112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association
Senate Meeting #22
March 4th, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17
AGENDA
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
- Excused Absentees: Prisha Agrawal, Oluwakemi Abiodun, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Deryck Yin, Lucy Landry, Omar Gharib
- Unexcused Absentees: Moses Frumkin
Convening Business (40 min)
- Health and Wellbeing
- Admission & Student Affairs
- IT Services
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (5 min)
- Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- Advisor Report (2 min)
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
First Reading
Second Reading
Senior Memorabilia - Chair Tim Huang
Copa America
Junior Formal CO-OP WITH HOPTHON - Chair Tim Huang
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.
112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association
Senate Meeting #22
March 4th, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Scott-Bates Commons Salon B
MINUTES
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
- Excused Absentees: Prisha Agrawal, Oluwakemi Abiodun, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Deryck Yin, Lucy Landry, Omar Gharib
- Unexcused Absentees: Moses Frumkin
Convening Business (40 min)
Health and Wellbeing
- Vice Provost Kevin Shollenberger and representatives came to the meeting to update us about their initiatives as Health and Wellbeing.
- Some enhancements include:
- Open access and self-scheduling
- Mental Health Services (MHS), Assessment and Occupational Therapy Services
- Well-Being Coaching
- SDS Working Group - HAWG
- Roanna Kessler talked about open access and self-scheduling updates. By calling 410-516-3311, you can easily connect to all offices of Health & Wellbeing. Regardless of your school, you can go to whichever clinic is best for you.
- Jennifer Howes said that they checked the statistics to see which students go to an office that is not their primary campus, which came out to be 25%.
- Through the patient website, students can also schedule appointments. More than 25% of appointments are scheduled online.
- Individual appointments, executive functioning, time management, planning and organization, and other workshops are organized for occupational training (whether for sports or research). There will now be a clinician focusing on psychological assessments.
- Jacki Stone complimented the Well-Being Day. Well-being coaching was introduced, where students can get training on stress management, mindfulness, sleep hygiene, social connections, and well-being prioritization.
- Cathy Axe launched the Hopkins Accessibility Working Group in Fall 2024. They are gathering inputs from students in order to see how they can prioritize the recommendations they are receiving. They want to make sure they are coordinating the changes, such as pathways blocked off. They are hoping to prioritize accessibility. They want to hear about the barriers students face, so reach out to HAWG@jh.edu for accessibility concerns. They are doing benchmarking and checking what other universities are doing. Since all students have their own specialized guidelines, they are trying to maximize accessibility by checking other comparable institutions and reaching out to organizations.
- They are working to be a more data driven organization.
- WSE Senator Ivan-Alexander Kroumov asked why graduate students use the behavioral services more often than undergraduate students. Stone is not sure, but she guesses it is because graduate students are more in number. Kroumov said that he heard that there isn’t enough faculty to support everyone in a way in a study he has been working on, so he asked this question to see if there is a similar situation. Stone said that they don’t have a staffing issue. This coaching service is not therapy, and it is complimentary. There is no waiting list.
- Media Senator Tyler Turner asked if there is a certain amount of therapy one can get. Howes said that there is no specific number and it is goal-driven. Psychiatry doesn’t have any limits either.
- Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair Karen Vasquez Luna talked about the city constructions. She was wondering if these were being considered by Health & Wellbeing. There are also icing problems at some places. She asked if there was any discussion going on. Axe said that this is why it is important for people to reach out to them and alert the office about the issues they notice. It is helpful to know the issues as they might try to tackle them. Since students know the habits of each other, they would be better at noticing these. Her office is university wide, so anything can be forwarded to her office for it to be tackled.
- Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Hernandez asked if Health & Wellbeing asked if they are working on breaking the stigma against mental health. Stone clarified that all services except for coaching receives a lot of demand from undergraduates. She expressed the importance of mental health and well-being, and said that she agrees with Hernandez’s thoughts. Howes said that they partner and would partner for events that targets to de-stress the community and is relevant to mental health. Axe said that they are working closely with the Center for Diversity and Inclusion to provide mental health support when needed.
