Meeting Minutes — Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Johns Hopkins University Student Government Association

• Excused: Max Dworin, Bennett Givens, TJ Bozada, Karen Poreh, Kirk Sabnani, Alexandra Larsen
• Unexcused: Saharsh Patel, Scott Barrett

• Minutes approved

a. President — Mark Dirzulaitis

• • Been keeping up with Steinberg, crafting a discussion guide to provide us with a lot of good data.
  • The HOP has Wiz Khalifa buses under control.
  • Will be introducing bills related to attendance that need to pass. There are some peole that have missed a lot of meetings.

b. Vice President — Elizabeth Duval

• • April 26th (next week), an SGA photo will be taken. Be sure to dress nicely for the photo: business casual. Will be hung in SGA office.
  • Mattin Markets next Thursday, Admitted Students Day

c. Treasurer — Wyatt Larkin

• • Annual budgets coming up on April 30th, will be reviewing them. Want to refresh people on how the end of year process goes for student groups, finance wise. Audits — budget out money at the end of every year, and we look at the difference between amount granted and amount spent, and we recall that difference. If they don’t spend the money, then they don’t keep it. Donations are different because they aren’t SAC, but cannot overshoot budget and keep money.
  • The development office informed us of two donations made to the SGA: $850 and $550.50 into contingency fund. Made by two anonymous benefactors. Development Office takes a 4% cut of this.
  • I suggest passing Nick’s bill, which he will introduce later.

d. Secretary — Diana Baik

• • Soph. President Alexandra Larsen: Have received one reading period violation.

• • Senator Mike Wu: Last night, had meetings for student group chairs. Will be bringing these up in new business. Will make Ethics Board appointments next week. Interviewed potential HOP co-chairs last night. Need to schedule interviews with remaining candidates. Co-chairs for FAS: interviews scheduled for May. Regarding the CSE, there are two graduating seniors, so app will be sent tonight via Today’s Announcements. They will have a week to fill out the application. For Curriculum Committee, contacted deans, who have not responded yet. Regarding Evaluations, the HOP has done a good job since Rachel has left and Shaun has taken over. Brian and Meghan have done a good job as co-chairs. 24-25 staff members every meeting show up.
  • Found out last night that throughout election process, only Rohit had access to voting count, and that other CSE members did not have access to them. For next election, I hope that all members get involved. Mark: For this, we need to make the CSE a group where every individual is more involved in general. Usually the CSE does the most. Mike: Throughout election process, each member should have access to the voting system to make sure there is no rigged process. Advisor Jason Heiserman: A lot of schools have paid CSE members that are accountable for the work that they do; it’s a short term assignment, you get paid for it; you have responsibilities that you have to adhere to because you get paid for it. Mark: Does anyone have any opinions about this election? Senator Nick Trenton: I would agree with Mike, because I felt like I was having a one-way conversation with Rohit. Wanted to be more involved in the committee. Wyatt: The chair is the point of contact. Liz: It’s more about the validity of the results.

• • Senator Stephanie Hsu: Nothing to report.

• • Senator Nick Trenton: Went over accountability and transparency bill (new business). Did not recommend the Fiji Islander bill.

• • Jr. Class President Ardi Mendoza: Met with reps from CSC to talk about Day of Service on Sunday, May 1st. Will begin advertising for it at end of the week. Will work with them for chocolate fountain, Freshman Quad from 10-2 for freshmen.
  • Sent out reminder yesterday to continue working on student assessment interviews. Giving us 2 weeks; if people don’t respond after that, we’ll take care of it, but for now, try to get in contact with them. The deadline for google doc info will be next Friday. Jason: if one contact doesn’t seem to be working, grab another contact from the Hopkins Groups website. Just try to get an actual person in the group to get a state of what is  going on because the primary contact could be outdated. Ardi: We’re also trying to tell them what SGA has been doing this year, build a relationship with the group.

• Sr. Class President Josh Ayal: On expedited to-do list in Student Life office.

• • Josh: Sold 330 tickets to every senior week event. Preakness sales are going well. Food and Wine pairing event this Wednesday, courtesy of Aramark.

b. Junior Class Council

• • Ardi: Met with Jason, just ordered sunglasses that will be distributed Homecoming Weekend. Will talk to whoever will be running big pregame on freshman quad to get a table and talk to people about next year.

c. Sophomore Class Council

• • Alexandra: Got sunglasses, will be distributing. Planned midnight breakfast and will be giving out tickets. Trying to figure out a memorial, have to check with family.

d. Freshman Class Council

• • Fresh. Class President Merrill Anovick: Meeting tomorrow to figure out event on beach or Freshman quad.

