Senate General Body Meeting #23 — Minutes (03/25/25)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #23March 25, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Jazzlyn Fernandez,

Jaden Garcia, Ivan-Alexander Kroumov, Justin Pokrantb. Unexcused Absentees: Vishnu Dontu, Danial Nabizadeh,

Sumire Sumi

2. Convening Business (40 min)

Presentation from Dr. Lee Hawthorne

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)

a. Presentation from Dr. Lee Hawthorne

First Reading

a. Board of Directors Amendment- Senator Daarian Rouhani

b. JHU Snack Packs Bill- Chair Tim Huang

c. Chair of Programming Bylaw Amendment- Chair Tim Huang

d. Chair of Programming and Meetings Constitution Update-

Chair Tim Huang

7. Second Reading

a. Miss Black & Gold Pageant Funding Bill- President OluwakemiAbidoun

b. Earth Fest Funding Bill- President Jason Yu

c. Academic Affairs Event- Senator Amy Xu

8. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
9. 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 #23March 25, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES

10. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Jazzlyn Fernandez,

Jaden Garcia, Ivan-Alexander Kroumov, Justin Pokrantb. Unexcused Absentees: Vishnu Dontu, Danial Nabizadeh,

Sumire Sumi

11. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Presentation from Dr. Lee Hawthornei. Hawthorne visited the meeting a month ago, and she isvisiting again to provide more updates. They made thedecision for the fall semester to open it for only Hopkinsaffiliates. It will open to the public after. Swipe accessonly. Hopkins students are free to bring outside guests,but they will be responsible for the actions of their guests.ii. There will be a student exhibit space. They hope to have astudent committee who will be responsible for picking theartwork that will be exhibited. Right now, they areplanning to exhibit 2D space.iii. Some SGA members got invitations to tour the studentcenter on April 3rd, at 3-5pm. If anyone else is interested,they can inform the SGA advisor Charles Norman.iv. They are setting up the meeting rooms at HopkinsStudent Center. There are students who are helping outwith the welcome desk. They plan to hire starting at theend of the semester throughout summer.v. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty asked if the foodvendors had been chosen. Hawthorne said that theproposal went to the leadership team and should beannounced in two weeks. She is confident that thestudents will enjoy the selections.vi. Chair of Programming Tim Huang asked if the studentcenter will be open in summer. Hawthorne said thataround July, they will be testing the space and there willbe limited occupancy. Students are not expected to be inthe student center until early August. Students could visitand try out the food from the vendors.vii. Huang asked what currency the food vendors will use.Hawthorne said that they will use dining dollars. They arealso working on platters and menus to take away forevents.viii. Akosa Obianwu asked if people will be able to pick uptheir food and then leave to eat it wherever they want,which Hawthorne confirmed.ix. Hawthorne reminded that there will be a Furniture Fairtomorrow from 10 am to 5 pm at the Great Hall inLevering- testing furniture for MSE.x. Hawthorne said that membership is now open for theCross-Institutional Student Advisory Committee.Students interested can check the application from theWord from the Bird tomorrow.xi. Executive President Stone Meng asked which of theseannouncements should be promoted by SGA, to whichHawthorne said everything except for the tours.

12. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

a. President of Senate Nasreen Naqvi asked for a motion to movesome urgent bills to second reading. The motion was given andpassed.

