112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #16January 21, 2024 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
a. Excused Absentees: Omar Gharib, Anisha Rasamsetty,
Jacquelyn Slade, Angela Xiongb. Unexcused Absentees: Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo
- Convening Business (40 min)
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
a. Motion to move the Valentine’s Day Tabling to second reading,which was approved.b. Motion to add a brief discussion to non-legislative businessabout construction update.c. Motion to approve the agenda, which passed.
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (5 min)
a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. Executive President Stone Meng said that there wereconstruction updates from Brittani Brown and RachelleHernandez, which will be communicated by him andProgramming Chair Tim Huang. He asked anyone who isinterested to participate in the event that consists ofstudent governments from other colleges to respond toAdvisor Jessica Snell’s message on Teams.ii. Huang asked anyone who’s interested to run for Chair ofProgramming to send a message to him and ask anyquestions they have.
b. Advisor Report (2 min)i. Snell reiterated to anyone interested in the SGA Summitto reach out to her and sign up by tonight. She will workon transportation to the event.ii. When KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh asked where theevent is, Snell explained that it is in Baltimore and VicePresident Amy Li stated that it is not too far to campus.
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
e. SIF Planning- Chair Tim Huangi. Huang explained that The News-Letter is asking to getmore candidates to run for the SGA elections, so this SIFtabling is significant. There won’t be any fancy giveaways,but we will give out flyers. It will give information aboutthe available positions.ii. Second page will consist of the initiatives senators havedone. Senator and SGA spotlights are welcome on socialmedia as Huang is running it. He asked everybody’sopinions on how we can format the design to look better.Discussion about this is encouraged.iii. Motion to have a discussion passed.iv. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu believes thatlast SIF, the trifold did not look good. He asked if wecould purchase a new one.v. Huang has something to replace it in the SGA storage.New ideas will be implemented by Friday.vi. Meng said that he can get a black or white trifold. Heasked if we have a tablecloth, to which Huang said that wedo.
vii. Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera asked whatwe are planning to put on the trifold.viii. Huang said that it will be a bigger version of spotlightsand some post-it notes. He needs more people to reachout for individual spotlights.ix. Media Senator Tyler Turner said that these could be in the“I did this” format.x. Huang asked everyone who wants to get a shoutout tosend the initiatives they’ve done along with a headshot.The design will be finalized by Friday.
xi. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz said that SGAaccomplishments along with individual shoutouts wouldwork.xii. Meng agreed and asked to add QR codes to feedbacksurveys. SGA is working on the constructiondevelopments and the news regarding Nolan’s on 33rdstaff could be discussed in this tabling. He believesgiveaways are a good idea, so he suggested buying a bunchof pens and giving those out since they are cheap.xiii. Huang does not think we have enough time. He will workon the QR codes. He said that he will see whichsuggestions he can use. If anyone has any surveys theywant people to fill out, they have to print them out andbring them to SIF. SIF sign up sheet is shared on Teams.xiv. Tim: Doesn’t think we have enough time. QR codes → willdo a lot of the things that were said but can’t do all ofthem. Make them and send it to Tim so he can print themout. SIF sign up will be in Teams.
f. Initiatives Discussion- Vice President Srigourii. Vice President of Senate Srigouri Oruganty explained thatshe wants the senate to discuss ideas and goals for thissemester.ii. Motion for 10 minute moderated caucus to discuss thispassed.
iii. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamanaasked to clarify initiatives to be discussed.iv. Oruganty said that this discussion will consist of any goalspeople want to realize this semester.v. Neelamana said that his friend messaged him aboutauthorizing access to athletic trainers for club sportspeople. He believes that SGA should expand access.Currently, they are only accessible to varsity athletes.Neelamana asked if we can work with the Rec Center onthis.vi. Student Athlete Caucus Chair Molly Kuzma said that thisis being discussed with Snell.
vii. Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator Yashas Mallikarjun saidthat as the RSO committee chair, he started working on astudent organization survey for re-registration, fundingand allocation. He is collecting data on it.viii. Dontu hopes to bring healthier drink options to theCharles Market. Also, a company called Opal reached outand offered Opal Pro to Hopkins students, which is an appthat limits screen time. There will be more details comingfrom the Major Fair.ix. Huang said that for the Major Fair, the First YearExperience is working with him.x. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basirreddy said that theWhiting School of Engineering is figuring out academicchanges for the Class of 2029 and beyond. She had threemeetings with them but nothing has been agreed on sofar.xi. Basirreddy said that she’s working to bring chargingstations with various cables to Brody and Gilman ReadingRooms. She’s also working on lecture hall renovations.They will check the lecture halls to see what needs to bechanged or altered. She will check the progress of this.She’s thinking about potentially bringing academic fairssince there will be WSE and KSAS changes in classes of2028 and 2029.
