JHU SGAThe 114th Session

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Senate General Body Meeting #9 — Minutes (10/20/26)

Minutes / Senate · minutes · 114th session · dated October 20, 2026 · updated October 20, 2026

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114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #9

October 13, 2026 / 07:00 PM / BSC 404

MINUTES

  1. 1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

    1. Absentees:
      1. Excused: Veda Kommineni, Isaac Zhang, Aishani Garg, Kevin Tse, Boyi Chen, Royce,
      2. Unexcused: Srika,
      3. Partial Excused:
      4. Partial Unexcused:
      5. Present

  2. 2. Convening Business (30 min)

    1. Judiciary confirmation
      1. Johnny Aguilar
      2. Jacqueline Kim
      3. In favor of appointing vote: unanimous vote

  3. 3. Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)

    1. Cole: motion to approve agenda

  4. 4. Public Input (3 min)

    1. Sean: syllabus project has structure implemented, 6 students in group chat volunteering to ask professors
    2. Natalie Bernstein: bootacular Baltimore trick-or-treating with CARE, connect students with each other and Baltimore
    3. Tarini: looking for SGA representative to join the library committee, meets once to twice a month
      1. Making sure we establish appointment method in the right manner

  5. 5. Reports (5 min)

    1. Cabinet Reports:
      1. Student Body President: Jason Yu
        1. Jackson motions 2 minute Q & A, Demarri: opposed
          1. Jackson: could you commit to addressing everything you (Jason) has worked on since the start of his term for 10-15 minutes
          2. Nora: Exec met with admin and each other over the summer, Exec recently held a meeting on what direction to go, looking to take input from senate to make sure direction is something that is collaborative to make sure everyone knows what we are doing
      2. Student Body Vice President: Sumire Sumi
        1. What are people doing for fall break
        2. initiatives:
          1. Exec met after IA meeting to discuss initiatives and establish a direction
          2. Sustainable budget: Establishing system so that RSOs have sustainable budgets
          3. Shuttle hours/reliability:
      3. Secretary: Honora Muratori
        1. Logistical: revamping attendance sheets, check attendance
        2. For event request: fill out sheets and each form with all details necessary
      4. Treasurer: Amy Xu
        1. Amy's report for SGA GBM
          1. Funding bill: how to bring one that passes
            1. Events that needs more than a category cap allows, travel is one exception
            2. For funding bills: everything must be open to entire student body
            3. Wants to see who, when, where, why, how
            4. Strong bill: audience, cost, logistics, timing all geared towards student body and fully planned in advance
            5. What senators can request of Amy
              1. Make purchasing request
              2. Get updates from LEED
              3. Look over bill before you present it
              4. Talk thru logistics/funding
            6. What senators can ask Nora: information about space reservations
            7. Cannot speed up approval and delivery
            8. If money is spent before approval, it cannot be reimbursed
            9. Please read the guidelines and check out the tracker
      5. Chair of Programming: Grace Guan
        1. Talent show was a huge success!
      6. Director of Communications: Sienna Kim
        1. Share SGA events with your friends, word of mouth and via social media
        2. Livesafe app, Sumi has working been with public safety
      7. President of the Senate: Jazzlyn Fernandez
        1. Committee Logistical Updates
          1. Freshman have not chosen their committees yet
          2. Made calendar for senator reports
        2. Calendar for SGA Senator Report:Calendar for SGA Senators
          1. Going through everyone who hasn’t presented so far (can trade with people, 75 word minimum)
      8. Advisor Report:
        1. SGA Advisor: Tekeya Peterson
          1. Senator Social on Tuesday October 27th
            1. Sophia: was there a method of collecting data
            2. Nora: agree with Sophia, can set up a form to set up times more accessible for others
            3. Tekeya: keeping first one, will assess time and date for next one
      9. Senator Reports Initiatives Updates:
        1. Tanisha Taneja
          1. Fiber tabling event with trivia
          2. Sexual assault awareness tabling event, working with health and wellbeing
          3. Narcan training at Freshman orientation, making narcan accessible around campus
        1. ii.Ella Chon

    Working in IA to get a financial literacy class offered, graduate and undergraduate students

    1. iii.Emin Soguktas: absent:(

  6. 6. Non-Legislative Business (30 min)

  7. 7. First Reading (20 min)

