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Senate General Body Meeting #13 — Agenda (11/12/24)

Minutes / Senate · agenda · 112th session · created November 12, 2024 · updated February 23, 2025

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112th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #13 November 12, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

AGENDA

  1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

    1. Excused Absentees: Amy Li, Tim Huang, Angela Xiong, Daarian Rouhani, Arihant Singh
    2. Unexcused Absentees: Nayshawn Ferebee, Tarini Basireddy

  2. Convening Business (15 min)

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

  4. Public Input (3 min)

    1. Survey from Leading Teams Class: https://jh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGzdoQATqywjKaG

  5. Reports (5 min)

    1. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
    2. Advisor Report (2 min)
      1. Remarks from Jessica

  6. Non-Legislative Business (25 min)

  7. Assistant Secretary Confirmations- Secretary Buse Koldas
  8. Senate Confirmations - President Nasreen Naqvi
  9. Campus Surveillance Discussion- President Nasreen Naqvi and Senator Yashas Mallikarjun
  10. Menstrual Product Initiative- Senator Omotara Tiamiyu Menstrual Product Initiative.pptx
  11. AP/DE Credits Survey- Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez
  12. ***Election Discussion Post Cohort Time- President Nasreen Naqvi

  13. First Reading

  14. Second Reading

    1. SARU Funding Bill- Vice President Srigouri Oruganty
    2. Affirmative Action Resolution- Senator Nayshawn and Senator Cynthia
    3. Lighting of the Quads Tabling- Chair Tim Huang

  15. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

  16. 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 #13 November 12, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

MINUTES

  1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

    1. Excused Absentees: Amy Li, Tim Huang, Angela Xiong, Daarian Rouhani, Arihant Singh
    2. Unexcused Absentees: Nayshawn Ferebee, Tarini Basireddy

  2. Convening Business (15 min)

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

    1. Motion to start the meeting and approve the agenda.

  4. Public Input (3 min)

    1. Survey from Leading Teams Class: https://jh.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGzdoQATqywjKaG
      1. Vice President of the Senate Srigouri Oruganty said that some of the members of the SGA may have been hearing about a student group that wants to investigate their student engagement and SGA experience. They will take these responses and suggest improvements. These are students in a class on leadership, which is a business minor class.

  5. Reports (5 min)

    1. Cabinet Reports (4 min)
      1. Student Body President Stone Meng said that we now have two open Judiciary board positions. The chosen candidates will be voted on by the senate. Tiffany Mfume informed Meng that Achieve is now free. General Physics and Chemistry courses on Achieve will be free.
      2. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that there are attendance incentives coming up. She thanked Oruganty for preparing the agenda and Meng for helping out. We have 2 more GBMs left due to Thanksgiving holiday and finals week.
      3. Meng said that Programming Chair Tim Huang wants people to help out with closet clean up. There is an SGA finance workshop coming up this weekend. Lots of treasurers in clubs don’t know how to apply for grants, so this is a problem that needs to be resolved and attending this workshop can help. He asked people to sign up for LOTQ tabling.
      4. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh asked where the information about the finance workshop is.
      5. Meng said that it is on our Instagram, but will be shared on Teams.
    2. Advisor Report (2 min)
      1. Remarks from Jessica
        1. She will be sending out the Homewood Student Wi-Fi survey soon. This will be sent on the Teams channel, then this data will be shared with the student body.

  6. Non-Legislative Business (25 min)

  7. Assistant Secretary Confirmations- Secretary Buse Koldas
    1. Newly appointed Assistant Secretary Mischa Kumar introduced herself. She is a freshman majoring in Computer Science. She wants to understand how SGA works before running for a position. She is a good fit for this role as she had similar roles in the past.
    2. Newly appointed Assistant Secretary Sunny Lee introduced herself. She is a freshman majoring in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Computer Science. She is passionate about advocating for international students. She enjoys creating organizational templates. She had a suitable background for this position as she used to be the secretary at a former student organization.
  8. Senate Confirmations - President Nasreen Naqvi
    1. The SGA confirmed some of the newly appointed senators. Two of them are not here. Zaynab got confirmed.
  9. Campus Surveillance Discussion- President Nasreen Naqvi and Senator Yashas Mallikarjun
    1. Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator Yashas Mallikarjun will lead the discussion. He started with a short description and went over the areas for potential concern. The company that has been putting these is called LiveView (LVT) Technologies. They create portable security technologies and they don’t coincide with the locations of where the cameras are. They only created a solution that is able to use AI and get charged with solar energy. Cameras can identify when a threat or crime occurs. It sends all these video cameras to some location in the cloud. When it comes to the use of AI and facial recognition, he doesn't know where this is going and can’t access more details about this. Cameras are understandable, but people do not agree with facial recognition and AI. He asked what the next step should be. Should there be a resolution or should we seek more information from the admin?
    2. There was a motion for a 10 minute moderated caucus from Freshman Class Senator Kevin Xu, which was approved.
    3. Xu asked Mallikarjun how he knows people do not approve AI and facial recognition. He asked if there were survey results for this.
    4. Mallikarjun said that this is just what he heard from his peers.
    5. Special Interest and Hobby Senator Adithyan Neelamana asked if the people who don't like AI know this is not Skynet. He explained that these machines observe behavior: something that is indicative of crime or rapid movements, someone running away with something, and more. He said that these are practically pretty advanced ring cameras, which he personally used in the past. According to Neelamana, when we talk about AI, it’s not some sentient being; it’s just machine learning. When we say students are not comfortable with these machines, Neelamana asked if the students are aware of this fact.
    6. Mallikarjun doesn’t believe they are aware and suggests having a survey to test their knowledge. He elaborated that the intelligence and data used is not from Hopkins campus; it’s from where it’s deployed. He also added that AI can be discriminatory with facial recognition systems, so Mallikarjun wants to ask for more information.
    7. WSE Senator Alex Kroumov sees this as a privacy issue and thinks that we should learn why this data is collected in certain locations. He asked to clarify why they are placing them there. According to him, if it increases security, it could be a good idea, but he wonders who manages the data.
    8. Mallikarjun agrees and if the admin can provide some reason for it, he thinks it would be acceptable.
    9. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu said that he is indifferent to the surveillance, but he thinks that they disrupt the aesthetic because they look ugly. He would rather have something that looks better if they will surveille us. He also agreed that transparency matters and wants the admin to shed light to it. Mallikarjun agrees with his points.
    10. Religious and Spiritual Life Senator Zachary Bahar said that he mainly heard aesthetic concerns. He agrees that there are no violent events happening at the main campus area, but he pointed out that students get followed, especially women. He thinks that the cameras being placed at public spaces is useful.
    11. WSE Senator Omar Gharib’s main concern is the transparency in the actual product. He said that the facial recognition part sounds “wack.” He asked whether an area is mandated by Baltimore county police if it’s on public land. He also wondered if it is forced by the government if it’s not on campus. He wants to get information on the way the data is used and how it’s stored as it is important to know how we are being surveilled.
    12. Freshman Class Senator Justin Pokrant agreed with Dontu as he also doesn’t have a problem with them being there, but freshmen are upset that those lights shed light into the AMR windows day and night, which is a complete violation of privacy. If the purpose of the blue flashing light is to scare people off, then he doesn't think it works.
    13. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun said that if they are using AI, we should know the specifics as AI can make mistakes, which she finds scary. She suggests asking the admin. Mallikarjun suggested contacting Calvin Smith.
    14. Naqvi said that since their availability is very limited, we should send an email quite early on. She said that if we have a document ready and send the questions through that, it would be useful.
    15. WSE Senator Amy Xu supports the points made on transparency. Individuals who do not consent to their faces being recorded and stored could have the option of not having their faces in this system. She believes that we are not being compensated for the data that is being taken, so people who do not consent to this should get this option.
    16. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade has mixed feelings towards the situation. She said that with AI, she witnessed certain security situations that the school dismissed, so she thinks it’s nice that these will be stored. She asked why these cameras are there and what they are being used for. Since AI can misidentify people of color and women, she said that depending on how JHU is utilizing it, hopefully they will take this into consideration.
    17. Neelamana disagreed with Xu’s point as not giving permission is not conducive. He also disagreed with Xu as he thinks we are not being compensated with the security those cameras bring.
    18. Gharib pointed out that this is a private company.
    19. Neelamana believes that our data is not in their interest. Then, he motioned to extend the moderated caucus by 3 minutes.
    20. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin conceptualizes other degrees of security that go under this technology firm. He said that their website states that the security footage will remain with the unit. He added that even just by sharing a picture of yourself, you agree with facial recognition being used by you. All classes in WSE are recorded. It’s impossible to take people’s concerns about facial recognition into consideration.
    21. Abiodun touched on the use of AI. She pointed out that we did not know it was AI until we just learned it now in this meeting, which she thinks is not acceptable. She also pointed out that we signed waivers regarding our data being stored when coming here.
    22. Gharib asked how Hopkins has the power to install these on public land if they are not voted by the people of this city.
    23. Neelamana said that parking lots do not count.
    24. Gharib said that although these are situated on Hopkins’ land, they record activity outside of campus.
    25. Bahar reminded Gharib that these are practically the same as a CCTV camera in front of a store. They record public land technically, but they do so to protect the store from robberies.
    26. Mallikarjun wrapped up the discussion saying he will ask for more transparency and get answers to the questions provided in this discussion. He hopes to come back with answers soon.
  10. Menstrual Product Initiative- Senator Omotara Tiamiyu Menstrual Product Initiative.pptx
    1. Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu wants to relaunch the menstrual product initiative from Spring 2024 again. She asked everyone with feedback to contact her. She aims to promote menstrual equity on campus, which was supported by SGA through a bill in the past. It was started by JHU Wings at 10 different locations by the Gender Studies department. The map is in the slides.
    2. She said that some of the issues with this project was that some stations were left unstocked, semi-functional or completely broken. She explained that the project relies on widespread support, comparable institutions, and understanding the necessity of menstrual products. She linked a JHU News-Letter article in case people are interested. The project didn’t get enough support from the administration back in 2016. She wants to revisit the project and make it suit the needs of 2024.
    3. She emailed Wings and spent 2 months collecting data, meeting with registered student organizations, Brittani Brown and Custodial Services.
    4. The products she found were very expensive. She also thinks about an optional health education and partnership information display. The model they decided on using is in the slides with a video.
    5. The dispenser got placed, which is manual, large, easy to use and restock. She hopes to expand it to 5 new locations. Restocking responsibility has been shifted from student volunteers to the university. This initiative is completely funded by JHU. The previous dispensers got donated.
    6. Tiamiyu’s goals are to improve the project and implement health education flyers to more locations. She wants to expand to gender neutral restrooms and encourage more collaborations.
    7. There was a motion for a 5 minute Q&A, which passed.
    8. Executive Secretary Buse Koldas asked if Tiamiyu communicated with other people from other campuses. She pointed out that there are a lot of people who conduct research at the medical campus, so she suggested reaching out to them.
    9. Tiamiyu said that the School of Public Health used to work on this, but now they don’t. She’ll follow up with them after Homewood.
