Senate General Body Meeting #3 — Minutes (08/27/24)

JHU Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #3August 27, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Absentees:i. Excused: Jordyn Craig-Schwartzii. Unexcused:b. Present:

2. Convening Business (20 mins)

a. SGA Surprise :)i. The SGA Executive Board got pizza for today’s meeting tokick start the semester.

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

c. Cabinet Reports (4 min)

i. Executive Team- Exec

1. Programming Chair Tim Huang mentioned that

there are some programming bills we need toapprove as soon as possible to start planning.Motion to waive the referral to the committee for

the September Tabling bill and the Jay Games bill,specifically to second reading, was passed.

2. Motion to approve the agenda was accepted.

d. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snelli. Advisor Jessica Snell explained that she will oversee thesenate while Advisor Charles Norman will oversee theexecutive board.

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

a. Makeup Inauguration - President Nasreen Naqvi

i. SGA members Ryan Alezz, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, EthanEdelstein, and Adithyan Neelamana have beeninaugurated.

b. SGA Housekeeping and Committee Stuff- President NasreenNaqvii. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi shared thecommittee switch form.ii. Naqvi stated that this year’s SGA will be prioritizingaccountability to ensure everyone gets their work done.Secretary Buse Koldas will be closely tracking the GBMand committee attendances. Since having less committeemembers in a committee causes greater workload on itsmembers, Naqvi explained that they brought the twocommittee system back.iii. Naqvi elaborated that the executive board got feedbackthat not meeting with your class senators caused adisconnection within the class councils. Due to thisreason, she encouraged senators to work closely together,no matter what their cohort is or committee they are in.She emphasized how we should be supportive of eachother and be productive this year.iv. Naqvi asked the senators to add in their items to theagenda as early as possible. She emphasized that shedoesn’t want GBMs to take longer than necessary either,which makes sending things on time significant.

c. Updates from Stone - President Stone Mengi. President Stone Meng thanked the people who attendedthe leadership retreat:

1. Brandon Benji
2. Daarian Rouhani
3. Karen Vasquez Luna
4. Oluwakemi Abiodun
5. Danial Nabizadeh
6. Jaden Garcia
7. Nayshawn Ferebee
8. Yashas Mallikarjun

ii. Meng wanted to clarify some of the expectations theexecutive board has regarding attendance. In order toclarify any misunderstandings, he created an attendanceguideline summary that highlights all relevant parts in theBy-Laws and Constitution.iii. Meng stated that while Naqvi serves as the bridgebetween the executive board and senate, senators cancome up to any exec members to provide inputs.iv. Meng talked about the new initiative confirmation policythat was discussed in the leadership retreat. He expressedthat for now, this is just a suggestion. To ensure thateverybody gets the credit they deserve, Meng aims to putthis in practice. According to this, for an initiative to beconsidered “in progress,” it should follow these steps:

1. Announcement: All new initiatives must be

announced in a dedicated #initiatives chat onTeams.

2. Presentation: The initiative should be briefly

presented during GBMs (can be a quick 5-minutediscussion, the goal is to hear input from thesenate).

3. Documentation: After presentation, the initiative is

to be recorded in the Initiatives Spreadsheet as anofficial task led by the proposing member.v. A 5 minute long Q&A has been motioned with 1 minutespeaking time and was accepted.vi. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh asked if the presentationis mandatory even if there has been no steps done for theinitiative, or if it is OK for the initiative to start first andthen the presentation to be made. As a response, Mengsaid that he understands there are some initiatives thatmight require urgency. He said that everyone is free tostart an initiative, yet it only counts as an initiative if thesesteps are followed. A presentation can be later made dueto this reason, but it will only be in the tracksheet as an inprogress initiative after the presentation.

vii. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty asked ifcommittee initiatives are also expected to be put in thistracksheet, to which Meng responded positively as itwould allow everyone to follow up with these initiatives.viii. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu believes thathaving a PowerPoint presentation not mandatory wouldbe better, pointing out that creating a PowerPointpresentation requires more effort that might discouragepeople from starting an initiative. Dontu also agreed withNabizadeh’s point that presenting the initiative can bedone after the first steps are taken.ix. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy asked to pinthe instructions. Meng said that he will do so.

