2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 1 Official Transition Document of the 2022-2023 Student Government Association Committee on Student Services & the Liaison Program (110th Senate)
Author: Jackson Morris 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 2
This document shall serve to satisfy the requirement of SGA Bylaws §4.1.2.1.4.7 Attach all under this line to future iterations of the Student Services transition document
2022-2023 Committee on Student Services Composition
• Chair: Class of 2025 Senator Jackson Morris (jmorr119@jhu.edu)
• Vice-Chair: Class of 2026 Senator Oluwakemi Abiodun (oabiodu8@jhu.edu) • Member: Class of 2024 Senator Jenny Chen (jchen326@jhu.edu)
• Member: Class of 2024 Senator Shalala Leny (sleny1@jhu.edu)
• Member: Class of 2025 Senator Resham Talwar (rtalwar2@jhu.edu)
• Member: Class of 2026 Senator Sean Li (sli250@jhu.edu) Former Committee Members
• Iris Gupta
• Zihe Zhu
• Elisa Rodriguez
Committee Meetings 1. Meeting Structure Meetings were held mostly once-a-week in-person at Brody Café on Wednesdays at 7:30pm during the Fall semester and then 8:00 pm during the Spring semester. Minutes were taken on shared Word documents and uploaded to Teams, and the role of minute taker rotated with each meeting. 2. Typical Agenda Items
At meetings, we either discussed current student concerns or feedback regarding Hopkins services or prepared for upcoming meetings with administrators.
3. Chair Responsibilities The Chair was responsible for developing agendas, scheduling meetings, putting people in touch with administrators, and pairing together Liaisons for the Liaison Program.
Legislation The Liaison Program was a new program to the 110th Senate, introduced in February 2023 as an amendment to the SGA Bylaws §4.1.2.1.4.7. The substance of the amendment is as follows: Findings:
• The Committee on Student Services has historically experienced difficulties with the transition of administrative contacts from the departing Senate to the successor Senate. This reduces the efficacy of the Committee on Student Services and discourages the continuation and competition of multiyear initiatives.
Purposes:
• The Committee on Student Services would benefit in its mission to “…[improve] existing services available to students” by ensuring that each member of the Committee is an expert on at least one area of University-provided Student Services.
• The Committee on Student Services would be able to significantly increase the lines of communication between SGA and University administrators and the transparency of policy changes with a designated senator who corresponds regularly with each administrative department.
• The Liaison Program will ensure that the Committee of Student Services will preserve significantly more institutional knowledge with each Senate transition and will be prepared to 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 3
start the bulk of its work at the beginning of the Fall semester rather than weeks into the Fall semester.
Text: “4.1.2.1.4.7 Committee on Student Services 4.1.2.1.4.7.6 Liaison Program 4.1.2.1.4.7.6.1 The Chair of the Committee on Student Services will administer the Liaison Program in conjunction with the SGA advisor, LEED, and the Office of the Dean of Student Life.
4.1.2.1.4.7.6.2 The outgoing Chair of the Committee on Student Services shall be entrusted with the task of creating a transition document for the use of the successor Senate Committee on Student Services. In this document, the outgoing Chair will describe the initiatives that they pursued during the semester, administrator meetings, and correspondence with administrators/coordinators participating in the Liaison Program. The outgoing Chair will send out an email to these
administrators/coordinators introducing their successor.
4.1.2.1.4.7.6.3 Each member of the Committee on Student Services will be paired with an administrator or their coordinator from a department that Student Services works with based on their interests at the first Student Services meeting of the semester. The Chair reserves discretion over the pairings.
4.1.2.1.4.7.6.4 After the pairings are made, the Chair will send out emails of introduction to each administrator/coordinator to introduce the senator who will act as their liaison for the academic year.
4.1.2.1.4.7.6.5 The senator is expected to correspond with their administrator/coordinator on a monthly basis in order to share student feedback as well as to receive updates on initiatives. The senator should try to meet in-person once each semester, along with the Chair or Vice-Chair.
”
Administrative Department Connections Bolded name: lead representative from each group Green highlight: Goal achieved Yellow highlight: Goal was not achieved, ideas for future Student Services Blue highlight: Interesting comment
Liaisons set up: Dining — Never received a response Student Contact: None ▪ Administrative Contacts: Matthew Moss (Assistant Vice Provost of Dining), Michelle Mooney (Sr. Director of Dining Operations)
Financial Aid ▪ Student Contact: Jenny Chen (2024 Class Senator) ▪ Administrative Contacts: David Phillips (Vice Provost for Admissions and Financial Aid), Tom McDermott (Associate Vice Provost for Financial Aid) 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 4
Housing Operations ▪ Student Contact: Oluwakemi Abiodun (Student Services Vice Chair) ▪ Administrative Contact: Miller Roberts III (Student Housing Manager)
Integrative Learning and Life Design — Did not have enough people to set up ▪ Student Contact: None
▪ Administrative Contacts: Farouk Dey (Vice Provost of Integrative Learning/Life Design), Danielle Simms (Executive Assistant)
International Student Services — Did not set up in time ▪ Student Contact: None ▪ Administrative Contact: James Brailer (Associate Vice Provost of International Services)
Residential Life ▪ Student Contact: Oluwakemi Abiodun (Student Services Vice Chair) ▪ Administrative Contact: Jon Conlogue (Leaving Hopkins, contact his replacement)
Sheridan Libraries ▪ Student Contact: Shalala Leny (2024 Class Senator) ▪ Administrative Contacts: Elisabeth Long (Sheridan Libraries Dean), Leslie Wiggins (Sr. Administrative Coordinator).
