112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Senate Meeting #18 February 4, 2025 / 07:15 PM / Hackerman B17 AGENDA
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
a. Excused Absentees: Jacquelyn Slade, Ryan Alezz, Zachary Bahar, Zaynab Mirza b. Unexcused Absentees: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Ethan Edelstein, Adithyan Neelamana, Amy Xu
- Convening Business (40 min)
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (5 min)
a. Cabinet Reports (4 min) b. Advisor Report (2 min)
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
a. Upcoming Guests/ Decorum- President Nasreen Naqvi b. The Board of Committee Chairs Initiative- Senator Daarian Rouhani
- First Reading
a. Club Columbia Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo b. ABSA Funding Bill- Nasreen Naqvi
- Second Reading
a. Speed Dating Bill- Chair Tim Huang i. Presentation ii. Date: Feb 22nd iii. Evening 7pm Great Hall
- 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 #18 February 4, 2025 / 07:15 PM / Hackerman B17 MINUTES
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
a. Excused Absentees: Jacquelyn Slade, Ryan Alezz, Zachary Bahar, Zaynab Mirza b. Unexcused Absentees: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Ethan Edelstein, Adithyan Neelamana, Amy Xu
- Convening Business (40 min)
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
a. Agenda was approved.
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (5 min)
a. Cabinet Reports (4 min) i. Executive President Stone Meng thanked everyone who attended the Student Government Summit as they represented the JHU SGA successfully. ii. Executive Vice President Amy Li informed the SGA that the Executive Branch met with Brittani Brown and Johns Hopkins Facilities & Real Estate. The meeting was followed by a conversation with Brown about upcoming updates in study places. iii. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that Lee Hawthorne will visit the SGA meeting soon. iv. Chair of Programming Tim Huang informed that the formal dates have been confirmed:
- Sophomore Formal - March 1st
- Junior Formal - March 28th
- Freshman Formal - April 12th
v. Since Treasurer Brandon Benjamin was not in the meeting at this point, Finance Committee Chair Oluwakemi Abiodun informed that they are mostly done with allocations. b. Advisor Report (2 min)
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
c. Upcoming Guests/ Decorum- President Nasreen Naqvi i. Naqvi heard back from every admin they reached out to. As the dates get ascertained, they will visit the GBM to answer questions and conduct presentations. Undergraduate Admissions, Off-Campus Housing and many more will come to the GBM. Naqvi said that SGA members are not expected to dress up for most of these, but Naqvi asked the members to still look presentable and avoid eating in front of them. She will inform everyone about who will be visiting that day through an email, so she asked everybody to think about what they want to ask about before the meeting. There will be strict speakers lists. Naqvi asked people to not repeat things and avoid turning these into a rant session. ii. Amy: Be mindful of what you ask and what you comment. Admin etiquette is important. iii. Nasreen: IT will come in about Wi-Fi, there will be Dining updates. Next week, Off-Campus Housing will be here. d. The Board of Committee Chairs Initiative- Senator Daarian Rouhani i. Daar: Part of a panel in the breakout session, talked about our SGA structure and learned about other SGAs’ structures. We have a cabinet, which is the executive branch, but he had the idea of creating one for committee chairs where they can meet once every 2 weeks. He didn’t even know Tarini was working on the Remsen chairs until she said it. No one checks the initiatives tracksheet, so why not have a committee chairs board? ii. Motion for a 5 minute Q&A iii. Yashas: Good idea, but not every committee needs to meet. Like Finance. iv. Daar: Disagreed. We feel this way because we don’t know what they are busy doing. If we knew, we could provide help if necessary. v. Srigouri: Likes the idea, would be good for HSS, which overlaps with Civic Engagement and Student Services. Remembers confusion from last year with the arrangement of transportation for an event, so this would be good to not have those situations again. vi. Omotara: Doesn’t think communication is an issue. SGA is already a time commitment. As opposed to having full fledged meetings because we may not have enough to discuss we could have another way to increase communication. vii. Daar: People should be checking excel sheet more. I hadn’t envisioned a formal meeting, just a check in to see if it would be fruitful to hold a meeting. It’s also easier to do on Zoom. No point in meeting if there’s nothing to discuss. viii. Tarini: Likes it but all committee chairs could put in comments onto a google doc after every meeting for people to read and they can reach out if they need help. People have busy schedules and meetings would be a pain or we could do a quick meeting afterwards. ix. Stone: agree with Srigouri, but it is up to the committee chairs. Committee chairs could stay off GBM for 5-10 minutes to update, saving time. Like the idea of having a channel to update on meetings every week. From the summit, learnt that another group holds a regular council called WTF (what to fix), we could hold this with the students to ask them what they would like to fix like chairs in Remsen x. Kemi: Good idea, a doc isn’t interactive. Increases transparency , even if it’s finance other committee issues can come up. Could help for committees too, not just the chairs. 30 minutes is doable. Seconds the motion. xi. Daar: have a quick in and out meeting, as chair he does the least amount of work and can contribute. xii. Nasreen: good opportunity to keep me updated with committees. Would like to be kept in the loop. Can do it once a month to start off, could be right after the GBM. xiii. Daar: takes responsibility of keeping Nasreen and Stone in the loop. We don’t have to do it if it’s too much of a time commitment.
