called to order: 7:07?
jim braylor: i'm associate vice provost for international student scholar services at
Have Desha Gower with su toda, Director for International Students at hopkins
Dacia Gauer: we do server all universities, meaning all the JHU schools; jessica and I are part of OIS, the stueent teamp; we focus on solely advising international studetns at hopkins as well as international students who are coming to jHU tpyically under out spocnsorship or one visa status; if students have dependents or family membersin f2 or J2 status we also advise them
we provide support international studetns in a variety of ways; one of the main resources of information is our website; we have everythign a student needs to know when it comes to the basics of mintaining their visa status on our website; good place to start
they can also reach out if they have additional questions; we also serve througha self-service portal called ihopkins, students go initially to get taken the us concsolate; they request benefits and authorizations troguh the system and provide the visa documents issues to them through this system electronically
we receive data feet fromcis ON enrollmenta nd program information, as well as reporting information from ihopkins to SEVIS where immigration records are housed; one thing we do always like to tell students epecially coming students who may not be familiar with the f1 or j1 VISA SPECIFICALLY IS OUR ROLE IS PRIMARILY TO ADVISE; WE ARE NOT THE GOVERNMEN TR DO WE WORK FOR THE GOVENRMNET
TO THAT END, WE ONLY PROVIDE INFORMATION IN THE GOVERNMENT DATABASE WTHAT WE'RE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE; THERE ARE A VARIETY OF WAYS STUDENTS CAN REACH OUT TO US TO GET ADVISING SERVICES; HTIS IS POSSIBLE BY EMAIL PHONE, CACALL-INHOURS THROUGH THE WEEK AS WELL
THEY DON'T NEED AN APPOINTMENT TO ACCESS US BY PHONE; WE ALSO HAVE VIRTUAL APPOINTMENTS THEY CAN SET UP FOR 1-ON-1 TALKS;
DEPENDING ON THE COMPLEXITY OF THEIR SCENARIO; WE ALSO REACH OUT TO STUDENTS AND COMMUNICATE WITH THEM; WE DO WORKSHOPS AS WEOL, PROVIDING A NUMBER OF PRE-ARRIVAL WORKSHOPS TO INCOMING STUDENTS ANDWORKSHOPS TO STUDENTS WHO ALREADY HAVE GRADUATED AND ARE STILL UNDER OUR VISA SPONRSORSHIP; ON A MONTHLY BASIS, WE SENDA NEWSLETTER TO ALL CURRENT STUDENTS, AND THAT NEWSLETTER IS CALLED THE INTERNATIONAL INSIDER; FOCUSING ON DIFFERENT TIMELY CONTENT RELATED TO IMMIGRATION, SHOULD THERE BE ANY CHANGES
WE ALSO DO EMAIL BLASTS; WE HAVE BEEN WORKING ON SHORT-FORM VIDEOS AND DOING THAT MORE LATELY;
WE CAN GROUP OUR WAYS OF COMMUNICATING AND THE MAIN TOPICS THAT WE ADDRESS WITH STUDENTS INTO THREE BASICCATEGORIES; THERE'S THE TIEM WHEN BEVORE THEY'VE ARRIVED ON CAMPUS; WE STARAT REACHING OUT TO ADMITTED STUDETNS AS SOON AS THEY'VE ACCEPTED THE OFER OF ADMISSION AND PAID A DEOSITG IF APPLICABLE; THE SCHOOLS AT jhu DO HAVE DIFFERENT ADMISSIONS TIMELEINES, SO TYPICALLY WE'LL START REACHING OUT TO THEM AS EARLY AS FEBRUARY IF THEY ARE PLANNIGN TO COMINE THE FOLLOIWN GALL;
AFTER THIS ROUTREACH WE TRY TO HELP THEM UNDERSTAND THE BASIC INFO ABOUT THEIR IMMIGRATION STTATUS THAT IS HELPFUL BEFORE THEY EVEN GET TO hOPKINS
SOM EOF THE BASIC TENETS OF 1 AND J1 STATUS ARE THEAT THEY ARE HERE FULL TIM AND THERE ARE LIMITD WA they have funding to cover full tuition and estimated living expenes for their first academic year at hopkins; a require they have to show s that they have tghat funding available before we're allowed to issue them a visa docuent that they need to get their visa;
students who are comingin on j1 have to show they have full funding for the entire duration of their academic program; quite a lot of funding they have to show; limitations on working realted tot ehir visa status; and international students are not eligible for dfederal financial aiid; during student studies, we are emphasizing how to maintain status, meaning, primarliy studing in person full time. we talk also abou ton-campus employment and option sfor other tpes of employment or doing interships, and we advise a lot around travel and around any changes realted to a student's academic program that may necessitate an update in their immigration record and then as students begin to graduate, we help advise them on the different option for their fj visa
that may be, going to be another US school and transferring their immigration status, or departing the US and doing someithng abouroad; therere oppportunities for receiivng work authorization relation to f or j visa status
