Senate General Body Meeting #1 — Minutes (04/16/24)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government AssociationSenate Meeting #1April 16, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Scott-Bates Commons Salon BAGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Absentees:i. Excused:ii. Unexcusedb. Present

2. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Late Inaugurations - Executive Branch

b. Icebreaker - Executive Branch

c. Reminders - Executive Branch

i. Roster Form

d. Introduction to SGA - Executive Branch

e. Election of President of the Senate, Vice President of the Senate

& Committee Chairs - Executive Branch

f. Committee Placements - Executive Branch

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (5 min)
6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
7. First Reading
8. Second Reading
9. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
10. Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

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.112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #1April 16, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Scott-Bates Commons Salon BMINUTES

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Absentees:i. Excused:ii. Unexcusedb. Present

2. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Late Inaugurations - Executive Branchi. Inaugurations have been conducted.

b. Icebreaker - Executive Branchi. Buse introduced the icebreaker and asked everyonearound the room to share their realistic and unrealisticgoals.ii. Starting with the executive board, the SGA members tookturns in naming their goals.

c. Reminders - Executive Branchi. The members have been reminded to fill out the rosterform.

d. Introduction to SGA - Executive Branchi. In the presentation, the executive board members askedthe SGA to join the iClicker and introduced their goals.ii. Later on, they went over the GBM rules and structure.Two major changes to the GBM structure are shortenedcabinet reports and committee meetings that will beconducted in the second half of the meetings.

1. Only the executive board members who have

updates will have their names added to the agenda.

2. Committees, instead of meeting at a separate time

in the week, will conduct their weekly meetings atthe second half of the GBMs.

e. Election of President of the Senate, Vice President of the Senate

& Committee Chairs - Executive Branchi. Vice President Amy Li started to run the elections.ii. President of the Senate

1. Disability Caucus Chair Jackson Morris raised a

point of order stating there can not be discussionsduring the election of the President of the Senate.a. Programming Chair Tim Huang answered hispoint by stating that is the case only forcommittee elections.

2. There were three candidates for the President of the

Senate.a. KSAS Academic Senator Jaden Garcia was thefirst candidate. He served as theParliamentarian last year and was an InternalAffairs committee member. He touched on hisknowledge about the SGA constitution andRobert’s Rules of Order. While he was theparliamentarian, he helped the former

Presidents of the Senate Dalhart Dobbs andNasreen Naqvi. He wants to ensure everyone’svoices will be heard equally in the senate andpromised to pour many hours into thisposition if he gets elected.b. The second candidate was the Media SenatorTyler Turner. Through this position, he aimsto help those “without a voice” in the SGA. Hewishes the 112th SGA to achieve more than theprevious ones. He targets quick and strongchange to make this senate prosperous.

c. Lastly, Senior Class Senator Nasreen Naqviwas a candidate for the position. She was theprevious President of the Senate. Sheemphasized that the senators are her priority.Naqvi wishes to serve the senate. She’s awarethat SGA might seem distant and complex tosome, but by embracing that every voicematters, she hopes to resolve this and reflectthe SGA’s needs and ambitions.

3. Naqvi won the election. She took over running the

GBM after this.

iii. Vice President of the Senate

1. President Stone Meng highlighted that the executive

board is trying to extend this position more.

2. There were four candidates for this position.

a. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddyaims to have better time management in themeetings and send out the agenda items muchsooner than the GBMs if she gets elected. Shewishes to build more connections with theadmins through coffee chats or similaractivities, while tracking the SGA initiativesthrough the spreadsheet and keeping itupdated.

b. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontuaims to achieve better student experiencethrough this position. He mentioned a PILOTprogram he proposed that got approved. Headded that he was able to bring free printing(up to 50 pages) to JHU students and extendvegan and vegetarian options at the cafeteria.He aims to support the President of the Senateby making the meetings more enjoyable andorganizing attendance while working oninitiatives.

c. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty aimsto get to know the senators better and to findmore initiative ideas through this role. Shetalked about her work in bringing a SouthAsian Studies minor. She hopes to increasethe diverse voices that are talking in thesenate. Emphasizing the closure of the MiltonS. Eisenhower Library, she explained thatcommunication is key. She wishes to updatethe senate about the executive board moreoften.

d. Disability Caucus Chair Jackson Morris hopesto connect the SGA with the administratorsmore effectively. He stated that he is always aTeams message away and is ready to guidepeople in getting in touch with the rightpeople.