• Congrats to everyone involved on Springfair.
• This is the student group renewal process, as of the 15th. Please make sure groups are renewing for coming year... 367 more renewals to go, as only 3 have come to us. Got 70 or so more annual budgets due. Focus groups will be at top of Today’s Announcements tomorrow, so you can sign up for that. I did a training for new student group officers, and will be doing one Tuesday afternoon in Mattin 162. Anyone who wants to learn how finances work should come out to a session.

a. Labor Dispute — Resolution

• Senator Kevin Barry: Looks pretty neutral to me, thanks for changing the wording. Mark: This is pretty much what we discussed in terms of changing the wording. Ardi: I have a copy of the petition, if anyone wants to see it. Archie: Official count on petitions is 1195. Mark: Sat  in on 20 minutes of negotiations. Spoke to union negotiator and workers; I think this is going to be resolved, not a huge deal Moses moves to vote, Benjamin seconds this. No opposition to passing the resolutions. Resolution approved.

b. Fiji Islander — Resolution

• • Mark: Finance’s recommendation was to not approve the funding. Nick: Main issue with Fiji Islander, besides the fact that it’s for charity, is that they serve alcohol at the event. Don’t think we should take out fo the contingency fund for this. Senator Kevin Barry: We have alcohol because we get a lot of alumni, lax players, FIJI alumni, helps turnout to raise money, and also USO will be coming out because we have supported them in the past. This year we are supporting the Ovarian Cancer research fund. Wyatt: In answer to your concern, Nick, we’ve used money to arrange events that serve alcohol in the past. In this case, wea re not directly putting money to alcohol. Same money that we used for Hoptoberfest. Nick: This money will be going towards the band. The event is coming up soon; we are concerned with how you are going to get a bigger band. Kevin: Band is asking for $1500. Wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford them, $500 over budget. Could get them if SGA helped us. Senator Moses Song: What are your other funding sources? Kevin: Not only from fraternity, but Maxie’s, Ledo’s, other places in neighborhood. Natty Boh, etc. Moses: I advise that you speak to Rob Turning. Josh: One of the main reasons that there was opposition is that this is being run by a single fraternity. Nick: If we fund this, we may have to fund other frats coming to us for charities. Josh: If this were an IFC event, this would be different. There are other sources of funding that would be more appropriate for this that might be the IFC itself or the Office of Student Life. I think it’s a slippery slope to get involved with an event like this when every fraternity is involved in events like this throughout the course of the year. Wyatt: If events are in line with SGA’s interests, why does this matter. We can evaluate more frats that come to us on a case-by-case basis. If their interests align with ours, then we can fund them. Senator Sean Murphy: Part of that slippery slope is that Greek organizations that are represented in Student Government almost certainly have an advantage. Mark: Even if a fraternity has a solid representation on student government, may have only 3 people. There are many other people in the room who can be opposed to this. Wyatt: FIJI members should probably abstain from a vote. Liz: Finance committee did not approve this resolution, but there will still be a  vote.
  • Senator Archie Henry: Motion to ratify language of finance committee. Senator Gauri Wagle seconds this. Roll call vote. Josh objects to the vote.  I don’t think there have been enough opinions out there. Senator Katy Lefkof: Going off of Greek life, if they have opportunities to come to SGA and ask for funding, it shouldn’t matter how many people are in the SGA who represent these groups. Archie: Agree with Wyatt hat we should take these on a case-by-case basis and we should consider this as a large-scale event and not say no just because it’s put on by a fraternity. Ardi: Any frat or sorority has the right to come to us and talk about these things. Nick: I would agree that a case by case basis would be helpful. On the other hand, I have not heard of either band, so I’m not sure that there’d be a significant change in turn out whether it’s Band A or Band B. Senator Michael St. Germain: Went to committee, not enough people to hold a vote. Way in which finance decision was made to reject the bill was not necessarily kosher. Maybe it should just be brought up to the general body; not sufficient discussion, everything done by e-mail, not a face to face discussion. Mark: One time we overturned an A&E decision, could put motion on table to reject decision and send back to committee or motion to reject and change the motion. Finance just put forward a recommendation. We can motion either way — it’s a one step process. Nick: Only 2 committees in the senate can have closed meeting: finance and a&e. We can move this straight to a vote, up or down. Senator Alex Dash: I support this funding, but i wanna know that you have exhausted every other means of funding. I’d rather have orgs and frats coming here as a last resort as opposed to first resort. Kevin: We had a sponsorship packet that we sent to everybody. Every place around campus and organization go this packet; we’ve exhausted our resources. We’ve been doing islander for a long time, but this year we are trying to expand this and are trying to exhaust our resource to get as much as we can. On President’s Garden this year. Want to make this the best event possible. Merrill: Would be worthwhile to talk to director of Greek Life and Dean Boswell in terms of funding. Liz: Going to Rob would be better than coming here. Katy: Also can go to Panhell. Ardi: If we decide to fund this, SGA’s name would be on this? Kevin: Our sponsors are on everything that we make (t-shirts, cups, etc.) SGA will be labeled on everything if this goes through. Nick: How big of a difference would this money make in terms of attendance? Senator Joanna Gawlik: I think it’s not fair to judge based on how many people we think will come. We need to judge based on that this is a bigger name, we shouldn’t brush it aside because we don’t know the band. Sean: From a finance perspective, need a better idea of what sources have been looked at. Kevin: there is plenty ofinformation, event is in 2 weeks. Merrill: Would next week be too late to get the additional band? Kevin: if we do get other money we can return it to SGA; right now need it to secure band.
  • Katy: Motion to approve the FIJI islander resolution. Roll call vote. 10 in favor, 6 opposed, 4 abstained. Need a majority of those voting. Liz: Tie breaking vote. Votes yes. Resolution passed based on assumption that you have exhausted all other resources, that you will give any funds that you didn’t use back to SGA, and that SGA’s name is listed as a sponsor.

c. Wiz Buses Update

• • Mark: In the hands of the HOP, got it under control.

• Nick: Gist of bill is that the treasurer will report finance numbers at each meeting and that the numbers will be published to a page on the website. Won’t publish SAC funding. Will be managed by the Treasurer and the Finance Committee.

• Joanna: From Kirk. Bill sent out to listproc. People’s absences will be put online. Mark: There is a bylaw amendment that I’d like to see passed. Because attendance policy is in the constitution: impeachment hearing after 3 unexcused absences. 6 and you are removed. There are some who have had an absurd number of absemces. People have personal absences to miss meetings, not accusing anyone of missing because they are ignoring SGA. If stuff comes up in ones life which makes it so that you can’t make it to meeting, then you can’t really be involved in SGA. Can’t have VP constantly making judgment calls on excuses because we don’t want to demonize anybody, in section 2d of bylaws, should create a clause that VP can only grant any member of the sga 3 excused absences. 6 would be cause for impeachment, 9 would be cause for removal. This is just for general body, we dont have class or committee attendance on record. Nick: Would bylaws be amended by bills or would that be by referendum? Mark: by ? vote of senate. Mike: What happens if people show up to general body meetings and not to committee meetings? Nick: Technically committee meetings are supposed to record attendance as well. Mark: Constitution says a senator can only have 3 unexcused absences. After that, an impeachment hearing is held. If circumstances are understandable, won’t impeach person, person just needs to defend themselves. It’s about holding people accountable to the positions to which they were elected. Best mechanism to ensure solid attendance throughout the year. Michael: important to have attendance taken at committee and class council meetings. Sean: Maybe numbers should be separated for each meeting type. Make sure that committee meetings are not right before or after SGA.
• Moses: Motion to table bill. Senator Benjamin Googe seconds this. Bill tabled.

• Recommendations. 7 approvals, 3 denied. Baltimore Curator Series, Hopkins Go Club, Hopkins B-Boys (breaking off from Entertainer’s Club), African Dance Group, Sexual Empowerment Group, Cooking and Eating Club. Groups denied: Kendo, Trapeze, Triathlon. Will e-mail us info so we can vote next week.

• Moses: Last week’s Sports and Games Mattin Market went really well. Next one is Luau Day.
• Mark: Planning end of year dinner for us in last week of school. Please fill out the doodle poll that I will send out.
• Kevin: We should do a Secret Spring Santa.

• Moses: Motion to adjourn meeting. Josh seconds this. Meeting adjourned at 8:48 p.m.