depending on how long they're worjing in the us, and when authorization might end
we are still their international advisors up to three years after they graduate, as long as they are working in the us on F1 optional practical training or j1 academic trajing. we also provide some information about other visa types that they may be interested in post-grad
we cannot provide a lof ot deatils as we are not he immigration sponsor
we do have a session every semester where we bring in an immigration attorny; they talk to students and staff or resaearchers who are also invited to attend, priarily those that ould not be sponsoring through JHU;
we do inform students about updates that are immigratino-related updates that my impact them; we have created a space on our website where we note all of these recent federal immigration actions;
there have been many during this administration; we have listed them here, and you'll see if you were to go to this page…
we also advise, keeping track, adn then we also make sure that our students know where to find this information, by highlighting this page and these rousrces are in our monthly newsletters and sometimes email blasts which might be critical for them
this is wehre we're tracking all of tese updates; the wider community also
jessica ereiz: i'm going to take some of the topics that daesha touched on and expand a bit. i want to highlight some of our communication initiattives, and communication is on eof the most significant ways we support students; as dasha explained, throughout a students' time at jhu, we're staying in touch, providing guidance to help navigate the immigration enfironmentjj
easy to act on as well, some of the numbers on this slide show the scale of that effort; we comunicate year-round, 12 months a year, sending communciations and to 3 primary audiences; pre-arrival, post-arrival, and then continuing student campaigns; we send a significant number of targeted messages; cover everything from immigration requirements, important immigration updates, deadlines, immigration-related deadlines, university resources, we're always looking to connect our students with resources that we have at jHU and opportunities to get involved;
goal isn't to just overly send infomration, also to break the information down so it's easy to understand
in addition to email comunications, we offer live workshops as well as a growing list of short-form videos; you can sees that engagement with these resourceds is strong, and many students attend our workshops.
statisfactions remain high, and many students attend , but we are also knoing that a `1-hour workshop isn't always possiblet oa ttend
trying to work in opportunities you know to evaluate thise by having recording posted on our website, and also bitge sized; compnot as demanding as attending a onehour worshop; hopkig we csan help students access our resources
when it's most useful to them
one things t im'portatnt ot us is listening to students. we actively seek feedback through sruveys, workshop evaluations, after our advising oppourtinites, we you know, seek feedback, uh
we interview students, hhave a new international studnet insight group where we're trying to understand the student experience better
we use the feedback we receive to make real improvements to our programs, services, communications
we're proud of that students that say our services meet their expectation sor exceed in many cases
obviously, supporting students is our primary focus, but a significant part of our work also involves parterning with our colleagues across jhu since success is campus-wide; we regularly collaborate withi partners in admissions, academic affairs, student affairs, many other ioffices
to share information, provide training, and help ensure studetns receive constatnt support
especially student situations immigraiton adn accademics are interrelated
these partnerships help us better support studetns and help the campus comunity bulid strong understanding
thhis highlights our toptips for international students, common themse for advising, communications, workshops
encourage all students toregularly check jhu email, where immigration updates are which may be very time sensitive. we also regularly direct students to our resources, we are reuglaryl sending reminders to students saying, you know, we have these resources, pleaase, uitilize, them. another message, is that students should come to OIS sfor imigration guidance.
