Senate General Body Meeting #17 — Minutes (01/28/25)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #17January 28, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17MINUTES

11. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: Nayshawn Ferebee, Moses Frumkin,

Yashas Mallikarjun, Adithyan Neelamanab. Unexcused Absentees: Tyler Turner

12. Convening Business (40 min)
13. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

a.

14. Public Input (3 min)
15. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min)i. Executive President Stone Meng celebrated the LunarNew Year of SGA members. He said that the Off-CampusHousing Office reached out to ask SGA to make thestudents more aware of their office. On February 4th, theyare planning to organize an event. Meng will meet withthem and they might come to the meeting.ii. Meng has been working on the classroom initiative, whichinvolved renewing the furniture at classrooms, withSophomore Class Senator Tarini Basirreddy. In a fewGBMs, Brittani Brown will come and give more updatesabout the new items.iii. Chair of Programming Tim Huang has been working on acouple of events. The Spring Retreat will include a dinnerwith SGA alumni. He’s working on this with Annie Kooglefrom the Alumni Association. There will be an SGASponsor Fundraiser; there will be more details about thisin the future. For the Senator Spotlights, Huang has somerough drafts, which can be accessed through the link inthe agenda. Message Huang with your achievements fromthis semester. He will start posting this after SIF. If you’reinterested in running for the Chair of Programming, reachout to Huang.

b. Advisor Report (2 min)i. Advisor Jessica Snell thanked those who signed up to goto the student government event, which includes otherstudent councils from different universities.

16. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

e. SGA Expectations - President Nasreen Naqvi

i. Committee Expectations

1. Committee leaders should let the President of the Senate

Nasreen Naqvi know if their committees changed theirmeeting times or dates. Please update Naqvi with yourwork. Naqvi asked all changes to be finalized by nextTuesday.

2. She added that all agenda items should be submitted by

Sundays. It can be sent to her as a reply to the agendaemail. If the presentation is not in the email, then youwon’t be able to present it. It is important to see what willbe presented before in order to screen it and see if theinformation is relevant and appropriate. Attendance istaken on iClicker. Email Naqvi and Secretary Buse Koldasif you won’t make it to a GBM; don’t message on Teams asthey might not see it. There will be attendance incentivesfrom LOTQ that will roll over to this semester. All policiesof attendance are the same as before.

3. Naqvi said that committee updates are not done during

GBMs anymore. However, committees should still besending updates. Naqvi might ask committees to shareduring cohort time, for example.

ii. Admin Invites

1. Naqvi worked with Snell and Advisor Charles Norman

during winter break to compile a list of admins to beinvited.

2. Lee Hawthorne, Elisabeth Long, Rachelle Hernandez,

Brittani Brown, and Ellen Chow have been invited.

3. Basirreddy asked if WSE and KSAS Deans can also be

invited.

f. SIF Tabling- President Nasreen Naqvii. Naqvi hopes that more people will sign up for tabling at SIF as itwill be crowded. Those who volunteer will get attendanceincentives.

ii. Updated Posters and Stuff

1. Huang said that the posters are the same as last time. He

described how he plans to organize the posters. We willinclude information on our goals and achievements, alongwith senator spotlights. Huang will print out posters andflyers. Tablecloth and banner will be brought to SIF.

2. Naqvi asked the time slots to be filled out before the end

of the meeting.iii. Spotlights:https://www.canva.com/design/DAF6n8WLA78/_IPuCXQWMV2fwyuRbGsPrg/view?utm_content=DAF6n8WLA78&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h4e16acf671

g. Foundational Abilities Survey- Senator Kevin Xui. Freshman Class Senator Kevin Xu started drafting this in theAcademic Affairs committee. There were contributions fromAcademic Affairs members and freshman senators. After a fewrounds of editing, it was approved by Snell toward the end oflast semester, yet it was postponed to this semester as therewere finals. There were 380 responses already, although it wassent just last week. Students are passionate about this topic.ii. Demographics are in the slides. There were more KSASstudents who responded than WSE students as the situationmainly affects KSAS. They stated that this decision:

1. Restricts interest exploration
2. Negatively affects course and career planning
3. Makes double majoring more difficult.

iii. Students believe that:

1. They are now required to take too many credits
2. Some advisors are unhelpful
3. There is a lack of transparency from the university as

many of them learned about these requirements way toolate; a quarter of them found out when they were here.iv. Students said that this FA requirement would be important intheir decision to come to Hopkins.v. Students ask for:

1. A reduction in the number of credits
2. More double counting across FAs

a. Some can be double counted but FA2 cannot bedouble counted with other FA categories. Those thatcannot be counted have the most amount of creditsrequired, which contributes to students'frustrations.

