JHU SGAThe 114th Session
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President Daniels Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Minutes / Executive · 112th session · dated September 30, 2024 · updated October 2, 2024

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This document is from a previous session and is kept for the record. It may have been amended or replaced since.

SGA Executive Board & President Daniels

9/30/2024, 8:00 a.m., Garland Hall AGENDA

Campus Construction Updates

  • Addressing student dissatisfaction with ongoing projects (MSE Renovation & Student Center delay)

Campus Transportation Issues

  • Shuttle delays, TransLoc app concerns, and funding limitations for transportation services

Admissions Diversity Concerns

  • Decline in Black and Latino student admissions and plans to uphold diversity post-affirmative action ruling

Proposed Monthly Follow-up Meetings

  • Suggestion to meet with the President on a monthly basis for 30 minutes to ensure ongoing communication, keep the administration updated on student concerns, and strengthen collaboration between SGA and the administration, particularly given the rise in student dissatisfaction this year SGA Executive Board & President Daniels

9/30/2024, 8:00 a.m., Garland Hall MINUTES

Associate Vice Provost Brittani Brown asked who met President Ron Daniels before, and since everybody met with him, introductions were not made. Daniels asked what are some of the issues SGA is tackling this year and what we are aspiring to achieve this semester.

Student Body President Stone Meng mentioned that we are working on internal accountability, as everyone has ideas regarding different departments of Hopkins and they want to proceed with them. Daniels asked how they tackle these and how they find the balance between what’s on the student and what’s on the SGA to report. Meng said that this depends on how big the issue is. Meng believes that students might have criticisms but they sometimes don’t know who to reach out to or assume it is only for the SGA to do so.

Daniels expressed that he has never heard of the broken desk issue before. He asked Vice Provost Rachelle Hernandez about this, to which Hernandez mentioned that there’s a classroom committee led by the Registrar’s Office, which doesn’t have any students in it, so Daniels suggested adding student representatives.

Daniels said that he heard about the Wi-Fi issue. Secretary Buse Koldas elaborated on this, talking about her experience from Biochemistry at Hodson 110 as many students experience connectivity issues to the point where they can’t submit iClickers. Hernandez asked if Wi-Fi is better at dorms now as some advancements were made, to which President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi said that it has been working a lot better. Daniels said that it is more efficient if experts have direct responsibility, so that the issues can be resolved faster and effective decision making can be made.

Daniels asked if the students are happy with dining. Meng expressed that dining is not his top priority, yet there are senators working on it. Naqvi mentioned that she’s on the Resident Advisor meal plan and believes that dining has been doing a lot better: tastier meals-in-a-minute options that are restocked often, higher performing Nolan’s, better halal meat… Freshmen have been quite happy with dining halls this semester. Naqvi said that Levering has been quite good, but the sandwich and grill stations are being missed. Daniels said that once the student center opens, there will be a lot of operations there with food. Hernandez asked why students call Hopkins Center FFC, to which they responded saying it “rolls better” even though they don’t know what the abbreviation stands for.

Campus Construction Updates

  • Addressing student dissatisfaction with ongoing projects (MSE Renovation & Student Center delay)
    • Meng talked about the issues regarding ongoing constructions. A lot of students are complaining about the lack of study spaces. Daniels said that in an ideal world, we would wait for one more year but there were health and safety issues with MSE that forced them to make this decision. A lot of students are using the MSE Annex. Daniels talked these students as he saw them on campus and, according to his observations, they seemed to be satisfied. We’re on schedule with the student center. Hernandez said that a student asked about adding some tables to Brody (to the main study area), which is being considered.
    • Meng believes there are two ways we can tackle the seating issue: increasing the existing study places and allocating more funding to RSOs or transportation to make up for this lack. Hernandez said that the Rec Center now has study places. Brown asked when Imagine Center (IC) opens and Hernandez mentioned that IC’s hours have been extended for finals, which can be repeated.
    • Naqvi believes that shortcuts should be advertised on the Word from the Bird. Daniels and Brown liked the idea. Koldas said that this could also be an Instagram series.
    • Naqvi suggested adding tables to Krieger, but Meng said it’s quite saturated already.
    • Vice President Amy Li mentioned that the study room is also quite crowded.
    • Daniels gave some thought to bringing the tent back from COVID, so he asked why it didn’t work out. Naqvi thinks that it was because of the distancing procedures. Advisor Charles Norman said that students would go there for scheduled programs, but not to study themselves.
    • Daniels asked if we made up for the seats we’ve lost in MSE, to which Brown and Hernandez said we did.
    • Naqvi said that people claim the tables and don’t want to study with strangers. Daniels said that this is so culturally different from his experience at Law School.
    • Brown suggested developing systems that would allow students to signal others whether they are welcome to sit at their table or not (such as a green or red light system).
    • Hernandez wondered if a student host system would work out. What she had in mind is someone who would encourage people to sit together.

