Civic Engagement Committee Meeting — Minutes (114th Session)

Tab 1

Meeting #1: September 3rd, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor

Meeting #2: September 10th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 3rd Floor

Meeting #3: September 17th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor

Meeting #4: September 24th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor

Meeting #5: October 1st, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #1: September 3rd, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor {#meeting-#1:-september-3rd,-2026-/-6:30-pm-/-csc-1st-floor}

Present: JM, SB, AV, AE, KG, LH, JL, SH, WG, OA Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Willow Goode (Civic Life Specialist, CSC) Guests: SP (unofficial member)

Permanent Members: Jackson Morris (JM), Sophia Baleeiro (SB), Shiran Hanono-Michli (SH), Andrei Leuca Espelien (AE), Kayla Marie Gonzalez (KG), Julia Lee (JL), Ayan Vaishnav (AV), Luke Holmes (LH), Oluwanifemi Ajayi (OA).

Agenda:

Introductions
Vice Chair nomination & confirmation
1. Committee Secretary appointment
Chair updates from summer
1. CSC
  1. CIIP-like program
  2. Getting SGA RSOs to use Hopkins Engage
2. GCEP/Federal Strategy
  1. State & Local Affairs
    1. Capital Day
  2. Federal Engagement
    1. Immigration
    2. Visa status
    3. Other issues important to students
3. SNF Agora
  1. Student Advisory
  2. Hopkins Forum Student Debate
  3. Meeting w/ New Director
4. Student organizations
  1. Compile list of civic-related student orgs, and introduce the civic engagement committee as a resource and partner.
Committee discussion of Academic Compact
Next Steps (Target: 7:25pm)

Minutes:

Introductions
Vice Chair nomination & confirmation
1. JM nominates SB, voted in 6-0-0
2. Icebreakers
  1. Jackson: Kong Pocha
  2. Sophia: Helmand
  3. Andrei: Yemen & Gulf
  4. Ayan: Ekiben
  5. Luke: Helmand (2nd)
  6. Kayla: Platter Kings
  7. Nifemi: Spice Kitchen
  8. Shreemann: Tabor’s
  9. Shiran: Le Maison
3. Committee Secretary appointment
Chair updates from summer
1. CSC
  1. JM met w/ associate director of community engagement of CSC over summer (Jelema Stewart)
  2. Community Impact Internship Program (CIIP)-like program
    1. https://studentaffairs.jhu.edu/socialconcern/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2023/08/CIIP-2023-Booklet-for-Web-8_17.pdf ← Check it if you’re curious (JM worked with Mark Conway)
    2. CIIP was put on hiatus, funding suspended
    3. (Ayan and Kayla left early)
    4. Is this committee interested in helping them secure funding again? Tabled for later
  3. Getting SGA RSOs to use Hopkins Engage
    1. SP and WG spoke about Hopkins Engage (platform to track volunteer hours)
    2. Allow SGA to track what RSOs are doing with civic engagement
    3. Have RSOs track hours in two categories (civic and non-civic engagement) and provide incentives
    4. What groups do we have?
    5. Who will manage SGA Hopkins Engage page?
    6. OA: will this be extra hurdle/requirement for RSOs?
    7. CSC can help support
    8. Should we have civic engagement summit as a way to introduce?
    9. How are we using the data effectively?
2. GCEP/Federal Strategy
  1. State & Local Affairs
    1. JM met with State & Local Affairs office and how we can create opportunities for students https://gce.jhu.edu/government-relations/
    2. Office agreed to speak to superiors regarding how students can visit State Capitol and discuss issues that affect students
    3. Bring someone to campus and have them speak
    4. Capitol Day: https://www.jhscipolgroup.org/events/2024/2/5/jhspdg-capitol-hill-day-in-march-2024
  2. Federal Engagement
    1. Does not take SGA seriously
    2. Can facilitate city council engagement
    3. Immigration
    4. The university has an obligation to its students first
      1. And as a part of Baltimore, we have an obligation to our community
      2. SUPPOSEDLY: if ICE is on campus there will be an alert, can we get an
    5. Visa status
      1. OIS updates once a meeting maybe?
      2. public/private demarcation statement
    6. Other issues important to students
3. SNF Agora
  1. What can we gain from SNF Agora partnership? (They have $150 mill)
  2. Opening of new building next week, work with them so they actually listen to students
  3. Student Advisory
    1. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2025/11/protests-break-out-against-snf-agora-director-at-sgas-14th-meeting
    2. Can we get organizations to submit one person to board every year?
    3. Goal is pilot this year of a simple board
    4. Hopefully comes from students
    5. SP: Noted that Hahrie was open to Civic Engagement Chair + SGA ppl + GRO
      1. Wanted it to be planning programming + actually representing
  4. Hopkins Forum Student Debate
    1. Host student debate
    2. HPU collab
  5. Meeting w/ New Director
    1. Dr. Ruth Braunstein
    2. Hope is to meet with them and start off on a good note with them.
    3. Might turn into us having to hold them accountable.
4. Student organizations [considered early, 7:00pm]
  1. Compile list of civic-related student orgs, and introduce the civic engagement committee as a resource and partner.
  2. Plan to reach out and establish this committee as a resource
  3. SGA: SP: Reach out to Notes of Ranvier
  4. Departmental:
  5. CSC: Willow - CSC tag, in Hopkins groups, can reach out to this group (~36 groups)
  6. Arts/sports?
  7. CSO potential collab?
Committee discussion of Academic Compact (TABLED)
1. Look over and read this
2. Prep to talk about it next meeting
3. University Administration said they would talk to stakeholders/community members about it, but they have not yet done so.
Next Steps (Target: 7:25pm)

