Senate General Body Meeting #11 — Minutes (10/21/25)

113th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #11

October 21, 2025 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

MINUTES

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   1. Absentees:
      1. Excused: Zaynab Mirza, Emin Soguktas, Omotara Tiamiyu, Imad Ahmed, Siddarth Dhadi
      2. Unexcused: Jingyan Zhang, Mercedes Rend
   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
      2. Student Body Vice President - Omotara Tiamiyu
      3. Secretary - Sumire Sumi
      4. Treasurer - Imad Ahmed
      5. Chair of Programming - Tyler Turner
      6. President of the Senate - Srigouri Oruganty
6. PoS Srigouri presented SGA check in google form to the senate.
   2. Advisor Report (2 min)
7. Non-Legislative Business (20 min)
   1. Mentor-Mentee Matches - Chair Amy and Chair Tanisha
8. Senator Tanisha and Amy presented their Mentor-Mentee Matches slides. They shared their initiative’s purpose where new SGA members can be paired with mentors as someone they can reach out to.

9. First Reading (15 min)

   1. SGA Transparency Act - Chair Kevin
10. Senator Kevin addressed that the bill’s objective is to empower each committee by having committee chairs to post 2 update posts per semester. As PoS addressed that the approval by the admin might take longer than 1 week, Kevin suggested using the provision to extend the duration to 2 weeks.
11. A motion to 5 minutes Q&A was passed.
12. Amy inquired what kind of posts he was intending to publish.
13. Kevin replied this is a great opportunity for committee to advertise their future events, initiatives, or updates on their projects.
14. Jaden asked why there is a CAP number for posts.
15. Kevin replied it is an estimate but he is also open to removing the limit.
16. Kai asked if the posts will be on SGA instagram and who the DoC is.
17. Kevin and President Vishnu replied they will be on SGA instagram and DoC is Jo.
18. Veda asked if the purpose of the bill is increasing transparency what is the reason for leaving the initiative optional and not mandated.
19. Kevin replied if the posts are mandated the student body will feel overwhelmed by the chain of SGA social media posts. Moreover, some committees may not have major updates, which will lead them to post unnecessary minor updates.
20. Tarini asked if the yearly recap will be continued.
21. Kevin replied that the AA committee is open to amend the bill.
22. A motion to refer this bill to IA was passed.

b. SGA Positions Update 2025 - President Vishnu

1. President Vishnu presented the bill to cut down the number of RSO senators to two.
2. A motion to 5 minutes Q&A was passed.
3. Kevin asked what the specific amendment was.
4. President Vishnu answered the previous amendment cut down the number of RSO senators from seven to five. But this time we are cutting the number to two.
5. PoS Srigouri and President Vishnu also answered that RSO senator position is to represent the student organization, however, there is already a Student Organization committee so there is only small necessity for these positions.
6. Tarini also agreed that among all the changes SGA had made, the expansion of RSO senator position was one of the unsuccessful ones.
7. Vishnu also added that this year’s special election will be done by the forms instead of the school wide campaigning format.
8. Kirsten asked for specific vacant positions.
9. There are Student Athlete Caucus senators, Women and Gender Minority Caucus senators, 2 KSAS senators, 3 or 1 RSO senators, 2 Sophomore Class Senators, 1 Senior Class Senator, and all three Class Council Programming Representatives.
10. Kirstein expressed her reservation about cutting down vacant positions. She asked why wouldn’t there be special election right after the freshman class elections.
11. Motion to extend the discussion for 5 minutes was passed.
12. Vishnu suggested doing the special election with the 5 RSO senators and cutting the positions down after the election.
13. Kirstein suggested leveraging the momentum of the freshman election for the special election rather than waiting.
14. Rebecca noted having the special election immediately after the freshman election would not be a great idea as it may seem just an alternative position for candidates who did not win their primary positions.
15. Paul suggested having another bill to discuss cutting down positions after the election.
16. A motion to refer this bill to IA was passed.

17. Second Reading (10 min)

    1. APTT Funding Bill - Chair Tanisha
18. Quality time with the APTT bill was presented. This event is dedicated to show the student body what A Place To Talk organization is. There will be an art wall where students can write notes and put up where they can play games and chat over boba tea. The budget is currently $480 for boba and they are open to cut down as well. They underlined that the purpose of this event is to advertise other mental health services around campus and have a place for people to interact with other people and get some treatment for themselves.
19. Motion to vote was passed. The bill was passed.
20. Cohort Time (30 min)
    1. Cohort Time Presentation - President Srigouri

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.