JHU SGAThe 114th Session
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Civic Engagement Committee Meeting — Minutes (06/15/26)

Minutes / Committee · minutes · 114th session · dated June 15, 2026 · updated June 15, 2026

Filed in Drive as “CE June 15 2026 (CSC Summer Meeting 1)”

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Title: Civic Engagement Committee (CE)/Center for Social Concern (CSC) Summer Meeting 1 Date: June 15th, 2026 Time: 10:30-11:00am ET Students Present: Jackson Morris (CE Chair) Staff Present: Willow Goode (CSC Civic Life Specialist)

Agenda:

  • Hopkins Engage
    • Senate Vice President Shreemann Patel introduced an initiative for SGA to make use of Hopkins Engage during the 113th Senate
    • SGA would ask RSOs to submit civic engagement hours and help train them
    • SGA would provide incentives for RSOs to do so
    • SGA would reward/recognize RSOs that perform the most service (e.g. total, unique, per capita)
  • Hopkins Votes
    • More students hail from CA, NJ, NY, than MD — yet most programming is for Maryland voters, who make up only about 10% of the undergraduate student body.
    • Hopkins should conduct more programming around primary voting, ballot initiatives, and referendums, as well as provide other forms of civic engagement that complement voting
      • Hopkins Votes website displays content that hasn’t been updated since 2022 (Why I Vote campaign).
    • Why did CIIP disappear?
    • HopTalks
    • Student Dialogue Fund
  • Civic Engagement Committee
    • Plan: More SGA members as part of or cued in to the operations of the CSC, SNF Agora, GCE/Fed Strategy, government entities and nonprofits
    • Meetings in Fall
    • What does it mean to engage in a campus community?
      • Student elections
      • Surveys and polling
      • Student representation and leadership that is elected or invested with the trust of their peers
    • Hopkins Forum student representation

Minutes:

  • SGA operations and direct SGA initiatives
    • JM: Official start time for SGA is in late August with the first week of classes, GBMs are each week Tuesdays from 7-9pm. Civic Engagement will likely start meetings in late August or early September.
    • JM: Shared preliminary committee roster with WG.
    • WG: Hopkins Engage — this will be the pilot year for this collaboration. Likely will have some kinks to work out. Some talk about rewarding RSOs who are already doing this, but SGA would have to decide what this will look like.
    • JM: May recruit additional students from the student body as nonvoting members of CE.
    • JM: Congressional Debate — Interest from students at the first SGA meeting.
    • WG: Luis talking to Jennifer Mielke, will give an update on what GCE says about it.
  • CIIP
    • JM: Is CIIP running this summer?
    • WG: No, CIIP is on hiatus — hope to bring it back. Last year it was a bit smaller and this year it was put on hiatus.
    • JM: Would be interested in having SGA work on what we can to help with bringing CIIP back. Happy to testify to the summer 2024 experience.
  • Hopkins Forum
    • JM: Hopkins Forum — opportunity for student involvement, will keep the CSC posted with progress on that. Similar to Student
    • JM: Is it of interest for you to be part of Civic Engagement meetings this fall?
  • Participation by CSC staff in CE meetings
    • WG: Yes, would be happy to be part of our meetings. Last year meetings were a bit uneven but was able to go to a couple and it was helpful.
  • Government Engagement
    • JM: Talked about goals for engaging students with offices that interact with government and planning for more engagement with government officials, strategy, and giving students a platform to talk about issues that affect them. [added after the meeting] Compare with Harvard where there are funds to support students to do this work during the summer, and so many opportunities to interact or connect with government officials on issues that students are passionate about.
    • JM: Students could have played a larger role in Research Saves Lives and other strategic programming.
  • SGA participation in 2026 Democracy Day
    • WG: Democracy Day: Community Engagement Fair — Will reach out to SGA abt participating. August 27th, 2026. Fair likely around noon.
    • JM: Would be great to have SGA civic engagement be a part of that, and if we’ve made any progress by then we can talk about it at our booth.

Action Items:

  1. WG will follow up with JM about CIIP and the debate initiative
  2. JM will follow up with WG if there are developments over the summer relevant to the CSC (e.g. student involvement in the Hopkins Forum)
  3. WG or another CSC staff member will reach out to SGA about participation in Democracy Day at a future date.