This week, Student Council announced the winners of the Class of 2005 elections and discussed plans for making council meetings more public.
The newly-elected Student Council officers are President Ben Radel, Vice President Megan Coe, Secretary/Treasurer Shannon Chang and Representatives Charles Reiner, Morgan MacDonald and Manu Shima.
This year's improvements to the election process, such as campaign videos, have "attracted a little more attention for the candidates," said Fahad Khan, co-chair of the Board of Elections.
The Board of Elections has "done a tremendous job of getting the videos done," said Student Council President Anuj Mittal.
"Voter turnout was about average from previous years. We had 47 percent of the freshman vote," said Board of Elections co-chair Erika Stoddard.
Senior Class President Steve Goutman expressed the need to keep even more meticulous minutes during the Student Council meetings.
He said "We have a responsibility to the people who come ten years after us to show them what we did and the way to do that is through the minutes."
Goutman suggested publishing the minutes on-line so that they are available to the public, as Harvard University does.
Mittal announced that the executive board is currently looking for a person to chair the diversity committee, which "acts as an umbrella" for the cultural groups at Johns Hopkins.
He also announced plans for a Student Council newsletter that would be "a liaison between student groups and campus."
"We need some people to lead the charge" as editors of the newsletter, said Mittal.
Academic Affairs announced that they are working on a program to make all exams from the past four years public to all students. Committee Chair Chris Cunico said that "if a teacher gives out a test, it's going to be available on reserve.so that people don't have an unfair advantage over each other."
The committee said that it is also working on a petition for more security call boxes surrounding campus.
Homewood Student Affairs (HSA) Chairman Vivek Iyer announced that the committee is working on meal plan improvements.
"We're doing a survey to see exactly what percentage of students actually want Wolman open for Saturday brunch," he said.
HSA is also working to lower prices in Levering Market. Iyer said that they are "trying to keep the prices down" because this year students are no longer given the option to meal equiv at Levering.
The Hopkins Organization for Planning (HOP) has 100 tickets available for the Nov. 20 basketball game between the Washington Wizards and the Charlotte Hornets. The tickets will cost $35, which includes transportation.
Junior Class President Ravi Kavasery reported that Class of '03 Vice President Sarah Cummings and Secretary/Treasurer Tara Feehan are currently attempting to get students from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) to teach free art classes at the Mattin Center for Hopkins students.
Sophomore Class Vice President Simone Chow announced that the Class of 2004 is currently "drafting up a calendar of social events for the upcoming year.
