Senate General Body Meeting #3 — Agenda (08/27/24)

JHU Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #3

August 27, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

AGENDA

1. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   1. Absentees:

      1. Excused: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz,
      2. Unexcused:

   2. Present:

2. Convening Business (20 mins)

1. SGA Surprise :)

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

4. Public Input (3 min)

5. Reports (10 min)

3. Cabinet Reports (4 min)

   1. Executive Team- Exec

   2. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

1. Makeup Inauguration- President Nasreen Naqvi
2. SGA Housekeeping and Committee Stuff- President Nasreen Naqvi
   1. Committee Switch Form
      1. https://forms.office.com/r/SKgedxx386
3. Updates from Stone- President Stone Meng
   1. Attendance Guideline Summary
   2. Campus Construction Plan
4. SIF Updates - Chair Tim Huang
5. Fall Retreat Updates - Chair Tim Huang

7. Cohort Time (10 min)

8. First Reading

5. Crab Fest Bill - Maahi Ameer
   6. Fall Retreat (BILL) - Chair Tim Huang
   7. CSE Amendment - Senator Srigouri Oruganty and Justice Luc Mazzanobile

9. Second Reading

8. September Tabling - Chair Tim Huang
   9. Jay Games (Bill) Jay Games Presentation - Chair Tim Huang

10. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

11. 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 (10:00 PM over the summer) and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.

JHU Student Government Association

Senate Meeting #3

August 27, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Hackerman B17

MINUTES

2. Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)

   10. Absentees:

       1. Excused: Jordyn Craig-Schwartz
       2. Unexcused:

   11. Present:

2. Convening Business (20 mins)

2. SGA Surprise :)
   1. The SGA Executive Board got pizza for today’s meeting to kick start the semester.

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

4. Public Input (3 min)

5. Reports (10 min)

12. Cabinet Reports (4 min)

    1. Executive Team- Exec
       1. Programming Chair Tim Huang mentioned that there are some programming bills we need to approve as soon as possible to start planning. Motion to waive the referral to the committee for the September Tabling bill and the Jay Games bill, specifically to second reading, was passed.
          2. Motion to approve the agenda was accepted.

    2. Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell

       1. Advisor Jessica Snell explained that she will oversee the senate while Advisor Charles Norman will oversee the executive board.

