JHU SGAThe 114th Session
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JHU SGA HSS Committee Transition 2023-2024

Unknown · 111th session · dated April 13, 2024 · updated April 18, 2024

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JHU Student Government

Committee on Health, Safety,

and Sustainability 2023-2024

Transition Doc

Author: Srigouri Oruganty

Completed: April 13, 2024

2023-2024 Highlights

  • Involvement in JHU Health and Wellbeing Sleep Event, Earth Fest, and Sustainability Plan Tabling

Basic Information

Members + Contact Information

  1. Chair- Rachel Huang, rhuang29@jhu.edu
  2. Vice Chair- Srigouri Oruganty, sorugan2@jhu.edu
  3. Shruti Tyagi, styagi5@jhu.edu
  4. Oluwakemi Abiodun, oabiodu8@jhu.edu
  5. Omar Gharib, ogharib1@jhu.edu
  6. Zoe Gaillard, zgailla1@jhu.edu
  7. Danial Nabizadeh, dnabiza1@jhu.edu
  8. Raven McCoy, rmccoy25@jh.edu
  9. Viveka Chinnasamy, vchinna1@jhu.edu

Function

Responsible for matters pertaining to the health and safety of the student body and for matters related to sustainability and facilities, as applicable to the Johns Hopkins community.

In-Progress Projects and Recurring Events

  • Earth Fest *ANNUAL JHU EVENT*
    • This event is in collaboration with the JHU Office of Sustainability’s Sustainability Coalition. The Sustainability Coalition is planning Earth Fest as a celebration of sustainability for Earth Day. Different sustainability groups and departments will be tabling. They have asked us to have a table where we will ask Earth Day trivia in exchange for prizes. The event will take place on April 19th, 2023 from 3-5pm at Keyser Quad. This will increase SGA Visibility and promote openness and transparency of what SGA does. It will also allow us to collaborate with multiple student organizations and promote sustainability on campus.
    • Rachel Huang (rhuang29@jhu.edu)
    • Teressa Healy (healyt@jhu.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Met with Teressa
      • Planned ideas for our table
      • Chose sustainable items as prizes
      • Wrote funding bill to be approved by Senate
    • Next Steps
      • Attend the event
    • Advice
      • Get involved in pre-existing initiatives
  • SGA X Well-being SNACKS event
    • HSS is collaborating with Health-Promotion and well-being on their mission to promote SNACKs (Sleep, Nutrition, Activity, Connection, and Knowledge) to the Hopkins community. Health-Promotion and Well-Being are promoting this acronym to the East Baltimore, Peabody, and Homewood campus and asked for our help. We decided on a deployment campaign with three central locations: outside of Brody, Charles Street Market, and Hopkins Cafe, where students can pick up “SNACK packs” with items that represent each letter and information for them to engage with the letters. In addition, students will be encouraged to follow the JHU SGA and Health Promotion and Well-being instagram. On the JHU instagram informational material about SNACKS will be posted to help engage more students. The event will take place on 5/1 from 1-3PM.
    • Rachel Huang (rhuang29@jhu.edu)
    • Caress Roach (croach11@jh.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Met with Caress one-on-one and discussed possible event ideas
      • Met with full HSS committee and gathered thoughts
      • Rachel and Srigouri met with Caress and Jacki to finalize logistics
      • Health Promotion and Well-being offered to fund the entire event
    • Next Steps
      • Put on the event
    • Advice
      • Try to be a little bit more proactive when planning the event. This event could have been a lot bigger with other clubs being a part of it but we did not have time. Also, since it is during reading week, there may be less availability from members.
  • Get Mental Health Resources on Canvas Tab
    • An initiative idea arose during a committee meeting to get a mental health resources tab on canvas. Members were concerned with the confusing nature of the well-being website and thought this might be an easy way to navigate the page. This also makes visibility of the well-being offices clearer, so if students are having a hard time they know where to go
    • Rachel Huang (rhuang29@jhu.edu)
    • Srigouri Oruganty (sorugan2@jhu.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Discussed with HSS committee
      • Discussed with Academic Affairs committee
    • Next Steps
      • Will attend meeting with Deans to discuss feasibility
    • Advice
      • N/A
  • Well-being Day
    • HSS vice chair had the idea to create a once a semester “Well-being Day” where multiple activities on campus are created to support wellbeing among students. This day would, ideally, have no assignments or exams, which will allow students to fully engage with the activities. In addition, it will be a campus wide event bringing together undergraduate and graduates
    • Srigouri Oruganty (sorugan2@jhu.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Idea was brought to HSS committee
      • Idea was brought to meeting with Health Promotion and Well-being
        • They supported it
      • Idea was brought to GBM
        • Senators supported it
      • Idea was discussed in Academic Affairs
        • Feasibility of ensuring no exams was discussed. It was decided to focus on no exams during holidays first
    • Next Steps
      • Will meet with health promotion and well-being over summer to plan first “Wellness Day”

