracy. He asked how admissions doesthis. Ellen Chow said that they are working on bringingmore diverse opinions. They want to get a broad cut ofdifferent perspectives. They are also trying to amplify thevalue of the university. This is an area of their work thatthey are continuing to explore. They also try to see howthese play out in the student body. Students with input onthe events they organize are welcome to give thatfeedback.xxvi. Fernandez, as part of the FLI Advisory Board, said thatthey want to get involved in such initiatives and asked ifthere is any work in getting such students involved. Kelvinsaid that they would love to and to discuss ways to engagewith them. He asked her to contact Alexis.xxvii. Hernandez said that Jessica and Charles will send out theinformation for Hometown Visits. Hernandez also addedthat there is a connection between Admissions andStudent Affairs.c. IT

i. Louie, Scott Spencer, Grahamii. They are responsible for the websites that are used atHopkins, such as Canvas. They have 80 softwares thatthey are managing. Louie is working on STAR andmanages the staff that is working on these spaces. Theyaim to make things even better.iii. Graham said that IT at Hopkins is more layered. It hasquite a few different departments. They also support staffmembers in addition to students. When students have ITissues or concerns, they can contact IT.iv. There was a wireless survey update. They said that theyworked with SGA in preparing the questions. There was a5% response rate. In areas which need to utilize wifi, therewere improvements in Brody Learning Commons updates

and three auditoriums (Hackerman 17, Hodson 110, Mudd26). They also worked on dorm and device density. Theywill re-survey later this year. They are also working withthe new buildings and they hope to have another meetingabout SGA about these.v. In the Krieger Lab, a lot of monitors have been updated.STAR stations, the pre-existing ones and newly-builtones, have more developed displays and are connected toHopkins network. Some of them also have Adobe Cloudapplications. These came from the feedback of those whouse the Krieger Lab. They started to build new ones in theresident halls. They will install one in the Commons at theshared kitchen on the fourth floor. McCoy recently got aSTAR workspace, too. Instead of going with what theythink the students need, they actually find out what thestudents need. Students can reach out to stars@jhu.edu togive feedback. New printers will be installed and they willmake sure every residential place has at least one printer.If students don’t want to make a trip, they can launchMyCloud and run any application they want through theirpersonal computer. They are working on these Cloudsoftwares. He also said that they will work in forwardingthe tickets to necessary people to make sure everybodygets the response they need on time.vi. Scott said that the SIS is over 20 years old, and that theyhave been using the code to bring changes for the last 11years. He said that since they have this flexibility, studentscan give feedback on what they want to see improved.vii. Slade said that she faced some difficulties logging back tothe system sometimes as her password wouldn’t getverified. She asked if there is any assistance provided withthis, and where students can go to get IT support. Grahamasked if this is for a specific site, to which Slade said heremail. Since her email is connected to the Outlook app,she keeps getting asked to log in. Scott said that it issomething he experiences too and is a forced securityimplemented. He said that the alert pops up once everytwo weeks. Slade, as a dual degree student, also asked ifthere is any work to make the situation easier. She hastwo SIS accounts and they submit an excel sheet toregister for classes. Scott said that he can talk with Sladeon the technical background on this and that they havesomeone working on this. Slade said that she’d beinterested in talking about this at another time.viii. Kroumov thanked them for presenting today. He askedhow long it takes to implement changes to SIS. Spencersaid that it is hard to say as it depends on what is beingupdated and which school the tool is connected to. Theyare currently replacing other softwares, so SIS will bereplaced in 5 years.ix. Buse asked about SIS and registration issues, specificallywith the bandwidth of registration and if IT is planning onany changes for that experience. Louie said that internetcables are made free for people living in residentialdorms. He said that the best way to sign up for classes isto use cable and wireless wifi can not be trusted. Spencersaid that they actively work on testing them. Load on theservers ramps up automatically, and it starts from the firstperson who registered and goes until the last person.Graham can tell the wireless team to keep an eye out forthe dates so that they can perform the corrective tests.Spencer said that the registration is done within the first10 minutes.x. Oruganty talked about the computers IT has been buying.She asked if they consider the sustainability matrix, forexample whether they consider recyclable toner. All thecartridges get recycled by HP, according to Louie. This isnot something they talked about for the full scale, but theymake an effort to recycle everything they can. Grahamsaid that there aren’t any programs specific to this at thispoint in time.xi. Velasquez asked about the Krieger Lab STAR stations. Sheasked if these could be implemented to another locationon campus outside of residential dorms as manyupperclassmen require to access these. Louie said thatthey didn’t do any advertisement for Krieger Lab, so it wasa surprise to them that they became so popular. He isaware of this situation, and he has his eye on HSC. Thereisn’t a plan for that, yet, but if there is enough studentsupport, he can work on this. One of the disadvantages ofHopkins is that they have to reach out to separatedivisions like KSAS and WSE to use the spaces inbuildings.xii. Tanisha Taneja asked about Semester.ly, which is out ofSIS. She wondered if this could be implemented directlyto SIS. Spencer said that they can work on it, but he wouldlike to see what exactly Semester.ly does that SIS can’t.Fernandez said that Semester.ly allows one to go back andestimate when a class will be; it also makes seeing whatother sections would look better. Spencer also said thatthey were told which years to show by the school.xiii. scott.spencer@jhu.edu, graham@jhu.edu

13. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
14. Public Input (3 min)
15. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. There weren’t any significant updates.

b. Advisor Report (2 min)

16. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
17. First Reading
18. Second Reading

a. Senior Memorabilia - Chair Tim Huangi. Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.

b. Copa Americai. Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.

c. Junior Formal CO-OP WITH HOPTHON - Chair Tim Huangi. There will be a collaboration with HopTHON for JuniorClass Formal as their budget is significantly low. Financeand Junior Class Council approved these changes.ii. Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.

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

a. Motion to adjourn also passed.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.