    10. Oruganty said that Health & Wellbeing can help as they have a whole unit for this. She suggested to Tiamiyu to have a conversation with custodial services about why they haven’t been restocking it.
    11. Tiamiyu will try to reach out.
    12. Junior Class Senator Anisha Rasamsetty said that she didn’t know this was a thing only in certain restrooms and asked this to be publicized. She suggested putting maps in restrooms so people know where to find them. Tiamiyu liked the idea.
    13. Freshman Class Senator Sumire Sumi asked Tiamiyu to give more information about this past bill.
    14. Tiamiyu said that it wasn’t passed by her as it was from the past. She doesn’t know how to access it.
    15. WSE Senator Amy Xu asked how big the cost barrier is with the new dispensers.
    16. Tiamiyu asked if she’s referring to the locations or number of dispensers. Xu clarified saying why we didn’t choose the battery ones.
    17. Tiamiyu said that they were too small to fit the stocking part inside the battery ones. They weren’t more efficient, so it was just unnecessary.
    18. Meng suggested reaching out to custodial staff, too. Custodians don’t replace the stockings and different buildings have different custodians. MSE annex should also have one.
    19. Tiamiyu will share a survey that will include the locations. We will put them at the most frequently visited locations.
    20. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair Karen Vasquez Luna said that Peabody doesn’t have this initiative, so maybe we can reach out to them.
    21. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade said that there is one but it doesn’t get stocked regularly. Tiamiyu made note of this.
    22. Hispanic/Latinx Caucus Chair Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo asked Tiamiyu to contact the Violet Project, to which Tiamiyu responded that she has been working with them already.
  11. AP/DE Credits Survey -Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez
    1. Executive Vice President Amy Li and Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez have been working on this together. Fernandez wants to send a rough draft of the survey. One of her projects was to make AP/DE credits more functional. She asked for the senate’s opinions on the survey.
    2. She went over the questions and asked people to tell her if the language feels pointed.
    3. 5 minute moderated caucus motion from Hidalgo was approved.
    4. Hidalgo said that some of the feedback she got on her survey made her decide to give statements and then ask how much they agree with those, so she suggested Fernandez to follow a similar format. She also asked why IB credits are not included here. She will do so.
    5. Freshman Senator Justin Pokrant also asked to add A levels and IB. Several people agreed with the point on IB.
    6. Karen Vasquez Luna said that there’s a limit on how many credits students can use. She said that it’s harder to get these credits if you’re a transfer or dual degree student.
    7. WSE Senator Moses Frumkin asked how professors view AP credits. He said that there’s pressure on college students. He also questioned if it is worthwhile to reach out to various departments.
    8. Fernandez wants to hear feedback and come with statistics before going to departments. She would rather have all the info up front before going to the department.
    9. Frumkin agreed but asked to make note of how different AP and IB classes are in different receptions. This constitutes issues in different classes. Specific departments should consider what makes more sense to be counted.
    10. Fernandez added that if someone has an AP Psychology credit, it won’t substitute for Intro to Psychology but it would at least allow you to use it for a different class.
    11. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh said that Academic Affairs committee discussed this. He invited Fernandez to come to the committee meetings so that they can work on this together.
    12. Fernandez said that committee’s chair Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basirreddy knew about this initiative and that she’s planning to attend the committee meetings.
    13. Xu asked about the dual enrollment credits. He asked what Fernandez wants to change in them and whether he wants the removal of the syllabus. Without the syllabus, it would be hard to judge whether a class with the same name is equivalent or not.
    14. Fernandez said that it’s already hard to get them accepted. She asked to make it more pointed. With the current system, someone decides if it counts or not, yet something a bit more concrete is necessary.
    15. Xu said that in the case of humanities, this situation is even more complicated. This is still the case in STEM classes. Universities can provide classes differently, so he doesn’t see how to get them approved. He hopes to expedite it and provide information on the website.
    16. Fernandez said that she wouldn’t want to get rid of the website. She just hopes to make the process more concrete and expedited.
  12. Election Discussion Post Cohort Time- President Nasreen Naqvi