3. Streamlining labeling process, which includes labelling

the courses that haven’t been labeled yet

4. Modification of the requirements of majors to make them

more compatible with FA credits.vi. All data has been attached toward the end of the slide.vii. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani talked to his advisor and someother admins about this. He was scared that it applied tosophomores and felt bad for freshmen. They told Rouhani thatHopkins is trying to shift from a STEM/Pre-Med school to aliberal arts school. This will affect future applications.viii. Xu heard similar thoughts, and that Hopkins is trying to have agreater focus on social sciences. He believes that we should stilltry to tackle this as it affects a lot of people.ix. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia met with advisors for KSAS. Theway they described it was that the departments aresemi-independent. Hence, making majors to change theirrequirements will be difficult. He thinks that SGA has a betterchance at targeting FAs and reducing credits for it.x. Xu will talk about reducing FA credits and prioritize this in theframework.xi. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Hernandez heard that theFAs have been in the making for years. She also heard that itwill be very hard to change their minds. Advisors feel like this isnot fair to the incoming students as it is forcing people to takeclasses they don’t want to take at a college, where you werepromised to specialize in an area. Overloading was also takenaway from these classes. Although a well-rounded education istargeted, with these FAs and not permitting overloading, this isnot fair.xii. Xu will add this and think about advocating for that. He saidthat they were promised the distribution requirements. Xufound out about FAs during ED visit day, which had a resourcefair, so he got the flyer there. The Provost’s website talks aboutFAs in six categories, but only in the JHU website more detailsexist. There is a vast majority who did not have this knowledgebeforehand.xiii. Fernandez agrees and said that advisors feel the same way; theydidn’t know either and sophomores found out the same wayfreshmen did.xiv. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu asked if they talkedto the admin yet, and if they did, what they said.xv. Xu said that they didn’t yet as they seek to get moreinformation.xvi. Basirreddy tried to bring this up many times at the time. Wecan bring it up now because there aren’t a lot of curriculumchanges. Dontu said that they can think about potentialquestions and come up with responses based on what theymight say. He asked everyone to support Xu and other senatorsworking on this.xvii. WSE Senator Ivan-Alexander Kroumov said that this is acompelling case and that they should act fast with the admin.He asked them to combine dissatisfied and strongly dissatisfiedas “students who are dissatisfied with the changes” so that it ismore compelling. He advised them to emphasize the largesample size as well.xviii. Xu will follow this advice.xix. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz asked about theimplementation of this to the WSE. The intention is to increasecompetency, so that they can have a T-shaped competency andincrease fluency in other departments. It is hard to change thistype of decision; he’s sure that it has been delivered by a lot ofcommittees. He believes there is a misunderstanding of the FAs.People are hearing different things about why and how. It’s notonly the students; it’s also the faculty. He advised Xu toadvocate for clear communication and transparency as hebelieves this is a failed implementation rather than a badinitiative. Realistically, FAs will not be altered, but Alezz thinksSGA can talk about the communication aspect.xx. Xu agrees with the widespread confusion and lack ofcommunication point. Training for advisors could beimplemented so that they can understand better. However, hedisagrees with Alezz’s other points. According to Xu, there arecertain paths you can take where you are not limited. STEM andhumanities double major work well. However, it doesn’t workfor STEM/STEM double majors or STEM and some lessinterdisciplinary study area double majors.xxi. Naqvi asked anyone whose points were already made by otherpeople to remove themselves from the conversation.xxii. There was a motion to extend the moderated caucus from the

Religious and Spiritual Life Senator Zachary Bahar by 10minutes, which passed.xxiii. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair Karen VasquezLuna said that there is still an opportunity for an opencurriculum; however, she believes that the fact that there wasno transparency until summer was misleading. She agrees tocancel the FA requirements, but she expressed the need to clearup FA confusions and to standardize the curriculum. Shebelieves that if there is more structure, it will be less confusingfor students and faculty. The difference is what made it hard forpeople.xxiv. Xu echoes the transparency part since the website was notupdated for a long time.xxv. KSAS Senator Tanisha Taneja congratulated Xu on collecting allof this data. Vice Dean Erin Rowe from KSAS talked about theFA requirements. According to Taneja, she seemed quite sternabout these requirements. She suggested Xu to spell out how itdoesn’t work out as it could be useful to emphasize. She believesthat freshmen could compromise on double counting at least.xxvi. Basirreddy also congratulated Xu. She wants to add that herinput got shut down in the meeting with Taneja. Now WSE hasFAs, which include FA4 and FA5. KSAS students can’t do aminor in WSE as they have to have a WSE major. The only waywould be WSE major and KSAS minor. So, it is very difficult toget rid of FA all together because every graduating class is heldto graduation requirements set, even on the day of convocation.With that being said, amendment is not impossible. Shesuggested getting advisors on board and asking to make doublecounting easier. For example, having more advising supportand increasing their presence at Hopkins could be a good idea.This way, students will have more opportunities to follow theirgoals.xxvii. Xu thanked Taneja and Basireddy.xxviii. Bahar talked about the issues in implementation and expressedthat it is true that most people weren’t on the loop. They don’tthink that completing a STEM major makes you a worse personor citizen. This is not helping this goal. It makes people thinkthat they are forced to do something now. Departments now tryto give lower level humanities classes as people feel like theycan’t take higher levels. Bahar was a Teaching Assistant forDifferential Equations, and one of the assignment grades waschosen as the FA grade, which he thinks was unreasonable as itdoesn’t accomplish anything. For example, Columbia Universityhas a very strict core, and now Hopkins has a slightly strictercore. One year is screwed, but it won’t be the case goingforward.xxix. Xu thanked everybody and reiterated that transparency won’tbe an issue starting from the Class of 2029. The time for thisdiscussion has elapsed.xxx. Naqvi thanked everyone for the feedback and expressed thatshe hopes it will be useful for Xu.