▪ Received a response but did not receive a follow up after attempting to set up a meeting
Student Affairs & Student Life — Did not need to set up this semester, recommend doing so in future semesters since it is to the advantage of the Chair to be on good terms with both the Vice Provost of Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life
▪ Student Contact: Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair) ▪ Administrative Contacts: Rachelle Hernandez (Vice Provost of Student Affairs), Alison Avolio (Former Dean of Student Life, contact her replacement)
Student Health and Well-Being — More of a Health, Safety, Sustainability Committee thing. No need to set up a liaison unless there is massive student interest.
▪ Student Contact: None ▪ Administrative Contact: Kevin Shollenberger (Vice Provost of Student Health and Well Being)
Transportation — Did not have enough people to set up this semester ▪ Student Contact: None ▪ Administrative Contact: Greg Smith (Director of Transportation Services)
Dining Met with Dining on 9/13/22 in Hopkins Café Admin Present: Matthew Moss (Assistant Vice Provost of Dining), Michelle Mooney (Sr. Director of Dining Operations), Brianna Williams (Communications and Marketing Manager). Students Present: Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair), Brandon Benjamin (2025 Class Senator), Jacquelyn Slade (Peabody General Assembly [PGA]).
Meeting was prepared for by asking our constituents for input via Instagram and GroupMe. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 5
• Discussed complaints about the Nutrislice website/TVs in Hopkins Café and Nolans as well as food labeling.
o Asked for them to explicitly flag allergens in an understandable way o Dining made an allergen key that they displayed at each of their locations as of Spring 2023
• Direct labeling o Discussed as an alternative to the first bullet point, unlikely to be pursued as Self-Op significantly increased their meal diversity (which also made individual labels more difficult). Fear of inadvertent movement or failure to move signage.
• Sticker/Magnet solution o Discussed as an alternative to the first bullet point, unlikely to be pursued as Dining ultimately went with the first option. Idea would be to have magnets to specify, clearly, whether food items contain allergens or satisfy dietary restrictions.
• To-Go packaging o Students complained that To-Go packaging often ran out and thus students could not use it. To-Go became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
o Brought up that students still have COVID-19 and as such there is a desire for easy access to To-Go packaging
▪ Students can request from cashier, shouldn’t be eating in to-go packaging in a dining hall. Sustainability cited as a reason for the on-request nature of the
To-Go packaging. ▪ To-Go utensils moved to the exits of each dining hall as a partial solution to the problem as of Spring 2023.
• Not enough hand fruits o Solution proposed by dining: Will add more hand fruits ▪ Uncertain whether this was ever completed
• Drink Options o Sparked by the removal of popular to-go drinks provided during COVID-19 o Dining let us know that they were moving away from soda at Hopkins Café and Nolans for public health reasons
o Currently bound by contractual obligation with Pepsi o We asked for more variety and less watered down juices at Nolans
• Asked dining to bring back hot sauces on a large scale in both dining halls o Dining seemed to accept this solution, as they continuously provided hot sauce at Hopkins Café throughout 2022-2023 after this meeting. Not as regular in Nolans. • Vegetarian options: Asked for more main dishes that are vegetarian or vegan o Not just a secondary option but hold appeal to everyone o Less substitutes for meat, dishes that stand on their own and are already vegetarian by the way they are normally prepared.
o Passport station was used to achieve this goal as of Spring 2023
• True “Groceries” at Charles Market (CharMar) o Wanted inclusive groceries from around the world so that students could make a variety of dishes from meals purchased via Dining Dollars. Never achieved.
o Dining lamented vendor struggles with CharMar. Talked about adding more local Maryland/Baltimore vendors.
• Price labeling in CharMar 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 6
o Add food price labels so that students have the information to price shop ▪ Challenge with vendor
▪ Reoccurring theme, never truly fixed
• Levering expansion o Working on opening Levering up to breakfast ▪ Achieved as of Spring 2023 ▪ Dining was working with the union about working hours o Asked about expanding hours
▪ Asked about 11am-2pm -> 11am-4pm— Dining never completed this o Asked them about pulling data from the Registrar’s office about when students have gaps in their schedule to find the optimal lunch time
▪ Good idea, no follow up
• Changing Dining Dollars entirely over to JCASH o Meal plans are exempt from sales taxes, but JCASH is taxable. ▪ Tuition assistance for meal plans cannot be used for JCASH ▪ Dining said that they would consider removing the administrative fee from meal plans (does not appear to have been achieved— would highly
recommend the next Student Services to bug them about it) o Adding more places to use dining dollars: Gilman Café option ▪ Next Student Services should get them to revisit discussions with BLC and Mudd Café regarding dining dollars
• Being able to roll over dining dollars from Spring to Fall o Achieved— as long as you continue to be on a meal plan, you can keep your Spring dining dollars as of Spring 2023.
o Win for students, win for Hopkins Dining
• Asked about cookbooks including recipes suggested by students, not sure if this went anywhere
• Peabody representation: Dining committee at Peabody that works specifically with them.