13. Public Input (3 min)
14. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. Meng said that a meeting will be organized with the Officeof Transportation. If interested, reach out to him. Anyoneinterested in having their SGA work covered on Instagramshould reach out to Meng.ii. Vice President Amy Li reminded the information sessionsfor the elections. She explained that none of the executiveboard members are rerunning, yet she said that thebranch is excited to provide support.iii. Huang reminded the Freshman Formal on April 12th, at7-10 pm, in the Commons Banquet Room. The FreshmanFestival is happening this Saturday. Those who volunteerto help out with these events will get free food. The JuniorFormal is this Friday and all proceedings go to theChildren’s Hospital.iv. Naqvi yielded her time to Sophomore Class SenatorOmotara Tiamiyu.v. Tiamiyu announced that the first Student ServicesGrievance Hall will be hosted this week at LeveringLounge on Sunday, March 30, 2025 at 5:30 PM. She saidthat people showing up would mean a lot.vi. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy said that theAcademic Affairs committee is working on creating awebsite that consists of the reviews of students on certaincourses, which is in the works.

b. Advisor Report (2 min)i. Advisor Jessica Snell highlighted the times for theinformation sessions.

1. Tuesday, March 25th : 8:15 – 10:15 in Hodson 110
2. Wednesday, March 26th: 8-10 in Mudd 26
3. Friday, March 28th: 5:00-6:00 on Zoom

ii. The timeline is below:

1. 3/30 -- Applications due by 11:59 PM
2. 4/1 -- Campaigning starts at 12:00 PM
3. 4/1 -- Executive board debate
4. Week of 4/1-- Meet and Greet at 12:00 PM
5. 4/8 – ELECTIONS

iii. The schedule will be shared on Instagram.

15. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

b. Presentation from Dr. Lee Hawthorne

First Reading

e. Board of Directors Amendment- Senator Daarian Rouhanii. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani hopes to streamlinetransparency and increase collaboration between thecommittees, raising awareness of issues going on.ii. A section has been added to one of the articles, whichstates the goals of the committee and comprises of thecommittee chairs. The Internal Affairs chair can be theleader of the meetings, responsible to send it to thePresident and Vice President. This can be weekly orbi-weekly.iii. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin raised a question aboutwhether this provides more benefits than just enforcingrules about committee chairs documenting the meetingsand having them look up notes from other committeechairs. He asked if there is a reason why this addressesthe issues rather than something like that.iv. Rouhani answered that one could read the other meetingminutes but he said that nobody does that. He said thatcreating an official meeting time does not have to be a lotof time per week as even 30 minutes per week wouldwork. This was brought up a couple weeks ago andeveryone thought that it would be useful.

v. Motion to move the bill to the Internal Affairs Committeewas passed.

f. JHU Snack Packs Bill- Chair Tim Huangi. Oruganty said that they hope to rebrand the snacksprogram. They hope to promote “Sleep, Nutrition,Activity.” Counsellors will come in while the students aremaking their snack packs and ask them questions. Theycan engage meaningfully with people and think about whythe different items can be beneficial. They want cateringto provide more incentive to come. They were asked toadd face masks to the snack packs.ii. Huang said that this is more of an educational, mentalhealth support program. It will probably happen duringreading week, either this Tuesday or Wednesday.iii. Oruganty will let us know what they need help with, andshe asks to stay on the lookout.iv. Motion to move the bill to Finance Committee waspassed.

g. Chair of Programming Bylaw Amendment- Chair Tim Huangi. Huang is concerned that nobody is running for thisposition, and he explained that this is probably because itrequires a lot of work. His position is being part of theexecutive board, and handling SGA events. It requires 14hours per week and sometimes four extra hours for otherthings. This is a lot of work and it needs to be transformedinto a liaison role. The coordinator for class council will bethe one leading it, which Huang’s friend Hannah agreeswith. The bill will now focus on the liaison between theChair of Programming and SGA. This connects what SGAis doing with the Chair of Programming. The second bill istied into this. Huang asked a question to the Judiciary onwhether changing the role or position during election timecreates any constitutional error.ii. Head Justice Luc Mazzanobile stated that it would bebetter if it was done outside of the election period. Thishas happened before, although there isn’t something inthe constitution that says you can’t do that.iii. Huang asked what the case is for the bylaws as this bill isabout the bylaws. Mazzanobile said that there isn’tanything about the bylaws.

iv. Motion to move the bill to the Internal Affairs Committeewas passed.

