Exec x President Daniels Lunch Agenda

113th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

President Daniels Lunch

March 25th, 2026 / 11:00 AM / BSC 404

AGENDA

1. BSC Meal purchases
   1. President Daniels noted that yesterday while he was at BSC, although the place was filled, there were not many purchases from the restaurants.
   2. Omotara and Tyler expressed that students tend to prefer meals that can be purchased by meal swipes rather than dining dollars.
   3. Dr. Hernandez responded that the office has been working on making the meals available for the meal swipes.
   4. Srigouri also noted that more vegetarian options being available would help more.
2. Increased RSO funding
   1. Especially for large RSOs
3. Vishnu noted that given that RSO funding had a 2% increase, some large organizations require more funding.
4. Imad stated that the issue they faced was funding that went to RSOs but funding cuts impacted academic RSOs such as HOPMUN. For example, they used to get 20-30K funding from the department but it went down to 2-3K. Consequently, those RSOs turned to SGA for funding but our funding was not yet enough for them to continue participating in their usual competitions and conferences.
5. In Fall semester, even though SGA had 322K total for the semester, RSOs requested 500-800K budgets form SGA, which is twice the budget we had for one semester.
6. Pres. Daniels reported that the office has been contemplating on increasing the budget.
7. Vishnu and Imad also noted that LEED new RSO registrations have ceased.
8. Imad noted that these RSOs that represent Hopkins in good standards such as HOPMUN deserve more funding for school.
9. 20%-30% decrease in funding.
10. Pres. Daniels noted a few hundred dollars could be gathered to help boost RSO funding by negotiating with the Board of Trustees to allocate budget to RSOs instead of parents. He agrees that those RSOs should be protected and supported. Given that the funding plan starts late summer, the funding report will be given by July 1st.
    2. Travel funding
11. Increased school spirit/student engagement (Tyler)
    1. Battle of classes by programming 2-3 times a month events. What they faced were low student engagements. They have given out prizes such as dining dollars and meals. He noted that the obstacles to this issue is students having too many exams and studying to do all the time. He noticed that academic obligations and pressures students carry are overwhelming.
    2. Tyler noted emphasizing to students on “Why you came to Hopkins for” to remind students how to balance academics and their other interests. Hopkins students have a high academic focus and low social life so he is looking to narrow the gap.
    3. Dr. Hernandez noted that a discussion on reconstructing academic exam and assignment schedules has been brought up many times.
    4. Srigouri talked about a wellbeing day she hosted with the department of health and wellness where hammocks were put out in the quads. She also talked about wellness passes where students can have guaranteed extensions students can get on their assignments. Srigouri noted that students don’t feel they have autonomy for themselves to give themselves grace. We talked about how we can start with small changes in language in the syllabus that encourages students to ask for help.
    5. Mandated days of break.
    6. Vishnu asked if there are any ideas on new school traditions for students.
    7. Dr. Hernandez talked about bringing flamingos on the beach, having sports events more advertised. Spring fair, culture show, hoptober fest, alumni weekend, pep rally.
    8. Omotara noted that students can see the effort the university has been putting in. She suggested having student groups such as sororities and fraternities to help plan social events.
    9. Pres. Daniels talked about senior societies that exist in different schools such as Yale. Student run, 20-30 seniors. They choose students deliberately and mix up students from broad organizations. Students would present their life stories confidentially. Similar to eating clubs.
    10. Omotara and Tyler talked about having RAs as sources to build those communities based on residents. She also talked about a mentorship program where freshmen can be paid up with an upper classment. (hampden university)
12. Public Safety
    2. ICE concerns
       1. Vishnu talked about students being concerned about how to protect themselves from legal agents.
       2. Pres. Daniels responded that luckily we have not had to face those issues on a large scale on campus.
       3. Training on getting used to the commands on how to call public safety, how to identify ICE agents, and identifying which places are public and private. Public guidance on public safety websites. Students have shown concerns that the guidance has not been enough to make them feel safe.
       4. Dr. Brown noted that the guidance marks which places are public and private explicitly.
       5. Improvement of trust on public safety.
       6. Srigouri noted that Hopkins dining has been doing a great job at spotlighting individual faculty.
       7. Semesterly townhall where departments can tell students what they are doing. Humanizing those departments.
       8. Pres. Daniels noted that there would be a notice that would go around if there is an ICE agent around campus. Having this as a known information among the student body would be great.