Meeting Minutes — Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Johns Hopkins University Student Government Association

I. Call to Order —7:30 p.m.

II. Roll Call

1. Excused: Scott Barrett, Karen Poreh

III. Approval of Minutes

1. Motion to approve minutes from Senator Moses Song. Seconded by Senator Kirk Sabnani.

IV. Executive Officer Reports

a. President — Mark Dirzulaitis

1. Next Monday, dinner with the President and the Provost, 6 p.m. April 4th. Opportunity to throw Mark ideas later in meeting.
2. No one responded to second call for award nominations. Only 14 nominations total, and only 5 for the Dunn Family award. Send Mark the nominations! Due Thursday night.
3. Slover Linett is a consulting firm that is coming in to do a student survey, hired by the University. Coming at $30,000 price.
4. Called up Mr. Miller from a few years ago, 10 buses, $300 a bus, better than the quote that the HOP gave us. They will be running the buses. Will run a shuttle the whole night. Drop off and come back. He understands limitations of parking lot. Will meet with him next week. Josh: Confirm the specifics of the event with him!

b. Vice President — Elizabeth Duval

1. Thursday is our first Mattin Market. Theme is Sports Day. Check the Mattin Markets schedule, you should be there. Starts at 11 a.m., ends at 1 p.m.

c. Treasurer — Wyatt Larkin

d. Secretary — Diana Baik

V. Committee Reports

a. Academic Affairs

1. Soph. President Alexandra Larsen: Going to start reading period violation letter early.

b. Appointments and Evaluations

1. Senator Mike Wu: Last ngiht, committee conducted first interviews for new student groups. Senator Max Dworin stopped by to help. Sent out applications for Ethics Board Kirk: Looking for ways on CSE to increase voter turnout. Usually get around 25-35% of school to vote. Rohit’s initiative was to have lawn signs that say Vote @ jhu.edu. Mark: Dylan’s last campaign had a record turnout. News-letter, voting booths, etc. Could not pass increased funding in time for election. Mark: In the past, expenses haven’t been audited closely, it would be easy for people to spend more...

c. Campus Affairs

1. Senator Stephanie Hsu: Getting database from Dean Boswell to create online campus directory. Kirk: Want to implement a better database to look up students, faculty, etc.

d. Finance

1. Senator Nick Trenton: met with recipient of student initiatives grant. Went over sample budget sheet for voter registration drive. Approved Class of 2013 sunglasses. 2014 also wanted some, so approved sunglasses for them. Reimbursed Kirk for new OHCD and webhosting package. Discussed potential funding for dance marathon (see New Business).

e. Student Involvement

1. Jr. President Ardi Mendoza: E-mail abotu student group assessments is almost ready to go out to SGA. Everyone is assigned 3-4 student groups, ask them questions to fill out a Google form that will keep us updated on each group. Student Advocacy Board brought a group called Explore Baltimore, who wants to create a list of reviews for places around Baltimore; they want student reviews. Helping Student Advocacy Board for 2 events: April 23rd for a mini Day of Service, and chocolate fountain April 29th, A Friday for students to see volunteer opportunities at CSC. Mark: Speaker (Robert) mentioned that MICA has a guide to Baltimore already, should check it out.

VI. Class Council Reports

a. Senior Class Council

1. Sr. President Josh Ayal: Will have food and wine pairing event on the 20th. Planning Senior Week.

b. Junior Class Council

1. Ardi: Have budget worked out for event for Homecoming. Sending them over to finance and our own appeal for sunglasses. Renting speakers from WJHU?

c. Sophomore Class Council

1. Alexandra: Focusing on planning halfway to graduation midnight breakfast event. Moses found a sushi place to have an event.

d. Freshman Class Council

1. Fresh. President Merrill Anovick: Sunglasses! Deciding on an event: bussing to Orioles game or to a movie. Perhaps have buses drop off at different locations.

VII. Advisor Report — Jason Heiserman

1. Via Senator Katy Lefkof: Wiz Khalifa. Jason thinks we need to have security for buses for when people leave and come back. Needs to know all the info for the buses (times, locations, etc.)

