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JHU Student Government Association
Senate Meeting #2
April 23, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Shaffer 301
AGENDA
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
Absentees:
- Excused: Ethan Edelstein, Hailey Saya Tomlinson, Zachary Bahar, Priya Dubey, Karen Luna, Sean Kao, Avishi Garg
- Unexcused:
Present:
Convening Business (3 min)
Cabinet Appointments - President Stone Meng
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (17 min)
Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- Student Body President - President Stone Meng
Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
GBM Structure Discussion - President Stone Meng, President Nasreen Naqvi, Exec.
Hopkins Club Discussion - Vice President Amy Li and Vice President Jackson Morris
First Reading
Second Reading
Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
Meeting with Committee Chairs
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 #2
April 23, 2024 / 07:00 PM / Shaffer 301
MINUTES
Call to Order and Attendance (1 min)
Absentees:
- Excused: Oluwakemi Abiodun, Zachary Bahar, Priya Dubey, Ethan Edelstein, Nayshawn Ferebee, Avishi Garg, Sean Kao, Hailey Saya Tomlinson, Tyler Turner, Karen Vasquez Luna
- Unexcused: Ryan Alezz, Jordyn Craig-Schwartz, Ivan-Alexander Kroumov, Sun Moon, Adithyan Neelamana, Cynthia Sanchez Hidalgo, Mahima Singh, Leon Ye
Present:
Convening Business (3 min)
Cabinet Appointments - President Stone Meng
- Connie Weng has been appointed as the Director of Communications. She served in this position in the last SGA, too. She is a sophomore studying Materials Science and Engineering with a minor in Visual Arts. She will be creating graphics for our initiatives and social media content (like for fundraisers or big scale events like Major Fair). She will help class councils, too. She will be chairing the CMC, which consists of a group of people that help her. The group mostly consists of videographers and photographers, too. She asked the members to reach out to her if they would like to get something reshared or reposted on SGA accounts. One of her goals is to streamline graphical requests as there have been multiple times she has been asked to create a graphic a day before the event or without much information. She wants to have a more organized system (like a Google Document that people need to fill out to request a design). She hopes to achieve more external content like content that will benefit the students, such as information about registration or other events.
- Jason Shumsky has been appointed as the Director of Research. He served in this position in the last SGA, too. He is working on compensating the SGA members’ efforts as in other student governments, representatives get paid. He will also help the senators in making research.
Amendment and Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
Agenda was approved.
Public Input (3 min)
Reports (17 min)
Cabinet Reports (4 min)
- Student Body President - President Stone Meng
- Meng asked everyone to sign up for Amy’s meeting slots. He also informed the senate that SGA will send out an email about the SGA initiatives that includes surveys and other relevant information. He asked everyone to let him know if they have anything to say.
Advisor Report (2 min) - Jessica Snell
- Snell is also planning to hold one-on-one meeting times to get to know the SGA members closely.
Non-Legislative Business (15 min)
GBM Structure Discussion - President Stone Meng, President Nasreen Naqvi, Exec.
- Naqvi started the conversation on how we will manage the time we have in the GBM. She recommended someone to suspend Robert's Rules so we can have a discussion where everyone can speak. She opened the floor to let people talk about it and asked them to share any ideas they have on what they want their committee to look like.
- Sophomore Class President Vishnu Dontu asked to suspend the rules and his motion passed.
- Meng is interested in discussing how to restructure the GBMs and the committees.
- Secretary Buse Koldas believes that if the senate doesn’t have to be in the room for two hours, then they shouldn’t, meaning the GBM times should be used more effectively. She recognized that some committees like HSS have problems with the new structure, so she thinks that we should have some part of the GBM to discuss yet to also have some committee meetings during GBM, with the option of having committees meet outside, yet she’s unsure if that is fair for everyone as some will stay at meetings longer while others get to leave.
- Sophomore Class Senator Tarini Basireddy likes the idea of having committee meetings during the GBM as it forces people to focus on the initiatives and focus on one committee. She believes that having committee meetings outside of the GBM time makes it challenging to schedule everything you want to do. If the committee meetings are conducted in the GBM, then senators can schedule their time to be involved in initiatives outside of the GBM. She gave the example of how she missed a meeting on the South Asian Studies minor as it coincided with an Academic Affairs committee meeting.