h. Chair of Programming and Meetings Constitution Update-

Chair Tim Huangi. They will be in charge of SGA general events. The chairprogramming will still have a major role but it will befeasible. Considering the recent Writ of Certiorari SGAreceived, Huang believes that the executive board shouldnot be open to the public. Committee meetings can still bekept open if wanted.

ii. Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera asked if thesechanges wouldn’t affect the outcome of the writ.iii. Huang said that this is just for the continuation of theSGA.iv. Tiamiyu clarified if this closes the executive boardmeetings but keeps the rest open.v. Huang said that this was the question, and it depends onwhat everyone prefers.vi. Tiamiyu thinks that there isn’t an issue with committeemeetings being open.vii. Naqvi said that they will hold off on discussion on thisuntil next week.

viii. Motion to move the bill to the Internal Affairs Committeewas passed.

16. Second Reading

d. Miss Black & Gold Pageant Funding Bill- President OluwakemiAbidouni. Obianwu explained the pageant competition organized bythe Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. They wouldappreciate financial assistance from the SGA. This will beheld in Scott Bates Commons. Ticket prices are currently7 USD. Sigma Sigma Chapter has already committedmoney to this.ii. Oruganty gave a motion for a 5 minute moderated caucus,which passed.iii. Oruganty asked if his is a co-sponsorship.

iv. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun explainedthat there was a new decision made in the FinanceCommittee. To make co-sponsorships more standard forall clubs or fraternities, the guidelines includes that thename has to be SGA x [name of event], and SGA can tableat the event. There are fliers out for the event already. Weall know how hard it is for SGA to get engagement, whichis why it is already out.v. Meng is curious about whether there is anything listedhere that will be reused.vi. Obianwu answered by saying hopefully not. He elaboratedthat this is being done in Commons because they couldn’tget Shriver or Glass Pavilion due to Alumni Weekend.vii. Basireddy wondered about the decorations and whetherthey are rental.viii. Obianwu said that they are on loan and will be returnedthe next day.ix. Huang calculated that the SGA should have around 9,000USD left, which was confirmed by Treasurer BrandonBenjamin.x. The bill was passed.

e. Earth Fest Funding Bill- President Jason Yui. As part of the Health, Safety and Sustainability

committee, Freshman Class President Jason Yu explainedthat they want to create an eco-friendly mural using bottlecaps and create a model of the Earth and put it in theStudent Center, calling it “Our Home.” Students will beable to paint it different colors like Paint By Colors.ii. Responding to Frumkin’s question, Oruganty explainedthat the student clubs and committees are supposed tohave their own tables.iii. Oruganty said that the mural will be 30 x 30 inches, andalso a bottle cap does not take a lot of paint.iv. WSE Senator Amy Xu asked what if they can’t findenough bottle caps.v. Yu is currently collecting some with Junior Class SenatorAnisha Rasamsetty.vi. Huang is worried they are underestimating how big it isgoing to be, and that they may want to buy moreresources.vii. Li pointed out that the bottle caps are hollow. Shesuggested doubling the glue and the paint kits.viii. The reason why they are getting a 24 color set for paint isbecause they hope to incorporate other things beyond justEarth, like different hands reaching in.ix. They suggested buying three big bottles of blue, green,and white, and smaller ones for other colors.x. Tiamiyu states that brushes may not be suited for bottlecaps, and considering the number of students, 24paintbrushes should be enough. It won’t be hundreds ofstudents painting together, it will be stations with limitedpeople and students can visit as they please.xi. The bill was passed.

f. Academic Affairs Event- Senator Amy Xui. Xu said that they are planning an event called “Study withAcademic Affairs” because they want people to come to aspace where they can talk about their academic struggles,so they can help them. Levering Lounge has already beenbooked on April 16th, 7:30- 10:30. Study materials andsnacks will be handed out. You can stay and study or takestuff and go.ii. The bill was passed.

17. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
18. 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.