Senate General Body Meeting #19 — Minutes (02/11/25)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Senate Meeting #19 February 11, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Zoom AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: b. Unexcused Absentees:

2. Convening Business (40 min)

a. Presentation from Dean Long

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min) b. Advisor Report (2 min)

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

a. Valentines Day Tabling & Speed Dating Event Discussion- Chair Tim Huang i. Promo 1 & 2 ii. https://www.canva.com/design/DAGeoLrTy_A/kxaGWQ6rPU EnCQ9ETWoYpg/edit?utm_content=DAGeoLrTy_A&utm_ca mpaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=share button

7. First Reading
8. Second Reading

a. Club Columbia Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo b. ABSA Funding Bill- President Nasreen Naqvi c. South Asian Mela Funding Bill- Vice President Srigouri Oruganty

9. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
10. 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. 112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Senate Meeting #19 February 11, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Zoom MINUTES

11. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

a. Excused Absentees: b. Unexcused Absentees:

12. Convening Business (40 min)

b. Presentation from Dean Long c. Dean Long: She talked to us about this in fall. Wants to start a student advisory group for the library. Wants to create a website and get people to volunteer. Wants an SGA volunteer so that they can serve as a point person. Wants to propose it as she thinks it would be helpful. d. Nas: We do know some people here have questions in general. Not just construction but library places in general. Maybe after those questions we can discuss this idea. Student input would be really helpful in building a plan. People who want to speak will raise their hand instead of building a speakers list. e. Stone: SGA cross-cooperation with others like Dining, Recreation, IT advisory boards. Are you interested in having one SGA members? f. Long: At least one SGA and one GRO. One person from each class. Useful to have people from other disciplines. Open to more than one SGA member. g. Amy Xu: English major friend. Proactive in borrowing books. Has a couple issues with the book borrowing system. Just a suggestion: Can we go through and see who the top book borrowers are and ask them for advice. Their interaction with the library system would be useful in improving the system. h. Tim: We had a semester of the annex, he likes it more than he thought he would. Wants to ask: Iterations of the annex were being discussed and what can be improved. Has there been any talk about it? Any plans to improve the annex in any way? i. Long: Running a survey. Shrunk to “give us feedback if you have feedback.” Focusing the most on immediate things. Not enough plugs, lighting, temperature. Staff is suffering, too. Getting a group started in spring to improve further things. Originally had labeled things. Group studies, bigger rooms, active spaces, quiet spaces. One of the things we learned was that because it is all in one floor, it is not as easy to separate them as it was in MSE. Working on silent, not-silent places. Not every table has plugs, so they found extension cables but then they found students removing those to plug their devices. Who uses Brody, Annex… To decide if we will make them even more different. Numbers at the annex are lower than they expected that to be. j. Jacquelyn: Will the advisory board focus more on construction or everything in general? k. Dean Long: to know about the questions and concerns about the library. Give input, not about renovation but everything. Want students who are particularly engaged to give feedback. Sounding board, idea brainstorming for the team to make a change for service. Don’t have a group of change to easily turn to. They have staff but feels like don’t have a broader group that help the library to plan how it resonates with the student body l. Amy Li: Part of the reason why the annex number of people is lower is students don't have accessibility to that part of campus. Suggestion is to look at more shuttle stops and create shuttle around campus after six pm or throughout the day. Taking art history, and book pickup is hard at the annex because no chance to go there. Consider transportation options and expanding student access to other parts of campus. Talked to Dr. Brown about this as well, and works with transportation. Would it be possible to allow people to get/borrow books from brody/gilman? Since it’ll be more accessible, a general suggestion to help students have better access to library services. Hodson Library - is not sure how the library system works there. m. Long: In general, would take more staffing (putting books in different places). Doesn’t know if we have enough space. For the full Brody setup. Will talk to staff to see how feasible it is. n. Kevin: Where can we find this survey? How can we direct the students to those resources? o. Long: Has table tents in Annex and Hodson. Will double check. Link to main library website. Will find out. Feedback mechanism will remain in the website in case people need it. p. Kevin: Not sure if you had similar comments on your feedback form but students ask for equipment. People who try to study with their laptops → height is not appropriate. Better seating options. q. Long: On March 26th, we will have a student furniture fair so that we can decide on the various types of furniture we need r. Kevin: Ones that have the table knee height. Not sure which ones exactly, so he was communicating the description. s. Long: Wants to ask as she wants to get more feedback. Lounge chairs aren’t used a lot therefore, leaning more into tables which are used a lot. But, this issue might be the reason. No round tables. Can we replace them? Over time, we can. We are in the middle of replacing them. In the reading room, we are changing furniture. Will see when the rotation will be to swap the chairs. t. Kevin: Members of SGA in the chat corroborate. The swinging tables at the atrium. The chairs at round tables outside the broody reading room. Or blue chairs at the atrium. When and where? u. Long: March 26th, not sure where yet. Will advertise later and hope SGA can amplify it. Did this for the student center. Narrow down in a showroom. Have student’s input and get feedback. v. Danial: A neuroscience major, have a steering community who help curriculum and put input. Bridge between faculty and students. Therefore, very possible. Feedback is that homewood is missing out on a standing desk, which is at the medical campus. Can get inspiration from the Armstrong Medical building. Natural light, interior decoration. Individual standing desk, different from high chairs. Good edition. w. Long: From the chat, don’t know about whiteboard spray. Tower power strips were created by make-do. Being proposed to change and on the right track to invest in getting tables with power. Hopkins Bloomberg didn’t have enough plugs. Want to start off with lots of plugs to be open. x. Amy Xu: Why is Gilman open for longer than other study spaces? y. Long: Need to ask for facilities not entirely up to the library. Spaces that are staffed by people vs. spaces that aren’t staffed by people. Cost for staffed spaces. Campus management of buildings. Similar question for Gilman classrooms: cleaning, set up for next day’s classes. Trying to not encourage unhealthy habits, but they do it during finals. z. Arihant: Internet in D level? aa. Long: Will be wifi everywhere. bb. Arihant: Library is mostly for people who like to do individual learning. Brody, social learning. Power outlets, internet, people being loud. Soundproof walls, so that people have the incentive to go there to work. cc. Long: On some walls, they’re going to install elements that will help absorb sound. Architects look at this as a library and they wanted to meet all the needs. Eisenhower and Brody. Eisenhower is meant to be the more quiet part of the library. Thank you for your questions and let me know if there are any questions dd. Nasreen: Thank you and we’re excited to hear from you.

