JHU Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #5September 10, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
a. Absentees:i. Excused: Jacquelyn Slade, Hailey Saya Tomlinsonii. Unexcused: Karen Vasquez Luna, Cynthia Sanchez
Hidalgo, Omotara Tiamiyu, Tyler Turnerb. Present:
- Convening Business (20 mins)
a. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia motioned to start the meeting,which passed.
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
a. Garcia motioned to approve the agenda, which passed.
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (10 min)
a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
i. Executive Team- Execii. Executive President Stone Meng informed the senate thatthey prepared an email to send to the administrationregarding campus construction. It’s awaiting approval.iii. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty thanked everyonefor volunteering for Wellbeing Day. She asked anyonewho’d available for the art activities, from 10 AM to 3 PM,to lend a hand. She said that everything is ready and moreor less set up.iv. Secretary Buse Koldas reminded everyone to speak moreloudly so that the minutes can be prepared moreaccurately.v. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin stated that the SGA gottheir budget on Monday morning. SGA was allocated$321,309.00, which is a couple thousand dollars less thanthe previous years. RSO budget requests will be openedsoon. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz questioned if theprocess of getting allocations could be streamlined in abetter way. Programming Chair Tim Huang said that hemet with Brittani Brown today, who said that it’s out ofboth her and our hands. We can still ask her to prioritizeour budget. Benjamin added that they can not doreimbursements, so the allocation has to be made prior tothe event.
b. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snelli. Snell asked SGA members to participate in the certainwatch parties around campus for the Presidential Debate.
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
a. President of the Senate Expectations- President Nasreen Naqvii. President of Senate Nasreen Naqvi made a presentationabout her expectations from the Senate.ii. Committee timings can be found in this presentation.iii. If you filled out the form by Friday, then you’ll be in thecommittee you wanted. But if you didn’t and/or the timedoesn’t work, we will do our best to figure it out but weare asking for your cooperation.iv. She went over every committee’s roster. Everyone whocan’t make it to their committee will message Koldas.v. Agenda items should be submitted to Naqvi by Sundays at11:59 PM. If you send it after this deadline, then it is up toher discretion to add it. Agenda will be sent out by 10 PMevery Monday. She will still be understanding and do herbest to accommodate people’s requests.vi. To be excused, you have to email Koldas and Naqvi beforethe deadline (Tuesday, 12 PM).vii. Naqvi explained that there’s no set thing to do duringcohort time and that it’s for senators to meet and discuss,share updates, collaborate, and take a break.
b. Junior Class Council Voting Registration tabling - President
Oluwakemi Abioduni. The Junior Class Council is working with the Junior Class
Programming Chair Priya Dubey to organize a tablingevent at the Breezeway.
ii. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun explainedthat this year’s elections will be the first PresidentialElection in which the Junior Class will be legally eligibleto vote, so she wants to acknowledge that.iii. She went over the significance of such a tabling event andher key points can be found in the slides in detail.iv. The current plan is to have a tabling at the Breezeway.They will target the Class of 2026, so giveaways will berelated to that class. Once someone registers to vote, theywill enter a raffle for a onesie and spin for a prize.v. They will collaborate with two sororities (Alpha Kappa
Alpha Sorority Incorporated (AKA) and Delta SigmaTheta Sorority Incorporated) because the chairs of thesesororities are experienced and trained in the proceduresof voting.vi. The planned date is October 7th.vii. She believes that SGA hosting a tabling event for thispurpose is significant as not everyone can be reached witha single event, so if SGA also organizes one, we can helpthese efforts to reach more people.viii. An email will be sent out. Instagram posts and stories willbe prepared. All collaborators will promote the event withflyers. The designs are still in process and pins will be theresponsibility of AKA.ix. She asked for the opinions for any giveaway items. Shesuggests onesies because other items like Hopkinssweatshirts are overdone and can be found in Barnes &Noble easily.x. She asked if international students would feel excluded.xi. Vice President of Senate Jackson Morris motioned for a 3minuteQ&A with 1 minute speaking time.xii. Morris suggested using the TotalVote website.xiii. Huang wishes he was looped into this as it relates toprogramming. He asked them to reach out to him if theyever need help. September tabling might coincide with thedate of this tabling, so they need to plan that well.xiv. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamanasuggested that international students could give a fun factto enter the raffle, so they wouldn’t feel excluded.xv. As an international student, Koldas said that she wouldn’tfeel not included personally. She thinks that maybevolunteers could answer questions from internationalstudents about the US elections. She thinks the fun factidea also sounds nice. Abiodun said that the people fromthe sororities should technically be trained to giveinformation about the elections and voting procedures.She will look into this as she’s hesitant to misinformanyone.xvi. Sophomore Class Senator Arihant Singh motioned tomove to the next agenda item, which passed.xvii. Naqvi asked everyone who had questions to ask duringcohort time.
