JHU SGAThe 114th Session
← All documents

Civic Engagement Committee Meeting — Minutes (112th Session)

Minutes / Committee · minutes · 112th session · dated September 15, 2024 · updated October 27, 2024

Filed in Drive as “CE Minutes”

Open the original in Google Docs ↗

This document is from a previous session and is kept for the record. It may have been amended or replaced since.

112th Senate Committee on Civic Engagement

Date: 9/15/2024 Time: 12:00-1:00pm Location: CSC 3rd floor Present: Angela Xiong (Committee Chair), Willow Goode (CSC Civic Life Specialist), Jackson Morris, Ethan Edelstein, , Prisha Agrawal, Lucy Landry, Yashas Mallikarjun Absent (Excused): Absent (Unexcused): Leon Ye, Hailey Saya Tomlinson, Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo, Jacquelyn Slade

  • Meeting began at 12:07pm
  • Introductions for new members
  • Willow: 9/17 is a big day for the CSC, NVRD; will have food, student dressed as Jay, located on the Beach from 11-3pm.
  • Willow: Described HopTalks: Voter suppression (passed), Project 2025 (soon), future events.
  • Willow: If CE would like to continue to be a co-sponsor of these events, can send information to the committee for our review.
  • Willow: Vice Presidential Debate Party (potentially) on 10/1. Would be great to have CE cosponsor. Absentee Ballot party also coming up. Election night watch party on November 5th. Post election debrief, SNF Agora also hosting one; SNF is more academic, CE is more of a safe space.
  • Yashas: Adding our sponsorship to the debate would be something that likely the entire SGA would be opening to co-sponsoring; no risk of potential one-sidedness as raised with the “What is Project 2025?” talk.
  • Willow: Honorarium cost too high for many of the ppl we have reached out to.
  • Yashas: Could a member of the College Republicans step in for an outside speaker?
  • Willow: For the HopTalks series, we want to have professionals rather than students. Faculty and external speakers would be best. SNF Agora hosts a debate between the College Republicans and College Democrats already.
  • Angela: Will there at least be resources provided to frame the other side of the discussion?
  • Willow: Dr. Blanks Jones will give an introduction to the talk to set the stage. HopTalks is a CSC event, not a Hopkins Votes event.
  • Jackson: Did you manage to get a moderator?
  • Willow: No; haven’t been able to get any of the Hopkins Votes Ambassadors
  • Yashas: Have you reached out to MUN/Debate?
  • Willow: Yes, have not been successful so far?
  • Willow: Duties of the student moderator: Introduce the bios of all of the speakers. Field questions from the audience.
  • Jackson: Volunteered to step in if needed as moderator.
  • Jackson: Nasreen approved absence for 9/17 moderator.
  • Willow: Dr. Blanks Jones will intervene if necessary to help keep the conversation on track.
  • Willow: No funding for student transportation to DC.
  • Willow: Hopkins Semester in DC and International Studies provided 30 spots; May not have been well advertised
  • Angela: Would be interested in talking to the administrator in charge of these decisions
  • Jackson: Can bring this request to the SGA executive branch as it is a follow up to other conversations we have had with the BoT, Dean of KSAS, and CSAC.
  • Angela: Talk about bills that directly impact the students at Hopkins
  • Jackson: Reach out to GCE and talk about Capital Day and limitations of student advocacy to make sure we are on the same page as GCE.
  • Angela: Does anyone on the committee know of student orgs. who are interested in advocacy?
  • Yashas: Some of the pre-medical associations
  • Jackson: UAEM
  • Jackson: Talked about SGA’s responsibilities regarding non-profit status of the University/advocacy with other student groups.
  • Angela: Will create an agenda for out meeting with GCE and share with all members of the committee.
  • Action Items
  • Jackson — Bring up transportation to and from DC to SGA Executive Branch
  • Jackson — Bring up intent to have conversations with GCE to SGA Executive Branch
  • Angela — Create agenda for meeting with GCE

Date: 9/08/2024 Time: 12:00-1:00pm Location: CSC Conference Room Present: Angela Xiong (Committee Chair), Willow Goode (CSC Civic Life Specialist), Jackson Morris, Ethan Edelstein, , Prisha Agrawal, Lucy Landry (Virtual), Olivia Hatcher (Member of the public) Absent (Excused): Jordan Craig-Schwartz (dropped), Tanisha Taneja (dropped), Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo (sick) Absent (Unexcused): Leon Ye, Hailey Saya Tomlinson

  • Meeting began with introductions. Angela gave a background on the committee’s activities.
  • Willow: There will be a HopTalk dialogue on Monday, 9/9 12-2pm talk on Voter Suppression. On 9/10 at 8:30pm there will be a debate watch party at the LaB.
  • Willow: Spoke to Tim Huang about an event about national voter registration day (September 17th). All hands on deck, will need volunteers to help with set-up; staffing an SGA table; need a volunteer to be “Jay” the mascot on that day; have a BBQ, party atmosphere. Hopkins Votes photo booth will be there. 11am-3pm on the Beach. Will start set-up around 10am.
  • Willow: What is Project 2025? talk on September 17th, set-up around 7pm-10pm. Will have Dr. Whitehead from Loyola of Maryland, political commentator Joel Paine, Dr. Lester Spence; tried to get both Republican and Democrat specialists but were unable to due to scheduling constraints.
    • College Democrats on-board to cosponsor; College Republicans are pending: would like to have a conservative voice at the event. IDEAL: Civic Discourse club, non-partisan, voiced their concerns and they said no thank you due to partisan concerns.
    • Jackson: Explained potential reservations by SGA and by IDEAL, would prefer if the College Republicans would be willing to co-sponsor in order to reduce concerns surrounding potential partisanship.
    • Angela: Has SNF signed on
    • Willow: SNF may be looking into their own debate on Project 2025. Have not affirmed their sponsorship stance yet.
    • Willow: Would like a moderator, either from this committee or another member of SGA/student.
  • Jackson: Discussion on co-sponsorship regulations for the committee.
  • Willow: Have a default “hopkins is a nonprofit does not endorse etc.”
  • Ethan: Our co-sponsorship indicates that SGA supports the student body’s ability to host and have events, but it is beneficial to keep a universally accessible message for events.
  • Prisha: Not sure what criteria we could have about co-sponsoring events, could have a message underneath our logo on the sponsorship form.
  • Willow: Not all events are politically charged, discussion on AI as an example of less politically charged HopTalks event.
  • Ethan: Emphasis of our inclusion is to provide a platform, can use words around academic freedom to meet this standard.

Olivia Hatcher arrived at 12:30pm

  • Olivia gave an introduction of her idea about a civic engagement fair at JHU. Small organizations near Baltimore sometimes get overlooked by Hopkins students, want to provide a platform for students to get involved with them.
  • Olivia: Ideal — want to have the event in October, around the beginning of the Semester in the future.
  • Round of introductions.
  • Willow: Definitely think that this event is something the CSC could possibly do. Depends on capacity of the CSC (staffing-wise and budget-wise). Realistically we cannot pull this together in a month, potential for Spring.
  • Jackson: Presented connection to President’s Day of Service reimagined— good way to
  • Olivia: Nearby organization for adults with disabilities: Make Studio; want to help raise the profile of smaller organizations in Baltimore.
  • Jackson: Members of the public can join committees, invited Olivia to join CE
  • Ethan: Great to have a list/contact list of small organizations in Baltimore. The more we can get involved with Baltimore the better.
  • Olivia: Could try to put together the list in less than a month
  • Angela: Would you want to do this just for undergrads or other campuses too?
  • Olivia: Member of CSAC and think it would be good to continue these involvements on a University-wide scale; however, for the first pass it would be easier and more efficient to focus on undergrads. Want to provide additional ways to volunteer in a way that complements existing methods such as the CIIP.
  • Angela: From the CSC’s perspective, can you give more context on the limitations?
  • Willow: So many events going on in October but Spring event planning hasn’t begun yet for most departments. Lots of planning goes into large events such as Democracy Day and similar considerations of staff time, costs, etc. are necessary. Leadership team at the CSC will discuss this proposal.
  • Jackson, Angela, Olivia: Shared experiences from our freshman Democracy Day experiences.
  • Olivia: Would like to brand it as “Student Community Involvement Fair.
  • Angela: Dr. Blanks-Jones asked if we’d like to participate in the October 26th Mayor’s Fall Clean-Up. Committee supports the idea of the event.
  • Jackson: Good to get more information on timeframe, transportation, location, what students need to bring and be aware of going into the event.

12:51

  • Returned to co-sponsorship talk
  • Willow: Project 2025 has a number of elements to it that would affect higher education, speakers will historically ground the event by talking about how political movements engage in policy development like Project 2025.
  • Angela: How will speakers be asked to stay relatively apolitical?
  • Willow: Freedom to speakers to talk about issues, but focus on political
    • Action items:
      • Committee: What specific guidelines do we have for cosponsorship?
      • Angela: Bring Project 2025 event to GBM for cosponsorship?
      • Committee: Figure out what SGA members are able to attend the upcoming events.
      • Jackson: Send CSAC meeting time and connect w/committee leadership.