SGA Executive Board & President Daniels
12/02/2024, 8:00 a.m., Garland Hall AGENDA
Construction Resolution
- What is University leadership's response to the requests outlined in our Construction Resolution?
Affirmative Action Resolution
- How does University leadership plan to address the concerns and recommendations presented in our Affirmative Action Resolution?
Consistent Communication
- Given the pressing issues currently affecting our campus, consistent communication is crucial. How will you ensure open and regular communication with both SGA and the broader student body?
SGA Executive Board & President Daniels
12/02/2024, 8:00 a.m., Garland Hall AGENDA
We will meet specifically next week to talk about the first-year admissions statistics, so they invited admissions. Stone talked about the parking initiative, would love to have Pres Daniels come for a GBM.
Construction Resolution
- What is University leadership's response to the requests outlined in our Construction Resolution?
- Executive Board members asked how to improve the line of communications.
- President Ron Daniels said that there were some recent changes communicated through the Word from the Bird. There were some of the recent changes, so he turned it over to Brittani Brown to talk about what has been happening.
- Brittani Brown thanked everyone for helping them push the word out and drawing the students’ attention to the alerts. Nasreen is working with the communications team as finals are approaching (to enhance study spaces). There will be additional study spaces for finals. Hours at the Imagine Center will be extended. LaB will be open until midnight. CDI space will extend their hours from 8 PM. There will be study places at Scott-Bates Commons.
- Daniels said that we’ll see the pattern and decide which ones will continue.
- Brown said that these will start on Monday the 9th. JHU Student Life will also push this out through digital screens.
- Stone Meng likes the construction updates website and shared it on Instagram. He asked if there were any responses to the suggestions SGA made.
- Brown said that there won’t be a tuition reduction but they will continue to work with us on how admin can communicate with the broader student body. According to her, the construction is an inconvenience, but in a few years, students will be amazed, so admin and SGA should stay connected. Admin is doing their best to make construction as palatable as possible. The campus looks like a construction zone and paths will be longer, but we can give study spaces and more funding for activities as compensation. There are no sinister intentions happening in the background.
- Meng understands the university’s situation, but it’s not how we see it. We are not experiencing these positive improvements and we will never experience it as students, yet we are handling the consequences.
- Daniels said that tuition reduction is not appropriate, but he is willing to augment activities and get more ideas on study spaces. They will increase the spending on students on these types of things to invest further as a recognition of this. As an example, when there was a new lab building for the school of medicine, many staff members got separated so they said that they would increase the spending on their departments.
- Meng said that we want to compensate the students. Dining dollars is a way of doing that.
- Daniels asked the executive branch to bring the projects that they think will be effective. He thinks that study spaces are a better way of doing that. San Martin was closed down for a year and it was horrible, but he agrees with Brown’s points; although it’s not easy, the construction is for the students’ interest. There were serious safety issues, and they want to make sure it is a priority. Ultimately, this is driven by student priority.
- Meng said that it is our job to advocate for the students.
- Daniels likes the construction tour and engineering career ideas.
Affirmative Action Resolution
- How does University leadership plan to address the concerns and recommendations presented in our Affirmative Action Resolution?
- Daniels is surprised by the resolution as it is strident. He wants to understand what we are hoping to achieve with the resolution. He asked some questions for the branch to consider: “How do I persuade people to consider my views from my perspective? How do I bring them there? Do I put myself in the place of the person? Have I really thought about what motivates them? Are they motivated by dark and sinister objectives or is there something else going on? How do I get my point across?”
- Nasreen Naqvi provided some context. A group of senators who were very passionate about this data wrote the resolution. The time it took for SGA to respond bothered them, especially after we talked about construction and sent out a resolution. She said that she was surprised by the fact that Daniels didn’t know what the data looked like. They were persistent about releasing the resolution; we worked with them to pass the resolution.
- Daniels understands the allegations and what motivated the results. He expressed that the administration was also disappointed. They were precluded by law. The only thing they knew was that they had to adhere to the law. They objected to the decision and didn’t know how exactly other schools achieved this. SGA had opportunities to meet with the relevant offices. He thinks SGA is terrific but when he sees something like that, he thinks there are other ways to express the same disappointment.
- Naqvi said that they held a town hall for them to share their perspective as there was a big disconnect from the student body. During the time it took for the data to be released, silence was deafening. The semester goes so quickly and it was a big miscommunication. The resolution was their decision, and it ran through the senate several times. The senate doesn’t fully understand, so it wasn’t exactly our language.