- Vice President of the Senate Jackson Morris believes every committee has different needs. He believes that allocating a certain portion of the GBMs to the committees so they can check in is a good idea, but he believes that some committees need a separate time. According to Morris, chairs should be allowed to do that. He also had logistical concerns as he wasn’t sure if any productive work could be done if all committees work in the same room. He questioned how many spaces we would need and how we could achieve those.
- Junior Class Senator Srigouri Oruganty agreed with Koldas’s concerns and agreed that it is hard for the administrators to participate in the HSS meetings if they were to be scheduled at a late time on Tuesdays. Oruganty believes that finding a separate time to meet is already hard enough and that having them in the GBM will be even harder to manage. She’s also not sure if limiting everyone to a single committee is a good idea as it will make collaboration between committees harder. She believes that 15 minute updates could work, but that separate meetings are needed.
- Meng believes that the members have consensus on reducing the GBM time. He proposed the following schedule for the GBMs:
- 5 minutes: Attendance and reports
- 30 minutes: Admin presentations / Nonlegislative Business (This slot will vary case by case. If there are no discussions, the time will be allocated equally to the latter parts of the GBM)
- 10 minutes: First reading
- 15 minutes: Second reading
- GBM Adjournment
- 30-60 minutes: RSO and Finance Committee work time
- Junior Class Senator Shruti Tyagi likes the idea of having them in the GBM, but she is concerned about condensing the GBMs to an hour. She questioned if this is realistic and what would happen if we had a busy agenda or a visit from an admin. She also believes 30 minutes is fine for the committee meetings and that it would be more productive, but she highlighted that there would be some problems.
- Dontu also likes the idea of a hybrid structure, like a 15-30 minute meetup for the committees after the GBMs. But he also wants committee meetings outside of the GBM time as people want to join multiple committees. He thinks that 60-minute-long GBMs sound nice but that it’s not realistic since admins take up time.
- A member of the public Ryan Chou asked to clarify if the proposal on the table is to have one committee per person, to which Meng responded right now they are hoping to see what the majority wants.
- Senior Class Senator Jennifer Tang Cabrera questioned the reasoning behind this decision, asking if this is for the purposes of accountability.
- Chair of Programming Tim Huang explained that the executive branch realized a lot of people stop to show up and use their excused absences on the committee meetings. He believes that attendance will be easier to manage if the committee meetings were to be held in GBM times since people will be here. Though this was the initial idea, now we are having a discussion to see what people think. He explained that the productivity went down with the old format as people stopped showing up at some point and asserted that the new format would keep the members committed.
- Cabrera proposed to have everybody meet after the GBM yet they allow them to meet at a separate time. She thinks that 20 minute long meetup time would ensure we are getting work done and keep people accountable when it comes to keeping up with goals.
- Naqvi, talking from experience, disagrees with over-condensing the GBMs. She stated that we can’t predict what the GBMs will look like. She does not find it productive to have everyone do their own thing and miss out on each others’ work, explaining that prioritizing committees might actually be counterproductive. She suggested using the GBMs to talk about the work they do for the purposes of keeping accountability as GBM time is really valuable. Naqvi advocates that the meeting should not be condensed that much as otherwise we will feel disconnected. She is in favor of checking in at the end of the GBM but the proposed 1 hour GBM and 1 hour committee time looks unbalanced to her. She thinks that discussions take up time, especially when they are about challenging topics like mental health and dining that take up time.
- Sophomore Class Senator Omotara Tiamiyu agrees with Naqvi and asks to not completely replace the GBMs but to use the extra time as a way of holding accountability and updating each other. She suggested having biweekly reports from the committees and crafting them during that time. Tiamiyu thinks 15-20 minutes would be enough for this.
- Meng appreciated the ideas and added the need of presenting a time limit to the admins when they visit.