Met with Dining on 10/11/22 in Hopkins Café Admin Present: Matthew Moss (Assistant Vice Provost of Dining), Michelle Mooney (Sr. Director of Dining Operations), Brianna Williams (Communications and Marketing Manager). Students Present: Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair), Jacquelyn Slade (PGA). • Discussed holding a Dining Town Hall, which did happen
• Dining survey focused on meal plan restructuring o Did not ever hear from Dining what the results of the survey were
• New meal plan designs o Dining dollar only plans, Per-week meal swipes, Block meal swipes o https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/dining/meal-plans/
• Figure out why Peabody freshman are still required to be on an unlimited dining plan (which is the most expensive option)
• Asked for more local partnerships, like a gelato business that came through Nolans o Dining was also a fan of these. Felt like we saw more throughout the year, • Reopening of Gilman Café – occurred as of Spring 2023
• Students asked about clean plates and utensils o Bowls and plates are often returned wet, not enough utensils 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 7
o Problem of wet bowls and plates was fixed thanks to effort by the 2026 Class Council
o Still encounter utensil shortages, especially of forks.
• Soda at Nolans o We encouraged them to offer more juices because of student complaints about things being watered down
▪ Took our suggestion but solution was imperfect: machine that they pour gallons of juice into each day
o Asked about them offering tea— they are not doing so in Nolans as of Spring 2023
Met with Dining on 11/8/22 via Teams Admin Present: Matthew Moss (Assistant Vice Provost of Dining), Students Present: Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair)
• Update provided on adding microwaves for student/faculty/staff commuter use in common places on the Hopkins campus— especially Brody Café.
o Arose from discussions Jackson had with Vice Provost of Student Affairs, Rachelle Hernandez.
o As of Spring 2023, Dining has purchased the microwaves but has not yet been able to install them due to difficulties in finding someone who would be able to clean them on a schedule.
Dining Town Hall 11/15/22 in Mudd Hall Admin Present: Matthew Moss (Assistant Vice Provost of Dining), Dining’s staff Students Present: Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair)
Note: I have copied Dining’s official minutes of the Town Hall. Only two other students came, but we were able to get a significant number of questions in on the topics below.
▪ Feedback / Q & A:
• Are there plans to label Kosher/Halal Food?
• Dining response:
• Kosher food is only located in Kosher servery.
• Halal should be labeled on the screen as the Halal icon.
• We are currently working with the Muslim student association to source
more Halal foods.
• All fresh chicken that we serve is Halal.
• Meal Plans- have we looked at future plans / changes for next year?
• Dining response:
• Currently working with Financial Aid on our meal plan options.
• Smaller Dining Dollar plan
• Smaller block plan
• Noticed a lot of changes in the dining hall- to-go cups are restricted to the front, only available at cashier station and only smaller cups and want to know who makes those changes.
• Dining response:
• We’ve moved cups to the front to prevent waste. Students who eat in
person can use our reusable plastic cups that can be clean and reused
instead of wasting the compostable ones. Saving these options for to-go
students. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 8
• Side Note: Students who are not eating in the dining hall can ask for 2
boxes to-go boxes so their food doesn’t mix.
• Other follow up feedback:
• Having multiple cups would be nice for to-go to have soda/coffee or
even soup and beverage.
• Reason for taking meals to-go: no time in morning to sit down and eat,
easier to take to go and eat on the way to class.
• Can we get bigger cups? (started with 16 oz. and moved to 12 oz.)
• There is a disconnect on food in Nutrislice / what is on the screen vs. food being served. • Dining response:
• We’ve had shortages in product and having last minute changes for
food service. We try our best to stick to the menu but it is not always
possible with very last-minute changes or if food runs out mid-meal.
• We are working to set a system in place to be able to change the
screens and online menu to match these.
• The plastic cups aren’t sanitary?
• Dining response:
• Currently, setting in place new sanitary procedures on washing dishes as
well as the process with the dish machine and checking the dishes before
putting out in the dining room/servery.
• Last year we had hot meals at Char Mar for Meals in a Minute and it was really nice to have that option.
• Dining response:
• This option was removed with the new Nolan’s dinner option being
offered.
• Looking into possibly bringing something similar back at Char Mar.
• No longer have soda at Nolan’s, why?
• Dining response:
• Currently, we are moving away from sugary beverages on campus.
• Looking into different options as well as reevaluated our relationship
with Pepsi with our contract expiring next year.
• Noticed rotting fruits in the locations, what can we do to fix this?
• Dining response:
• Need to have staff be more thorough in checking the fruits/vegetables
used for décor on the line as well as our hand fruit out on the line as well.
• Food labeling- make sure food on the menu correlates with the description and what is on the line. Hard to tell some of the items on the screen and what they are on the line. • Added suggestion from student: use a numbering system on the screen and have numbers on the line that match the screen so students can easily tell what menu item goes with what line item.
• Can Char Mar bring back tampons?