- Cultural and Identity Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartz asked about the advertisement strategies for occupational therapies. She suggested sending out more emails about that. Howes said that they are working on making some changes to the website. Students can book an appointment for it through the portal. She said that they are working on getting the word out. Axe said that the SDS news is also going out.
- Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty expressed how much she likes to work with their office and thanked them for being here. She touched on the syllabi that have a section relevant to mental health at the very end, so she asked how we can raise more conversations about mental health in class. Stone said that they are working with First-Year Seminars in incorporating more mental health information since they are in contact with students strongly. They are also working on identifying distressed students. They are trying to leverage the successes they have in other areas to strategize in how to cooperate with faculty. They are working on instructional technologies, and they were successful in getting 94% of the faculty to watch the video that was created for this. They like the model that shows these statistics.
- KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that he benefited a lot from occupational therapy. He asked if students can sign up for a session individually. Howes said that there are six open and six reserved slots every week for occupational training since they only have two occupational trainers at this time. The appointments are bookable online, and if anyone has any difficulty, they can call Health & Wellbeing.
- Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamana referred to the vending machine at the Health & Wellbeing Office and asked if it could be extended to other places. Shollenberger said that there is one in the Rec Center and another one has been brought to the D.C. campus.
- Two minute recess has been given to set the next speakers.
Admission & Student Affairs
- Rachelle Hernandez, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, said that it is so nice to see everyone.
- Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Ellen Chow, Senior Assistant for Recruitment Alexis Glenn, Calvin Wise.
- Many months ago, we started to have conversations about Affirmative Action and how we can deal with this decision in the future. They met with various student groups like SGA and BSU to see how they can partner in working on this issue. Admissions has been doing a lot of work to recruit students. They will share how current students can demonstrate the Blue Jay experience.
- x said that she appreciates the feedback and questions they’ve got. They are honored to talk to us as a larger group. Enrolling a diverse class is a priority for their office. They want to show an authentic view to prospective students so that they can see what the experience is like. They want to broaden their reach and strengthen their impact.
- Kelvin and Alexis talked about two key initiatives that allow partnerships with undergraduate admissions. Hernandez said that she’s aware SGA also brought up ideas on student partnerships, which will be discussed later.
- Kelvin said that they are excited to have this as a continuous initiative. Some ways students can engage are the Blue Key Society, hometown visits, Blue Jay Days, and HARC. They hope to train the students and have the students go back to their high school to discuss their experience at Hopkins. They are continuing to plan the Blue Jay Days. They plan to stay connected with recent graduates through HARC and have them present with them.
- Alexis described what Blue Key Society is. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions’ official student program that connects prospective students with the Hopkins experience. They attend recruitment events, participate in conferences, respond to phone calls, and engage with students who have similar interests as them.
- There are 120 students in BKS (108 are active while the remaining are studying abroad or doing an internship).
- They have two daily visit student coordinators, who make sure that there are student presenters for information sessions and make sure there are enough people for tours. Some other coordinator roles include new member, operations/international, marketing and communications, special events, visitor center, access and diversity. Board members support the initiatives and assist with strategic planning. General ambassadors engage with visitors through tours, events, and outreach. They want to make sure everyone gets represented as strongly as possible.
- In Fall, there will be another recruitment process. You need to fill out the application on SMILE. It is open for two weeks. After BKS leadership reviews the applications, they announce the decisions. They take their training quite seriously as they want to make sure students feel confident when they are talking to prospective students.
- Student Coordinators serve as the Student Advisory Board of Undergraduate Admissions Office. They target elevated leadership, thought partners, high-impact programming, and event planning. Student Coordinators are aware of what would be liked by students, so they offer great help to the office. alexis.glenn@jhu.edu
- Hometown visits are organized recruitment visits facilitated by Johns Hopkins students to their high schools or community-based organizations, where they share their Hopkins experience and engage prospective students. Students can sign up by reaching out to Alexis. It is being promoted on HSA Instagram and Word from the Bird.
- Blue Jay Days are dynamic events designed to foster community, highlight diverse student experiences, and showcase the value of a Hopkins education for admitted students and their families. They aim to build community and highlight academic opportunities.
- Kelvin talked about the Hopkins Alumni Representative Council (HARC), which is a group of dedicated alumni volunteers (who typically graduated recently) who assist the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in recruiting prospective students by sharing their undergraduate experiences at events and through marketing materials.
