President Ronald Daniels and Provost Lloyd Minor joined the Student Government Association (SGA) for its weekly meeting last Tuesday to review the SGA's projects for the upcoming year and to discuss collaborative efforts between the university officials and the SGA. In its second year, the fall semester dinner meeting with Daniels provided the SGA with an opportunity to update the president on their accomplishments from the previous year and projects for the upcoming year.
"We really welcome the opportunity to work closely with [the SGA to discuss] how we can make a great university even stronger," Daniels said.
The meeting is a supplement to the SGA's annual dinner with the president in the spring semester. However, the fall meeting is more oriented toward university business.
"[The spring] dinner is more [of an actual] dinner," SGA Executive President, senior Ardi Mendoza, said. "[The fall meeting] is more our formal SGA meeting that [Daniels and Minor] get to sit in on."
According to Mendoza, Daniels and the SGA Executive Board will meet in November to discuss specific details of SGA projects to be implemented.
"That's when we hash out the fine details," Mendoza said.
At the meeting, Daniels and Minor touched on a wide range of topics for how to improve the undergraduate experience at Hopkins. Daniels discussed the university-wide effort to improve the undergraduate academic programs.
At a meeting with the deans from all the Hopkins schools, including the East Baltimore School and the School of Advanced International Studies, Daniels described the feelings of the University's senior leadership as "encouraging."
"When we talked about what are the things we are most determined to do at this university, where can we really do things that will truly transform and enrich the institution, the undergraduate experience was literally the first thing that we talked about," Daniels said. "We really believe strongly we are on a wonderful trajectory [in improving the undergraduate experience] but we're not determined to coast."
Minor discussed initiatives such as the Future Seminars and other similar programs that work to stimulate departments into looking for ways to improve the undergraduate experience.
Daniels also spoke on improving the street life of Charles Village and the available amenities. While he said that the addition of Hopkins Barnes & Nobles brought some improvements, there still exists room for improvement.
"As a resident of Homewood campus, I am intensely interested in getting a burger joint [in Charles Village.] There's only so many times you can go to Chipotle in a given week," Daniels said.
Discussions of development plans for the Olmstead property, the vacant property on the corner of St. Paul Street and 33rd Street, were bounced around by Daniels, Minor and SGA members. Suggestions ranged from restaurant placement to creating a dual student union and residential space.
Minor spoke about creating programs geared towards the sophomore and junior classes.
"I think we've done a lot with freshman programs and activities. . . and then at the senior year we do a lot with helping prepare you for the next step," Minor said. "I'm not sure that we've addressed [the sophomore and junior years] as much.
"I want to meet in the fall with each [of the sophomore and junior class senators] to learn what's working well for you. . . and how we can be impactful with any programs."
Executive members of the SGA presented their current projects to Daniels and Minor.
Mendoza discussed with Daniels and Minor the creation of town hall meetings and focus group surveys to gather data from the undergraduate student body. Mendoza discussed the implementation of traffic cameras and other traffic safety measurements in the Charles Street construction project.
Mendoza also discussed the return of the SGA's shadowing program. A previous part of SGA operations, the program consists of SGA members shadowing an university official, such as a senior member of the Office of Housing and Dining or a senior member of the Office of Admissions, for a day. The hope is that this will better improve SGA and administration relations.
"[The SGA member] becomes the point of contact for the administrator for the SGA [to improve communication]," Mendoza said.
Executive Treasurer junior Joanna Gawlik reported that the Bike Project, a project to provide bicycles for on campus transportation, was continuing to make headway.
Executive Secretary junior Annie Scavelli discussed her current project of making course syllabi available on ISIS. Scavelli reported that she would be meeting with administrators to discuss implementation.
At the meeting's conclusion, Daniels and Minor expressed their desire to continue to collaborate with the SGA.
"We are taking a very expansive view of your experience. There is virtually nothing that isn't on the table in terms of your ideas, your aspirations and how we can enrich your experience [at Hopkins]," Daniels said.