• Dining response:
• These were removed because the Student Health and Wellness Center
started to give them away for free (along with condoms) and we wanted to
drive students there.
• Also, CVS and other local stores close to campus are able to have better
deals and push for these products better then what we can offer.
• We can look at bringing them back. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 9
• Other follow up feedback: Can we look at ways to advertise the Health and Wellness factor and that they are available there?
• Dining response: We can look at advertising at Char Mar and in coordination with the tampon drive that is about to start there with a student group on campus. • Cross-contamination in salad bars
• Dining response:
• We have been looking into solutions, looking at barriers between the
items.
• Want to still give students the self-service option/flexibility instead of
have the stations staffed, but can’t control if they drop items are cross
contaminate the utensils.
• Added suggestion from student: possibly look into moving the allergen
items to the front so that they can’t be dropped into other food behind
them vs if they were in the back.
• Chicken/sausage/other meats are not being cooked through.
• Dining response:
• We did have a week that this needed to be correct, but that has since
been taken care of. We will have our staff look into this.
• We are having training sessions on many areas next week (thanksgiving
Break) and can look into this.
• Eggs at Omelet Station at Nolan’s
• Dining response:
• Looking to get more eggs, have been running out.
• Curious why certain periods we are used paper plates and have dishes covered. • Dining response:
• This happens when the dish machine or conveyor belt is not working
and getting repaired.
• Nut allergy Nolan’s- pesto pasta no warning of having tree nuts in dish.
• Dining response:
• Hopkins Café is the only nut (peanut/tree nut) free location on campus.
• All of our pre-purchased pestos are tree nut free. We have one recipe
"Vegan pesto pasta" which is made with walnuts (tree nut) but is only
served at Nolan's/Peabody and is accurately tagged as containing tree
nuts in the online menus and screens.
• Students notice fruits/berries just being dumped from containers into the line, are they wash?
• Dining response:
• They are pre-washed before putting out on the line.
• Other follow up feedback: but they seem dry?
• Dining response: we will follow up
• We used to have Sterling Brunch, can we bring that back?
• Dining response:
• There are plans to bring back something similar to Sterling Brunch but
with our own twist in the spring.
• Stay tuned to our social media channels and Hopkins Groups/ Hub
Events. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 10
• Kudos to brining outside vendors to campus to promote their item and present food. (i.e. gelato and the mochi ice cream.)
• How are milk dispenser cleaned?
• Dining response:
• Spout is part of the bag so gets thrown out with bag and a new one is
with the new back, so no need to clean them individually.
• Bring back music in the dining halls.
• Dining response:
• Looking into bringing this back right now the locations aren’t really set
up for this and working to fix that.
• Noticed employees are hostile toward students and those they are serving. • Dining response:
▪ Looking to improve this with training (also looking into with next week’s
training).
Met with Dining on 3/29/23 in Hopkins Café Admin Present: Michelle Mooney (Sr. Director of Dining Operations), Brianna Williams (Communications and Marketing Manager), Stephanie Sufczynski (Communications Specialist) Students Present: Ryan Chou (2025 Class President), Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair)
▪ No formal meeting notes, short preparatory meeting for Dining’s presentation to SGA at large (See Senate meeting on 4/4/23)
▪ Brought up idea to Dining of sales at CharMar like one would see at any other grocery store ▪ Levering will be open for dinner with meal swipes next year (2023-2024) ▪ Sterling Brunch replacement: Very much desired by students
▪ Have not yet agreed upon what the replacement will look like, but assured us it will eventually happen
Dining Presentation at GBM Dining on 4/04/23 in Hopkins Café Admin Present: Michelle Mooney (Sr. Director of Dining Operations), Brianna Williams (Communications and Marketing Manager) (not sure)
Students Present: SGA Legislative and Executive branch
1. Introducing dining marketing team and director of dining operations
2. 2023-2024 meal plan campaign
a. Improvements:
i. Annual dining dollar rollover
ii. Nolan’s open for breakfast
iii. Levering open for dinner with meal exchange options
iv. Dinner options for charmar meals-in-a-minute
3. Meal plan options
a. Anytime, 21 per week, 10 per week, 14 per week, 19 per week, 12 kosher per week, 7 kosher per week
b. 1500 dining dollars, 1000 dining dollars
c. Block 80, block 50
4. June 30th is last date to change meal plan for next year in order to get dining dollar rollover 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 11
a. Meal plan change period Sept 5-7
b. Full year program, not semesterly
5. Join the Foodie Flock: spring meal plan campaign
a. Will be doing giveaways and tabling, can visit to learn more
b. SGA invited to share promotional materials
6. Upcoming events
a. April 6- local flavors w/ wild bay kombucha and dolcezza gelato, 11-2 levering b. Senior night- April 11, Nolans, discounted entry for seniors
c. April 12- national grilled cheese sandwich day
d. April 20- picnic for the planet for earth day- outdoor picnic in keyser quad, give out blankets, bags, herb growing kit, and meal box
7. 2023-2024 event request form
a. https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/dining/events
8. Senator Morris- motion for 8 min Q&A with 1 min speaking times- passes unanimously a. Director Diaz- would you consider a system of donating dining dollars to other students?