  13. First Reading

  14. Second Reading

    1. SARU Funding Bill- Vice President Srigouri Oruganty
      1. SARU Student Event Requestor London Lloyd is asking for help in affording Lexie Bean’s speaker fee. They are a queer trans survivor who went through abuse and now works on creating awareness. They will discuss trans issues, sexual assault and the 2024 elections. They use art as a form of activism.
      2. Motion to vote on the bill passed.
      3. Motion to approve the bill also passed.
    2. Affirmative Action Resolution- Senator Nayshawn and Senator Cynthia
      1. One of the biggest changes was the training aspect and DEI tag on classes. They got feedback and how it would affect first-year students, so they took it in a different direction. Instead of asking for a new system, they believe that we should expand on the pre-existing solutions. They hope to make classes on this more accessible. They looked at a few other schools and saw that Cornell University has a similar program where they have a semester long class. DEI certificates require payment, so more funding will be requested on that. They renamed the resolution. All comments have been resolved. They need numbers on the allocations minority RSOs received, which they will receive from Advisor Charles Norman.
      2. Hidalgo said that she will try to get specific numbers from RSOs about funding, which she might ask Treasurer Brandon Benjamin about.
      3. Xu gave a motion for a 10 minute moderated caucus, which passed.
      4. Xu thanked Hidalgo for removing the DEI tag and credit requirement. Replacement of the DEI training could be MyLearning modules, according to him.
      5. Hidalgo believes that students should be completing this because it’s useful for them not because it’s a requirement. She wants people to choose to graduate from Hopkins with a certification in DEI.
      6. Xu said that if Hidalgo believes there will be demand, then that’s fine. Xu believes that people would be less likely to get a class.
      7. Hidalgo said that the first one would be mandatory, but the rest wouldn’t be.
      8. Xu commented on how long the resolution is and asked to shorten it.
      9. Hidalgo is aware, and she’s writing this because she wants the administration to read. She’s working on Instagram slides, which she talked to Huang about. She will break down the 8 pages.
      10. Mallikarjun agreed with Senior Class Senator Ryan Alezz’s comment as Hopkins can not hire depending on race.
      11. Hidalgo will implement this change.
      12. Cultural and Identity Senator Jordyn Craig-Schwartz asked if Hidalgo is planning to address the comments in the document.
      13. Hidalgo said that she will change the ones that she took a note of now.
      14. Neelamana asked if we should pass this and then let her do the changes.
      15. Hidalgo asked for a few minutes so that she can apply all the changes and come back for voting.
      16. Responding to Religious and Spiritual Life Senator Zachary Bahar’s comment, Hidalgo expressed that the problem with Hopkins is that they didn’t do enough about this situation. According to her, you can’t see all those other comparable institutions and suggest that Hopkins did exactly what they did.
      17. Bahar said that we can not know if Hopkins was hit more due to yield.
      18. According to Tiamiyu, the Senate is missing out on the message it’s trying to give to the faculty. SGA is asking for actionable change. We might need to spend more time on this and take the suggestions, but at the same time this has been around for a month. She accepts that it is wordy and understands why. Some additional formatting might be helpful. What exactly are we calling them out for, Tiamiyu asked. She reminded the point that SGA doesn’t know the exact reason why they don’t know why they are not targeting this with the same urgency. She suggested adding bullet points at the end.
      19. Dontu asked if we should add a “tl;dr” at the end.
      20. Hidalgo asked if the slides could be turned into that.
      21. Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun asked to specify the lack of funding. SGA does student organization allocations, so we should make sure it is not in our control.
      22. Hidalgo said that she probably won’t put funding data as we don’t have time.
      23. Oruganty said that admissions came in and talked. There was a thousand increase in black student applications, so more students applied, but even less got accepted. Admissions said that they are getting emails for meetings but it’s hard to schedule several different meetings. Admissions prioritized faculty and admin over students, which is ridiculous.
      24. Craig-Schwartz agreed with Tiamiyu on putting some quick bullet points.
      25. Neelamana said that it’s not confronting the reality of the legal situation. So, he asked everyone to keep that in mind while voting.
      26. Snell said that there are some things she agrees with, for example, the fact that the university is already working on this. There will be some edits to this. Both Brittani Brown and Norman are overseeing this and making the edits. Once this vote goes through, it wouldn’t be sent out right away because administrators need to approve.
      27. Frumkin asked to vote on the version that will be sent out.
      28. Snell asked to get this tabled for next week.
      29. Tiamiyu asked everybody who made a comment today to take a look at this before they come to the GBM next week so that the senate doesn’t have to talk about it here and can save time. She asked to repost the links in the general chat.
      30. Neelamana motioned to table this bill.
      31. Secretary Buse Koldas suggested a 10 minute cohort time.
      32. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi gave a 10 minute recess, which was approved.
      33. Snell asked to table this for next week. She wants the edits to be reviewed by Brown and Norman.
      34. Media Senator Tyler Turner withdrew the motion for the 10 minute recess.
      35. The resolution has been tabled for next week.
    3. Lighting of the Quads Tabling- Chair Tim Huang
      1. Fernandez and Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera prepared this bill.
      2. There will be a spin the wheel, and people will gain a prize.
      3. Koldas thanked Jiyun Guo for making the design.
      4. Huang said that they will need volunteers for LOTQ. SGA needs monitoring so that nothing gets stolen. Attendance incentives will be provided. Motion for a 5 minute long moderated caucus was passed.
      5. KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia pointed out to the discrepancy between a slot that said stickers would be free and another that said they would be 100 USD. Cabrera said that it is a mistake: 100 stickers for free.
      6. The pig keychain spending was criticized, yet SGA’s vote revealed that the majority was in favor of having it.
      7. Garcia asked which sizes we will buy, which will be ascertained later.
      8. Craig-Schwartz asked to increase the number of stickers. So, the number of stickers was increased to 150.
      9. Meng said that more stickers means more time someone needs to wait for them although they’re free.
      10. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that sweatpants are very size specific. She asked to increase scarves by 5 or 10 and remove sweatpants. She also asked to get snacks to distribute.
      11. Meng asked to vote on the amount.
      12. Benjamin asked to switch sweatpants to sweatshirts and to switch all regular keychains to pig keychains, which was changed by Fernandez.
      13. Naqvi asked if we could table this bill; however, Fernandez said that we can’t.
      14. Nabizadeh suggested partnering with Hopkins Dining and getting holiday themed cookies.
      15. Cabrera is opposed to the food component as if we distribute hot chocolate, people can get burnt. There will be other people doing snacks anyways.
      16. Vice President Amy Li said that we shouldn’t vote on the amount and that sweatpants should be switched.
      17. Fernandez said that they will be.
      18. Cabrera asked to approve the amount as the rest will be worked out later.
      19. The bill was approved. Sweatpants will be changed to sweatshirts, but the amount will stay the same.

  15. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

  16. 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.