- First Reading
c. Club Columbia Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo i. Sarah Marquez and Catalina Hernandez Valencia. ii. Catalina: Looking to get the support of SGA. iii. Saturday, April 26th. Homewood Training Fields. Students represent one of the eight countries, which are listed in the bill. iv. Open to the entire Hopkins Community. v. Sarah: Started three years ago, has grown since then. More than 100 attendees but expecting much more this year. Raised more than 250 usd for charity last year. Unites all latinos. vi. You can play or just come for the food, music, full-day event. vii. Supplies needed are linked, includes food to keep players hydrated, funds are around 1400 usd. viii. Cynthia: Not sure how much Club Colombia will be able to contribute to funds but the numbers will be updated soon. Everything will be from Amazon. Will definitely be updated by next week. ix. Sarah: We have stuff that we can reuse next year x. Tarini: Do we have picnic blankets? Are we able to get canopies from Hopkins without having to buy it and saving 200 usd. xi. Cynthia: You still have to pay for the rental (Nasreen also supported) xii. Moses: Asked this question to other clubs. Are there fees or other sources of income? xiii. Catalina: Players pay a fee but we donate the profits. xiv. Yashas: Since this will come out of SGA’s discretionary budget, why can’t this be an event budget. xv. Cynthia and Catalina: For SGA to co-host and this is a big event. xvi. Stone: We sponsored this last year, so we can sponsor it this year, too. Since this is a recurring event, maybe buy the canopies instead of renting or buying it everytime. Can reach out to outdoor pursuits to rent canopies. xvii. Jaden: Motion to move to Finance Committee. d. ABSA Funding Bill- Nasreen Naqvi i. Nasreen: Sister organization to JHMA (ABSA) want to do a collaboration between other schools, they have already agreed. Hosting ice skating at Hopkins, need to buy pizzas, drinks, associated supplies. Cost is 230 usd.
- Second Reading
b. Speed Dating Bill- Chair Tim Huang i. Presentation ii. Date: Feb 22nd iii. Evening 7pm - 9pm Great Hall iv. Format: People come in, whistle, 4 minutes, choose a question and answer it in 4 minutes, change. v. Srigouri: What if people want to stay with the person they like? vi. Tim: Everyone has to rotate, but you can always find that person later. Won’t force everyone to rotate. After 4 minutes, 1 minute grace period. At the end, you can even write postcards and give it to them. vii. Motion for 5 minute moderated caucus
- Cynthia: Remembers watching a matchmaking
show and there they don’t make people share their contact information. Rather people say yes, no about everyone. If people say yes to each other, we send contact information.
- Buse: make it a google form, combine it with a
feedback form.
- Tim: Just need to figure out the logistics and phone
numbers. Also we will probably need volunteers, like Daar asked.
- Omotara: How many people are allowed to
volunteer for this event? Suggested paper for contact info again. Could we do “Pop the Balloon” if this event goes well?
- Tim: No more than 6 volunteers. But SGA members
can join. We can see about paper or form. If this event goes well. What is Pop the Balloon?
- Omotara: Explained the procedure. Someone walks
in, if the others don’t like it, they pop the balloon.
- Nasreen: We should decide on the supplies first.
- Cynthia: Add 5 more USD in case you need more
printing.
- Danial: To make it more inclusive, reach out to CDI.
Mary Rose or Isaac …
- Amy: Can there be an SGA sponsored dinner date
for the matches?
- Tim: We can’t afford to pay for too many dates.
12.Jazz: Will people sign up? How are we going to know if people will show up for sure. Do advertising, like a video.
- Tim: We could make a video, I have video editing
experience if people are willing. 14.Buse: to ensure we don’t have empty seats, say that we will be accepting people from the waitlist if they show up. We could also have SGA members hanging around.
- Tim: No waitlist, but people can walk in. Get people
to sign up, advertise it. We have 40 people here, just make sure you bring 1 or 2 people to the event. 16.Nasreen: Questions about the bill?
- Kevin: Motion to vote on the bill?
- Passed.
- 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.