Senate General Body Meeting #17 — Minutes (01/27/26)

113th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #17

January 27th, 2026 / 07:00 PM / BSC 404

AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   1. Absentees:
      1. Excused:
      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 Vishnu reported the executive board had a discussion on office hour initiative.
      2. Student Body Vice President - Omotara Tiamiyu
      3. Secretary - Sumire Sumi Senators are advised to check their committe assignment.

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4. Treasurer - Imad Ahmed
5. Chair of Programming - Tyler Turner
6. President of the Senate - Srigouri Oruganty February 10th will be seniors’ 100th days until graduation celebration. All seniors will be excused on that day. Jazzlyn asked any Juniors to reach out to her to help out the celebration.

2. Advisor Report (2 min)

6. Non-Legislative Business (20 min)
   1. SIF volunteering Srigouri reported that we need volunteers for a virtual (a week long) and in person SIF.

7. First Reading (10 min)

   1. Office Hours Act - Senator Seán
8. Senator Sean announced that he made a few amendments on the act. He made primary and secondary office hours which correspond to executive officers led OH and senators led OH accordingly.
9. Motion for 5 minutes moderated caucus was approved.
10. Kevin asked under section 5 part D on the Act mentions senators will record the attendance of the OH. He asked if that can be added to the primary OH as well. He also asked what their promotion plan would be.
11. Sean responded that he expects the exec board to be reporting this. He will be making a funding bill once he talks to Tyler. Propose incentives for students to attend office hours
12. Amy asked what section 5 clause E meant. She also asked what the process behind advertising primary OH.
13. Sean responded that E means that office hours protect what students are saying during office hours. A security clause. Not super restrictive, just basic privacy. He does not want this to become a purely exec-oriented bill. Secondary office hours will still be advertised and receive incentive.
14. Motion to extend the moderated caucus for another 5 minutes was approved.
15. Caroline asked for clarification on Section 5 part C if the senators are mandated to host.
16. Sean responded by saying that office hours is at least 30 minutes, and senators are not required, but if they commit to it they must do it for a month.
17. Srigouri suggested having the OH committees by utilizing their weekly committee meeting times and making the OH more accessible. She said she is open to hear what committee chairs think.
18. Sean responded by saying he agrees with a committee hosted office hours. He is open to it but has concerns about more restrictions.
19. Motion to extend the moderated caucus for 15 minutes was approved.
20. Jazzlyn asked section 5 part G mentioning OH not being able to overlap may not be idea. She suggested designating one day for the SGA OH day. She asked for clarification on one day a week requirements.
21. Sean agrees with the idea of having one big meeting time and place for primary office hours. Any other senator can hold secondary office hours with the exec not promoting them. This act is very flexible and we can see what works.
22. Tanisha suggested having it mandatory to do once a month. Section 4 part C mentions OH can be “staffed” be executive officers, but it should be rephrased as “co-hosted” with executive officers.
23. Sean responded with reiterating that these office hours are very flexible and is purely an organizational thing. He believe consistency is important and wants to hold them regularly unless exec chooses not to.
24. Vishnu in the comment “I think some of the stuff we discussed during our Exec meeting did not get properly communicated so here are my personal thoughts: 1) There shouldn’t be a distinction between primary and secondary office hours. It should simply be SGA office hours so as not to confuse students. Even without this distinction, Exec is glad to host office hours if need be. 2) I believe it makes the most sense to host committee office hours in place of a meeting. As in, every committee hosts one office hours per semester (instead of a meeting that week) in order to enforce this appropriately. So office hours will occur around once a month. These are just suggestions, but I believe this would be the most enforceable and efficient way to host SGA office hours.”
25. Veda commented the Act has been overcomplicated and should be open to all senators to sign up. She reemphasized the point that the point of the Act is to generalize a communication point between SGA senators and general student body. She suggested having it regulated as a once a week occasion.
26. Sean said secondary OH are completely just for the bill. There does not need to be any distinction between primary and secondary OH.
27. A motion to refer to IA was approved.

28. Second Reading (5 min)

    1. Looking for a JayFriend Funding Bill - Chair Tyler
29. Finance committee passed the bill as is.
30. Tyler added more food as was recommended from last weeks meeting.
31. A motion to vote to pass the bill was not approved.
32. A motion for 5 minutes moderated caucus was approved.
33. Jason suggested changing the food options to better fit the dietary restrictions. He asked for more clarity of utensils and food.
34. Tyler responded that he just upped the amount of food in general. The canvases are for the arts and crafts station for the event.
35. Jazzlyn asked what the time for the event was. She also suggested having smaller food on the table since there will be a craft section.
36. Tyler said the event is from 7-9. The program has conversion starters, and the bottom has some logistical info.
37. A motion to pass this bill was passed.
38. Cohort Time (30 min)
    1. Initiatives
39. The Baltimore community group talked about having Baltimore leaders come talk at Hopkins. Shreeman reached out to the faculty from the office of social concern, and they responded that similar initiatives have been carried out.
40. Paul mentioned that FYM trip around baltimore city during O week should be more regulated so new incoming students have equal experience.
41. Minority Group said there is a risk of clubs going extinct because leaders are not passing down training info. They also talked about having more cross club mixers. Also the lack of LGBTQ+ information. Plans on sending some type of survey to gather more information.
42. The athletics group talked about transportation on campus for injured student athletes or any injured students in general. Implementing a golf cart system for students to call.
43. The Academics Group said that the credit overloading survey is now ready waiting for approval. There is also an idea to publish course distribution and course grades. Also discussed publishing grade boundaries on the syllabus. They also responded to the newsletter’s WSE FA questionnaire.
44. The SGA/LEAD Group discussed the bylaws and how they are sort of unnecessary and to do a big clean out of unneeded bylaws.
    2. Committee Time

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.