Senate General Body Meeting #4 — Minutes (09/03/24)

JHU Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #4September 3, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES

2. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

h. Absentees:i. Excused: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Nayshawn Ferebee,Avishi Garg, Hailey Saya Tomlinson, Shruti Tyagi, AmyXuii. Unexcused: Omar Gharib, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, LeonYe

2. Convening Business (20 mins)

i. Motions to postpone the CSE amendment, start the meeting,and approve the agenda were given and passed.

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (10 min)

j. Cabinet Reports (4 min)

i. Executive Team - Exec

1. Student Body President Stone Meng informed the

senate that an SGA email was sent out today, whichincludes a general survey about the MSE renovationand Student Center delay along with informationregarding Well-Being Day and SGA’s goals for thisyear.

2. He added that if anyone wants to take up on an

initiative after getting inspired by the responses tothis survey, they can let him know. He’s planning tostart a separate group on this, so anyone interestedin joining can let him know.ii. There were no other significant updates from the board.iii. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia asked to clarify if the MSEamendment got postponed or moved to second reading, to

which President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi respondedthat it was postponed.

k. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snelli. Advisor Jessica Snell also didn’t have any other significantupdates.

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

d. Committee Placements Finalizedi. Naqvi asked all chairs to announce their committee meetingtimes. She reiterated that if the members can’t make it to thesetimes, they should inform her and fill out the committee switchform. The times are as follows:

1. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani announced that Internal

Affairs will meet on Thursdays from 7 to 8 PM at LaB.

2. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun announced

that Finance will meet on Tuesdays from 5:45 to 6:45 PMat LaB.

3. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty announced that

HSS will meet on Fridays from 4:30 to 5:30 PM at Brody.

4. Programming Chair Tim Huang announced that

Programming will meet on Saturdays occasionally from 3to 4 PM at Brody.

5. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy announced

(on Microsoft Teams) that Academic Affairs will meetfrom 7 to 8 PM on Wednesdays either at Brody or onZoom.

6. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu announced

that Student Services will meet from 5 to 6 PM onSundays either at LaB or virtually.

7. Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi will announce the

meeting time and place for RSO as soon as possible.

8. Senior Class President Angela Xiong announced that Civic

Engagement will meet at 12 PM on Sundays at the Centerfor Social Concern.

e. Gen Bio Pilot Initiative - Senator Daarian Rouhanii. Rouhani announced his new initiative, which consists ofbringing PILOT sessions for General Biology I and II. Heexplained that over 466 people registered for these two classes,showing that it’s a required class to take for a lot of people. Hebelieves that due to the high demand for the course,organization of PILOT sessions to help students out with theseclasses is important. Rouhani wants to meet with the professorsof these classes, who are Christov Roberson and Rebecca ShariPearlman. He plans to send a survey out to have tangible dataon the demand. He asked the senate’s opinion: Should he

contact the professors or Jenna Hoffman, one of the PILOTorganizers, first?ii. Secretary Buse Koldas recommended him to contact Hoffmanfirst as there might be a reason why there aren’t PILOT sessionsfor General Biology I and II already. She also thinks that heshouldn’t proceed without letting PILOT know about this ideafirst.iii. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz suggested asking people whoalready took the class. Rouhani asked how he could contactthese people and get their opinion as he believes this might be atough thing to achieve. Alezz suggested Rouhani to find a fewpeople with his connections and listen to their personalexperiences. Rouhani explained that he might do that andadded that he himself took this course personally and requiredacademic support throughout the semester, which is why he’ssuggesting PILOT sessions for the course.iv. Meng suggested Rouhani to send out the survey only if PILOTor the General Biology instructors decline his idea as the resultscould be used to strengthen his argument. Otherwise, Mengbelieves there’s no need for a survey.

v. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamana askeda few questions, although he supports the idea. He askedRouhani how he will proceed if he gets no as an answer, and onwhat time frame he seeks to achieve this on. Additionally, hepointed out that PILOT leaders get paid, meaning there mightbe budgetary constraints. Rouhani answered that he wants tostart with a General Biology II PILOT next semester. If he findsout that PILOT does not have enough funding for GeneralBiology PILOT Leaders, then he will show the interest for thisPILOT and request it to be funded.vi. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that Rouhani would needto get the support of the TAs and LAs as they could be moreavailable than professors.vii. Koldas speculated that one reason why PILOT sessions for thiscourse might not be a thing is because PILOT organizers believethe program works better with courses like Calculus or Physics,which require problem solving rather than memorization. Shesuggested Rouhani to argue that Organic Chemistry PILOTsessions work great even though some parts of this class is alsomemorization.viii. Tiamiyu expressed her support for the idea.ix. Junior Class Senator Anisha Rasamsetty said that if this were tobe opened by the spring semester, Hoffman would need tocreate a whole new application process to find PILOT leaders toteach this course, which might be inconvenient.x. In response to Koldas’ previous point, Abiodun said that it’s

