Senate General Body Meeting #4 — Minutes (09/03/24)

JHU Student Government Association Senate Meeting #4 September 3, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17 MINUTES

2. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

h. Absentees: i. Excused: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Nayshawn Ferebee, Avishi Garg, Hailey Saya Tomlinson, Shruti Tyagi, Amy Xu ii. Unexcused: Omar Gharib, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Leon Ye

2. Convening Business (20 mins)

i. Motions to postpone the CSE amendment, start the meeting, and approve the agenda were given and passed.

3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
4. Public Input (3 min)
5. Reports (10 min)

j. Cabinet Reports (4 min) i. Executive Team - Exec

1. Student Body President Stone Meng informed the

senate that an SGA email was sent out today, which includes a general survey about the MSE renovation and Student Center delay along with information regarding Well-Being Day and SGA’s goals for this year.

2. He added that if anyone wants to take up on an

initiative after getting inspired by the responses to this survey, they can let him know. He’s planning to start a separate group on this, so anyone interested in joining can let him know. ii. There were no other significant updates from the board. iii. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia asked to clarify if the MSE amendment got postponed or moved to second reading, to which President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi responded that it was postponed. k. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell i. Advisor Jessica Snell also didn’t have any other significant updates.

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

d. Committee Placements Finalized i. Naqvi asked all chairs to announce their committee meeting times. She reiterated that if the members can’t make it to these times, they should inform her and fill out the committee switch form. The times are as follows:

1. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani announced that Internal

Affairs will meet on Thursdays from 7 to 8 PM at LaB.

2. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun announced

that Finance will meet on Tuesdays from 5:45 to 6:45 PM at LaB.

3. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty announced that

HSS will meet on Fridays from 4:30 to 5:30 PM at Brody.

4. Programming Chair Tim Huang announced that

Programming will meet on Saturdays occasionally from 3 to 4 PM at Brody.

5. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy announced

(on Microsoft Teams) that Academic Affairs will meet from 7 to 8 PM on Wednesdays either at Brody or on Zoom.

6. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu announced

that Student Services will meet from 5 to 6 PM on Sundays either at LaB or virtually.

7. Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi will announce the

meeting time and place for RSO as soon as possible.

8. Senior Class President Angela Xiong announced that Civic

Engagement will meet at 12 PM on Sundays at the Center for Social Concern. e. Gen Bio Pilot Initiative - Senator Daarian Rouhani i. Rouhani announced his new initiative, which consists of bringing PILOT sessions for General Biology I and II. He explained that over 466 people registered for these two classes, showing that it’s a required class to take for a lot of people. He believes that due to the high demand for the course, organization of PILOT sessions to help students out with these classes is important. Rouhani wants to meet with the professors of these classes, who are Christov Roberson and Rebecca Shari Pearlman. He plans to send a survey out to have tangible data on the demand. He asked the senate’s opinion: Should he contact the professors or Jenna Hoffman, one of the PILOT organizers, first? ii. Secretary Buse Koldas recommended him to contact Hoffman first as there might be a reason why there aren’t PILOT sessions for General Biology I and II already. She also thinks that he shouldn’t proceed without letting PILOT know about this idea first. iii. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz suggested asking people who already took the class. Rouhani asked how he could contact these people and get their opinion as he believes this might be a tough thing to achieve. Alezz suggested Rouhani to find a few people with his connections and listen to their personal experiences. Rouhani explained that he might do that and added that he himself took this course personally and required academic support throughout the semester, which is why he’s suggesting PILOT sessions for the course. iv. Meng suggested Rouhani to send out the survey only if PILOT or the General Biology instructors decline his idea as the results could be used to strengthen his argument. Otherwise, Meng believes there’s no need for a survey. v. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamana asked a few questions, although he supports the idea. He asked Rouhani how he will proceed if he gets no as an answer, and on what time frame he seeks to achieve this on. Additionally, he pointed out that PILOT leaders get paid, meaning there might be budgetary constraints. Rouhani answered that he wants to start with a General Biology II PILOT next semester. If he finds out that PILOT does not have enough funding for General Biology PILOT Leaders, then he will show the interest for this PILOT and request it to be funded. vi. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that Rouhani would need to get the support of the TAs and LAs as they could be more available than professors. vii. Koldas speculated that one reason why PILOT sessions for this course might not be a thing is because PILOT organizers believe the program works better with courses like Calculus or Physics, which require problem solving rather than memorization. She suggested Rouhani to argue that Organic Chemistry PILOT sessions work great even though some parts of this class is also memorization. viii. Tiamiyu expressed her support for the idea. ix. Junior Class Senator Anisha Rasamsetty said that if this were to be opened by the spring semester, Hoffman would need to create a whole new application process to find PILOT leaders to teach this course, which might be inconvenient. x. In response to Koldas’ previous point, Abiodun said that it’s hard to compare Organic Chemistry to General Biology as chemistry requires more memorization while General Biology is conceptual. xi. Alezz suggested Rouhani to contact Joseph Cunningham if PILOT declines the request of creating sessions for General Biology. He believes that the Supplemental Review program could be great help to students if PILOT sessions can’t be formed. xii. Vice President Amy Li recommended Rouhani to contact the teaching staff and ask them to open up more office hours. Li thinks that creating PILOT sets might be harder for the professors as it requires them to write more problems, but office hours could be a good substitute. xiii. Xiong informed the senate that Learning Den might absorb the Organic Chemistry Initiative as the person leading it will graduate, so she suggested Rouhani to contact them for General Biology if PILOT sessions do not work out. xiv. After Rouhani turned back to his seat, Meng asked to address the senate. Meng asked everyone who presents an initiative to reach out to Director of Research Jason Shumsky as he is the person keeping track of the initiatives. xv. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade asked the committee switch form to be reshared for convenience. f. Well-Being Day- Senator Srigouri Oruganty i. Oruganty has been working on this school wide Well-Being Day for the past couple of months. Different wellness activities will take place on this event, which will be organized on September 11th (next Wednesday). All activities are highlighted in the presentation linked. Oruganty informed the SGA members that she needs volunteers, specifically for the hammock installations. She asked everyone to volunteer for a slot and explained that anyone (even those who are not in SGA) can volunteer for a slot. Volunteers from the SGA will get attendance credit as an incentive and a T-shirt.