there are a lot of reources out there from friends ai, but ultimately must come freom OIS, as immigration is confusing and also unique to individuals
we also spending tim eeducation students about scam since there are scams that specifically target international students; that's a focus area for us we have regular reminders
we've also emphasized the importance of carefullly planning international travel and considering any associated risks. this is a theme we often advise on. we also remind students to carry imigration documnets; this is not new, we just have this as a standard requirement in our communicatinos
these are again recurring theemes built in our workshops, newsletter,s website, and making sure we reiterate this information
the lastslide is an overview; spoke about how we talked about our services and how we engage with students; if we h() have qr code here as well as workshop registrations, so you can see what workshops we currently have available will pass it over to Jim Brailer
jim: thanks…. if you want to get close with the laptop, and possibly follow up with any questions the audience hs, yu may have to come up, that would be great
jazz: thank you so much for you rpresenattation. we will now be passing
shreemann: motion for a 7-minute moderated caucus
second: demarri
jazz: we are entering a 7-min caucus if that's ok with you, just question. passing it over to president suj
sumi: hi my name is sumi can you hear me
i myself am an international student from Japan; havebeen using OIS working here ver the summer as well as volunteering here 3 questions: 1) would you guys consider having a small in-person office on campus. in the future, peronsnally, seeing my friends, like who are receivin gfinancial aid, being able to go to an office/lounge if they have questions and like can ask advisors; that seemed particularly valuable; i also had high school in the us and they had an international office
second question: internationla student concord group; would like to ask how the recruitment system works, and the opportunity if ti exists for undergraduate international students to apply
3rd) you said you want students to cnostatnly ask students to check, would you like SGA irector of communication to effectively make a post or email,a nd the the SGA insgagram as well
jim: can start with the first, didn't quite hear all the detail sof the second 2;
we do get asked this question 1-2x a year from students, when we did have in-person offices, it wasn't always an ideal situation for our students, it would be difficult to staff the office stufficiently to handle an unknown volume on a given day, we also had 5 separate physical locations, as we served the entire university (DC, carey, east baltimore, homewood, peabody)
we were using a lot of staff, valuable staff time traveling from office to office, sometimes and advisor woudl be there but no one would go, other time overwhelemed; we spent much tim etryin gto figure out how can we better serve our students who need toh ave that engagement with dvisors; how can we be quitable
also maximizign adivsor time with one-on-one student advising, the formulat we developed was to utilize obviously email and phone advising; a couple of eyars ago, we implemented the video advising to kind of resore the face-to face;
to have q eustion back to you, you don't have to answer now, what would you like or what is missing from our current delivery; what would you have be different? and jessice or d would you like 2nd or 3d
jessica: for the second qeustion were you asking about the internation student insight group
sumi: yes
jessica: this new neinitativ that we currently startis limitted to students who just arrived this fall; but i amexcited to hear that you're interested in such an engagement with OIS; we love to hear you rexperiences/feedback, and we have feedback forms, but also members of my team are taliing to students during advising about their experience; if time permits after we've answered all of your questions, we have some questions for you, so definitel8y reach out if you do have question/feedback on your experience taht yud like to share with us that coul dhelp us hlep other studetns; you're welcome to reach out to me directly, or just, contact OIS, through our main email and ask to speak with me; that goes for any other students in the audience who want to provide more details
jazz: thank you so much are there areny other questionwith 1 minut remaining late
so there are no questions in the audience
if you had other questions pleate let us know
but i fyou have other questions, thank you for spending your evening with us
jim: jazz if you could jsuta dd one more appeal; for any of the international students in the audience have additional questions, it can be difficult to stpe up and ask questions during these session; pelase email them to us or reach out to em or deja jessica ; jazz has our contact so you can reach us directly; everybody's qeustions we want to here; please send us