    1. Closed Session Clarification Act - Vice Chair of Internal Affairs Cole Liazos-Coffey

      1. Clarifying certain motion for closed session
        1. Will be still be notes taken, they will be classified
        2. IA looked over it, got approval
        3. Jackson: 5-min moderated caucus
          1. Jackson: when reopening closed session, also supermajority? Could this be simple majority / judiciary session also discuss this topic, did yall consult this? - kept it as ⅔ because it keeps the requirements consistent, did not refer to the judiciary opinion (would be happy to take a look at it)
          2. Luke: In the section on note taking, would this mean the notes would be published on GDrive for the entire SGA or access by request? - more of a by request thing
            1. Jazz: Nora will have access
      2. Luke: motion to refer to IA, passed
    2. Take Back the Night Funding Bill - Vice President of the Senate Shreemann Patel
      1. November 1st National rally against sexual violence
      2. TBTN: largest movement against sexual violence
        1. November 1st, nationwide campus rally
        2. Centered around mandate to end campus sexual violence
        3. National speakers, student call to action, campus keynote, mandate, vigil and speak out, closing
      3. Cole: point of information - prices don’t match up / discounts offered
      4. RC: motion for 5 min Q/A 1 min speaking tine (Opposed: mahima, shreemann)
        1. RC: national rally coming to campus - would this be rally include outside people? - national call for rally to each university, approved by leadership and city regarding permits
        2. Nora: seems like a great bill, willing to provide support for publicizing
        3. Andrei: Who is the speaker? - organization is asking to make sure funding is secured first, can get info shortly
        4. Kevin: why wasn’t this brought to the senate earlier
          1. Events at Cornell prompted rally, Hopkins received call October 11th and needed a lot of approval before
        5. Andrei: access to slides on agenda
        6. Sienna: promotional materials, open to making flyer and insta post
    3. Shreemann: motion to move to second reading
      1. Demarri: abstain

  8. 8. Second Reading (10 min)

    1. Establishing a Transfer Student Caucus - Vice President of the Senate Shreemann Patel
      1. Passed with positive recommendation from IA
      2. passed
    2. Academic Affairs Tabling Funding Bill - Vice Chair of Academic Affairs Omotola
      1. Passed with positive recommendation
      2. Cole: motion to pass, passed
    3. Take Back the Night Funding Bill - Vice President of the Senate Shreemann Patel
      1. Cole: motion to pass
      2. Demarri abstains

Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

  • Questions for OIS (Office for International Services)
    • Abraham:
    • Luke: Does OIS work with graduating students on extending visas?
    • Jackson: have we reached out to intern national students yet
    • Paul: what things can be done for
    • Luke: OIS not good at timely communication, having a centralized site for immigration related news
    • Noah: are they the org for international students?
      • Sumi: yes
    • Sophia: in writing, what can OIS do for students not sponsored by the university
      • Can they direct people toward resources if OIS doesn’t
    • Nora: purpose of OIS
      • For students not international by university standards, OIS not responsible for them
      • If redirection to external sources available that would be great
      • RC: Hopkins doesn’t give aid to International Students, but could we maybe provide them with general counsel
      • Sophia: GEO has trouble with OIS outreach for exchange students and international students (OIS has no physical office and hosts no official events for integration), if they could partner with people that would be great
      • Nora: if we’re going to claim they don't have good outreach, we need to have written testimony from current international students
      • Rebecca: a lot of stuff on Hopkins Groups, exchange students don’t have access to events and can’t register for them
    • Jazz: would you like your name on it
      • If your name is on the slido, it will be shared with OIS
  • Amy announcement: 333k/512k, 65% of entire budget has been spent
    • Demarri: Can we expect much from recalls? Amy: no
    • Cole: all money must be open to all Hopkins members
  • Shreemann: constituency cafe held on bottom floor of stuce, late november/early december
    • Sophia: more face-to-face accessibility for constituents
    • Tanisha: are office hours still happening
    • Demarri: working on office hours
    • Sean: office hours were successful last semester
    • Amy: finance committee already does office hours
      • 12-1 Blue board room (201) friday
    • Mahima: do we have a centralized form for student input
      • Veda working on that initiative
    • Jazz: committee chairs please stay back
  • Jackson: move to adjourn

Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)

Time-length and adjournment estimates are provided for the benefit of guests at Senate meetings. However, SGA meetings are always slated to extend until 9:00 PM and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.