3. Morris won the election.

iv. Committees

1. Naqvi introduced the committees and explained the

significance of the chairs, who create the agendasfor the committees and manage them.

2. Civic Engagement

a. There was only one candidate for this position.i. Senior Class President Angela Xiong wasthe only candidate for this role. Shetouched on her success in implementingnew initiatives and extending thecommittee’s impact on the Baltimorecommunity during her time as the chairof the committee last year. She raisedawareness about the presidentialelections through Hopkins Votes andhad 6 years of advocacy experience inthe Maryland county through SGA. Sheis also involved with a public policyconsulting group and continues herwork there. She hopes to allow the SGAsenators to talk to elected members ofthe U.S. government on Capital Day,punctuating her ambitious goals.b. Since Xiong was the only candidate, there wasno voting and she became the chair of thiscommittee.

3. Finance

a. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin introduced theFinance committee as the old chair of thiscommittee. The committee deals with eventgrants and semesterly allocations, whichmakes it one of the most important parts ofthe sga. The chair of this committee will workwith Benjamin in the SGA Finance.b. There were two candidates for this position.i. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani was amember of the committee of Financelast year. Although he didn’t have timeto participate much, he explained thathe has experience with money andwishes to fund all student organizationsin need.

ii. Junior Class President OluwakemiAbiodun wants to be in touch with theExecutive Board by being the chair. Shewas in this committee in her first year.She knows how hard it is to distributethe SGA funds because there aremultiple event requests. She doesn’twant students to go around and beg formoney, so she wants to help them.Hoping to expand the budget of theSGA, she wishes to help clubs do whatthey want to do with their money andmake them feel supported by Hopkins.c. Abiodun won the election.

4. Student Services

a. There were three candidates for this role.i. Dontu explained that his work has beenmainly Student Services orientedbecause he enjoys providing for thestudent body by asking them what theywant and helping them get thosethrough the SGA.

ii. Sophomore Class Senator OmotaraTiamiyu explained that she worked onimproving student life on campus,especially through the menstrual equityinitiative on campus. She activelycommunicated with the Dean of StudentLife. She communicates with the studentbody through her Instagram and is verypassionate about improving theundergraduate experience. She statedthat she had the passion and resourcesto do this.iii. Turner was a member of this committeeand served as the vice chair, allowinghim to work closely with Abiodun. Heconnected with other departments andeven made some of them come to theGBM.b. In the first round, no candidate received themajority vote, so a second round electionbetween Dontu and Tiamiyu was conducted.Tiamiyu won the election.

5. Academic Affairs

a. There were three candidates for this position.i. Basireddy was a member of thiscommittee. She has long term projectsand a new initiative she’s working onthat will compile course manuals andevaluations about classes. She is incommunication with the deans aboutthis. She believes that these initiativesare significant as the most importantpart of the Hopkins academic life is theclasses students take, making coursemanuals key.

ii. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin believes itis a time for change in the university,involving internal change (which mainlyconcern WSE and KSAS as they arerestructuring their own internalgovernments). He hopes to increase theinteractions between the students andthe faculty. He hopes to have lessgraduate students teaching and moreprofessors instead.

iii. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh statedthat he worked hard with Huang andResham Talwar (a previous member ofthe SGA) on academic issues. Hepromoted cross campus registrationbetween Homewood and Peabody. Hewants to achieve transparency andinform the students more on what willbe happening during courseregistrations. He also hopes to morestrongly advertise the work of thiscommittee within the SGA, too.b. In the first round, no candidate received themajority vote, so a second round electionbetween Basireddy and Nabizadeh wasconducted. Basireddy won the election.