7. Cohort Time (10 min)

ii. Naqvi said that today’s cohort time will be used to break some ice between the senators. She expressed that her aim is to allow members to get to know each other better. SGA Members played the icebreaker “I’ve got mail”.

8. First Reading

c. Senator of the Week Funding Bill - President Nasreen Naqvi i. Nasreen wants to facilitate this through a nomination form. Somebody will reveal the nominations (preferably someone who’s not eligible but it will be figured out in the future). ii. Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris motioned to move it to Finance, which passed. d. Rules Bill - Senator Jaden Garcia i. Garcia said that the Rules Bill shows how the meetings will be facilitated, which makes it significant. He added the presence of cohort times during the SGA meetings and changed a section in the By-Laws, which asked for a change in the number of academic senators that have to be present in the Academic Affairs committee. He believes that this number is too high, so he asked for it to be decreased. ii. Rouhani motioned to move it to Internal Affairs, which passed.

9. Second Reading

l. Crab Fest Bill - Maahi Ameer i. Ameer said that he received good clarifying questions last meeting, so he now wants to have a soft discussion about the numbers. He said that these were estimates because they were given by their vendors. Last year, they had an earning of almost 11k USD. He announced that they sold around 270 tickets and they didn’t even advertise yet. Only families from the Family Weekend website saw it yet, which shows that once it is advertised, they will sell even more tickets. ii. Naqvi said that when she was a freshman, this idea was proposed for the first time and rejected. After a year, it was brought back thanks to the hard work of the chapter. She asked for any questions or suggestions to be brought forward. iii. Alezz asked if this event was open to anyone in Baltimore or only to Hopkins people, to which Ameer responded that it’s for the Hopkins community as participants need to sign into Hopkins Groups to register. iv. Ameer recognized that some of the numbers that were discussed weren’t accurately reported. He explained that though in the document it looked like they spent a lot more and donated a lot less, to the point where the money donated was less than the amount they were asking from the SGA. He reassured the SGA that this wasn't the case. He expressed how important the funding they will get for this event is, to the point where they wouldn’t be able to turn on much greater profit without it. v. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin wants to know who else is contributing and how much funding they are allocating before approving the allocation. He explained that the bill was tabled in Finance, to which Garcia responded that this bill can not be voted on due to this reason. Benjamin said that he feels comfortable passing it next week. vi. Morris suggested a 10-minute recess to allow Finance to figure it out. vii. Ameer clarified that they’re not getting any other financial contributions. viii. Abiodun asked for a 10-minute recess for the finance committee and it passed. After the 10-minute recess, the senate came together to vote on the bill. ix. The bill passed. m. Fall Retreat (BILL) - Chair Tim Huang i. Huang shared the Fall Retreat bill, which is planned for 44 people. ii. Morris asked who sponsors the bill. Naqvi and Rouhani agreed to sponsor the bill. iii. Benjamin confirmed that this bill was passed by Finance. iv. A 5 minute Q&A with 1 minute speaking time was motioned by Garcia, which was failed by majority. v. Rouhani motioned to move to the voting procedure, which passed. vi. Garcia asked how Huang knows it will be 44 people, so Huang explained that 44 is the maximum number of people that will be attending according to his calculations. vii. The bill was voted on and passed.

10. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
11. 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 (10:00 PM over the summer) and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.