c. Parking Initiative - President Oluwakemi Abioduni. Abiodun explained that when you get to junior year atHopkins, you get forced to live outside of campus as thereis no on-campus housing available after sophomore year.This requires some students to buy cars as some areforced to live quite far away where public transportationmight not be available.ii. The idea of using parking garages was given afterconsidering student testimonials.iii. She explained that not being able to find a place to parkcould cause students to be late to school. Safety andmobility are things that should be considered if you areliving in a city, which means you might even be forced toown a car and it’s hard if there is no space availablearound campus.iv. She shared that there are some speculations going onshowing that Hopkins might be planning to build moredorms to increase space for on-campus housing, but noneof these new buildings have parking areas.v. A questionnaire (a template can be found in the slides)will be sent out to acquire more data.vi. Alezz motioned for a 4 minute Q&A speaking time with 1minute speaking time. He thinks that the form shouldinclude why people are forced to use cars or othernon-public transportation alternatives. He also believesthat we should consider the people who earn moneythrough parking spaces, so that might be an obstacle.Abiodun said that she’ll edit the questionnaire. She agreeswith his second point, but she still wants to work onfurther parking opportunities.vii. Meng asked if she knows which admins to reach out to.He recommended her to contact Greg Smith fromTransportation and The Off Campus Housing Office.viii. Naqvi said that Hopkins is planning to build a newparking lot in front of the student center. Another idea sheproposed was to connect those in need of a parking lot topeople who want to rent out their parking space.ix. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy supports thisand mentioned that she knows students who are forced toleave their cars at sketchy places for 70 dollars a month.x. Benjamin said that he brought this up in the past but thatHopkins had some concerns about subsidization andincreasing the rents at places close to campus. Herecommended Abiodun to get data and tangibly expressthe interest.xi. Naqvi said that initiatives like this are Senator of theWeek worthy.
d. Project 2025 Cosponsorship Discussion- President AngelaXiongi. Senior Class President Angela Xiong said that the Civic
Engagement Committee met with the Center for SocialConcern (CSC). They are organizing a ton of events thisfall for elections. One of them is about Project 2025,which is pretty controversial. They are organizing anevent where political commentators will talk more indepth about the situation. CSC wants us to cosponsor theevent. We won’t be sponsoring what’s being said in thisevent or anything like that, yet the purpose is to increasecivic engagement. Project 2025 is very relevant, so shethinks it would be very helpful. She also thinks SGA’sposition on this could set precedents for the future.ii. Neelamana motioned for a 5 minute Q&A with 1 minutespeaking time. He asked what a co sponsorshipconstitutes (Funding, put our name on it, or anythingelse). He also asked if there are other events we cansupport for the same purposes. Xiong said that all they arelooking for is publicity and explained that there aren’tmany other confirmed events yet. She stated that it isurgent that SGA makes a decision regarding cosponsoring this event as it is next week. Future eventshaven’t been finalized yet.iii. Alezz asked if they talked to the SNF Agora Institute asthey also do similar events and have co sponsorships.Xiong said that they are short in time and that they haveless than a week until it.iv. Morris believes that there will be a lot of other politicalevents as elections get closer.
v. Responding to Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator YashasMallikarjun’s question about the previous co sponsorshipsituations, Morris explained that College Republicans andCollege Democrats weren’t convinced to cosponsor thisevent, so Morris believes it’s not a good idea for us tosponsor it ourselves when the situation is like this.
e. JayGames/September Tabling Updates - Chair Tim Huangi. Tabling will take place on any date from the 18th to the25th of September. It will be from 11 AM to 2 PM.Volunteer sign up will be sent out next week.
ii. For JayGames, Black Caucus Chair Nayshawn Ferebeewill help from The HOP side. A meeting with Student Lifewill be organized. Main verdict is to push it back a littlebit because of logistical issues.
f. Closed Session- President Nasreen Naqvi & Executive Branch
- Cohort Time (10 min)
a. Internal Affair members met with KSAS Senator DaarianRouhani (the committee’s chair).b. People with committee conflicts met with Naqvi.
- First Reading
a. JHUMA BBQ Bill- Senator Ryan Alezz & Senator Omar Gharibi. Alezz said that JHUMA typically hosts this BBQ.ii. The purpose is to bring other campuses to Homewood soHopkins students can network. It got approved last year.He believes that even though the bill asks for a smallamount, it provides lots of opportunities to network.iii. The motion to discharge to finance was given, whichpassed.
b. Attendance Amendment- Vice President Jackson Morris &
Senator Jaden Garciai. Morris and Garcia want to make sure the constitution andBy-Laws are in accordance with the Rules Bill. They areaiming for a better separation of powers, which wouldmake the constitution more in compliance with otherdocuments. Morris asked anyone with a question tocontact him.ii. The motion to discharge to Internal Affairs was given,which passed.
- Second Reading
a. Rules Bill- Senator Jaden Garciai. It was decided that this bill still needs further discussion.ii. The bill features setting a time the guest speakers whocome to GBMs. Naqvi suggested moving this bill toconvening business for the next meeting.iii. Huang thinks that our advisors should take a look at thisbill in order to make sure the suggestions given in thisdocument are doable.iv. The bill will be put in convening business for next weekand got tabled.
- Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
a. Wellness Day - Senator Srigouri Oruganty
- Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
a. Motion to adjourn the meeting passed.Time-length and adjournment estimates are provided for thebenefit of guests at Senate meetings. However, SGA meetingsare always slated to extend until 9:00 PM (10:00 PM over thesummer) and SGA members are expected to remain in theSenate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whetherbefore or after the adjournment estimate.