JHU SGAThe 114th Session

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Procedural Clarification Reforms

Unknown · 114th session · dated October 27, 2026 · updated November 1, 2026

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Senate
of the
Student Government Association
of
The Johns Hopkins University
{ S. Bill. 26-27 }
A Bill to Amend The Procedural Rules of the Senate
Procedural Clarification Reforms
Introduced by: KSAS Senator Boyi Chen
Sponsored by: Student Body Vice President Shreemann Patel and KSAS Senator Ella Chon
Presented for First Reading this 27th day of October in the year 2026

SECTION 1. TITLE.

This Act may be referred to as the “Procedural Clarification Reforms”.

SECTION 2. DEFINITIONS.

  1. SGA — The term “SGA” shall refer to the Student Government Association of The Johns Hopkins University.
  2. JHU, Hopkins - The terms “JHU” and “Hopkins” shall refer to the Johns Hopkins University.
  3. Procedural Rules, Senate Rules, Rules Bill – the terms “Procedural Rules,” “Senate Rules,” and “Rules Bill” shall refer to the legislation S-B.114.04.21.26-1 which outlines the Senate Procedural rules for the term.

SECTION 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

  1. Findings:
    1. Parts of the Procedural Rules have unclear language or are outdated in terms of current Senate General Body Meeting practices.
    2. There is dissatisfaction in how Q&A sessions are run, including concerns about extended response time.
    3. The process for the nomination of Senator of the Month is not codified within the Constitution, Bylaws, nor Procedural Rules, and thus is not official nor follow consistent guidelines.
  2. Purpose:
    1. General clarifications / updates
      1. To allow for Committee meeting during Cohort time.
      2. To clarify fair technology use during General Body Meetings.
      3. To allow for food and drink during General Body Meetings.
      4. To introduce incremental values to disciplinary marks.
    2. Q&A
      1. To streamline the process of Q&A sessions to enforce speaking and response time.
      2. To set up guidelines for prearranged Q&A sessions.
    3. Senator of the Month
      1. To describe the process for the selection of Senator of the Month and the nominees.
      2. To ascribe incentives to the Senator of the Month and the nominees.