x. Activism and Advocacy Senator Hailey Saya Tomlinsonthinks 5 minutes for a presentation might be too long ifwe’re trying to keep the meetings concise.xi. When the Q&A time elapsed, Meng recommended notextending the time, so he asked any remaining questionsto be asked to him during cohort time.xii. Meng said that a new survey will be sent out to see ifstudents are satisfied with the solutions found to the MSEconstruction plan (like Hopkins Club), explaining theCampus Construction Plan. He expressed that it's not selfsolidified, and that he wants to hear the input. Heemphasized that the survey will be uniquely targetedtowards the question of whether the current solutions aregood enough for students, which include Hodson Hall andMSE annex, which is also called the Hopkins club. Ifstudents express that they are satisfied, Meng said thatthis will not be treated as a top priority initiative, meaningSGA will still tackle it but some other more urgentinitiatives will be prioritized. If the response showsotherwise, a meeting with the admins will be organizedand some alternatives will be suggested. One idea Menghad was getting more funding towards temporaryshortcuts to be built in construction places, so thatstudents can still get those fast access modes.xiii. Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris said that helikes the idea. He proposed that these survey resultsshould be used in the future in case another bigconstruction project comes up. He thinks that we shouldbe focused on what we can get from future constructionprojects and what responsibilities the university holds toits students. He pointed to the lack of communicationfrom the university’s side, giving past examples from theMSE construction and previous initiatives where studentinput was not as strongly considered and announcementsweren’t made sufficiently.

1. Meng wants to focus on both current and future

benefits, so we can benefit both student bodies. Healso mentioned that Junior Class PresidentOluwakemi Abiodun suggested that we can ask theadministration to open study rooms in Gilman firstfloor as private study spaces, which is an idea thatcan be discussed.xiv. Senator Jaden Garcia asked how this promise will be keptin the future as the current members of the SGA willgraduate.

1. Morris said that to achieve this, we can use The

News-Letter and SGA website. He thinks that theSGA should definitely send it out to a number ofpeople that can keep it a permanent goal.xv. Sophomore Class President Omotara Tiamiyu asked if itwill ask for both satisfaction and suggestions, to whichMeng said it can achieve both.

1. She thinks it’s important to highlight accessibility as

there are people who have difficulties going aroundcampus.

2. Morris will help Tiamiyu get in touch with the

disability committee.

3. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair Karen

Vasquez Luna said that Johns Hopkins is partneringwith another company to create an app that givesmore information about the accessible parts of thecampus. She said that it should be released soon.

4. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade proposed that

Student Disability Services can be held responsibleto keep this initiative going forward. Mengresponded that Huang is working on a bunch oftabling events to keep the student body motivated.xvi. Meng suggested to not take a lot of time from the meetingtime by asking a high volume of questions andrecommended that people who are interested in thisinitiative inform him, so they can work together.

d. SIF Updatesi. Huang will print out the stickers for SIF, which weredesigned by Director of Communications Connie Weng.ii. He asked everyone to sign up for a shift in SIF.

e. Fall Retreat Updatesi. Huang said that there have been a lot of changes to theretreat format. He thinks this is highly significant as theSGA didn’t have a fall retreat in four years. Allinformation can be found in the linked document.ii. Tomlinson pointed out that there is a popular event thatwill take place on that weekend, to which some peoplemight have bought tickets.iii. Dontu pointed out that it will be the Family Weekend.iv. Meng asked if the location or date can be changed, towhich Huang said it’s not possible.v. Naqvi asked people to show up to the mandatory part.Huang asked people who have strict commitments toreach out to him.vi. Garcia asked if the retreat could just not be mandatory, towhich Naqvi declined as a lot of crucial information willbe presented in this meeting.

vii. Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera thankedeveryone who put this together and recognized the effortsthat went into it.

7. Cohort Time (10 min)

viii. Cohort time has started after Huang’s presentation of theSeptember tabling.

8. First Reading

e. Crab Fest Bill - Maahi Ameeri. Ameer, a member of Phi Delta Theta, presented theirinitiative on this Crab Fest. They are partnering with LiveLike Lou on this event. He highlighted that a lot of peopledon’t have the opportunity to eat crabs due togeographical and financial reasons, which makes thisfestival significant. He said that when he first came to theSGA meeting to request funding, he was given a part ofthe funding and was informed that additional moneycould be allocated if a certain number of tickets was sold.He informed the SGA that this target number was reachedin a day, which made him come to the meeting again torequest more funding. Additional information can befound in the document that has been linked above.ii. Naqvi asked if anyone would like to have a moderatedcaucus to ask their questions, give feedback, and makecomments. A motion has been given and a two minutelong moderated caucus has been started.iii. Senator Ryan Alezz asked him where the profit goes, towhich Ameer replied that it goes to the charity after PhiDelta Theta zeroes their balances.iv. Naqvi informed that people will be putting in theirquestions to the linked document, so Ameer can respondto them.v. Garcia motioned to move this to the Finance Committee,which passed.

f. Fall Retreat - Chair Tim Huangi. Huang said that the only date possible was the selecteddate as all other dates were busy. He asked everyone whohas a conflict to reach out to him. He said that the bill hassome estimated costs.ii. Garcia motioned to move this to the Finance Committee,which passed.

g. CSE Amendment - Senator Srigouri Oruganty and Justice LucMazzanobilei. Oruganty explained that they are proposing to decreasethe CSE members from 7 to 5, which was the case last yearand it worked fine. She said that this would allow thejudiciary board to focus on their duties rather thanconcern about finding more members. She also believesthat CSE does not need more than five members.ii. Garcia motioned to move this to the Internal AffairsCommittee, which passed.

