Senate General Body Meeting #20 — Agenda (02/18/25)

112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #20

February 18, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17

AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   1. Excused Absentees: Justin Pokrant, Sun Moon, Johnalys Ferrer, Lucy Landry, Jacquelyn Slade, Brandon, Kemi, Zoe, Sean, Anisha, Nayshawn, Ryann, Kevin, Alex
   2. Unexcused Absentees:

2. Convening Business (40 min)

3. Presentation from Off Campus Living

4. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

5. Public Input (3 min)

6. Reports (5 min)

   1. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
      1. Speed Dating Tabling: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qvz2Vtg0eAS2Wk-13HdvF76Nx6Ic3OK_yMa4ysxH_Ok/edit?usp=sharing
   2. Advisor Report (2 min)2

7. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

8. Mentorship Survey- Senator Tanisha Taneja & Amy Xu
9. SGA Mental Health event discussion - Chair Tim Huang & Senator Srigouri Oruganty

10. First Reading

11. SGA - Alumni Bill- Chair Tim Huang
    1. Presentation https://www.canva.com/design/DAGfgLaqn1Y/fZnyeOh4Fn_DphJHsHPOHQ/view?utm_content=DAGfgLaqn1Y&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h9099f673bf

12. Second Reading

13. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

14. 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 #20

February 18, 2025 / 07:20 PM / Hackerman B17

AGENDA

11. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

    1. Excused Absentees: Justin Pokrant, Sun Moon, Johnalys Ferrer, Lucy Landry, Jacquelyn Slade, Brandon, Kemi, Zoe, Sean, Anisha, Nayshawn, Ryann, Kevin, Alex
    2. Unexcused Absentees:

12. Convening Business (40 min)

13. Presentation from Off Campus Living
    1. Robbie Horwitz, Living Coordinator
    2. Reached out to us because students and staff are not aware of the Off-Campus Housing office. Not only for moving process but also after move in.
    3. When she was 28, she got her first job and realized “you don’t know what you don’t know.” A lot of issues students come to her about are things that they could have resolved if they were made aware of it beforehand, so they would do things differently.
    4. Four members in the Off-Campus Office. She showed the flyers - Roommate Finder - that have information on how to find housing, notice scams, and more. It’s the main forum they send everyone to first.
    5. After you find the housing, how to manage water/heat not working, maintenance request, follow up, details, did they send a text but you opted out of the text? Lots of ins and outs.
    6. Hana Hasan, Director
    7. Jon Walter, Student/Community Liaison - can help out if you need to borrow lawn mowers etc
    8. Jelytza Padro, Transition Coordinator - Horwitz’s roles overlap with hers. Works with sophomores as they transition to off-campus. Horwitz works with juniors who are living off-campus.
    9. Community flyers → mostly targeted for sophomores
    10. Utilities, financial aid. Organized a workshop, 30 people signed up, no one showed up. Was planning to ask questions like “What do you wish you'd known before moving out?”
    11. Left all the stuff on the table for us to check out.
    12. Off-Campus Database - offcampushousing.jhu.edu. Asked which class everybody is in and whether we’ve ever heard of this website before.
    13. Row houses to flats can be found on this website. Juniors and seniors → if you live in a row home, at the end of the year, they do visits where they pick up junk, donations, etc.
    14. Community tree planting, partnering with Tree Baltimore and other organizations.
    15. Community clean up event, the park that’s by the farmers’ market.
    16. Horwitz: What does it take to get students to scan a QR code?
    17. Moses: Information needs to be something that’s additional to something he can find outside? He feels like his time is spent better by applying to places and visiting them rather than going to events.
    18. Horwitz: Had two students come to the office, they asked their lease to be checked, so she gave them a print out with things to look out for in a lease. Students also are not aware of the services they offer, like a lot of people are not aware that after moving in, you have 15 days to schedule a walk through with the property manager. How can she connect “you don’t know what you don’t know” to fun events?
    19. Tim: Educational ones → what channels have you been going through right now?
    20. Horwitz: Flyers, Instagram (not sharing as often as she’d like to because she is a single person office).
    21. Jelytza is connected to RAs, Horwitz is not, which is the challenge.
    22. Vishnu: Are you able to email juniors and seniors directly?
    23. Horwitz: Yes. We also have a sophomore newsletter. Will send an email this week for this month’s events.
    24. Tyler: Asked about the times of the events, suggested to organize them in noon instead.
    25. Daar: Believes that morning or noon works better.
    26. Jenny: Scrolling through the emails she got. Part of the issue, got one email this year. Used to send a monthly newsletter, so now she only sends things out when she has something to send out. Subject-wise → should be more attention grabbing. “What you need to know before moving off campus”, “When should you start looking for housing?””.
    27. Jenny: Also do not start with “Off campus housing”.
    28. Daar: Use emojis.
    29. Jenny: Keep subject lines short.
    30. Danial: Suggested going to the rec center. Personally goes there often. Upperclassmen are usually there.
    31. Tarini: QR codes on TVs.
    32. Horwitz: Used to be one, but then it got removed.
    33. Tarini: She has been seeing it.
    34. Horwitz: I can reach out to our communications person and ask.
    35. Arihant: Students tend to ask advice from upperclassmen. Asking people in your design team “Hey, where did you leave?” People mostly look for drop-in, quick advice, rather than an event. They don’t want to spend too much time.
    36. Buse: Chick fil a event at Nine East seemed pretty effective because there is incentive to go like free food and a person to ask for advice. Also, use questions in subject lines, like “do you know what to do if something is broken in your house?” This would get people to read through emails.
    37. Srigouri: Tabling at the Breezeway is a good way to engage with people. You’ll get a mix of students but still you’ll be able to show your flyers.
    38. Tarini: Sending the flyers to people living off-campus. Ask people to text you questions and you can respond to them on Instagram. People won’t go out of their way to go to events but they will shoot you a quick message.
    39. Horwitz: Stopped using Instagram a while ago. Also, an artist, so she is particular with how things look.
    40. Jazzlyn: For her to come to an event, there should be information provided along with the activity.
    41. Moses: There is already a plethora of information about housing in Maryland. For the meetings to be attractive, there needs to be more information than you can get online, or it needs to be more efficient than what you can get online.
    42. Jordyn: Lives in a rowhome, lived in 9East last year. It would have been useful to know there were rakes and shovels available. Emailing all of that to us although it is not completely relevant at that point would be useful. Question → Curious as to what the office would do if some students have issues with landlords.
    43. Horwitz: Can not force anyone to do anything but we can point out things that are obviously illegal and give advice. Baltimore 311 → free city service, bulk trash pickup and recycling, if they attempt to fix it but it keeps getting broken, 311 housing inspector comes and gives them 30 days to fix it. There are commercial properties they have relationships with. No stakes, management.
    44. Arihant: Besides events, the Academy has predatory policies.
    45. Horwitz: Doesn’t know anything, same Academy policies now as school doesn’t manage it yet.
    46. Arihant: On the website, they give you a price, then they change the price after. Confused as to why Hopkins owned housing seems greedy.
    47. Horwitz: Even those that are not connected to Hopkins can change everyday. Doesn’t wanna get into this too much as she doesn’t have enough information. Nothing change with the management, doesn’t know if it will change in the future. Incoming juniors might not be able to renew their lease.
    48. Tarini: Some people think these buildings are managed by Hopkins. It should be obvious that they are not on the websites.
    49. Horwitz: Doesn’t know every building they have a relationship with. Doesn’t like blanket advice.
    50. Cynthia: They could have a statement specifying
    51. Horwitz: You can’t assume things, though. You should do your research. Once you leave your dorm at Hopkins, it’s not Hopkins anymore.
    52. Nas: Thank you! If anyone has any follow up questions, they can reach out after the meeting.

14. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

    1. Move to approve the agenda.
    2. Cynthia wanted to table Club Columbia Funding Bill.
    3. ABSA removed as it was rejected in Finance.
    4. Agenda approved.

15. Public Input (3 min)

    1. 3 simple requests - requesting more money for the APL, wants SGA to divert most of its funding.

16. Reports (5 min)

    1. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
       1. Amy: Stone’s announcement- met with Dr. Brown and other university leadership regarding student life.
       2. Srigouri referred to Cynthia and Nayshawn.
       3. Cynthia: Talked about student experience once they get here and what we want them to see and feel. Carnival idea and wellness week. Grow and expand such events more. Think about things that they lacked in their experience when they first got to campus.
       4. Tim: Speed dating is a full go. Need a lot more volunteers, go into the document to find the roles. Any amount of volunteers is good. Send reminders.
       5. Buse: How do people know if they are in the event list or waitlist?
       6. Tim: Anyone who registers can come. We are not at full capacity yet.
       7. Nasreen: Business casual equivalent on March 4th. Admissions (Dean Cho and his team), Mental Health, IT, 30 minutes each. Strictly informative session, no legislative business or anything of the sort. Don’t have computers out. Have legitimate questions, don’t catch them off guard.
    2. Advisor Report (2 min)

17. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

    1. Mentorship Survey- Senator Tanisha Taneja & Amy Xu

       1. Few weeks ago, they talked about starting a mentorship program within SGA, similar to bigs and littles. Created questions that would be helpful to send out to mentors and mentees. Including fun, personality questions too.
       2. Jazz: Is this going to the next class of freshmen?
       3. Tanisha: Yes and the new senators that enter in April
       4. Jazz: For freshmen, they may still be finding their footings with extracurriculars, maybe change it to “what extracurriculars would you like to be a part of”
       5. Dar: Add a question like, “What are you most confused about”, or “what is the first thing you want to learn about”
       6. Tim: Similar to surveying senators on what they are planning on doing on SGA and what do you want to know more about related to that.
       7. Buse: For 8g, will the mentor and mentee be matched if they choose the same option? I am goal-driven and ambitious but I am not sure I would get along with someone who is goal-driven and ambitious. Maybe consider not matching directly.
       8. Amy: The personality type may be a stretch, are you going to put two people with the same personality together?
       9. Amy Xu: May help have an understanding of the vibe before you meet someone.
       10. Amy: Maybe pair chaotic personalities. Also, include another question on “why did you join SGA?”, or “what do you want to do in SGA?”
       11. Arihant: Give the freshmen an option to put the name of somebody they want to be their mentor based on who they already know, like “if you have a specific mentor in mind…” They may want to build on an existing relationship.
       12. Nasreen: What are the next steps?
       13. Tanisha: Making the changes, finalizing it, and then sending it out when the new people have been inducted.
       14. Amy: Want to be proactive, so they want to push these all as soon as possible.
       15. Nas: We might be a little expired as we only have a month left. Collaborate with the new members coming in. Once they are elected, reach out to them and start pairing people right then. Reach out to Luke.

    2. SGA for Charity discussion - Chair Tim Huang

       1. Tim: Mental health event through SGA. Have been talking to Active Minds. Ideas like sending the silence, an event on campus where you can say mental health stories. Another idea is on snack packs, trying to expand it beyond giving basic snacks.
       2. Srigouri: Trying to find the best way to engage students. Trying to engage the students who need it the most.
       3. Jason: Why is it called SGA for charity?
       4. Tim: Forgot to change it, not about charity. Original idea kind of got shifted.
       5. Jason: Mental health for people in SGA or student body?
       6. Tim: Student body.
       7. Srigouri: SGA people are welcome to join.
       8. Danial: Have a mental health event revolving around academics if you are interested in taking it in that route.
       9. Srigouri: We could do both
       10. Adi: What form would this take? Would it refer to existing resources? What does it realistically look like?
       11. Tim: It’s not about getting people into these services. It’s more about getting out the information about how important mental health is. Sending the silence is where a company brings in backpacks about people with mental health events and it's like an exhibit. The snack pack could be bigger than just giving out snacks to students. Srigouri talked about potentially reaching out to counsellors so they can tell the students who are getting counseling and make a support group.
       12. Srigouri: There can also be education on coping mechanisms.
       13. Tarini: Have you thought about involving other clubs like a Place To Talk?
       14. Tim: Yes, Active Minds and Health and Wellbeing
       15. Tyler: Mental health office really wants to come on campus and talk to students about it. We could do it in collaboration with the other organizations and make it a big event.
       16. Jazz: Their biggest concerns is they don’t know how to reach the students or what kind of event.
       17. Tyler: One day with multiple different stations and multiple different activities would be good to engage.
       18. Is this coming in the future or is it already going on?
       19. Tim: coming in the future
       20. Folks over at health and wellbeing are hosting out of the darkness walk on April 5th. Promotes awareness on mental health.

18. First Reading

    1. SGA - Alumni Bill - Chair Tim Huang

       1. Tim: Spring retreat. People wanted it. Annie Koogle. Not mandatory. Fun spring retreat as we are about to expire. In Hampden, BlueBird Cocktail Room. During alumni weekend.
       2. Past SGA alumni will be invited to the event. Meet & Greet event. Free food, mocktails for those in SGA. Fancy meet and greet.
       3. Maximum will be 2000 USD. In line with spring retreat. Will probably be less.
       4. Jazz: This is the spring retreat?
       5. Tim: Yes.
       6. Amy: Clarification, close to campus, so we can take a Blue Jay shuttle.
       7. Tim: No alcohol because we would have to get security.
       8. Zach: So we can’t go and buy alcohol if we’re older than 21?
       9. Tim: To my understanding, no, specifically for this event. But I can talk to Annie. A form will be sent out to see how many people are interested.

19. Second Reading

20. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

21. Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

    1. Motion to adjourn the meeting passed.

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.