h. SGA Mentorship Program- Senator Tanisha Taneja & Amy Xui. Taneja and WSE Senator Amy Xu want to start a mentorshipprogram within SGA. It was their first year at SGA, and therewere points where they felt confused. They feel like mentorshipwould help. They were confused about the meeting procedures,initiatives, contacting people, goals, and more.ii. Taneja said that people come here with good ideas but it takestime for them to figure out how to move forward with them. Tobring smoother transition, they propose this mentorshipprogram.iii. Xu said that the pairs will be based on surveys. People will inputenergy levels into the relationship and get matched based onthat. They think that all first timers at SGA should have amentor. Freshman senators will be helped setting their owngoals and learn how to act appropriately. Bigs should have beena senator and must have been in SGA for at least a year.Participation is not mandatory. Responsibilities included will becheck ins, brainstorming ideas, handling logistics, providingrecommendations since not everyone comes in with publicspeaking skill. They hope that this will make SGA moreaccepting.iv. Taneja will send out surveys with questions about timecommitment, interests, and preferences. She asked if thisshould be mandatory.v. Alezz gave a motion for a 5-minute moderated caucus, whichpassed. He complimented the idea and asked if we have anytransition work for next year’s senate.vi. Huang said that last year’s executive board didn’t write anytransition documents. We will try to have more this year, andtry to send it on the first day.vii. Dontu also loves the idea. He said that interests and what theywant to change could be some criteria student matches aremade.viii. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu suggested having amaster document with resources, like a Google Drive folder.There are so many people who are new to SGA and these shouldbe kept accessible.ix. Xu agreed and said that we should work on keeping records.

x. Hispanic/Latinx Caucus Chair Cynthia Hidalgo Sanchezunderstands the frustration. When she first came to SGA, herposition was a first, so there wasn’t anyone to teach her. In thefuture, if we continue this initiative, maybe there could beevents where prospective senators could observe the life of asenator and know what they’re getting themselves into, like asenator shadowing.xi. Taneja likes the idea of making transitions more linear.xii. Xu believes that senator shadowing could be done during thecampaign period.xiii. Li likes the idea and had a similar experience to this at adifferent club. She said that CSE could put a requirement toattend one GBM at least and to have it used in long-termplanning. She asked if this mentorship program would beextended to the Executive or Judiciary Boards.xiv. Taneja thinks that it can be expanded to the Judiciary, but shedoesn’t know how to do it for the Executive Board.xv. Li said that most executives spent at least one year as a senator,so that’s something to consider.xvi. Xu said that they want to see interest first. If there is a bigimbalance, they might need to open it up to anyone in SGA.xvii. Li said that they would be more than happy to be a part of this.

*** Cohort Time

17. First Reading

b. Speed Dating Bill- Chair Tim Huangi. The event will take place on February 21st, 2025. It isscheduled to take place at 7pm at the Great Hall.ii.iii. Room has been booked and a layout to maximize theseating has been worked on. There will be stickers to showwhat your intentions are (whether for friends or dates).They want to have some food.iv. Alezz liked the idea and suggested advertising this eventfor those who want to find friends, too.v. Xu asked if we are expecting 60 people, to which Huangclarified that it is 48. Xu asked if this number has anyreasoning, to which Huang said it is the maximumnumber of people allowed in the Great Hall.vi. Rouhani expects participation higher than 48 people.Huang said that the event could be repeated if people likeit.vii. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh emphasized theimportance of making sure this is a safe space foreverybody. Huang and Nabizadeh will brainstormtogether after this meeting.viii. Garcia’s motion to refer this bill to the Finance Committeepassed.

18. Second Reading
19. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
20. Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

a. Motion to adjourn the meeting 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 and SGA members are expected to remain in theSenate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before orafter the adjournment estimate.