- Naqvi explained that we already give them a time limit, yet that sometimes they go over it. She thinks that it is hard to cut them off as we consistently ask them to come to the GBM. When this is the case, she thinks it is unrealistic to expect them to talk for only 15 minutes. She said that we can ask but we can’t guarantee for sure.
- Senior Class President Angela Xiong questioned if we can’t send our follow ups after the meetings.
- Naqvi explained that admins tend to not respond when we do that. She also highlighted some challenges when it comes to planning meetings, such as what should be done if an RSO and admin come on the same day.
- KSAS Senator Danial Nabizadeh agrees that it’s good to have the committees meet during the GBM. He also thinks that the committees fell apart as the year progressed. He thinks that the new format would simplify this as the committees could do scheduling and planning. Nabizadeh also added that he communicated with high level admins and that they told him that they would rather have the committee meetings during the GBMs and that they can’t make it to weekends mostly.
- Morris was wondering if having these 20 minute committee times in the middle of the meeting would make sense. He thinks this would help finance especially as they can check their budget and discuss prior to an RSO presenting for an event. He also believes that we should discuss the structure we will follow when we have admins over. He was in favor of having minutes and biweekly reports for the committees.
- Cabrera stated that an hour is not enough for us to communicate effectively as limiting discussions to short times will make people feel like they want to discuss it yet they can’t. She thinks that discourse is very important and helps us have a community. She also added that more bonding within the SGA is necessary, which can be resolved if the members were to be encouraged to work together as it would allow us to know and like each other. Highlighting that in most cases GBMs already run short anyways, she suggested we do our best to connect and use the time as effectively.
- Tyagi stated that 1 hour for committee meetings is a lot but that she would be down to having a 90-30 or 100-20 minute split. She stated that at the beginning of the GBMs we lose time by doing unnecessary things. She also asked to be more accountable with the number of absences.
- Meng believes that the result of the discussion is to not limit the GBM time but to reduce it by using it as effectively as possible, while allowing a roughly 20 minute time for the committees while not limiting people to committees.
- Morris asked if we should discuss when this 20 minute block will be conducted in the meetings.
- Meng thinks that having it at the end is better as that way we could have the admins over.
- Basireddy asked the SGA to be aware that mostly admins leave the campus and go back home and then come back to visit the meeting.
- Basireddy gave a motion to reinstate the rules and it passed.
- Meng asked to vote on the GBM structures. This way, we won’t endorse the 1 hour long GBM times but we will keep it concise. Following non legislative business, we will have the committee meetings.
- Cabrera believes that having everyone in the same room is a great way for them to communicate and that 20 minutes might not be enough.
- Meng explained that this won’t replace the regular committee meetings we have. This slot will only be used for updates and check-ins.
- Morris asked to approve this resolution and proceed with it, which passed.
- Naqvi gave a presentation on the SGA expectations.
- She reassured the members that this year we will be more strict with attendance. There will be a deadline to send an email to make your absence count as excused. She also informed the SGA that the number of excused absences will decrease. She said that if someone forgets to sign into iClicker, they will be marked absent even if they were here. 3 PM on Tuesdays is the new deadline. If someone can’t make it, they should inform Naqvi and Koldas, adding the GBM number to the title of the email.
- Koldas asked the members to inform her if they end up coming to the meeting after asking for an excused absence.
- Meng strongly believes that the number of absences should be reduced as this way there can be more accountability and would help everyone. If your peers don’t work, then you will need to do their work for them. He proposed to have four excused absences and two extra absences per committee you join.
- Nabizadeh asked to clarify if this is the base, to which Meng affirmed.
- Naqvi asked if anyone has really strong opinions about absences.
- Morris reminded that an amendment on this will be needed.
- Naqvi told him that an amendment will be implemented following the discussion.
- WSE Senator Omar Gharib does not believe that four is enough as the members will have two meetings every week anyways.
- Basireddy sent a motion to have a moderated caucus for 5 minutes, which passed.
- Basireddy asked to clarify if this is only for excused absences as if this is the case, members will be busy for a week and then they will run out of their absences.
- Huang clarified that committee check-ins won’t count.