6. Non-Legislative Business (15 min)

6. Makeup Inauguration - President Nasreen Naqvi
   1. SGA members Ryan Alezz, Jennifer Tang Cabrera, Ethan Edelstein, and Adithyan Neelamana have been inaugurated.
7. SGA Housekeeping and Committee Stuff- President Nasreen Naqvi
   1. President of the Senate Nasreen Naqvi shared the committee switch form.
   2. Naqvi stated that this year’s SGA will be prioritizing accountability to ensure everyone gets their work done. Secretary Buse Koldas will be closely tracking the GBM and committee attendances. Since having less committee members in a committee causes greater workload on its members, Naqvi explained that they brought the two committee system back.
   3. Naqvi elaborated that the executive board got feedback that not meeting with your class senators caused a disconnection within the class councils. Due to this reason, she encouraged senators to work closely together, no matter what their cohort is or committee they are in. She emphasized how we should be supportive of each other and be productive this year.
   4. Naqvi asked the senators to add in their items to the agenda as early as possible. She emphasized that she doesn’t want GBMs to take longer than necessary either, which makes sending things on time significant.
8. Updates from Stone - President Stone Meng
   1. President Stone Meng thanked the people who attended the leadership retreat:
      1. Brandon Benji
      2. Daarian Rouhani
      3. Karen Vasquez Luna
      4. Oluwakemi Abiodun
      5. Danial Nabizadeh
      6. Jaden Garcia
      7. Nayshawn Ferebee
      8. Yashas Mallikarjun
   2. Meng wanted to clarify some of the expectations the executive board has regarding attendance. In order to clarify any misunderstandings, he created an attendance guideline summary that highlights all relevant parts in the By-Laws and Constitution.
   3. Meng stated that while Naqvi serves as the bridge between the executive board and senate, senators can come up to any exec members to provide inputs.
   4. Meng talked about the new initiative confirmation policy that was discussed in the leadership retreat. He expressed that for now, this is just a suggestion. To ensure that everybody gets the credit they deserve, Meng aims to put this in practice. According to this, for an initiative to be considered “in progress,” it should follow these steps:
      1. Announcement: All new initiatives must be announced in a dedicated #initiatives chat on Teams.
      2. Presentation: The initiative should be briefly presented during GBMs (can be a quick 5-minute discussion, the goal is to hear input from the senate).
      3. Documentation: After presentation, the initiative is to be recorded in the Initiatives Spreadsheet as an official task led by the proposing member.
   5. A 5 minute long Q&A has been motioned with 1 minute speaking time and was accepted.
   6. KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh asked if the presentation is mandatory even if there has been no steps done for the initiative, or if it is OK for the initiative to start first and then the presentation to be made. As a response, Meng said that he understands there are some initiatives that might require urgency. He said that everyone is free to start an initiative, yet it only counts as an initiative if these steps are followed. A presentation can be later made due to this reason, but it will only be in the tracksheet as an in progress initiative after the presentation.
   7. Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty asked if committee initiatives are also expected to be put in this tracksheet, to which Meng responded positively as it would allow everyone to follow up with these initiatives.
   8. Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu believes that having a PowerPoint presentation not mandatory would be better, pointing out that creating a PowerPoint presentation requires more effort that might discourage people from starting an initiative. Dontu also agreed with Nabizadeh’s point that presenting the initiative can be done after the first steps are taken.
   9. Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy asked to pin the instructions. Meng said that he will do so.
   10. Activism and Advocacy Senator Hailey Saya Tomlinson thinks 5 minutes for a presentation might be too long if we’re trying to keep the meetings concise.
   11. When the Q&A time elapsed, Meng recommended not extending the time, so he asked any remaining questions to be asked to him during cohort time.
   12. Meng said that a new survey will be sent out to see if students are satisfied with the solutions found to the MSE construction plan (like Hopkins Club), explaining the Campus Construction Plan. He expressed that it's not self solidified, and that he wants to hear the input. He emphasized that the survey will be uniquely targeted towards the question of whether the current solutions are good enough for students, which include Hodson Hall and MSE annex, which is also called the Hopkins club. If students express that they are satisfied, Meng said that this will not be treated as a top priority initiative, meaning SGA will still tackle it but some other more urgent initiatives will be prioritized. If the response shows otherwise, a meeting with the admins will be organized and some alternatives will be suggested. One idea Meng had was getting more funding towards temporary shortcuts to be built in construction places, so that students can still get those fast access modes.
   13. Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris said that he likes the idea. He proposed that these survey results should be used in the future in case another big construction project comes up. He thinks that we should be focused on what we can get from future construction projects and what responsibilities the university holds to its students. He pointed to the lack of communication from the university’s side, giving past examples from the MSE construction and previous initiatives where student input was not as strongly considered and announcements weren’t made sufficiently.
       1. Meng wants to focus on both current and future benefits, so we can benefit both student bodies. He also mentioned that Junior Class President Oluwakemi Abiodun suggested that we can ask the administration to open study rooms in Gilman first floor as private study spaces, which is an idea that can be discussed.
   14. Senator Jaden Garcia asked how this promise will be kept in the future as the current members of the SGA will graduate.
       1. Morris said that to achieve this, we can use The News-Letter and SGA website. He thinks that the SGA should definitely send it out to a number of people that can keep it a permanent goal.
   15. Sophomore Class President Omotara Tiamiyu asked if it will ask for both satisfaction and suggestions, to which Meng said it can achieve both.
       1. She thinks it’s important to highlight accessibility as there are people who have difficulties going around campus.
       2. Morris will help Tiamiyu get in touch with the disability committee.
       3. Women and Gender Minority Caucus Chair Karen Vasquez Luna said that Johns Hopkins is partnering with another company to create an app that gives more information about the accessible parts of the campus. She said that it should be released soon.
       4. Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade proposed that Student Disability Services can be held responsible to keep this initiative going forward. Meng responded that Huang is working on a bunch of tabling events to keep the student body motivated.
   16. Meng suggested to not take a lot of time from the meeting time by asking a high volume of questions and recommended that people who are interested in this initiative inform him, so they can work together.
9. SIF Updates
   1. Huang will print out the stickers for SIF, which were designed by Director of Communications Connie Weng.
   2. He asked everyone to sign up for a shift in SIF.
10. Fall Retreat Updates
    1. Huang said that there have been a lot of changes to the retreat format. He thinks this is highly significant as the SGA didn’t have a fall retreat in four years. All information can be found in the linked document.
    2. Tomlinson pointed out that there is a popular event that will take place on that weekend, to which some people might have bought tickets.
    3. Dontu pointed out that it will be the Family Weekend.
    4. Meng asked if the location or date can be changed, to which Huang said it’s not possible.
    5. Naqvi asked people to show up to the mandatory part. Huang asked people who have strict commitments to reach out to him.
    6. Garcia asked if the retreat could just not be mandatory, to which Naqvi declined as a lot of crucial information will be presented in this meeting.
    7. Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera thanked everyone who put this together and recognized the efforts that went into it.

