/111th JHU Student Government
Senate Meeting #21
February 27, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Shaffer 301
AGENDA
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
- Absentees:
- Excused:
- Unexcused:
- Present
- Absentees:
Convening Business (3 min)
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (17 min)
Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- Student Body President - President Ryan Chou
- Student Body Vice President - Vice President Jackson Morris
- Student Body Secretary - Secretary Amy Li
- Student Body Treasurer - Treasurer Jenny Chen
- Chair of Programming - Chair Shalala Leny
- Director of Communications - Director Connie Weng
- Director of Research - Director Jason Shumsky
- President of the Senate - President Nasreen Naqvi
- Advisor Report (2 min) - Dr. Charles Norman
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
- Mayor’s Day of Service- Senator Angela Xiong and Senator
Srigouri Oruganty
First Reading
- InterMSA Iftar Funding Bill- Senator Amani Benouardia
- OLÉ Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo
- Rage Room Funding Bill- Chair Shalala Leny
Second Reading
- SGA Community Connections- Senator Tyler Turner
- SGA Storytelling Event Funding Bill - Google Docs - Chair Shalala Leny
- Constitutional Amendment for Caucus Election Bill- Senator Molly Kuzma
Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
- Senator of the Week- President Nasreen Naqvi
- Attendance Check-Out - President Nasreen Naqvi
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 10:00 PM and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate
111th JHU Student Government
Senate Meeting #21
February 27, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Shaffer 301
AGENDA
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
- Absentees:
- Excused:
- Unexcused:
- Present
- Absentees:
Convening Business (3 min)
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (17 min)
Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- Student Body President - President Ryan Chou
- Currently doing preparations for the storytelling and the student life committee.
- Student Body Vice President - Vice President Jackson Morris
- What Ryan said.
- Student Body Secretary - Secretary Amy Li
- Working on the brief document, if there is anything that you want to mention on the document, please let us know!
- If you’re a sophomore, please join the Sophomore Garden Party at 8pm on March 8th.
- Student Body Treasurer - Treasurer Jenny Chen
- Jenny is absent.
- Chair of Programming - Chair Shalala Leny
- Program is going through their spring events, the MICA collaboration for the coffee house is this week, also tabling is going to be next week.
- Director of Communications - Director Connie Weng
- She already mentioned this, but they are trying to do introductions for all the senators, please respond if you haven’t already - if you are a new member, please reach out.
- Director of Research - Director Jason Shumsky
- Please respond to the student pay survey!
- Working with Ryan and Jackson and exec and working on the Board of Trustees survey
- President of the Senate - President Nasreen Naqvi
- Besides board of trustee stuff, if you plan on rerunning for SGA and want to rerun and haven’t been to the info sessions, the last one is tomorrow Hodson 213 from 7-8.
- Advisor Report (2 min) - Dr. Charles Norman
- Charles will be here after 7:30
- Student Body President - President Ryan Chou
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
- Mayor’s Day of Service- Senator Angela Xiong and Senator
Srigouri Oruganty
- Senator Angela: Originally, we wanted to do a president's day of service as there is a past day where we go out to the Baltimore Community and do volunteer work in the past. Civic engagement has been working with the CSC and wants to do a Mayors Day of service instead.
- Senator Srigouri: Three main pillars of activities: activities, education, and reflection. As SGA, we hope to help shape how Baltimore views Hopkins.
- They do not want people to see that we are saving Baltimore - they want to be more informed on how to approach Baltimore and find these surface opportunities and they want SGA to come together and come up with Ideas.
- President Stone: Motion for a 5 minute Moderated Caucus
- What can we as the student body actually help do:
- Answer: They want us as students to get the word out there, as well as ask about the best way to get into service and educate on the purpose of doing service.
- Senator Kemi: Another thing is one of the ideas is especially for freshmen, and the idea of democracy day, they want to alter democracy day. Because they have a lot of students dedicated to services, they want people to talk about their experiences on Democracy Day instead of just other presentations, so freshmen can get engaged with these other activities and hear from the other students. They want to share experiences, and not just what they’ve done, but how it’s impacted them. The students want to enjoy what they do and they want students to actually talk about these ideas.
- Senator Angela: This was apparently called a reflection component that the CSC wants to bring up.
- They want people to join, but also be committed for a period of time, such as a week or more.
- When they originally had President’s day of service, it was just 1 day, and it was hard to create long term connections and volunteer connections. With the president’s day of service, people are exposed early on and they would be able to stay more engaged for a longer time.
- Vice President Jackson: One of the things in the meeting was trying to find these long term service platforms - can SGA members add to these other resources?
- Contact Angela on teams
- Chief Justice Luc: Also with this event, it is good to help with the Baltimore Community as we can talk about how we can get more on hand with other initiatives. Luc mentions he is in service clubs, and he proposes to create some sort of list somewhere that has tailored interests - mentioned how campus groups are confusing relative to other avenues.
Shalala: This is a long term project, so is the goal going to be for the next freshman year, have volunteers to recruit from?
- Yes, volunteers wants to get people from freshman and pledge how much they want to do. In spring, it will become a celebration of showcasing what they’ve done, and then inspire other students to also be engaged.
- Cynthia: Another thing that will work is if we find these other opportunities, have students set up in groups for these service activities will be a lot easier and be more willing to engage. It would be good if we can get together a list of organizations then agree on times for groups of Hopkins students to commit and engage.
- Shruti: Speaking of words on campus, there are other service frats that would collaborate with these service opportunities - trying to connect to these other opportunities would be helpful. Alos, if we want to do engagement, if we make partners with others, people can just generally learn more about it - try to reach out.
- Another idea was primarily to educate why we should volunteer in the community.
- Omotara: People who sign up to volunteer would be able have to attend information sessions that will be hosted by people in charge, explain what volunteer is and how to volunteer with these active base mindsets in Baltimore, as well as educating more about how Baltimore works and how we interact with people as parts of the community. Then, after volunteering, have people that did these become the next teachers.
- Amani: Helpful to have testimonies for how people who did volunteer to actually talk about what they’ve done and how it works - such as Project Sunshine, actually talk about what they’ve learned from their experience.
- Srigouri: They really stressed that they want students to recognize that the community itself is an asset, and we are here to help them, they already have structure that we should be assisting.
- Omitara: This would also help with the saviour aspect of Hopkins, so that people in charge of these initiatives would actually be able to tell us about what has happened with these volunteers.
First Reading
- InterMSA Iftar Funding Bill- Senator Amani Benouardia
- Amani: The bill is from MSA - two Saturdays, there will be the fasting event from sunset to sunset. They want other colleges to come into this event and have a group meal together. Some of the universities include Towson, McDaniel, Stevenson, Bowie State, CCBC, and UMBC - there would be over 300 people coming to this event per estimates. They really want their own water cooler for sustainability. This water cooler could be used for future events as well. The total is $1009. If there are any questions on what the things are and why it's important, please feel free to reach out to Amani.
- Stone: Is there not a water fountain that can be used?
- Amani: This will be in the Commons Salon.
- Stone: There are water fountains near there.
- Nas: Ramadan is 30 days, so we would need water. There would be more easily accessible water places. Also this would help with the future options.
- Shalala: What’s the timeline of this?
- Amani: Ramadan starts on March first.
- Jenny: There needs to be at least 14 days to order things, they do not order immediately.
- Stone: Motion to move to finance committee.
- Stone: Motion for a 5 minute recess to discuss and move this forward.
- OLÉ Funding Bill- Senator Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo
- This bill is on behalf of OLE, for all the latina/latino orgs. This is the 3rd year they are doing it, has over 300 people. Just to summarize, they currently represent 17 cultural groups and 300+ active members. This is the only formal event thrown for Hispanic Students. The cost is $3683.63, mainly need help for venue and food cost grants. This will also be viewed tomorrow at the finance meeting, but this is for multiple parts of funding. OLE has $2500 in gorupfunds and plans to use $2000 on this event. Specifically with this event, they will cover the DJ, part of the venue.
- Jaden: Motion to move to finance, motion passed
- Rage Room Funding Bill- Chair Shalala Leny
- Presentation
- Cynthia: Motion for a 5 minute
- How many people can go there to ensure that as many people can go? If there is a limit, can we make a signup sheet for this?
- Shalala: I will still need to look at how many people can go and do more research for different time slots
- Cynthia: Should have a 15 minute time slot potentially, also not sure about the safety. Some of the other rooms with less restrictions can have 6 people at a time.
- Daarian: Are we only available for 3 mobile ventures?
- Ideally we would want more, but there is a price restriction thing that will make it hard.
- Does this maximize the amount of people?
- Yashas: Would it be more cost-effective to buy car-smashing events?
- Cost should not be a concern
- Tim: HOP is not allowed to make a rage room, are we even allowed to make a rage room event?
- Talked to our advisors, since we have waivers, we should be fine
- Jaden: Concerned about the safety of students
- This is why we have a waiver, we should be find
- Omotara: Are we going to charge students?
- Most of our events are free, but for this event, we might need to charge—should we?
- Omotara: HOP usually charges $1-2
- Tim: Point of information, HOP charges money not to make money, it is to make sure that people show up to the event
Second Reading
- SGA Community Connections- Senator Tyler Turner
- Tyler: Motion to vote
- Passed 100%
- SGA Storytelling Event Funding Bill - Google Docs - Chair Shalala Leny
- Charles: This event is attended by the President and the Provost, and we are not going to just prove sushi and we need a larger food order. Will speak to Shalala separately
- Tim: Motion to table
- Constitutional Amendment for Caucus Election Bill- Senator Molly Kuzma
- Luc: Judiciary needs to first discuss whether this bill is constitutional or not. Feel free to discuss and vote on this bill but this will be under review
- Tim: Point of information, what is the actual concern
- Luc: According to the Bylaws, the CSE is to operate on its own to prevent any interference. This is during election period, and we can consider an amendment as unconstitutional
- Motion for a 5 minute moderate caucus
- Jaden: If it is in the Constitution, we cannot consider a Constitution amendment as unconstitutional
- Luc: This is true, but this is during an election period
- Cynthia: Point of information, when did the election period start?
- Nubaira: First informational session, this past Sunday
- Molly: Since this position was established after the January 1 period and was before the election period, the student athlete senator position can be an elected position for this election cycle
- Ryan: Based on the impact on the student body, the Senate can vote today and the Judiciary can determine its constitutionality
- Cynthia: Motion to vote, motion passed
- SGA Community Connections- Senator Tyler Turner
Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
- Senator of the Week- President Nasreen Naqvi
- Attendance Check-Out - President Nasreen Naqvi
Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)