i. Haven’t done that, have done donating to local orgs- good suggestion
b. Senator Morris- donations could go to hopkins food pantry
c. Senator S. Li- lots of students are wondering how to change their meal plan right now because they’re locked in the housing portal. Also how many dining dollars equals one meal swipe at FFC/Nolans?
i. Should change in Starrez portal, can change it during the meal plan change period starting May 1-June 30 rather than right now
ii. There is a dining dollar discount at hopkins cafe and nolans, 10% discount of door rate. Can clarify number if you email the office.
d. Senator Rodriguez- if you don’t enroll in a meal plan for the next year, where do dining dollars go?
i. Lose them, want to spend them before
e. SBP Soldatelli- regarding kosher meals, why can’t 12 of 12 meals be eaten at kosher servery?
i. A matter of scheduling regarding holidays
f. Senator Leny- would you consider donating items that are leftover in charmar at the end of the year to the food pantry? Regarding events, do you have set entrees or do you work with the org
i. Previously products were donated, but now charmar will be open through the summer
ii. Would love to get creative with events, will repeat some from this year but if you have menu ideas let them know
g. Senator A. Li- meal plan is required for freshmen who have limited choices, will these changes be applicable to them? 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 12
i. Housing determines what meal plans they’re eligible for, are still only eligible for plans with meal swipes but dining dollars on the plans are increased
h. President Chou- do you have any plans to complete charmar price labeling? Do freshmen have a different meal plan change period as they undergo more changes in habits?
i. Yes, large undertaking but working on it. Will be easier to update.
ii. Not different, but moved all change periods to the second week of the
semester and have longer due to being on campus for orientation
1. Do also take case-by-case requests
i. President Chou- motion to extend by 10 mins
j. President Chou- what is buffer period between when you can use another meal swipe?
i. 20 mins, was to prevent sharing cards. Now pictures come up on the screen to prevent sharing cards.
k. President Meng- great changes. For levering, will they accept meal swipes? Can charmar add breakfast meal-in-a-minute options earlier that 10:30?
i. Yes, will have meal swipe equivalency program based on dollar amount (not all you can eat) for dinner only
ii. Believe breakfast should already start earlier than 10:30
l. Senator Ding- what happened to sterling brunch?
i. Trying something else for the future, are doing a senior brunch
m. Treasurer Nicholson- how do meal plans work for students who study abroad? i. Will be automatically enrolled in spring, but get list of study abroad and
graduating students in January and remove students from the list
n. Senator Leny- regarding Sterling Brunch, is there a timeline?
i. No, have some other plans for this school year but hope it will come up next year
o. Senator Cruz- motion to end Q&A
i. VP Khong- mentioned picture thing is to stop sharing meal swipes, can you explain why sharing is bad?
1. Because the meal swipes are for the purchaser, previously only had
anytime and 14 meals per week so students would go on anytime to
share with their friends. Have guest swipes
a. Can that change as options change?
i. Will take feedback to the team
b. Senator Morris- think many students would like more guest swipes. Good for community, and could be done during some events.
Financial Aid (Jenny) 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 13
Met with Financial Aid on 3/22/23 on Zoom Admin Present: David Phillips (Vice Provost for Admissions and Financial Aid), Tom McDermott (Associate Vice Provost for Financial Aid)
Students Present: Jenny Chen (2023 Class Senator), Ryan Chou (2025 Class President), Jackson Morris (Student Services Chair), Oluwakemi Abiodun (Student Services Vice-Chair) • Raise the scholarship limit for financial aid; that is, the amount of money you can have in outside scholarships before it starts taking away from your grant
• Better help for international students in emergency circumstances or crisis • More timely review of financial aid applications, or a strict timeline so that students can plan around it o Response: Students typically don’t submit by the deadline in January and sometimes do it months later, often missing documents and require additional outreach by the financial aid office
• Need clarification on what income bracket/ demographic qualify for scholarship/financial aid
o Response: Not a clear income line between who receives aid and who doesn’t • However, they did indicate that if your family earns above $200k or more, you’re unlikely to receive financial aid but they will also evaluate on a case-by-case basis
• Aid for summer classes, reported that financial aid for summer is extremely limited o Response: there is very little in terms of institutional and grant aid administered during the summer, there is around $150k earmarked to support students for the lowest income bracket
▪ Can also use form to request aid for the summer term
• Summer program office controls allocation, link to the form o Can use that form to request aid for additional semesters, because we brought up the fact that students might have to delay graduation if they are unable to take the necessary courses
• Didn’t really touch on o Dealing with student taxes o Difficulty contacting advisors, slow responses or not responses, also rarely pick up calls
o More transparency, people have said that funds aren’t consistently allocated The Financial Aid Office came to give a presentation at a SGA GBM on 4/11/23 • Addressed some common advising questions o Change in family circumstances
▪ Change in income, reimbursed medical expenses, etc – will need to provide documentation, and appeals are considered throughout the year
o Moving off campus ▪ If you’re looking at housing and need to know what financial aid will look like before it is official released, can meet with advisor to get an estimate
• In terms of transparency o The financial aid office is creating a nine-member student advisory board to focus on student perception of SFS, review of new website, feedback & experiences, feedback on communications
• Will also be implementing financial literacy platform with iGrad 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 14
• How can SGA help? o Spread the word
▪ Off campus housing survey sent in November ▪ Financial wellness webinars ▪ In-person and virtual information sessions ▪ Student advisory board member search in early september
• Also will be adding case studies/examples on the website o Planning to implement in a relatively short time period
• Want financial aid advisors to send introductory emails o Office said it was a good idea, do it for incoming students but can do it for continuing students
o They also do have regular daily drop-in hours throughout the semester on top of scheduling separately
Housing Operations (Oluwakemi) Met with Housing on 11/28/2022 on a zoom call Admin Present: Robert Miller III Students Present: Oluwakemi Abiodun, Sean Li
The meeting was prepared for by asking our constituents for input via Instagram and GroupMe with housing concerns.
• Topics discussed o AMR shower caddies ▪ Fear of people leaving things behind so no o Vacuum sharing ▪ Always broken too easily o AMR toilet seat covers ▪ INSTALLED :) o Quiet Hours ▪ Already emphasized enough o “12-8” Visitors Time extension
▪ Not very forthcoming due to security concerns o Foot pedals on bathroom doors in AMR ▪ No update o Game tables in AMRs ▪ Pool table company closed so they are working on finding a new company to repair and possibly purchase another one
Met with Housing Operations on 03/15/2023 in Admin Present: Robert Miller III Students Present: Oluwakemi Abiodun
The meeting was prepared for by the student services convening to compile a follow up agenda for the November meeting as well as collect updated feedback for the student body. • Discussed updates to Rogers House
• Discussed Bradford and Homewood complaints o Planning to make McCoy more appealing to second years
• Discussed last meetings updates 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 15
o Updates are indicated above
Residential Life (Oluwakemi) Met with Residential Life on 03/14/2023 in Admin Present: Jon Conlogue This meeting was prepared for by the student services committee to discuss relevant points that the retiring ResLife director should know and/or expand on.
• Discussed the updates to Roger's house o Added a washer and dryer o Repainted o Better TVs
• Discussed the new updates to the department’s leadership
Sheridan Libraries (Shalala)
- They responded positively to our ideas, but never scheduled a meeting.
- Elizabeth Long said she was enthusiastic about the ideas, and spoke to her senior staff about the idea of a prayer room. They are working on identifying a space that can be used, and are working through those logistics.
- She said she would follow up on the same when they have more details.
- Would suggest to make sure to follow up consistently by email and in-person
(Jackson)
- Met with Dean Long on February 17th, 2023 alongside Nasreen Naqvi (Chair of Academic Affairs). Discussed a number of topics, ranging from a “book donation shelf” where Hopkins affiliates from any student/staff/faculty/alumni background could donate books and incorporate an inheritance of knowledge in the libraries
o Did not happen, some discussion but fizzled out
- Discussed addition of “phone booth” rooms like those in the Imagine Center during the library redesign
o Favorably taken suggestion, but the future Student Services will want to follow up with the Dean and meet before the MSE redesign is set to begin.
- Need for a better room reservation system in order to give students more space in Brody o Talked about a couple of ideas but difficult problem
- Better wifi in Brody/MSE, especially in A/B/C/D level of MSE. o Dean Long was not aware of the extent to which the wifi problems existed, talked about possibly getting someone to survey the weakest points in the library to add signal boosting points.
- Students have complained about the group study rooms in A/B/C/D level of MSE being overly stuffy/hot when more than 1 student is using one at once. Issue that may dissuade students from using the rooms in MSE, alongside the aforementioned wifi problems. o Redesign point
- Student advisory board for the library? o Existed at some point in the past, but could be brought back in the future 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 16
- Prayer room discussion o Main point of the meeting was to discuss allocating library space to the creation of a nondenominational student prayer/meditation room. Dean Long was very
enthusiastic about this proposition, and remarked that her previous institution had a prayer room. Wants to look at what space would be available (preferable that it is a bit more private of a space in a quiet enough area).
o Room would not have desks to prevent students from just taking the room over as another study room.
o Could be furnished by students o No timeline given, need to follow up Student Affairs & Student Life (Jackson) Vice Provost of Student Affairs Meeting Date:12/6/22, 11–12 PM Students Present: Jackson Morris, Dalhart Dobbs, Stone Meng, Elaina Regier Administrators Present: Rachelle Hernandez, Mary O’Connell, Jenn Calhoun, Lee Hawthorne Location: Garland 143
Minutes: • Monthly meetings between Sustainability VP and Student Affairs VP and relevant SGA committees in the future
• Introductions o Students o Mary O’ Connell ▪ Associate VP for Student Services for Finance and Administration • Offices under Student Services • Hiring for Student Services o Rachelle Hernandez ▪ Vice Provost for Student Affairs o Jennifer Calhoun ▪ Head of Student Compliance • Sen. Dalhart Dobbs- worked as pre-O leader for LEED, around 30 students participated and all said it was transformative. But pre-os are very limited offerings and have long wait lists. Seeing as current pre-os are successful and past pre-os have been free of charge, are there plans to expand the program or make it more accessible?
o VP Hernandez- Lee Hawthorne is now head of transitions, will probably look to talk to SGA about orientation. The free programs were a pilot basis, looking to expand this. Would like to hear more about how to in the long-term implement more and have it as a staple experience or how do we incorporate some things into regular orientation?
o Sen. Dobbs- had an exit survey, students like connection to Baltimore. Didn’t only use the area surrounding hopkins
o Sen. Morris- makes sense to have a day during orientation that goes throughout the city.
o VP Hernandez- do any FYMs have a baltimore component? 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 17
▪ Sen. Dobbs- shift with class of 2025 to having FYMs forge a year long relationship. Barely anyone saw their FYM later in the year. Where did this money go? Pre-os added this supplemental experience instead. • VP Hernandez- some accountability measures for FYMs, possible that students didn’t see reach out. Are there any freshman traditions mid-year? Could be a chance to reconnect with FYM. o Don’t think so ▪ Sen. Morris- FYMs do really fall off. Doesn’t currently seem like the program is successful outside of orientation week.
▪ Pres. Meng- orientation usually feels like a task. During orientation, focused on completing trainings and orientation felt mandatory rather than fun.
▪ Sen. Dobbs- in my FYM group, say hi to group but don’t elect to spend time with them. Part of why attendance to community/leisure events is low.
▪ VP Hernandez- want FYMs to give students another avenue to see students from all over the school
▪ Sen. Morris- think pre-os would help. Currently athletes are close because they have training before the year starts. Bring together athletes and pre-o?
Currently people don’t feel like they have a group or a part of the community. Orientation and especially pre-os are one of the few periods when there are no other responsibilities and there’s a chance to build connections. ▪ VP Hernandez- mid-year conference hits at a time when there’s already experience and can strengthen/revisit connections. Two goals: bring student feedback & increase student engagement. Think more regular meetings
between herself, VP Schollenberger, and Dean Avolio. Don’t want to make SGA look at the huge list of administrators and possibly choosing the wrong person, want to help make connections for SGA.
• Sen. Morris- on that note, another idea is student-faculty engagement. Previous ideas are student-faculty building competition, Krieger trivia night (Sen. Dobbs).
o Sen. Dobbs- often student-faculty events are successful but many people don’t know about it. See opportunities for engaging with professors academically, but want more opportunities outside of academics.
• VP Hernandez- best channels for communicating events and opportunities? o Sen. Morris- email is most reliable, but would want something like a module on Canvas with events on the calendar.
o HopkinsGroups? Good for registration and logistics, but not for marketing. o AVP O’Connell- yard signs?
▪ Generally good, but also hard to see because the things are advertised are often already mandatory or well-known.
o Sen. Dobbs- when advertising, it’s important to find a balance of what needs to be put out through which channels.
o VP Hernandez- for sports events, want to start putting up signs in res halls o Sen. Dobbs- think ORCA TVs are underutilized, not necessarily attention-grabbing but easy to get large reach
▪ CoS Hawthorne- want screens to advertise what events are going on, especially nearby, as well as environmental messages. o VP Hernandez- also starting to examine how student center will change engagement. Hanging out at the student center and levering is different. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 18
o Pres. Meng- for freshmen, posters are very effective. Student orgs often take advantage of this, but Hopkins departments don’t.
▪ Sen. Dobbs- think repeatedly using posters is effective too- because seeing it once you may ignore it, but seeing it again you may actually take note
• Sen. Morris- event with all 9 schools? How do we accomplish this without taking away from existing traditions? Had an academic event on Homewood campus primarily for grad students and faculty, and going as an undergrad was great.
o VP Hernandez- 555 Penn Hub already has several grad schools. Want to plan out a semester-long DC experience for students. That anchor of DC will provide a platform for regional engagement.
o AVP O’Connell- used to have university-wide tailgate. Was homewood-centric but open to everyone, successful and easy to organize.
o VP Hernandez- will also bring this up to Provost, already starting but want to develop these programs. With first-year seminars were looking at student-prof relations and giving funding for experiences outside of academic.
o AVP Calhoun- build SGA relations with other schools, in past there was a baltimore based collaboration. Social and SGA events.
o Sen. Dobbs- sporting events- really don’t have the athletic, school spirit environment. Some schools have good attendance as small D3 schools. Some issues are easy access to events in Baltimore and busy student body.
▪ Sen. Morris- looking at MIT which is small and D3, part of what may help them is having all classes in one dorm- freshmen connecting to seniors.
▪ VP Hernandez- are there any SGA cross-class events? • One for all classes, but not isolating any two ▪ Sen. Dobbs- the other part of why people attend is because they have friends on the team, so building relationships between student athletes and non
student athletes may help. • Moving to housing athletes with non-athletes ▪ Pres. Meng- think free merch also motivates people to attend • Sen. Morris- have some now, think more support for the Flock will be helpful. How do we make it so athletes want to invite their friends? • Pres. Meng- want to go back to beginning and emphasize importance of pre-os. Really where a lot of his friends came from.
o AVP O’Connell- in college, never went to sporting events because unathletic and not friends with athletes. Thought of going to a big stadium was intimidating, make games more inclusive and not all focused on the game.
o Sen. Morris- some traditions like bringing students to away game and trying to get more students than home schools.
o VP Hernandez- would themed nights like sophomore night work? o Sen. Morris- some big accomplishments like winning national titles aren’t advertised, how do we celebrate this with them?