jazz: perfect, thank you so much
*applause*
jazz: [something about the questions we had planned i genuinely don't know] again if there were questions, you had but didn't get to ask you can email them as they said, you can also email me or sumi
now into roll call, nora
nora: *takes attendance*
jazz: next item, swearing in of the sbp sumire sumi; know many of you would like questions, you senators will be able to in the closed session; then next week sumi will present her vision, and we will also tell teh student body, but this we ; felix,lease take it away
felix: *script*
sumi; *script*
thank you
jazz: with that, i am going to recomend we motion for a closed session
royce: motion for a closed session
opposed: andrei
cole: motion to exit closed session
…
…kevin: hopefully you guys like my perm; spotlight frieday shall be a recurring friday feature introducig and organization as wel as what makes it unique; help students find new organizations and see what's unique
orgs will be evaluated to what extent do they align with the values of the CSO; some have mentioned that we should emphasize/highlight lesser-iknown orgs so students have the ability to knkow
as we develop and finalize the creterion more, i will update the senate either through teams announcement or presentation like this one; after reviewing we reach out to get additiona info if needed, may not be necessary since we already collected a brief description as well as what makes them unique; the committee will neth create the post based on such information given by the org sent to the director of communications, hopefully as minimal worklaod for director of communications, and we have already discussed with sienna who is in support
pleasecomplete highlight application by november 20th so we don' thave highligting of orgs not registered properly, we will do prospective ones later so don't usbmit, i will provide more updates next week, likely next meeting; feel free to also to com eto our CSO meeting every wednesday from 8-9 BSC 104. andre?
andrei: *confirms*
kevin: mhm
cole: poi: ur powerpoint is not accessible\evin: i willf ixy and send everyone update on teams
jazz: good job kevin! ok, shreemann
shreemann: ok hello everybody, survey, in light of recent things, maybe not everyone knows what every position is supposed to do, this survey, will not say it's quck, but is very important, get finished before friday night so the ia committte can review, if don't do it by then will take time out of next gbm to do it
naoh: rq this is my first time up here, freshman senator, similar to veda earlier, want to improve career fair after hearing, this is just a starting phase, if you had an internship if you could fill it out so i can collate, would appreciate it
isaac: hi, digital stage act, been workign with peabody government association, basically digital webite, hosting all the jazz performances, dance groups, all of the arts that hopkins does, a sort of databse where everyone can access those recordings, logistically peabody already does recording, just need to put in one spt where homewood nad peabody students can go, you can read through, just the sort of s]
motion to adjourna nd push all legislativet to next week
modo i hear a motion to vote
ok now we are iin voting
motion to pass
is this in first reading
we have to refer it to a committtee
motisssac where would you like this to go
student services
cole: motion to refer to SS
…
isaac: ok this is my hopgpt bill (paraphrase)
sophia(?): motion to refer to academic affairs
boyi: disssatisfaciton with how q&a are run, also senator of the month want to be codified
no smaller than 0.5
sophia: same thing as transfer student
rain: as you may know, lgbtq+ make up a sizeable portion, and have different experience than those; many of us are navigating with parents who we are dependent on for attending; hoep to support further LGBTQIA+; tyvm for your time
nora: reaffirming, somewhat strategically, just have changed what was in the t
cole and demarri: motion to refer to ia
veda: aishani had to leave so i shall present
demarri: motion to passsecond: [ a few]
veda: also this is just KSAS
rain: abraham had to leave but the take back the night rally will be happening november 1st hodson
peter: lots of clubs not spending which put us back on our goals
nora: can senators get incentive for going to take back the night
jackson: was at debate on behalf on sga, on thursday 11/12, we will be having a joint debate HPU on a few questions, essentially national call to action, free ekiben, good, stuff off the menu, there will be more information, keep an eye out for that
tanisha: HSS is having a tabling friday about fiber; answer correctly
veda: nvm
shreemann: please fill out effectiveness
julia: i fixed the link