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

a. Motion to start the meeting and approve the agenda.

14. Public Input (3 min)
15. Reports (5 min)

a. Cabinet Reports (4 min) i. Stone: Thanks for making the meeting. Student Body email was delayed again. According to advisors with the new presidential administration, we are tight and need to be careful of wording. Email will be given this week. Update student body and highlight senators. ii. Amy: met with Charles. commencement team looking for six juniors to help volunteer for commencement day. iii. Brandon: Finish budgeting and get them out. Entire budget from the Hopkins group got deleted, able to fix that. Waiting on a couple of clubs to inform on anything outstanding. Any questions about a specific club, reach out to him and will update. iv. Jessica: As Amy mentioned, looking for six volunteers in the junior class. Long standing tradition for 100 days until commencement ceremony. If interested. Not staying until 8-11 is fine. Celebration for seniors. There will be food, drink, giveaways. Send her a message on the side, email, or teams. Continue to get emails through Jessica to be mindful of what’s being sent to the student body and administration. b. Advisor Report (2 min)

16. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

b. Valentines Day Tabling & Speed Dating Event Discussion- Chair Tim Huang i. Promo 1 & 2 ii. https://www.canva.com/design/DAGeoLrTy_A/kxaGWQ6rPU EnCQ9ETWoYpg/edit?utm_content=DAGeoLrTy_A&utm_ca mpaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=share button iii. Tim: Please register for the valentine's day table. Go get flowers from nearby and get reimbursement from SGA. A group met on Sunday to talk about (Amy, Stone, Daar, Amy, Jason). Two videos created. Promote the event through these videos. Second one will go before valentines day. First one will get uploaded on valentines day. Hope people like the videos and come to the event. If there are any questions asked in chat. iv. Yashas suggested giving people time so that they can watch it on their own. v. Tim: Need people to set up. vi. Nasreen: Structure of the speed-dating event. vii. Tim: Regarding that, there will be a form. People will go and make people write their names to not cause confusion. Will be filled out at the end so that people can have anonymity and it will be secure. Match between forms → We will send them an email with contact information. We’ll find a better method. “What if you forgot who you wanted to talk to” Then you probably don’t want to keep talking to them. Fun where people can talk. Pronouns and friends/smth else. We might get an imbalance, but we might not be able to control it. viii. Nasreen: Any feedback/concern? Make sure to promote. ix. Jaden: Are people going to write the names first, then check mark at the end? x. Tim: Yes. We felt like it would be nice to have smth physical. Write your actual name, but not anything else xi. Jaden: Maybe create two check boxes, one for dating and one for friend? xii. Tim: We decided to connect it as “contact” as they can decide for themselves. We’ll figure out the cards part. Timing: 10 rounds, we don’t know how many people will show up. If many people don’t come, we can give them longer time to talk. xiii. Kevin: Was wondering if it was your intention to keep the registered attendee list public. As of now, in the Hopkins group you can see the names of people who registered. xiv. Tim: Not the intention, and will hope to fix it quickly. xv. Buse: How are you going to give the questions to them? xvi. Tim: Each pair will have a sheet, printed out for them to see. Do questions by tiers to prompt them to do stuff. xvii. Nas: Side note, valentines will get attendance incentive and for the junior commencement.

17. First Reading
18. Second Reading

d. Club Columbia Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo i. Cynthia: Was gonna ask finance committee because we want to learn how much money they will be landed. ii. Benjamin: Reached out to them, their budget was deleted bc of the glitch. Asked them to send the excel sheet and put them in Hopkins Groups. iii. Cynthia: We can wait until next week to vote. They will have enough time as the event is at the end of the semester. iv. Ryan: Why not event grant? It would be faster v. Cynthia: We’re having the Latino caucus cosponsor. vi. Tabled e. ABSA Funding Bill- President Nasreen Naqvi i. Tabled ii. Nas: Has this been talked in finance? Would it be an event grant? Or passing? f. South Asian Mela Funding Bill- Vice President Srigouri Oruganty i. MELA, event with a bunch of south asian clubs. She’s working on a South Asian Studies minor with other SGA representatives. Will participate here for tabling. ii. Passed.

19. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
20. 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.