▪ Sec. Regier- theming dining halls? Special desserts or foods to celebrate. • Soccer ball cupcakes ▪ Sen. Dobbs- having experiences besides watching the game is important o Sen. Morris- make blue jay tuesdays a thing. Flock is good example of more organic student programming and student support. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 19
o CoS Lee Hawthorne- want to also focus on a smaller number of events to get the energy going, like one in fall & winter welcome weeks.
o Sen. Morris- think FYMs could come in here too. Some schools have a game during orientation that’s very popular- could have FYMs bring in students.
▪ VP Hernandez- orientation game is how large schools introduce students to sports as well.
o Sen. Dobbs- really centers around the experience incoming students see. Became a pre-o leader to break this cycle. Wanting to be involved really can stem from engaging FYMs.
o VP Hernandez- building cross-class traditions will be helpful. Maybe g o VP Hernandez- Competitive spirit of “I had a hard test– I had more work” changing that to collaboration rather than competition
Student Health and Well-Being (Resham) - Jackson, Alisa, Oluwakemi attended a meeting with Jacki Stone (Executive Director of Student Well-Being), Roanna Kessler (Chief Medical Director), and Kevin Shollenberger (Vice Provost for Student Health & Well-Being.)
- Kevin will work with the COVID team to distribute masks and refill hand sanitizing stations, and Jacki/well-being communications will get materials out to remind students to bring masks to classes/exams with them.
Transportation (Sean) - A meeting with Director Greg Smith was attended by Jackson, Zihe Zhu, and PGA members Jacquelyn Slade and Alex Ma in Fall 2022.
- Safety concerns- Students should call security instead of safety. Students need to be made aware of this at a greater scale, many don’t know or don’t use this service.
- Nighttime Transport from Peabody to Homewood- Blue jay shuttles are better for shorter transits, and the buses should be taken for longer transport.
- Post-COVID increase in requests- Peabody and Homewood Blue Jay Shuttle radius were combined during the pandemic. The change from the separated service zone earlier this semester to permanent combination, as the separated service zone.
- Wait times for all students: They also remarked that the graduate students got lyft credits, and east baltimore is more of a to-and-from work service. The Blue Jay Shuttle is a shared ride, and one doesn’t know how long it would take.
- There exists a pickup limit of 4 for homewood and 3 for east baltimore. - Also met with transloc and discussed complaints that JHU Transportation has- these complaints can be brought directly to JHU Transportation at shuttles@jhu.edu - Express and Local Buses- - Express has no stops, local has stops. Bayview is an express service. - Express between JHMI and Homewood: Need more buses elsewhere - Discussed JHU-Lyft partnerships and bugs in the preexisting transloc app. - Transport agreed to extend help to provide better resources for international students coming to Baltimore/ US for the first time. 2022-2023 STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE ON STUDENT SERVICES 20
- The payer needs to be student life, Student affairs, etc. Buses can be requested from transport but providing them is not transport’s mandate.
- A day of bus service costs $7000 from BWI to JHU. - Expanding Blue Jay Shuttle Range: Call security- not advertised as this is an emergency/ security service.
- Bus drivers having problems finding bathrooms while on service: Breaks are built into schedule. Locations can be better advertised.
- Suggestion: Student Affairs to charter transport every semester (beginning and middle) to a major departmental store.
- Bring back meeting with freshmen during Orientation Week. - What SGA can do: Communicate to university that this is a well-liked service + combination of peabody-homewood service zones can be advocated.
General Advice: 1. Setting up meetings with administrators: a. Figure out who the right administrator is by either (a) looking online to figure out what the formal name of their office is, or (b) using outlook and clicking on the name of someone you do know to use the JHU organizational chart to find the right person.
i. If you are unsure of who the right person is, ask more senior members of SGA or contact the SGA advisor. LEED should be able to give you the right name.
ii. Check their Outlook profile and make sure to CC the person listed as “executive assistant” or “executive coordinator”, etc. This person likely monitors the inbox of the person you are attempting to email, or is more likely to see your message. The easiest way to get stonewalled is not receiving a response. b. Draft an email and send it to the SGA advisor to get a go-ahead, ESPECIALLY when you are emailing a senior administrative member (Vice-provost/Dean/etc.) c. Always CC the chair/vice chair of the committee as well as the SGA advisor if you are specifically sending an email on behalf of Student Services.
d. Once you have set up a meeting, make sure to schedule the time in your calendar, and communicate it to other SGA members whom you expect to attend. Outlook invites are good because you can see who has said they can/can’t attend.
Communicate the location as well. e. Before the meeting occurs, prepare by discussing the agenda of your upcoming meeting at the Student Services meeting beforehand. Having a good agenda is key to using your time most efficiently.
2. Take better meeting notes! a. Select someone to be the designated minute taker at every meeting, even if you are the only person at an admin meeting.
b. In some cases, the admin will have someone taking minutes for them. You can ask before the meeting starts if that person can send their recorded minutes to you afterwards.
c. Make sure to list date, location, and admin/students present for documentation purposes.