Campus Transportation Issues

  • Shuttle delays, TransLoc app concerns, and funding limitations for transportation services
    • Meng said that there’s a lot of issues with transportation within campus as a lot of students think MSE Annex is too far.
    • Naqvi said that it depends on the class. Koldas gave an example from her class and added that sophomores are mostly studying at Scott Bates Commons.
    • Daniels asked if conference rooms at Commons are study places. They will work on making them study places. Daniels said that he could talk to BMA to see if they have any areas. Li had a class there, and she said that there aren’t many options there for studying. Naqvi believes that the advertisement of available study spaces could resolve the issue.
    • Hernandez said that we can ask students to walk with us and encourage them to explore. Naqvi and Koldas expressed their enthusiasm to advertise possible study places on social media.
    • Some other study places were discussed, which were compiled by Brown and Hernandez.
    • Naqvi talked about the seasonal depression at Hopkins, to which Daniels responded that this is why we have the ice skating rink. She thinks that this is when the students least use the study places and stay in. Daniels suggested having specialized lighting, to which Naqvi added that we can have sun lamps.
    • Hernandez is working on getting speakers for the dining hall.
    • Koldas mentioned that she loves that IC has free coffee and hot chocolate, so she suggested having free hot chocolate events at the study places.
    • Li said that Transloc is not being very consistent. Li said that sometimes it logs her off, which causes her to no longer be able to track her shuttle. She said that she struggled with a lot of cancellations.
    • Daniels asked if there is a student advisory board for transportation. Hernandez will share this with the responsible office.
    • Meng, secondary to campus construction, said that transportation is quite important (especially the JHMI).
    • Naqvi said that there is a lot of traffic from 8 AM to 12 PM. Daniels suggesting sending two shuttles at the same time during busy hours.
    • Meng said that transportation hopes for more funding, to which Daniels said that he was not notified about a request for a funding increase.
    • Naqvi asked if there will be student parking at the Student Center, to which Daniels responded there won’t be.
    • Daniels mentioned the 9 East parking lot as a possible opportunity to resolve the parking issue since it is highly underutilized. The SGA members mentioned the culture among the Hopkins community who live off-campus: students typically search for someone who has a parking lot that is not used and asks to use their space. Daniels said that we can keep brainstorming about this problem.
    • Hernandez said that a lot of people live far away, so she asked why people want a car on campus. Naqvi responded that they want to go to D.C. or get their groceries.
    • Hernandez questioned if Keswick would have enough parking lots. They also asked if Eastern Campus could work. Meng said that a lot of people don’t even know there are parking lots there and it might be too far to Homewood.
    • Li said that some students are requesting increased access to Bayview shuttles as they are volunteering and doing research in Bayview. The problem with this shuttle is that it only operates early in the mornings and during late afternoon. There are some volunteers who need to get a Lyft to make it to class as the shuttle is not consistent. They have Lyft credits that they use.
    • Daniels switched the topic to the unarmed robbery that took place this morning. Daniels told the executive board to let them know if people get apprehensive about this.
    • At the Medical Campus, especially after 6 PM, people start to get a little uneasy as the area surrounding the campus gets threatening. If the route from inside the medical campus is advertised, people can take that route and remain safe inside the campus. Li showed the app that was created to show shortcuts within the medical campus, which inspired the administration to work on something similar for the Homewood campus to advertise shortcuts.

Admissions Diversity Concerns

  • Decline in Black and Latino student admissions and plans to uphold diversity post-affirmative action ruling
    • Koldas asked Daniels’ input on this.
    • Daniels emphasized what he said in the letter that was sent out a while ago. He emphasized that he is very disappointed with how things came up. He highlighted that they signed briefs and argued for holistic admissions programs. He highlighted the increase in the black student enrollment to Hopkins, which used to be 5 percent 15 years ago, which now stands at 14-15 percent. He also highlighted that Hopkins managed to create a class with one of the strongest academic class in the country. Having said that, he emphasized that they argued and advocated and, unfortunately, ended up losing. He believes that the decision is wrong, but he stated the necessity to comply with the law.
    • Right now, they are thinking very creatively to stay in compliance with the law yet still protect our diversity. Military veterans consist of a lot of underrepresented groups, so they are planning to admit more students from the military and bring different experiences to Hopkins through this.
    • Daniels further explained that that they weren’t able to see the demographics until August, so they couldn’t have programs until then.
    • Naqvi said that on campus, there were students who felt like Hopkins does not value different ethnicities and cultures, so she questioned what we can do to show that this is not true, which Daniels agreed to as an excellent point.
    • Daniels mentioned that they are trying to tackle why Hopkins and MIT were affected the most.
    • Naqvi expressed that she didn’t know it was this heavily mandated. She asked if there could be a town hall.
    • Interview with The News-Letter from President Daniels will be arranged once approved by the newspaper. The SGA believes that this would positively impact the campus. Koldas will talk to Brown about this.

Proposed Monthly Follow-up Meetings

  • Suggestion to meet with the President on a monthly basis for 30 minutes to ensure ongoing communication, keep the administration updated on student concerns, and strengthen collaboration between SGA and the administration, particularly given the rise in student dissatisfaction this year
    • Meng asked if we could have 30 minute meetings every month. Daniels suggested us to work with Brown and see when we can have these meetings. Hernandez and Brown will also participate in these meetings as often as possible.