VIII. Old Business

a. Wiz Buses

b. Judiciary Suit; SGA vs. JSA

IX. New Business

1. Labor dispute — Robert Day: 2 labor disputes in Baltimore. Aramark employees on Hopkins campus did not have any union recognize their representatives. Have been without a contract for 2 years, have lost long-term disability assurance. Contract negotiations are not going well. Trying to keep as many full-time jobs as possible, trying to get back health benefits, have a contract to know what the terms of the employment of. 2nd labor issue: Sheraton Hotel; in Baltimore was bought by by mid 2000s. 1. University needs to call on Aramark to settle a contract. Students have a lot of power on this council.Senator Kevin Barry: Does the administration know about it? Have you spoken to them? Robert: No, this needs to reach a critical mass first. So this will be unfolding. Mimi: How often do we renew our contracts with Aramark? Mark:We switched food vendors outside of Aramark. Max: Theoretically if SGA gives our approval, what is the appeal? Archie: I think we should support this.
2. JSA/CSE on Exec Elections — Rivky: Last year, our VP Evan Lazerowitz took Jewish Students Association to SGA court, saying that JSA not allowing seniors to vote was a violation of the Constitution. He lost. A number of seniors also felt this was wrong so they pushed voting for seniors. Date was set for today as of Sunday night for trial, pushed it to later. Related to Hillel, but not Hillel. Charted and funded group. Divided opinion in room as to what the policy should be. Max: This is the SGA’s policy. Unless we want to vote to change the policy, we need to defend this because it is in our constitution.
3. Agenda for President and Provost Dinner:

1. Business casual attire. Guys should be in coat and tie. Look appropriate.
2. Josh: Doesn’t seem to be a meeting. Mark: We want to pick 3 issues to discuss because they have asked about the agenda. Alexandra: Student safety. Senator Michael St. Germain: Continuing to push Hopkins towards environmental sustainability. Senator Kevin Barry: Student life initiatives in general. Want to bring more events to campus. Mark: Try to give an assessment of our year. Show him what’s worked. Archie: Discussion on student union. Ardi: What they intend to do with the Olmsted Lot. Wyatt: What’s on the admin’s mind about student safety? Max: Something about how to preserve the SGA’s role in the new format of the trustees, esp. without young trustees.

X. Announcements

1. Merrill: Being auctioned off
2. Mark: In Maryland 110, PETA vice president is debating Hopkins debate team about whether or not it is ethical to eat meat.

XI. Open Discussion

1. Nick: Supplementary funding for dance marathon. Would not be funding food or charity, but under operations, games, decorations. Would be around $500. Moses: Rec Center on April 8th, 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. 400 people are signed up, and proceeds help children’s hospital. $7 at door. Liz: Can you submit a bill? Nick: This has been voted for in finance.
2. Josh: This CSE issue is constitutional about what student groups can and cannot do. It seems to me that the power that the SGA and SAC have is separate from that. Could the SAC in their Green Book policy say, we can only give money if seniors are allowed to vote? Wyatt: The argument hinges on a provision of the constitution, which says that no act of the SGA can influence the workings of student groups. Student groups should submit a constitution that regulates some sort of thing for voting. Mark: It’s under our authority, since the SAC is a committee of the SGA. If SGA deems that this is reasonable, for seniors to have to vote, then it would become policy. Josh: When the SAC determines to give money to a certain group, it’s not necessarily open to argument. So can we say, by the power of the purse, you can do this if you want, but good luck getting money next year?? Wyatt: SAC policies only talk about how money can be used, not about the organizational structure of the group itself. Josh: So, we can give them $1 if we wanted to?
3. Closed discussion for labor issue. Josh motions to close meeting to discuss CSE/JSA issues. Max opposes this. Roll call vote. 3 opposed, majority in favor. Meeting closed.

XII. Adjournment

1. Josh motions to adjourn meeting. Seconded by Archie. Meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Diana Baik

Executive Secretary