Action items:

WILLOW NOTE: make sure lights are turned out, alarm set off at 9:30pm
Send out meeting information on Hopkins Political Union meeting; looking for 1 or 2 members to join
Everyone read academic compact
Start making a list of non-traditional civic engagement-adjacent organizations to share with Julia and Jackson.

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #2: September 10th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 3rd Floor {#meeting-#2:-september-10th,-2026-/-6:30-pm-/-csc-3rd-floor}

Present: SB, JM, LH, AE, AV, KG, SH, JL Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Guests: JFern

Andrei (6:30-7:30pm) Ayan (6:30-7:00pm) Julia (7:00-7:30pm) Kayla (6:30-7:30pm) Luke (6:30-7:30pm) ~~Nifemi (6:30-7:30pm)~~ - note: Nifemi is unable to make the committee meeting time, had to drop committee as of this meeting Shiran (6:30-7:30pm) Sophia (6:30-7:30pm)

Agenda:

National call to action + AAUP letter discussion
Sign up for initiative areas (must sign up for 2 areas)
1. Baltimore Community Engagement [Center for Social Concern]
  1. CIIP
  2. Hopkins Votes
2. Local/State/Federal Gov [Government, Community, Economic Partnerships + Federal Strategy]
  1. Student engagement with city/state/federal gov
  2. Engagement with federal issues (immigration, research funding, etc.) important to students
3. Debate, dialogue, democracy [SNF Agora]
  1. Student Advisory
  2. Hopkins Forum Student Debate
  3. Meeting w/ New Director
4. Student Organization Outreach
  1. List of civic engagement-adjacent orgs
  2. Hopkins Engage

Baltimore Community Engagement:
Local/State/Federal Gov:
Debate, Dialogue, Democracy:
Student Organization Outreach:

*Denotes non-chair leader

Open discussion: propose other areas of engagement and initiatives
[Optional, if time permits] What is free expression at JHU?

Minutes:

National call to action + AAUP letter discussion
1. University cannot respond to this letter w/o student and faculty input
2. Goal is take this conversation to GBM and speak openly
3. Most salient points:
  1. We have many international students, not fair to put wholesale focus on US and American national security
  2. People and interests are grouped in the same area, which there is disagreement on. There shouldn’t be a prioritization of the American people exclusively, when it comes at the cost of everybody else.
  3. Ways research is framed (widespread “foreign” influence, economic impacts as opposed to health impacts, careers seen only as financial sources)
  4. Shared commitment to protecting international students and research
  5. Pursuit of truth does not belong to a particular nation or school
    1. Must look to find inconvenient truths as academic institutions, regardless of political consequences
  6. Goes against conservative ideal of US as “city on a hill”
    1. People sacrifice to be here and should be protected
      1. That someone would decide to travel thousands of miles from home, learn to speak another language, and spend some of the most formative years of their life in a foreign country to receive a US college education should be seen as the greatest possible compliment to our universities and nation
    2. Value of cultural diversity
    3. Viewpoint diversity is centered on US in this letter
      1. International students bring perspectives beyond republicans, democrats, and US politics
  7. Town hall? Meeting w/ RonnyD?
  8. Not just international students, but first and second gen kids make up a bulk of this school
    1. Affects family members, close friends
  9. The University may respond to this letter without us
  10. This letter was composed in part by input from the President of JHU
    1. JHU speaks at length about the value of democracy but, if it doesn’t consider student/faculty input after promising to consult community members and stakeholders, it is not practicing what it preaches
  11. GBM: present AAUP (background) and Compact (call to action) letters
    1. Small presentation
      1. Seven points in compact
      2. How did AAUP respond?
      3. What does our committee think is most important?
  12. Outreach to student body:
    1. Survey students immediately
    2. Reach out to cultural and international RSOs + research orgs → work with CSO
    3. Non-nativist sentiment is strongest, but there are other factors here to care about
    4. Work with grad students (GRO or TRU) to talk about research
    5. Questions:
    6. Get cultural RSOs together, get research RSOs together and let them talk could be very useful
  13. We can assume that university just hasn’t reached out to us yet, schedule meeting with Daniels and Provost
    1. Here are our biggest concerns from the SGA
  14. Schedule meeting w/ TRU, GRO, and AAUP?
  15. Where does administration currently stand?
Sign up for initiative areas (must sign up for 2 areas)
1. Yay everybody signed up
2. Idea is to have small groups so Jackson can just take those people who know the most to meetings as needed
3. Baltimore Community Engagement [Center for Social Concern]
  1. CIIP
  2. Hopkins Votes
4. Local/State/Federal Gov [Government, Community, Economic Partnerships + Federal Strategy]
  1. Student engagement with city/state/federal gov
  2. Engagement with federal issues (immigration, research funding, etc.) important to students
  3. Capitol Day
5. Debate, dialogue, democracy [SNF Agora]
  1. Student Advisory
  2. Hopkins Forum Student Debate
  3. Meeting w/ New Director
6. Student Organization Outreach
  1. List of civic engagement-adjacent orgs
  2. Hopkins Engage

Baltimore Community Engagement: AE, LH, JL
Local/State/Federal Gov: AV, AE (local city), SB, KG, SH
Debate, Dialogue, Democracy: AV, LH, SB,
Student Organization Outreach: AE, KG, SH, JL

Andrei (6:30-7:30pm) Ayan (6:30-7:00pm) Julia (7:00-7:30pm) Kayla (6:30-7:30pm) Luke (6:30-7:30pm) Nifemi (6:30-7:30pm) Shiran (6:30-7:30pm) Sophia (6:30-7:30pm) *Denotes non-chair leader

Open discussion: propose other areas of engagement and initiatives
1. CSC Civic Dialogue Fund: 10k for collab projects on dialogue
2. RSOs and research available
3. CARE: how get Baltimore residents on campus?
  1. Shared meal times to encourage community?
  2. How engage staff more on campus?
  3. CSO committee and Finance interested in working w/ RSOs and bring funding
  4. Security staff added, faculty eat w/ students?
  5. Money for faculty to easily take classes to dinners
    1. LH: Dr. Zerin, does work on engineering culture
    2. Andrei: Chaz Firestone (intro psych), Dr. N, Falzone
    3. Dr. Lim!! History
[Optional, if time permits] What is free expression at JHU?

Luis: Gubernatorial debate upcoming; watch party on campus <3

Action items:

Make presentation
Present at GBM Tuesday
Reach out to RSOs
ronnyD Meeting
TRU + AAUP meeting
JM- Follow up with Luis to confirm Gov debate date and any collaboration

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #3: September 17th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor {#meeting-#3:-september-17th,-2026-/-6:30-pm-/-csc-1st-floor}

Present: JM, SB, AE, SH, AV (half), LH, KG (half), JL (late - attended HPU joint meeting friday) Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Guests: Natalie Bernstein of CARE

Agenda:

Debrief from SGA presentation and next steps
1. AAUP updates
2. Charles and admin updates
3. JHU admin form breakdown
Proposal for Dialogue Fund
1. Club approaching us
Break out groups for small topics
1. Distribution of labor/accountability structure

Minutes:

Proposal for Dialogue Fund
1. JM explains Student Dialogue Fund
2. How can we have students meet Baltimore community members and unite community more
3. Old event was Longest Table where people from various departments and communities can work together
4. CDI gutted, so Longest Table has not existed since 2024
5. CARE pitch
  1. CARE tries to break Hopkins bubble by engaging students to larger community
  2. Students feel disconnected + isolated bc no underlying civic community
  3. Let’s get together and do something aspects
  4. First event idea: bring JHU affiliates together
  5. Second: bring Baltimore residents together as well
  6. Facilitate dialogue and mix up people during two hour event
    1. Intro, why this program, facilitate discussion,
  7. 29th Street Community Center as community partner
  8. University affiliates, partner with CSC, SGA, CDI
  9. Book room and have event
  10. Input?
    1. Have event series
    2. Shuffling people consistently so don’t know people in group
    3. Many Hopkins departments will show up because people are interested in branching out
    4. Faculty senate/grad student councils as potential partners?
  11. Grant competition: apply in October, find out in November/December, must be spring event
6. Definitely apply!
7. Have large kickoff then several smaller
  1. LH can take point on budget proposal w/ Natalie
Debrief from SGA presentation and next steps
1. GBM pres: reluctant, no concrete feedback from senators
2. Survey came out from admin
3. Other Hopkins departments involved
4. We should have access to responses
5. Faculty releasing this survey was a tactic so we couldn’t get data ourselves
6. Joint statement with AAUP and GRO?
7. Need to know current admin opinion on statement
8. Anti-student things: FAs, credit overload, FYM check-ins, library, free speech + protest
9. Peter’s committee is surveying RSOs
10. Go to GBMs or send people to various meetings to
11. Have email sent out by end of next week for students with SGA stance on how students can respond w/ their feelings to the call to action
12. Survey students: how do you feel about university and would you donate
13. Sexual violence committee: two student only
Break out groups for small topics
1. Distribution of labor/accountability structure
2. Priorities going into admin meeting:
3. Have open discussion forum for students to submit sensitive anonymous feedback for us to bring to specific departments
4. Send out more emails to students

Action items:

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #4: September 24th, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor {#meeting-#4:-september-24th,-2026-/-6:30-pm-/-csc-1st-floor}

Present: JM, AV, SH, LH Excused: KG (exam), JL (to be added), AE (sick), SB (approved conflict) Unexcused: Admin: Guests:

Agenda:

6:30 - Committee consideration of JHU SGA Freedom of Expression Directive (Resolution)
6:50 - Working meeting: Identification of Civic Engagement-adjacent orgs for outreach / work on survey / new initiatives

Minutes:

Note from Sophia: May try to move meetings to BSC to make travel time shorter for everyone.

Did not have a quorum (4/8). Vote on SGA Freedom of Expression Directive delayed to right before 9/29 GBM.

Survey:
- Add options for confidentiality
  - Yes, you can share my response
  - Yes, you can share my response but remove my name
  - No, don’t share my response
  - -> We encourage that you allow us to share our responses with the school so that we can confirm they have received this input
Email:
- These are the opportunities SGA is providing for additional input.

Action items:

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #5b: September 29th, 2026 / 7:00 PM / BSC 404

Present: Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Guests:

Agenda:

Micro-meeting to hold a committee vote on JHU SGA Freedom of Expression Directive (Resolution)
Does NOT count for attendance

Minutes:

Vote:

Action items:

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #5: October 1st, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 1st Floor {#meeting-#5:-october-1st,-2026-/-6:30-pm-/-csc-1st-floor}

Present: Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Guests:

Agenda:

Minutes:

Action items:

Instructions

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #1: September 3rd, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 3rd Floor

[Meeting #, Date [Month, Day, Year] / Time (ET) / Location -- use the font above so the meeting gets added to the Table of Contents]

Present [all permanent members present]: JM Excused [all permanent members excused]: JM Unexcused [all permanent members absent without an excuse]: JM Admin [to be used for any non-students present]: Willow Goode (Civic Life Specialist) Guests [any other students present]: Shreemann Patel

Permanent Members [Senators who are voting members of the committee at the time of the meeting]: Jackson Morris (JM), Sophia Baleeiro (SB), Shiran Hanono-Michli (SH), Andrei Leuca Espelien (AE), Kayla Marie Gonzalez (KG), Julia Lee (JL), Ayan Vaishnav (AV), Luke Holmes (LH), Oluwanifemi Ajayi (OA).

Agenda: [Bullet points that provide a roadmap for what the meeting will cover]

Minutes: [Bullet points describing what was said by whom at the meeting]

Action items: [Things to be done after the meeting]

Template

114th Johns Hopkins Student Government Association Committee on Civic Engagement

Meeting #1: September 3rd, 2026 / 6:30 PM / CSC 3rd Floor

Present: Excused: Unexcused: Admin: Guests:

Agenda:

Minutes:

Action items: