JHU Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #7September 24, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
a. Absentees:i. Excused: Tim Huang, Sean Kao, Anisha Rasamsetty, TylerTurnerb. Present:
- Convening Business (20 mins)
a. Motion to start the meeting and discharging Apples and HoneyFunding to second reading has passed.
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
a. Motion to approve the agenda has passed.
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (10 min)
a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. Vice President Amy Li informed all SGA members thatour Fall Retreat will take place this Saturday at theImagine Center. Weber’s Farm trip will be from 2 to 5 PM,but it is optional. Around 40 people are coming. Dresscode is professional wear preferably due to photos.ii. Chief Justice Luc Mazzanobile said that FreshmanInformation Sessions happened last week andcampaigning started this week. Results will be announcednext week.iii. Secretary Buse Koldas asked for two volunteers to helpher with coding the attendance sheet. Those whovolunteer will get an attendance incentive. Sophomore
Class Senator Tarini Basireddy and Hispanic/LatinxCaucus Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo volunteered.iv. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that she can’tguarantee that she will be able to change the committeeassignments of everyone who asks so. Naqvi asked peoplewho want to change their committee assignment to sendher their availability and a list of every committee theycan make. The deadline to do so is today.
b. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snelli. No significant updates from Advisor Jessica Snell.c. Hidalgo’s friend wanted her to share that the Sigma SigmaChapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. will be organizingthe Adekunle Fagbenle Oratorical Competition. The applicationcan be accessed through here.
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
a. Updates from Stone- President Stone Mengi. President Stone Meng said that we will have Ekiben forthe retreat and there will be a SGA tabling tomorrow. Signup sheet is shared.ii. The executive board will have a meeting with PresidentRon Daniels this Monday at 8 AM. Meng asked everyoneto share the agenda items they have in mind with him andother executive board members. Meng asked everyone tosubmit their answers to the form that was sent out.iii. Meng recognized that there has been ongoing confusionwith 25Life, the new scheduling software. To clarify howto use it, SGA will share a video explaining it.iv. Basireddy said that the Dean’s Office informed her thatthe freshmen and 5th/6th year students can’t use thesystem. She added that the office has been hearingproblems reserving rooms, so they want to know if thereare any issues.v. Meng talked about the Classroom Infrastructure isanother initiative of his. He wants to get the broken chairsand tables repaired.
b. Transportation Survey Discussion- President Stone Mengi. The Transportation Survey was discussed, which wasprepared by the Director of Research Jason Shumsky.Meng mentioned that there was a meeting with theTransportation Department last semester, where theybrought up a lot of issues. The department said they areaware of the problems, but that they don’t have funding.We’ll collect tangible data and show it to theadministration. To include any other points in the survey,let Meng know.ii. Motion to have a three minute Q&A with one minutemoderated caucus was passed. Cultural and Identity
Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartz talked about the Bayviewshuttle that comes very early in the morning and very lateat night. According to her knowledge, it runs betweenHomewood and Bayview but only from around 8-10 AMto around 3-5 PM. She mentioned that they turned off livetracking in TransLoc.
iii. Activism and Advocacy Senator Hailey Saya Tomlinsonsuggested that maybe students could show their ID whenthey get on a bus and ride for free. She suggested the SGAto ask the students what they would think about this.iv. Hidalgo said that a lot of people are trying to go placesthat are not covered by TransLoc, so she suggested askingthe students where they are interested in transporting tousing the app.
v. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyurecommended asking students how comfortable they areabout using TransLoc.vi. Meng emphasized that this is an ongoing initiative, so heasked anyone interested to join.
vii. Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera believes thatthe question that asks the students where they want to gooutside of the TransLoc range shouldn’t be a broadquestion. She thinks that adding specific answers wouldbe better and be more useful to extend the boundaries.viii. Motion to extend Q&A time was passed. KSAS SenatorDanial Nabizadeh asked if TransLoc is still working,because when he tried to use it earlier, it wasn’t workingat all. He believes that this might be because Hopkins istransitioning away from TransLoc.
ix. Religious and Spiritual Life Senator Zachary Baharclarified that the app will no longer show live trackinganymore and that it will only share expected arrival times.
x. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade said that TransLochas a specific feature that shows the schedule, so she’sguessing that’s where they’re switching to.
c. SGA Social Event- Senator Jenny Tang Cabrerai. Cabrera showed the informational flyer and announcedthe SGA Social Event. It will take place on October 12th at8:30 PM in the Levering Lounge. It has been put togetherby the Programming Council. She asked everyone to bringsomething to share like a snack.ii. Naqvi endorsed the idea and thanked the members whoworked on this for their initiative.
d. Sept. 25th Tabling Prep- President Nasreen Naqvii. Naqvi started this topic by discussing how we can improvethe SGA tablings. She recapped the previous discussionfrom spring, where many members stated that they didn’tlike the format as we were doing the same thing everytime. She asked everyone to volunteer for the tabling andadded that those who volunteer will get an attendanceincentive. Those who were in SGA last year know howineffective the current format of the tablings are, so sheasked them to spend effort in keeping them interesting.Chair of Programming Tim Huang spent so much effortordering the necessities, so she asked the volunteers tocare about this tabling.ii. In this tabling, we will encourage students to fill out thesurveys we’ve recently sent out. She hopes that we will beorganized.