7. Cohort Time (10 min)

8. Cohort time has started after Huang’s presentation of the September tabling.

8. First Reading

14. Crab Fest Bill - Maahi Ameer
    1. Ameer, a member of Phi Delta Theta, presented their initiative on this Crab Fest. They are partnering with Live Like Lou on this event. He highlighted that a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to eat crabs due to geographical and financial reasons, which makes this festival significant. He said that when he first came to the SGA meeting to request funding, he was given a part of the funding and was informed that additional money could be allocated if a certain number of tickets was sold. He informed the SGA that this target number was reached in a day, which made him come to the meeting again to request more funding. Additional information can be found in the document that has been linked above.
       2. Naqvi asked if anyone would like to have a moderated caucus to ask their questions, give feedback, and make comments. A motion has been given and a two minute long moderated caucus has been started.
       3. Senator Ryan Alezz asked him where the profit goes, to which Ameer replied that it goes to the charity after Phi Delta Theta zeroes their balances.
       4. Naqvi informed that people will be putting in their questions to the linked document, so Ameer can respond to them.
       5. Garcia motioned to move this to the Finance Committee, which passed.
    2. Fall Retreat - Chair Tim Huang
       1. Huang said that the only date possible was the selected date as all other dates were busy. He asked everyone who has a conflict to reach out to him. He said that the bill has some estimated costs.
       2. Garcia motioned to move this to the Finance Committee, which passed.
    3. CSE Amendment - Senator Srigouri Oruganty and Justice Luc Mazzanobile
       1. Oruganty explained that they are proposing to decrease the CSE members from 7 to 5, which was the case last year and it worked fine. She said that this would allow the judiciary board to focus on their duties rather than concern about finding more members. She also believes that CSE does not need more than five members.
       2. Garcia motioned to move this to the Internal Affairs Committee, which passed.

