Senate General Body Meeting #12 — Minutes (10/28/25)

113th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #12

October 28, 2025 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

MINUTES

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   1. Absentees:
      1. Excused: Paul Woo
      2. Unexcused:
   2. Present

2. Convening Business (30 min)

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

4. Public Input (3 min)

5. Reports (5 min)

   1. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
      1. Student Body President - Vishnu Dontu
6. Special election form will be sent out tomorrow.
   2. Student Body Vice President - Omotara Tiamiyu
      3. Secretary - Sumire Sumi
      4. Treasurer - Imad Ahmed
7. The event grant has been open since last week. All Finance committees must check their teams. All semester allocation has been completed as well.
   5. Chair of Programming - Tyler Turner
      6. President of the Senate - Srigouri Oruganty
8. Srigouri let the senate know to check the 113th SGA calendar. There will be transportation and SNF agora next week. vii. Director of Communications - Johnalys Ferrer
9. DoC Jo presented her skills, availability, and communication platform. Her email is jferrer7@jh.edu.
10. Kai asked if the posts created by Jo must be approved. Jessica responded that the advisors will overview the post but specifically for posts with administrative information it will take time to process.
    2. Advisor Report (2 min)
11. JHPD Accountability Board Applications Jessica reported that JH police accountability advisory board form has been extended to tomorrow. The board will be operated by JHPD.
12. Non-Legislative Business (20 min)

13. First Reading (15 min)

    1. November Tabling - Google Docs - Chair Tyler
14. The national day of kindness tabling on November 13th event will be coordinated in collaboration with the alumni association. Tyler informed the senate to fill out the form.
15. A motion to move the bill to the finance committee was passed.

16. Second Reading (10 min)

    1. SGA Transparency Act - Chair Kevin
17. Jaden motioned for a 10 minutes recess for IA committee.
18. Kevin presented the amended bill. The number of posts was now expanded to up to 3 posts per committee. DoC will have a week to create and review the content.
19. A motion for a 5 minutes Q&A was passed.
20. Jason inquired what the Communications and Marketing Commission entails. And if the creation of the commission will be pursued.
21. Kevin responded that it is a great possibility.
22. Tanisha and Jaden were appointed as sponsors for the bill.
23. The bill was passed.
    2. SGA Positions Update 2025 - President Vishnu
24. A motion for a 5 minute moderated caucus was passed.
25. Jazzlyn indicated that the elimination of RSO seats is not necessary as it poses the purpose of opening more opportunities for students. She emphasized opening up spaces for the freshman class and transferred students to be a part of SGA.
26. Kirsten agreed with Jazzlyn on remaining the seats.
27. President Vishnu responded that the special appointment form will be sent out tomorrow regardless of the bill.
28. PoS Srigouri addressed that there are 9 seats open and 8 positions open for programming council on top of RSO positions. Sha highlighted that these positions should be encouraged to be filled over RSO positions.
29. A member of public Shab suggested that the failure to fill these positions may be due to the insufficient advertisement strategy.
30. Jazzlyn shared her experience being on the programming council her freshman. She suggested advertising programming positions equally as other positions on the legislative branch. She also indicated that the broadcasting must be improved especially for the application process.
31. Tarini suggested putting more effort on filling positions in the spring. She underlined that we must not rely on the freshman class to fill RSO positions.
32. Kevin agreed with Srigouri’s point of RSO positions being the second option for the students running for other legislative positions. He emphasized that there is a little portion of students who are willing to run for RSO positions to represent the student organizations. He noted cutting the RSO positions and increasing class senator positions in the future.
33. Jason underlined that the reduction of senator positions is a temporary solution for a bigger problem which is SGA’s consistent inability to fill the seats. He emphasized that cutting the positions to be perceived better by the student body is not the appropriate objective, rather we must discuss the route cause of this issue.
34. Tanisha noted that there is a big disconnect between the student body and SGA advertisements. She suggested providing informational sessions more often and flexible.
35. President Vishnu noted that we can work with the Committee for Special Election to improve the informational session.
36. Tyler addressed that the members of senate can be more active during and outside of SGA to promote the organization.
37. A motion for a 10 minute extension was passed.
38. Shreeman inquired if the language can be amended to “up to 5” so it does not put the burden on the SGA to fill the position.
39. Jazzlyn agreed with Tyler’s point that every member of SGA should be intentional to improve transparency and promotion.
40. Kirsten emphasized that we must look at ourselves on why the seats are not filled and ask if the time commitment reflects the benefit we get for the student body.
41. Veda indicated that if the process of election is discreet then the resulting vacant seats would not harm the reputation of SGA. She also shared her story about how the election committee was not enthusiastic and over exaggerating information.
42. Srigouri and Vishnu suggested the Judiciary branch have a talk with CSC about this matter and having SGA members at the info session.
43. Jazzlyn noted that the information was not communicated well until today. She shared that she feels disheartened as SGA seems to be completing their tasks last minute.
44. Jessica emphasized that special elections and special appointments are two different matters.
45. Vishnu noted that special appointment advertisement is less advocated than special election.
46. Jason noted that a special application process should be reviewed in the future.
47. A motion to vote on the bill was passed. The bill did not pass.
49. Cohort Time (30 min)
    1. Preparing for Transportation and Office of International Services Administrator Meetings

Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

Time-length and adjournment estimates are provided for the benefit of guests at Senate meetings. However, SGA meetings are always slated to extend until 9:00 PM and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.