- Yashas Mallikarjun asked if they can see what groups are missing in the community. Kelvin said that they engage in a lot of conversations with offices like Student Life to work on off-campus and on-campus recruitment. They talk about current students to hear what their experience is like. By contacting Alexis, you can get involved with Blue Jay Connections. Mallikarjun asked if they mainly engage with students through their advisory board, to which Kelvin said that’s primarily what they do.
- Jacquelyn Slade said that she participated in events that were targeted to students with specific interests like arts. She asked if these continue and whether they’d like students who are in these programs to assist their work. Kelvin said that they would be more than happy to engage with schools like Peabody.
- Kevin Xu asked if there has been any changes to the admissions policies since the inauguration of the new President Trump and Supreme Court decision. There were some changes. xxx said that they figured out strategies since the Supreme Court decision, and nothing has been changed since the inauguration of Trump. He said that things can change quite quickly, and they will take action as necessary and abide by the law.
- Tarini Basirreddy asked about the outreach programs. She said that she’s involved with the science olympiad, and during their last tournament, she witnessed students who
- Kelvin said that Hopkins has so many different connections around the local Baltimore area, and they try to engage with spaces. She said that they would
- Hernandez asked every student who engages with admissions to also include their advisor so that these relationships are continuous.
- Omotara Tiamiyu said that she’s aware of the work of admissions in Maryland. She asked, in addition to these, if they could work in other parts of the US. She heard about Hopkins through the internet as someone from the South. Kelvin said that they are students coming from all around the world, and they want to engage with as many students as possible. Tiamiyu asked if there is any data they can reference to see where students come from and which areas are underrepresented. Kelvin said that they are looking at such data to see how they can extend their reach. As an office, they have around 27 admissions officers who travel the world to recruit students. They are doing recruitment travel for six to seven weeks in a year.
- Amy Xu asked to clarify what Hometown Visits are. Alexis said that students go back to their high school or organization and say that they want to talk to prospective students. Whenever someone goes back, they can come to the office to register the visit and get the necessary materials. Kelvin said that they want to expand the Hometown Visits.
- Nabizadeh asked about the Hometown Visits. He wondered if alumni can also organize these visits. He also asked how they can sign up for Hometown Visits and Blue Jay Connections. She said that only undergraduates can do Hometown Visits. For graduates, HARC exists. They are working on extending Blue Jay Connections to other students, but for now, it is only for BKS. Alexis said that if students email her, she can send the instructions to sign up.
- Cynthia said that there are students who are willing to share their contact information to be contacted about their organizations. She also asked if there are events that are available only in English. Kelvin said that they are working on the former, and that there have been some events in Spanish in the past. They want to expand them.
- Neelamana said that the university administration works on expanding democracy. He asked how admissions does this. Ellen Chow said that they are working on bringing more diverse opinions. They want to get a broad cut of different perspectives. They are also trying to amplify the value of the university. This is an area of their work that they are continuing to explore. They also try to see how these play out in the student body. Students with input on the events they organize are welcome to give that feedback.
- Fernandez, as part of the FLI Advisory Board, said that they want to get involved in such initiatives and asked if there is any work in getting such students involved. Kelvin said that they would love to and to discuss ways to engage with them. He asked her to contact Alexis.
- Hernandez said that Jessica and Charles will send out the information for Hometown Visits. Hernandez also added that there is a connection between Admissions and Student Affairs.
IT
- Louie, Scott Spencer, Graham
- They are responsible for the websites that are used at Hopkins, such as Canvas. They have 80 softwares that they are managing. Louie is working on STAR and manages the staff that is working on these spaces. They aim to make things even better.
- Graham said that IT at Hopkins is more layered. It has quite a few different departments. They also support staff members in addition to students. When students have IT issues or concerns, they can contact IT.
- There was a wireless survey update. They said that they worked with SGA in preparing the questions. There was a 5% response rate. In areas which need to utilize wifi, there were improvements in Brody Learning Commons updates and three auditoriums (Hackerman 17, Hodson 110, Mudd 26). They also worked on dorm and device density. They will re-survey later this year. They are also working with the new buildings and they hope to have another meeting about SGA about these.