6. Registered Student Organizations (RSO)

a. There were four candidates for this position.

i. Sophomore Class Senator JazzlynFernandez knows how important thiscommittee is as a current

First-Generation, Limited-IncomeNetwork member. She worked withreligious organizations on campus andvolunteered, which is one of the reasonswhy she has experience working withRSOs. Fernandez emphasized that she isproperly equipped with this role, andthat she hopes to bring the best out ofevery RSO through partnerships.ii. KSAS Senator Leon Ye thinks havingextensive knowledge on studentorganizations is necessary. As thecurrent president of an important RSOat Hopkins, he believes he has thisknowledge. One of his aims is toorganize training sessions for newofficers in the RSOs.

iii. Sophomore Class Senator Arihant Singhwas on this committee for the past twosemesters. He mentioned that heworked with the Brain-ComputerInterface Society as they were moved out

from the Biomedical EngineeringDepartment and had difficulties, soSingh helped them sort their finances.He aims to take this committee to a newdirection: more like a place wherestudent organizations can reach out tothe SGA instead of the committee goingup to them. He wants to move betweenorganizations and plan events whilebeing transparent.iv. Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi wasthe previous chair of this committee,who is rerunning. She reached out to 175student organizations and went to the

GBMs of the RSOs to makepresentations. She hopes to explain tothese organizations how registrationworks. She is also the president of aclub, so she is aware how tough it is tolead a club. Tyagi wishes to be proactiveabout registration questions. Alsotouching on anti-hazing statements and

feedback to The Office Leadership

Engagement and Experiential

Development (LEED), she intends totake action on these and improve theexperience of the RSOs.b. Tyagi won the election.

7. Internal Affairs

a. There were two candidates for this position.i. Garcia was on this committee last yearand helped facilitate amendments toconstitutions, serving as theParliamentarian. He touched on his

knowledge in Bylaws and Robert’s Ruleof Order. He helped Dobbs and Naqviwith these. He expressed that he wastrained by Meng himself, who was theprevious chair of this committee, whichis why he is knowledgeable about thiscommittee.ii. Rouhani accepted that Garcia might bethe more qualified candidate; however,he asked the senate: “How am Isupposed to get experience if I’m notgiven the chance?” He expressed thateven though he is new to the SGA, heasked the members to give him thechance of getting more experience byvoting for him.b. Rouhani won the election.

8. Health, Safety and Sustainability (HSS)

a. There were two candidates for this position.i. Oruganty serves as an intern at theOffice of Sustainability at JHU. She tookpart in the organization of the Earth Festand advocated for a student mentalhealth day. She communicated with the

Vice Provost Kevin Shollenberger andgained a lot of experience and passion.She is also an Environmental SciencesMajor and was the vice chair of thecommittee last year.

ii. Nabizadeh congratulated Oruganty’sefforts, explaining the heart of thecommittee is in collaborations. Shehopes to work with other clubs, createconnections, raise concerns aboutmental health through dialogues withthe professors, and advocate for safertransportations for JHU students.b. Oruganty won the election.

9. Programming

a. No chair election was conducted for thiscommittee as the chair is Huang.b. Huang introduced the committee and askedfor people’s participation as there are only twopeople in the programming committee rightnow.

10. Naqvi congratulated the newly elected chairs.

f. Committee Placements - Executive Branchi. Li asked all members to send their committee preferencesthrough the QR Code.ii. Meng explained that there will be changes to thecommittee meeting structures. He hopes to reduce themeeting times and increase productivity. The rest of theGBMs will be allocated to committee meetings. Everyonewill join only one committee. He asked everyone tosubmit their top 3 choices.

1. Oruganty explained that HSS typically meets with

the admins during their meetings. She wasconcerned as to how they would continue doing thisif the meetings take place too late. She raised thispoint as the new structure suggests the committeeswould be meeting from 8 to 9 PM on Tuesdays,which might be a late time for the administrators tocome together with the committees.

2. Meng suggested allowing HSS to have their separate

meeting times.iii. Morris asked to clarify if the members can only join one,to which Meng responded yes.iv. Fernandez was curious if someone can join twocommittees if they are passionate.

1. Meng said that it wouldn’t be encouraged as there

have been a lot of absences last year. He believesthat when a person is in two committees, it mightdecrease their productivity in the long run.v. Morris suggested to have a 5-minute-long moderatedcaucus time to discuss this, to which Meng said that couldbe done in the next GBM.vi. Naqvi, empathizing with the new members, said that thismight be confusing. She asked people to reach out to theExecutive Board to get more information if they wouldlike to. She said that this is a new idea and that it hasnever been done before. She hopes to figure this all out inthe most efficient way.

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (5 min)
6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
7. First Reading
8. Second Reading
9. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
10. Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

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.