xii. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez wants towork on the accessibility issues with the MSEconstruction and the obstacles brought by freezing colds.Major pathways on campus are blocked and icy patchesexist, so ways to get across campus need to be prioritized.xiii. Freshman Class Senator Sumire Sumi wants to expandthe availability of Blue Jay Shuttles in terms of distanceand time.xiv. Sophomore Class Senator Arihant Singh said that there isa shortage of lecture spaces for TA sections, which he wastold by a professor. He doesn’t know how feasible it is butit can have a short term solution. He criticized theMediterranean food at Levering and said that HopkinsDining does not have good vegetarian options withenough calories. According to him, not everyone can cookwith a student schedule.xv. Cultural and Identity Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartz isworking on a grief support group. She had conversationsabout this and might start a club.xvi. Meng asked everyone to message the initiatives channelwith these, and keep the spreadsheet updated thissemester on teams.xvii. Alezz said that the Student Services Committee and abunch of different senators are working on commonissues like dining and transportation. He asked people towork with Student Services if they want to tackle theseissues.xviii. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin wants to be more assertivewith regards to changes affecting undergraduates such ascurriculum changes. He wants to give more feedback forvarious programs and projects that the administration isinterested in. He hopes to be more clear about theallocated budgets. He wants to make the SGA moreaccessible to the student body.xix. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu hopes toutilize social media so that we can talk about the work wedo. She heard from the student body that they don’t knowwhat we do. Weekly updates could work. Class instagramscould be used, too.xx. Turner said that he’s working on creating a Blue Jay Crewto enhance student spirit for all nine divisions of Hopkins.He had a meeting with Brown about this.xxi. Oruganty definitely wants another Wellbeing Day withhammocks. She wants to focus more on the safety aspectof it. In the Health and Sustainability Committee, theyhad a lot of cool ideas on safety that they can pursue.
g. SGA Summit- Vice President Srigourii. Oruganty asked everybody interested to let Jessica knowabout the SGA Summit.ii. Snell said that it’s free and lunch is provided. It’s thisFriday from 10 AM to 3 PM. She needs at least 10 people,but has 3 people so far.iii. Meng asked if students can leave early if they wish.iv. Snell said yes but they would need their owntransportation.
h. Construction Update- President Stone Mengi. Towards the end of last semester, SGA met with Brownand Hernandez. They asked the SGA to write a proposal.Huang wrote the draft and Meng edited. It echoes theemail SGA sent out with more details and fewer asks.They will be categorized into immediate, short term (overthe summer), and long term changes (next semester).Brown will be emailed with any additional suggestions.The student body can also provide suggestions. PresidentDaniel is willing to provide funding.ii. Oruganty asked if this was already sent to Hernandez andBrown and whether they responded with categories.iii. Meng said that it was and another one will be sent withfurther suggestions. He said that there is no need to havea discussion in this meeting. He asked anyone interestedto reach out via Teams.iv. A thread on Teams will be started for any further edits tothe proposal.
- First Reading
- Second Reading
a. Valentines Day Tabling- Chair Tim Huangi. Huang said that the time frame is still to be determined.ii. There will be candies, flowers, and chocolates given out.He asked everyone to get people to follow SGA Instagramand promote the formals coming up such as thesophomore formal.iii. He said that we need to figure out where to get flowers.iv. Motion for 10 minute moderated caucus passed.v. Neelamana asked if we’re giving flowers out as a prize orfor free. For 100 USD, he estimated we could only getaround 6 flower bouquets.vi. Huang said that flowers will be given out if they registerfor an event or follow the SGA.vii. Meng asked if we could do origami in this tabling.viii. Huang said that people didn’t stay last year.ix. Meng suggested organizing a speed dating event.x. Secretary Buse Koldas suggested getting bouquets fromthe Streets Market and then separating them to wrapthem up with pink or red ribbons and wrapping paper.xi. Huang said that Streets is still expensive, but he will try tofind something cheaper.xii. Basirreddy said that satin flowers are sold on Amazon andthat they’re pretty cheap. SGA could have some realflowers and some satin flowers. According to her, 20dollars worth of satin flowers would be enough.xiii. Cabrera said that Trader Joe’s sells cheap flowers.xiv. Huang believes that transportation should be considered,too. Also, due to Valentine’s Day, flower prices will go up.Having a spin the wheel giveaway was suggested, howeverHuang said that he doesn’t want people to not winanything for Valentine’s Day.xv. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia’s motion to increase the costof flowers to 200 USD passed.xvi. The bill was passed.
- Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
- Adjournment (Estimated 9:20 PM)
a. Motion to adjourn passed.Time-length and adjournment estimates are provided for the benefit ofguests at Senate meetings. However, SGA meetings are always slated toextend until 9:20 PM and SGA members are expected to remain in theSenate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before orafter the adjournment estimate.