9. Second Reading

17. September Tabling - Chair Tim Huang
    1. Huang presented the September tabling bill. He said that getting a giant board would help attract more people. He said that this board can be used to put on posters, notes, QR codes, snacks, etc. so that people can interact with the SGA. This way, the SGA tablings will not be dependent on conversation. Huang asked everyone to voice their opinions so that he has a better idea of what people expect from tabling events.
       2. Garcia gave a motion to have a 10 minute long Q&A time, which was passed.
          1. He proposed to get a new paper cloth.
          2. Basireddy proposed a cheaper alternative to the table cloth, to which Huang will look into
          3. Alezz proposed to give SGA people in this tabling T-shirts that they can wear so people know who they can talk to.
          4. Oruganty said that if we’re going to do this, we need to have a clear plan on how to clean the closet. Huang said that he will keep these items in his room so that they don’t get lost in the room.
          5. Cabrera asked what the date will be, to which Huang replied September 18th. She agreed with buying a table cloth and suggested having our logo printed on it.
          6. Slade said that something that helps with tablings is to have a certain aim in that tabling and asked if there’s a specific goal for this tabling. Huang said that the aim is to make people fill out the MSE Construction Project survey.
          7. Abiodun asked if the items that are being bought with this bill is only for September or for all tablings coming up, to which Huang responded this provides a basis to all future tablings.
          8. Treasurer Brandon Benjamin said that even though SGA has around 24k USD, yet asked senators to not be encouraged to spend a lot just because the money looks like it’s a lot.
          9. Senator Amy Xu suggested alternatives to the white board and clarified that the DMC does not have the material required for the table cloth. She also asked how often these tablings will take place, to which Huang responded monthly.
          10. Morris agreed with the previous point that having a clear aim in tablings increases success.
          11. Huang said that two of the future tablings will be close to Halloween and Thanksgiving, meaning we can work with themes.
          12. Garcia asked how we’re supposed to allocate money if we’re estimating the prices, to which Morris replied if the approved budget for the event is below the total allocated, it is good to go.
          13. Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi proposed to give random prizes to encourage people to fill out the survey (like giving a random swag item once every five responses).
          14. Cabrera asked if we could change the budget to 400 USD to ensure that the bill covers all expenses, to which Benjamin approved.
          15. Garcia suggested changing it to no more than 350 USD, which was approved.
          16. Naqvi asked everyone to add their questions to the document if they have any. Huang asked anyone else with a suggestion to text him.
    2. Jay Games (Bill) Jay Games Presentation - Chair Tim Huang
       1. Huang gave a shoutout to John Liu, who is not a member of the SGA yet helped Tim tremendously to organize this event. It is inspired by the Squid Games. For now, it’s only an SGA initiative but if any offers come, we’re open to collaborating with them. All necessary information can be found in the presentation linked.
       2. KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani asked if anyone can volunteer, to which Huang said for now he will limit it to SGA people.
       3. Abiodun asked for which date this event is scheduled.
          1. Huang said that it is on October 5th, and will be postponed by a week if it’s a rainy day.
       4. Garcia asked why we need to approve it now if it’s all the way in October, to which Huang responded that we need to start with advertisement and planning now.
       5. Tomlinson motioned for a 5 minute long Q&A.
          1. She asked if we can switch the gift cards to THB from Starbucks, to which Huang responded positively.
          2. Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez asked what the prize is for the winner, which can be found in the bill.
          3. Abiodun asked why we need to approve this bill now as there’s a month for the event. Huang explained that we’re not the people that will order these, so he doesn’t want to risk it.
          4. Abiodun asked about the number allocated to seniors. Huang said that at least 70 seats will be allocated to seniors.
          5. Morris said that we might benefit from a little bit more time as it takes time to find 70 seniors to participate in an event. Huang said that he will talk to the seniors to plan this out.
          6. Oruganty said that some items might not be appealing to our age, so she asked Huang to reconsider them. She also asked about the possibility of using the senior council’s budget, but Huang said that he wants to keep this event for everyone, so he doesn’t want to use the money of any class council.
          7. Garcia motioned to amend the bill to have a maximum of 1600 USD of expenses, which passed.
          8. A motion to pass the bill was given and it passed.

10. Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)

11. 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 (10:00 PM over the summer) and SGA members are expected to remain in the Senate chamber until official adjournment by motion, whether before or after the adjournment estimate.