- In the Krieger Lab, a lot of monitors have been updated. STAR stations, the pre-existing ones and newly-built ones, have more developed displays and are connected to Hopkins network. Some of them also have Adobe Cloud applications. These came from the feedback of those who use the Krieger Lab. They started to build new ones in the resident halls. They will install one in the Commons at the shared kitchen on the fourth floor. McCoy recently got a STAR workspace, too. Instead of going with what they think the students need, they actually find out what the students need. Students can reach out to stars@jhu.edu to give feedback. New printers will be installed and they will make sure every residential place has at least one printer. If students don’t want to make a trip, they can launch MyCloud and run any application they want through their personal computer. They are working on these Cloud softwares. He also said that they will work in forwarding the tickets to necessary people to make sure everybody gets the response they need on time.
- Scott said that the SIS is over 20 years old, and that they have been using the code to bring changes for the last 11 years. He said that since they have this flexibility, students can give feedback on what they want to see improved.
- Slade said that she faced some difficulties logging back to the system sometimes as her password wouldn’t get verified. She asked if there is any assistance provided with this, and where students can go to get IT support. Graham asked if this is for a specific site, to which Slade said her email. Since her email is connected to the Outlook app, she keeps getting asked to log in. Scott said that it is something he experiences too and is a forced security implemented. He said that the alert pops up once every two weeks. Slade, as a dual degree student, also asked if there is any work to make the situation easier. She has two SIS accounts and they submit an excel sheet to register for classes. Scott said that he can talk with Slade on the technical background on this and that they have someone working on this. Slade said that she’d be interested in talking about this at another time.
- Kroumov thanked them for presenting today. He asked how long it takes to implement changes to SIS. Spencer said that it is hard to say as it depends on what is being updated and which school the tool is connected to. They are currently replacing other softwares, so SIS will be replaced in 5 years.
- Buse asked about SIS and registration issues, specifically with the bandwidth of registration and if IT is planning on any changes for that experience. Louie said that internet cables are made free for people living in residential dorms. He said that the best way to sign up for classes is to use cable and wireless wifi can not be trusted. Spencer said that they actively work on testing them. Load on the servers ramps up automatically, and it starts from the first person who registered and goes until the last person. Graham can tell the wireless team to keep an eye out for the dates so that they can perform the corrective tests. Spencer said that the registration is done within the first 10 minutes.
- Oruganty talked about the computers IT has been buying. She asked if they consider the sustainability matrix, for example whether they consider recyclable toner. All the cartridges get recycled by HP, according to Louie. This is not something they talked about for the full scale, but they make an effort to recycle everything they can. Graham said that there aren’t any programs specific to this at this point in time.
- Velasquez asked about the Krieger Lab STAR stations. She asked if these could be implemented to another location on campus outside of residential dorms as many upperclassmen require to access these. Louie said that they didn’t do any advertisement for Krieger Lab, so it was a surprise to them that they became so popular. He is aware of this situation, and he has his eye on HSC. There isn’t a plan for that, yet, but if there is enough student support, he can work on this. One of the disadvantages of Hopkins is that they have to reach out to separate divisions like KSAS and WSE to use the spaces in buildings.
- Tanisha Taneja asked about Semester.ly, which is out of SIS. She wondered if this could be implemented directly to SIS. Spencer said that they can work on it, but he would like to see what exactly Semester.ly does that SIS can’t. Fernandez said that Semester.ly allows one to go back and estimate when a class will be; it also makes seeing what other sections would look better. Spencer also said that they were told which years to show by the school.
- scott.spencer@jhu.edu, graham@jhu.edu
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (5 min)
- Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- There weren’t any significant updates.
- Advisor Report (2 min)
- Cabinet Reports (4 min)
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
First Reading
Second Reading
Senior Memorabilia - Chair Tim Huang
- Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.
Copa America
- Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.
Junior Formal CO-OP WITH HOPTHON - Chair Tim Huang
- There will be a collaboration with HopTHON for Junior Class Formal as their budget is significantly low. Finance and Junior Class Council approved these changes.
- Motion to vote passed. Motion to pass the bill also passed.
Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
- Motion to adjourn also passed.