- Meng clarified that absences can be used on any meeting they want (like absences that came from being in a committee do not need to be used solely for committee absences). He believes that members should not miss the GBMs anyways as we all agree at the beginning of our terms to leave our Tuesday nights for the SGA. Meng reassured the senate that the executive board understands that they might have external business, but that the expectations for attendance should still be met.
- Dontu finds six excused absences to be reasonable, but he also thinks that more people should speak about it. He suggested having attendance incentives presented to people and to have more opportunities to make up for the absences. He asked to mandate this by, for example, asserting if the member doesn’t do it, then they get an unexcused absence.
- Huang reassured the members that he will make sure to find more opportunities to make up for absences.
- Morris highlighted the need to discuss the number of unexcused absences too so it’s proportional.
- Sophomore Class Senator Arihant Singh believes it is good to focus on attendance as everyone has a habit of skipping the GBM when it’s convenient. However, he wasn’t sure if it is valuable for someone to show up just because they have to. He suggested not quantifying who shows up yet to make sure there are no spectators.
- Fraternity & Sorority Life Senator Yashas Mallikarjun believes that if someone is not following up with their expectations, then they would be impeached anyways.
- Tyagi believes that attendance can be showing up and doing your work.
- Meng suggested experimenting with the committees by having the chairs assign work for excused and unexcused absences.
- Naqvi believes that this has become the general culture. People show up but they don’t put their best effort forward. She thinks that implementing Senator of the Week could resolve this as more communication and recognition would be encouraged, which would eliminate the spectators.
- Singh thinks that the problem also lies in finding out how you make committees as productive as possible. According to him, the issue is not about who shows up or who is assigned to which committee. He thinks that we need to change the way we see the committees.
- Morris suggested utilizing the SGA website for more recognition, for example by adding more information about the SGA members.
- Huang responded to Singh’s point by talking about his experience as the vice chair of his past committee and explained it’s hard to decide what to dedicate your time to. He suggested providing more mentorship to committee leaders and training them. He asked the committee chairs to not hesitate contacting the executive branch if they would like to have more insights.
- Treasurer Brandon Benjamin likes the website idea and suggested using the Instagram highlights portion to show what senators are doing.
- The council was informed that there will be a bill in fall regarding excused absences.
- Naqvi went over the presentation covering leave of absences and disciplinary marks. When she was introducing the “Talking in Turn” slide, she explained that Robert’s Rules of Order is not everything and asked the members to not stop the meeting to correct someone if their motion is wrong.
- When it comes to general expectations, Naqvi explained that no one expects the members to dress extremely formally but for photos or admin visits, she asked the members to wear better attire. She also stated that she will be super strict when it comes to eating at the GBM but asked for some mindfulness.
Hopkins Club Discussion - Vice President Amy Li and Vice President Jackson Morris
- Vice President Amy Li informed the members that a few days ago, she participated in a meeting with the Sheridan Dean of University Libraries, Archives, and Museums Elisabeth Long with Koldas, Morris, and Naqvi.
- Information about this area is included in the slides.
- Long told Li that they would like to change the name. Most popular suggestion so far is Hopkins/Homewood Student Library (HSL). Long wants the name to have “library” in it.
- Li gave an overview of the Hopkins Club. The entrance will probably be through the parking lot.
- Naqvi told the members that Long asked the SGA to send her the feedback from the senate. She asked how the members would like to name these places. She offered to have tribute rooms for the students who passed away. Some other ideas were banner room, JHU colors room, discoveries room, and countries with JHU presence. She believes that the names should be simple so they are used by the community.
- Li highlighted that they do not want to cause controversies or confusions with the namings, and explained that they are open to input.
- Dontu gave a motion to have a 10 minute long moderated caucus, which passed.
- Dontu likes the idea of a Nobel and class tribute room, along with a room dedicated to Hopkins inventions and discoveries.
- Meng proposed the Hopkins Heritage Library and Homewood Heaven names.
- Sophomore Class Senator Jazzlyn Fernandez was curious if the students would be able to request rooms.