SECTION 4. AMENDMENTS

PROCEDURAL RULES
CURRENT LANGUAGEPROPOSED LANGUAGE
4.2.1.8. Cohort Time.4.2.1.8.1. Different cohorts of the SGA Senate are allowed to meet and discuss any initiative and/or any pending matters. A cohort shall be defined as such:4.2.1.8.1.1. Each class council separately, that is the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior class councils.4.2.1.8.1.2. The academic Senators from KSAS and WSE.4.2.1.8.1.3. The RSO Senators4.2.1.8.1.3. The caucus Senators5.3.Technology5.3.1. This section shall apply to in-person meetings only.5.3.2. No SGA members, disregarding the Secretary, their Assistant Secretaries, and the Parliamentarian, shall be allowed to use smartphones during a General Body Meeting without explicit permission from the Presiding Officer.5.3.2.1. The Presiding Officer shall only grant use of smartphones during General Body Meetings for the purpose of viewing legislation, presentations, or otherwise contributing to the efficiency of the Senate.5.3.3. The use of smartphones to detract from the focus of General Body Meetings - including but not limited to: social media usage, texting, web surfing and shopping - shall be prohibited. Smartphones used for these prohibited purposes shall be confiscated by the Presiding Officer and returned at the end of the General Body Meeting.5.4.Food and drink5.4.1. No food shall be allowed at General Body Meetings except with permission of the Presiding Officer, however drinks shall be allowed at all times.10.1.6. Consequences10.1.6.1. After due investigation, the Internal Affairs committee may give disciplinary marks ranging from 0-3 depending on the severity of the case.15. Motions15.1 Any member of SGA can motion during a GBM to address the Senate. Such a motion is introduced by a member asking the presiding officer if they may address the Senate (“Motion to address the Senate”). It is at the presiding officer’s sole discretion whether or not the member can proceed with a motion to address the Senate. This does not affect “questions of personal privilege”.11.7 When requesting meetings or initiating conversations with university administrators via email, the email must have Charles O Norman III (charlesiii@jhu.edu) and Tekeya Peterson (tpeter46@jh.edu) CC’ed on it for transparency. This is for transparency alone, and neither Charles nor Tekeya may reprimand or bar a Senator for or from initiating conversations. Additionally, this requirement is waived for any conversations with administrators which are initiated regarding the conduct of LEED14. Constituency Meetings14.1 Twice each semester, the Vice President of the Senate shall facilitate meetings between student organization representatives, caucus representatives, representatives of each class, and representatives of each school.4.2.1.8. Cohort Time. 4.2.1.8.1. Different cohorts of the SGA Senate are allowed to meet and discuss any initiative and/or any pending matters. A cohort shall be defined as such: 4.2.1.8.1.1. Each class council separately, that is the fFreshman, sSophomore, jJunior, and sSenior class councils. 4.2.1.8.1.2. The aAcademic Senators from KSAS and WSE. 4.2.1.8.1.3. The RSO Senators4.2.1.8.1.34. The cCaucus Senators4.2.1.8.1.5. The Committees 5.3.Technology 5.3.1. This section shall apply to in-person meetings only. 5.3.2. No SGA members, disregarding the Secretary, their Assistant Secretaries, and the Parliamentarian, shall be allowed to use smartphones during a General Body Meeting without explicit permission from the Presiding Officer. SGA members shall be allowed to use smartphones or laptops during General Body Meetings, unless explicitly disallowed by the Presiding Officer. 5.3.2.1. The Presiding Officer shall only grant use of smartphones or laptops during General Body Meetings for the purpose of viewing guiding documents, legislation, presentations, or otherwise contributing to the efficiency of the Senate. 5.3.2.2. During closed session, no SGA members, excepting the Parliamentarian, Secretary, and their Assistant Secretaries shall be allowed to use smartphones or laptops, unless explicitly allowed by the Presiding Officer. 5.3.3. The use of smartphones or laptops to detract from the focus of General Body Meetings - including but not limited to: social media usage, texting, web surfing, coursework, and shopping - shall be prohibited. Smartphones or laptops used for these prohibited purposes shall be confiscated by the Presiding Officer and returned at the end of the General Body Meeting. 5.4.Food and drink 5.4.1. No food shall be allowed at General Body Meetings except with permission of the Presiding Officer, however drinks shall be allowed at all times. Food is allowed at General Body Meetings so long as it does not detract from current business, of which the Presiding Officer will have final say. Drinks shall be allowed at all times. 10.1.6. Consequences 10.1.6.1. After due investigation, the Internal Affairs committee may give disciplinary marks ranging from 0-3, in increments no smaller than 0.5 disciplinary marks, depending on the severity of the case. 15. Motions 15.1. Any member of SGA can motion during a GBMGeneral Body Meeting to address the Senate. Such a motion is introduced by a member asking the presiding officer if they may address the Senate (“Motion to address the Senate”). It is at the presiding officer’s sole discretion whether or not the member can proceed with a motion to address the Senate. This does not affect “questions of personal privilege”. 15.2. Q&A Sessions15.2.1. The Presiding Officer will have a timer visible to members of the meeting for the duration of the Q&A session and any subsequent extensions.15.2.2. Motions for a Q&A must include a total duration and a time limit for each question (“speaking time”), and may choose to specify a limit to response time. Response time may not be less than the speaking time.15.2.3. The moderating officer will verbally announce the end of speaking time at the end of the speaker’s allocated question/response time. 15.2.4. For prearranged Q&A sessions, such as those with guests, the Presiding Officer shall solicit questions at least three days before the General Body Meeting, and inform the guest speakers of the questions and rules surrounding Q&A and Moderated Caucuses. 16. Senator of the Month 16.1. Nomination Process16.1.1 A member of the Senate shall be named the “Senator of the Month” once at the first General Body Meeting of every month unless tabled to a later meeting by vote of the Senate. 16.1.2. During the Senator of the Month nomination, any member of the Senate can nominate another Senate member as a Senator of the Month nominee. The speaker must speak about what makes the nominee fit for Senator of the Month.16.1.3. The nominee must accept or reject this nomination. Nominations continue until there are at most five total nominees.16.1.4. The month’s Senator of the Month shall be selected from the set of five nominees by vote of the Senate and any members of the President’s Cabinet who may be present. The President of the Senate may only vote in a tie-breaking capacity.16.1.5. A member of the Senate who has been nominated and subsequently chosen as Senator of the Month cannot be nominated a second time in future nominations.16.1.6. A list of all nominees and Senators of the Month shall be posted on the SGA website for the public to see. 16.2. Incentives16.2.1. The President of the Senate shall announce incentives for Senator of the Month before the first Senator of the Month nomination.16.2.2. All nominees will obtain one set of incentives, while a separate incentive is set aside for the Senator of the Month.16.2.3. Incentives must stay constant throughout the term. 11.7 When requesting meetings or initiating conversations with university administrators via email, the email must have Charles O Norman III (charlesiii@jhu.edu) and Tekeya Peterson (tpeter46@jh.edu) CC’ed on it for transparency. This is for transparency alone, and neither Charles nor Tekeya may reprimand or bar a Senator for or from initiating conversations. Additionally, this requirement is waived for any conversations with administrators which are initiated regarding the conduct of LEED, and for matters of individual actions not being done in one’s capacity as a Senator. 11.8 When sending emails or other communications regarding the Senate, including requesting meetings or initiating conversations with university administrators, the email should have President of the Senate Jazzlyn Fernandez (jferna57@jh.edu) CC’ed on it for transparency. This is for transparency and knowledge of Senate activities alone, and Jazzlyn may not reprimand or bar a Senator for or from initiating conversations. This requirement is waived for any conversations or complaints of the President of the Senate’s behavior, and for matters of individual actions not being done in one’s capacity as a Senator. 14. Constituency Meetings 14.1 Twice each semester, the Vice President of the Senate shall facilitate meetings between constituents and student organization representatives, caucus representatives, representatives of each class, and representatives of each school.

SECTION 5. ACTION ITEMS.

  1. To be done by Secretary Honora Muratori before 11/10:
    1. Amend Procedural Rules Appropriately

The Amendment is hereby ADOPTED/LOST by a vote of X to X with X abstentions.

Upon passage, we have hereunto set our hands and caused the seal of the Senate to be affixed to this bill indicating the Senate’s assent and thus officially designated the bill’s adoption as law.

Signatures of Enactment:

__________________________________ Sumire Sumi Student Body President of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Shreemann Patel Student Body Vice President of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Jazzlyn Fernandez President of the Senate of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Honora Muratori Student Body Secretary of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Amy Xu Student Body Treasurer of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Grace Guan Student Body Chair of Programming for the Johns Hopkins SGA

Signatures of Ceremony:

__________________________________ Boyi Chen Senator for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences
__________________________________ Shreemann Patel Student Body Vice President of the Johns Hopkins SGA
__________________________________ Ella Chon Senator for the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences