JHU Student Government Association Senate Meeting #6 September 10, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17 MINUTES
- Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
e. Absentees: i. Excused: Stone Meng, Amy Li, Tim Huang, Adithyan Neelamana, Tanisha Taneja, Tiffany Tapia Miranda, Shruti Tyagi, Angela Xiong ii. Unexcused: f. Present:
- Convening Business (20 mins)
- Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
- Motion to start the meeting and approve the agenda passed.
- Public Input (3 min)
- Reports (10 min)
g. Cabinet Reports (4 min) i. Executive Team - Exec ii. Secretary Buse Koldas asked everyone to submit their iClicker to indicate that they are present for the meeting. Otherwise, members risk being marked absent. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi asked everyone to send their excused absence requests by 3 PM on Tuesdays. iii. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin informed the senate that allocations have been completed. SGA now has 19,006 USD left in their budget. iv. Naqvi thanked everyone for their great communications within the senate and expressed that she hopes it will continue this way. h. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell i. Advisor Jessica Snell had no significant updates. i. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy shared that KSAS Curriculum Committee needs four representatives. She asked anyone interested to message her.
- Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
b. SNF Agora Survey- President Nasreen Naqvi i. https://snfagora.jhu.edu/event/can-young-people-change-the -course-of-democracy/ ii. The person in charge of the programming of SNF Agora asks us to fill this form out. Naqvi asked anyone interested to fill it out and go to the event if they have the chance. She asked everyone to notify her privately so that she can reach out to them.
- Cohort Time (10 min)
- First Reading
c. October Tabling - Senator Nayshawn Ferebee i. Black Caucus Chair Nayshawn Ferebee presented the October Tabling Bill. He added that this bill is quite similar to the September Tabling. The purpose of these tablings is to advertise the surveys created by the SGA, like dining, transportation, MSE construction and parking surveys. For this tabling, they are planning to give out stickers, candy and donuts that are Halloween themed. The expense of this bill is 155 USD. ii. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia motioned to move this bill to the Finance Committee, which passed. d. SGA Leadership Workshop - Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez i. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez explained that to be more apparent in the community and educate people on leadership, we will be organizing a leadership workshop. Benjamin, Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun and Programming Chair Tim Huang will give a workshop on budgeting. They will give a workshop on how to be a successful leader. The expense of this bill is 355 USD because of catering, which will serve approximately 40 people. There will also be a game at the end, which is why they need to buy prizes. ii. Activism and Advocacy Senator Hailey Saya Tomlinson motioned to move this bill to the Finance Committee, which passed.
- Second Reading
d. JHUMA BBQ Bill - Senator Ryan Alezz & Senator Omar Gharib i. Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz explained what Johns Hopkins University Muslim Association (JHUMA) is. He added that this barbeque is an annual event where they bring a lot of people from different campuses and split the cost with JHUMA. ii. Motion to vote on the bill passed. During voting, this bill was approved unanimously. e. Attendance Amendment - Vice President Jackson Morris & Senator Jaden Garcia i. Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris and Garcia explained that this is a constitutional amendment, different from the Rules Bill. Morris said that this is an adjustment to the new attendance procedures. Mandatory impeachment trials take up time, so they hope to resolve this issue differently with this bill since it gives bylaws the authority to order these. It gives theStudent Body President, Senate President and Chief Justice clear roles in this process. ii. Internal Affairs Chair and KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani likes the idea as it no longer wastes GBM time. He believes that it will keep these types of situations less threatening as impeachment trials are stressful. He also likes that these can be resolved one on one with the Secretary. iii. Morris asked everyone who has problems with this bill to fix it if they see anything they are not satisfied with, adding that when a bill passes in the SGA, it takes a while for it to be edited again. iv. Abiodun finds this logical but asks what the alternative to the impeachment trials will be, asking to get clarification on what are we switching to.
- Morris thinks this is a fair concern. As far as he knows, no
one has been asked to leave SGA even though they exceeded their unexcused absences. He clarified that there would be some record of their absences from the SGA and they would be given the chance to contest it. If they can’t contest it, they will be gone.
- Abiodun asked what the strong disciplinary action is
halfway. She doesn’t think it is a good idea for this to solely be left to the Secretary’s and Vice President’s discretion. She thinks that we should be more definitive.
- Morris invited everyone to think about this alternative. He
said that this allows bylaws to be modified, so accepting this bill will not completely finalize this topic. He highlighted that there is a strong procedure highlighted in bylaws already, yet it hasn’t been put into practice yet. Overall, he believes that passing this bill is essential. v. Naqvi thinks that impeachment trials are not a bad thing as you get that accountability since you face the whole senate. She agrees that it feels like hazing but according to her, it doesn’t change the fact that it is effective. However, according to her, if we have six impeachment trials, then we would be losing time. She wants to find a midpoint where we don’t completely get rid of impeachment trials yet maximize time and accountability. vi. Chief Justice Luc Mazzanobile said that it’s in the constitution or bylaws that if someone gets removed from SGA, they could ask the judiciary to evaluate the decision in 7 days. He asked if we would still want to keep that, wondering if we still want appeals to be dealt with by the judiciary. Morris said that he would be in favor of amendments to make this clearer. Mazzanobile said that the fallback from judiciary can strengthen the fairness of the decisions of the Secretary and Vice President. vii. Alezz also likes the idea as he agrees that impeachment trials cause us to lose time, yet agrees with the points made previously. viii. Morris said that we might need to go to guiding documents and see how things were handled regarding attendance in the early SGAs. Morris emphasized that SGA has one requirement: let us know if you’ll be absent. His aim is to keep this powerful. ix. Naqvi thinks that we should make more research on the bylaws and instead of coming up with a temporary solution, we should find a definitive solution. Morris believes that intermediates are not effective. According to him, removal is the most effective measure anyways. x. Motion to vote on the bill passed. During voting, this bill was approved by majority. xi. Morris asked everyone to think about what we can put in the bill. f. CSE amendment bill - Chair Luc i. This bill interests lowering the requirement of having seven Committee on Student Elections (CSE) members to five as CSE is able to function with five. ii. Luc said that the Judiciary also has five members even though they work throughout the year. CSE only works in election period, so they would definitely be OK with five members. iii. Motion to vote on the bill passed. During voting, this bill was approved unanimously.
- Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
a. Wellness day - Senator Srigouri Oruganty
- Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
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 (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.