9. Second Reading

h. September Tabling - Chair Tim Huangi. Huang presented the September tabling bill. He said thatgetting a giant board would help attract more people. Hesaid that this board can be used to put on posters, notes,QR codes, snacks, etc. so that people can interact with theSGA. This way, the SGA tablings will not be dependent onconversation. Huang asked everyone to voice theiropinions so that he has a better idea of what people expectfrom tabling events.ii. Garcia gave a motion to have a 10 minute long Q&A time,which was passed.

1. He proposed to get a new paper cloth.
2. Basireddy proposed a cheaper alternative to the

table cloth, to which Huang will look into

3. Alezz proposed to give SGA people in this tabling

T-shirts that they can wear so people know who theycan talk to.

4. Oruganty said that if we’re going to do this, we need

to have a clear plan on how to clean the closet.Huang said that he will keep these items in his roomso that they don’t get lost in the room.

5. Cabrera asked what the date will be, to which Huang

replied September 18th. She agreed with buying atable cloth and suggested having our logo printed onit.

6. Slade said that something that helps with tablings is

to have a certain aim in that tabling and asked ifthere’s a specific goal for this tabling. Huang saidthat the aim is to make people fill out the MSEConstruction Project survey.

7. Abiodun asked if the items that are being bought

with this bill is only for September or for all tablingscoming up, to which Huang responded this providesa basis to all future tablings.

8. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin said that even though

SGA has around 24k USD, yet asked senators to notbe encouraged to spend a lot just because the moneylooks like it’s a lot.

9. Senator Amy Xu suggested alternatives to the white

board and clarified that the DMC does not have thematerial required for the table cloth. She also askedhow often these tablings will take place, to whichHuang responded monthly.

10. Morris agreed with the previous point that

having a clear aim in tablings increases success.

11. Huang said that two of the future tablings will be

close to Halloween and Thanksgiving, meaning wecan work with themes.12.Garcia asked how we’re supposed to allocate moneyif we’re estimating the prices, to which Morrisreplied if the approved budget for the event is belowthe total allocated, it is good to go.

13.Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi proposed to giverandom prizes to encourage people to fill out thesurvey (like giving a random swag item once everyfive responses).14.Cabrera asked if we could change the budget to 400USD to ensure that the bill covers all expenses, towhich Benjamin approved.15.Garcia suggested changing it to no more than 350USD, which was approved.16.Naqvi asked everyone to add their questions to thedocument if they have any. Huang asked anyoneelse with a suggestion to text him.

i. Jay Games (Bill) Jay Games Presentation - Chair Tim Huangi. Huang gave a shoutout to John Liu, who is not a memberof the SGA yet helped Tim tremendously to organize thisevent. It is inspired by the Squid Games. For now, it’s onlyan SGA initiative but if any offers come, we’re open tocollaborating with them. All necessary information can befound in the presentation linked.ii. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani asked if anyone canvolunteer, to which Huang said for now he will limit it toSGA people.iii. Abiodun asked for which date this event is scheduled.

1. Huang said that it is on October 5th, and will be

postponed by a week if it’s a rainy day.iv. Garcia asked why we need to approve it now if it’s all theway in October, to which Huang responded that we needto start with advertisement and planning now.v. Tomlinson motioned for a 5 minute long Q&A.

1. She asked if we can switch the gift cards to THB

from Starbucks, to which Huang respondedpositively.

2. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez asked

what the prize is for the winner, which can be foundin the bill.

3. Abiodun asked why we need to approve this bill now

as there’s a month for the event. Huang explainedthat we’re not the people that will order these, so hedoesn’t want to risk it.

4. Abiodun asked about the number allocated to

seniors. Huang said that at least 70 seats will beallocated to seniors.

5. Morris said that we might benefit from a little bit

more time as it takes time to find 70 seniors toparticipate in an event. Huang said that he will talkto the seniors to plan this out.

6. Oruganty said that some items might not be

appealing to our age, so she asked Huang toreconsider them. She also asked about thepossibility of using the senior council’s budget, butHuang said that he wants to keep this event foreveryone, so he doesn’t want to use the money ofany class council.

7. Garcia motioned to amend the bill to have a

maximum of 1600 USD of expenses, which passed.

8. A motion to pass the bill was given and it 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.