hard to compare Organic Chemistry to General Biology aschemistry requires more memorization while General Biology isconceptual.xi. Alezz suggested Rouhani to contact Joseph Cunningham ifPILOT declines the request of creating sessions for GeneralBiology. He believes that the Supplemental Review programcould be great help to students if PILOT sessions can’t beformed.xii. Vice President Amy Li recommended Rouhani to contact theteaching staff and ask them to open up more office hours. Lithinks that creating PILOT sets might be harder for theprofessors as it requires them to write more problems, but officehours could be a good substitute.xiii. Xiong informed the senate that Learning Den might absorb theOrganic Chemistry Initiative as the person leading it willgraduate, so she suggested Rouhani to contact them for GeneralBiology if PILOT sessions do not work out.xiv. After Rouhani turned back to his seat, Meng asked to addressthe senate. Meng asked everyone who presents an initiative toreach out to Director of Research Jason Shumsky as he is theperson keeping track of the initiatives.xv. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade asked the committeeswitch form to be reshared for convenience.

f. Well-Being Day- Senator Srigouri Orugantyi. Oruganty has been working on this school wide Well-Being Dayfor the past couple of months. Different wellness activities willtake place on this event, which will be organized on September11th (next Wednesday). All activities are highlighted in thepresentation linked. Oruganty informed the SGA members thatshe needs volunteers, specifically for the hammockinstallations. She asked everyone to volunteer for a slot andexplained that anyone (even those who are not in SGA) canvolunteer for a slot. Volunteers from the SGA will getattendance credit as an incentive and a T-shirt.

7. Cohort Time (10 min)

ii. Naqvi said that today’s cohort time will be used to break someice between the senators. She expressed that her aim is to allowmembers to get to know each other better. SGA Membersplayed the icebreaker “I’ve got mail”.

8. First Reading

c. Senator of the Week Funding Bill - President Nasreen Naqvii. Nasreen wants to facilitate this through a nomination form.Somebody will reveal the nominations (preferably someonewho’s not eligible but it will be figured out in the future).ii. Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris motioned to moveit to Finance, which passed.

d. Rules Bill - Senator Jaden Garciai. Garcia said that the Rules Bill shows how the meetings will befacilitated, which makes it significant. He added the presence ofcohort times during the SGA meetings and changed a section inthe By-Laws, which asked for a change in the number ofacademic senators that have to be present in the AcademicAffairs committee. He believes that this number is too high, sohe asked for it to be decreased.ii. Rouhani motioned to move it to Internal Affairs, which passed.

9. Second Reading

l. Crab Fest Bill - Maahi Ameeri. Ameer said that he received good clarifying questions lastmeeting, so he now wants to have a soft discussion aboutthe numbers. He said that these were estimates becausethey were given by their vendors. Last year, they had anearning of almost 11k USD. He announced that they soldaround 270 tickets and they didn’t even advertise yet.Only families from the Family Weekend website saw ityet, which shows that once it is advertised, they will selleven more tickets.ii. Naqvi said that when she was a freshman, this idea wasproposed for the first time and rejected. After a year, itwas brought back thanks to the hard work of the chapter.She asked for any questions or suggestions to be broughtforward.iii. Alezz asked if this event was open to anyone in Baltimoreor only to Hopkins people, to which Ameer respondedthat it’s for the Hopkins community as participants needto sign into Hopkins Groups to register.iv. Ameer recognized that some of the numbers that werediscussed weren’t accurately reported. He explained thatthough in the document it looked like they spent a lotmore and donated a lot less, to the point where the moneydonated was less than the amount they were asking fromthe SGA. He reassured the SGA that this wasn't the case.He expressed how important the funding they will get forthis event is, to the point where they wouldn’t be able toturn on much greater profit without it.v. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin wants to know who else iscontributing and how much funding they are allocatingbefore approving the allocation. He explained that the billwas tabled in Finance, to which Garcia responded thatthis bill can not be voted on due to this reason. Benjaminsaid that he feels comfortable passing it next week.vi. Morris suggested a 10-minute recess to allow Finance tofigure it out.vii. Ameer clarified that they’re not getting any other financialcontributions.viii. Abiodun asked for a 10-minute recess for the financecommittee and it passed. After the 10-minute recess, thesenate came together to vote on the bill.ix. The bill passed.

m. Fall Retreat (BILL) - Chair Tim Huangi. Huang shared the Fall Retreat bill, which is planned for44 people.

ii. Morris asked who sponsors the bill. Naqvi and Rouhaniagreed to sponsor the bill.iii. Benjamin confirmed that this bill was passed by Finance.iv. A 5 minute Q&A with 1 minute speaking time wasmotioned by Garcia, which was failed by majority.v. Rouhani motioned to move to the voting procedure,which passed.vi. Garcia asked how Huang knows it will be 44 people, soHuang explained that 44 is the maximum number ofpeople that will be attending according to his calculations.vii. The bill was voted on and passed.

10. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
11. 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 (10:00 PM over the summer) and SGA members areexpected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment bymotion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.