Completed Projects and One-Time Events

  • SGA x Wellbeing Sleep Event
    • SGA HSS planned a sleep event with JHU Health Promotion and Well-Being. The event will take place at the O’Connor Recreation Center throughout the first week of December. The goal of the event is to promote student wellbeing by teaching students how they can improve their sleep. This will increase SGA Visibility and promote mental health during reading week. The items included at the event will be given out to the student body for free.
    • Rachel Huang (rhuang29@jhu.edu)
    • Jacki Stone (jstone37@jhu.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Met with Jacki Stone
      • Coordinated logistics (location, time, activities, items)
      • Wrote funding bill to be approved by Senate
    • Results
      • Yes because we had a good number of attendees (no exact number) given that it was finals period
    • Advice
      • Don’t plan things during reading period
      • Promote events ahead of time
  • Sustainability Plan Tabling
    • SGA HSS planned a “Succulents and Sustainability” event to encourage students to engage with the new JHU Sustainability Plan and provide thoughtful comments. This event was put on in conjunction with the office of sustainability and took place during one of their larger tabling events. The event happened on the last week of September. This will increase SGA visibility and help students interact with initiatives from Johns Hopkins. Students commented on the Sustainability Plan and engaged with both @JHUSGA and @JHUSustainabilty Instagrams
    • Rachel Huang (rhuang29@jhu.edu)
    • Srigouri Oruganty (sorugan2@jhu.edu)
    • Steps Taken
      • Met with HSS committee
      • Determined what giveaway item to hand out
      • Determined when was the best available time
      • Wrote funding bill approved by the Senate
    • Results
      • We got a lot of people to interact with the plan (70+) and everyone loved getting a succulent
    • Advice
      • Get more succulents because people wanted them even more than food (we had cinnamon buns)
      • Don’t order from Amazon if we can because some succulents did not have soil

Administration & Organizational Meetings

N/A

Structure

Meeting Structure

  • Meeting Frequency: Weekly (usually 30 minutes)
  • Typical Agenda Items
    • Goals for this upcoming semester
    • Collaboration with Clubs
    • Collaboration with Departments
  • Unofficial Member Roles (ex. Minute taker)
    • Research: Look for initiatives to get involved in
    • Outreach: Reach out to student organizations and departments

Chair responsibilities

  • Organize meetings
  • Reach out to student organizations and administrators
  • Write legislation related to Health, Safety, and Sustainability

Delegation

N/A

Typical Offline Tasks

  • Research
    • Look for initiatives to get involved in
  • Outreach
    • Reach out to student organizations and departments

Lessons & Parting Thoughts

Things We Did Well

  • Reach out to organizations
  • Write legislation
  • Host/sponsor events

Things We Could Have Done Better

  • Have more in-person meetings
  • Incorporate more safety initiatives
  • Get more members involved
  • Partner with Baltimore organizations

Other things you should know