- Li explained that this is still in the works but that most likely that would be the case for group spaces.
- Huang thinks the tribute room is a nice idea, but since it will be a place where the students will study, he thinks it might be too depressing. He thinks that these names should be honored somewhere the students would remember them.
- Senior Class Senator Jacquelyn Slade highlighted that if the names of the rooms are longer, it will be less likely for people to use them.
- Li explained that they want to emulate the Q/M/A/B/C/D Level system that was present in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and asked for ideas on how to achieve this.
- Slade asked to clarify if this discussion is for the alternative space, to which Li said yes.
- Nabizadeh asked how many people will fit in, to which Li responded around 300.
- Nabizadeh thinks that the tribute room idea is good but also that it might be a long name.
- Huang added that one of the rooms is actually as big as the Brody Reading Room, stating the pictures are not doing justice.
- Naqvi added that the administrators are unaware that students tend to not share their tables when they are studying, so she asked the members to consider that.
- Tyagi likes the idea of naming the rooms after the alumni. She is against naming the space as a “library” as this is not the case. Instead of Homewood Student Library, she thinks it should be named something like Homewood Study Hall.
- Naqvi highlighted that some names might cause visitors to confuse the building with the hotel nearby.
- Dontu asked how strict Long is with naming the space as a library, to which Li said yes.
- Mallikarjun was against donating the billiards and asked them to be preserved somewhere different. He proposed to relocate it to a different place on the campus.
- Li agreed and added she also doesn’t understand why they would donate them if they’re in good condition.
- Shumsky asked if this space would be reinstated once the library comes back, to which Li responded probably yes.
- Shumsky was curious if the building will be modernized and was highly against it if this was going to be the case.
- Li reassured him that only light touches would be made.
- Shumsky thinks the tribute room should not be used as a study room as it would be too gloomy.
- Naqvi offered to have some plaques instead of naming the room.
- Shumsky asked the members to reach out to him so he can use their input in preparing a survey.
- Naqvi asked the members to go to the town hall the next day if they have time.
- KSAS Senator Daarian Rouhani gave three suggestions to one of the rooms, which the members preferred to refer to as the dark academia room: Dungeon, Room of Sorrows, and Castle Room.
- WSE Senator Amy Xu offered to get inputs from different departments as they have a number of people who made important discoveries. She suggested having them submit recommendations and ideas for an invention tribute room. This way, they can reach out if they want to contribute while helping us find resources and compile information. She thinks that they would love to be involved in something that promotes them.
- Li will compile these ideas and will be there at the Town Hall tomorrow, so Naqvi asked people to reach out to her if they have any additional ideas.
- Benjamin changed some things in the guidelines. He shared a document showing what he changed.
- He explained that the SAC Guidelines are guidelines for the finance committee on how to allocate money to other student organizations and more. This year, he wanted to make some changes so they worked better. Last year, there was a lot to be worked on.
- Mallikarjun gave a motion to have a 5 minute long moderated caucus, which passed. He asked if the travel fees included the registration fees, to which Benjamin responded no.
- Mallikarjun was curious as to how Benjamin came up with the 25% number.
- Benjamin explained that he wanted to start off by 25% as he believes it is not unreasonable for the club to have that money in a year after fundraising for a whole year.
- Slade believes that 12 USD is not enough for people with dietary restrictions. She asked to discuss this.
- Nabizadeh questioned if we forgot to implement the SAC amendment that passed in the past and asked how these changes would affect that amendment.
- Benjamin said that that amendment only affected the name as SAC was removed due to the lack of members.
- Oruganty asked if these guidelines are for when clubs are submitting their semesterly allocations or when they ask for funding, to which Benjamin responded both.
- KSAS Senator Jaden Garcia was not sure if the senate can vote on this according to the constitution, to which Naqvi and Huang offered to have a non-binding senate agreement that passed.
First Reading
Second Reading
Prospective Legislation & Announcements (5 min)
Adjournment (Estimated 9:00 PM)
Motion to adjourn the meeting passed. After the GBM, a meeting with the committee chairs and the executive board was conducted where they checked in.
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.