- Cohort Time (10 min)
a. Naqvi asked everyone to brainstorm why the university’ssurveys are not effective and how we can make sure ours are.i. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu said that wecan try to make the forms more interesting by addinghumor.ii. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia said that we don’t add humorto our surveys intentionally as it might create bias.According to him, someone can argue that their decisionis being swayed if humor is used.iii. WSE Senator Alex Kroumov said that short term and longterm incentives could encourage more respondents. Hesuggested the SGA to send an email thanking therespondent for filling out the survey after the surveycloses. He also thinks that following through with ourpromises would also show that.iv. Hidalgo said that her group agrees that incentives work,even though they are aware that the SGA is very limitedbudgetarily. She suggested making stickers and digitalcards, which the students can collect as they fill out oursurveys and then turn into a bigger incentive as theycollect.v. Tomlinson suggested using random sampling where wecan send the survey to only a certain population and getresponses from them.vi. Tiamiyu asked if there are specific guidelines for surveys.Meng clarified that all surveys that go out are read by theadvisors (Snell, Charles Norman and Brittani Brown).vii. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin believes that incentiveswork; however, showing the change is what’s mostimportant. He suggested the SGA to utilize resources likeThe News-Letter to communicate what we have done sofar.
viii. Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator Yashas Mallikarjunsuggested providing cash incentives, dining dollars, andJ-cash. He also added that knowing where the studentsaccessed the survey can be helpful. In the surveys we sentout, there can be a section that asks “Where did you findthis survey?”. If we know where they are sent from, wecan know what to fund and decide on the incentives.
ix. Civic Engagement and Service Senator Prisha Agrawalbelieves in ensuring that people know the incentive hasactually been provided is important. She thinks that if theincentive was given to only some people who filled out theform, this can be showed to everyone while sending outthe “Thank you” email.x. Cabrera believes that it might be good if we try tominimize the number of questions where people type intheir answers. She believes that just making them notrequired could work, but typing responses makes themless inclined to fill it out, but she also pointed out that nothaving them can make people randomly fill the form outfor the incentive.xi. Dontu thinks cash incentive is not doable for every surveyas we have limited funds. He also gave an example aboutfunny follow ups and how it might work, supporting hisearlier point about adding humor to the surveys yetkeeping it unbiased still.xii. Naqvi agrees with the points that were made and believesthat we should leverage the collaborations we get involvedin.
- First Reading
a. 2024 Hispanic Heritage Month Latine Caucus Tabling Funding
Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgoi. Hidalgo presented this tabling bill that targets the Latinopopulation of Hopkins.ii. She added that we will be supporting a local businessthrough the paletas. Stickers will be distributed.iii. She hopes to increase the following of their caucus’Instagram account. She will print out the stickers in theMakerspace, so it will be free.
- Second Reading
a. October Tabling- Senator Nayshawn Ferebeei. The intention is to incentivize the people to stop by at theBreezeway and convince them to fill out our surveys.ii. Motion to vote and pass the bill were both passed and thebill was approved unanimously.
b. SGA Leadership Workshop- Senator Jazzlyn Fernandezi. Motion to vote and pass the bill were both passed and thebill was approved unanimously.
c. Apples and Honey Funding Bill- Senator Zachary Bahar &
Senator Moe Frumkini. Finance was able to discuss it during cohort time, so nowthey will vote.ii. Bahar explained that next week is Rosh Hashanah, so he’shoping to give out sweet treats before the midterms andpromote this holiday.iii. Motion for 5 minute moderated caucus w 1 min speakingtime was passed. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz askedhim to explain where we will pass these out. Bahar saidthat it will happen in front of FFC.iv. Tomlinson asked to what extent Hillel will cover theexpenses. Bahar said that Hillel doesn’t function like thatas they have donors and separate programming, so theycan’t sponsor.v. Alezz asked if SGA has a policy about sponsoring festiveevents. Meng doesn’t think there is. BAhar clarified thatthey are not trying to do more than explaining what thisholiday is.vi. Motion to vote and pass the bill were both passed and thebill was approved unanimously.
- Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
- Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
a. Motion to adjourn the meeting was 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 (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.