- Daniels said that in the communications they sent, he acknowledged that we suffered like MIT when compared to other institutions. As a starting point, we moved from 13 percent to almost 30 percent (supported by Dave Phillips from JHU Admissions). Classes change dramatically. Phillips has been here for 12 years. We were recognized as the most diverse of Ivy+. To him, the resolution makes it seem like they have a dark agenda. Over the years, they got more diverse and successful. He was disappointed in it for the senators. Even before that, he’d at least expect them to have a meeting with Phillips. As we go into these discussions, he hopes to discuss how to open up people’s minds.
- Naqvi said that this is her fourth year in SGA and she understands how it works. Student perspective of the university administration is different. She asked: How can we facilitate the communications between the university admissions and student body? Resolution’s tone is essentially what a resolution’s tone is, according to Naqvi. She thinks that just beyond SGA, seeing her residents as a Residential Advisor and classmates as a peer, students don’t understand how things work in the university. She wondered: How can we as the student government make sure both sides feel more understood?
- Daniels talked about how they actually built the pool. One part is pool building to have a diverse pool, and the other is yield. As it turns out, the admissions decision shows us that there are changes that we can make to improve the results (the yield rates) without going against the law. What he would like as much as possible is to communicate this to the student body. This is not really administration; it’s pretty much the opposite.
- Naqvi said that moving forward with the USA’s new President-elect Donald Trump, we will have more to talk about.
- Daniels said that he always says the best predictor is to genuinely look at what someone has done and what he suggests people to do when they are searching for a new dean. There’s not a situation where they would want to throw 12 years of work out the window; they are trying to figure out what they can do. All he’s saying is they took this as a serious concern. Changes that are appropriate, nevertheless, they got to comply.
- Meng said that SGA understands his points but they also need to balance the student voice and administration’s explanations.
Consistent Communication
- Given the pressing issues currently affecting our campus, consistent communication is crucial. How will you ensure open and regular communication with both SGA and the broader student body?
- Meng asked for a meeting before Christmas and proposed to give more dining dollars and better transportation to students.
- Daniels said that he doesn’t see the dining dollars idea’s motivation clearly, but he still encouraged people to compile their ideas.
- Rachelle Hernandez said that we can meet with SGA to put together a proposal before the break.
- Naqvi suggested romanticizing the construction by shaping the student perception. There could be teasers released for the student centers. Students could take a walk around construction.
- Daniels said that they will arrange a few days.
- Buse proposed showing the construction to Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering majors in a way that is relevant to their future careers.
- Meng said that the scaffolding disappointed people. Although we are talking about solutions, they don’t echo student needs.
- Daniels would like these projects to be concluded as soon as possible. He asked the executive branch to start thinking and they would be open to creating such places.
- Meng said that although the Life Design Lab extended hours, there are proximity issues; however, an Annex might solve this.
- Daniels said that there will be furniture configurations to create an effective venue. The annex was very expensive, but if the executive branch thinks that the reaction would be different now, they could consider it.
- Huang asked if there will be additional spaces for clubs to perform.
- Brown said that when the student center opens in September, it will help us to breathe. They haven’t thought about performance places, but they make sure that all of the student groups have the appropriate time and space to practice.
- Naqvi asked about the Gilman classrooms.
- Brown said that there is an intricate spreadsheet connected to this conversation that has all study spaces across campus. They will do assessments to see the preference and kick it off during reading week. They will keep those places open if students prefer. The Executive Board will let the administration know if study spaces work or not.
- Hernandez said that they are installing power towers to add more electricity. They want to hear SGA’s feedback.
- Huang asked about the on campus study spaces.
- Brown said that they are all on campus. SGA will help the admin communicate with the student body as they are launching spaces close to residence halls like Homewood Apartments and Scott Bates Commons.
- Hernandez said that they are trying to find places that are close to residence halls. They want a place close to Eisenhower but that’s not always possible.
- Brown said that they are thinking about how to include students on a more consistent basis.
- Hernandez asked for a classroom management group, which we will hear more about in the spring semester.
- Meng asked if we could have a meeting in early February; however, since President Daniels will be abroad, early March works better for him.
Cameras
- Daniels said that they are unsightly, but they have to be there. Temporary cameras will be down by this week. No facial recognition software on campus is employed since it is against the law.