The following is an open letter to the Hopkins student body concerning an issue in the upcoming SGA Executive Election.
Dear Hopkins Student Body,
My name is Steven Presser. I am a junior and the Technical Lead on the JHU-Mobile application, which will soon be officially announced. On April 10, the SGA campaign of Wyatt Larkin, Joanna Gawlik, Michael St. Germain and Debra Schwitzer released a campaign video in which they claimed that they "created an iPhone app." They also claimed on their website that they "secured administration support for a Hopkins iPhone App." While the video has since been edited, I'm concerned that the claims of these candidates trivialize the contributions of the different groups that worked to-gether to develop this application.
While the candidates had some role in pitching this application, as did many members of the SGA, the actual creation and development of this app has been a joint effort of the SGA's Hopkins App Ad hoc committee, IT@Johns Hopkins, and Student Technology Services, with input and oversight from Vice-Provost Steinberg and Presi-dent Daniels and funding from an anonymous donor. At the bottom of this letter, you will find the complete list of people who have contributed. It is my sincere hope that their ef-forts do not get lost among these campaign claims.
Of all those who did work on the app, there is one SGA member whose contribu-tions should be spotlighted: Kirk Sabnani. Kirk spearheaded the organization and gath-ering of institutional support for JHUMobile. I hope that it is recognized as the capstone of his achievements as a member of the SGA. Without Kirk's contributions, JHU-Mobile would not exist and its quality is a testament to his hard work.
Thank you for your time and attention. I hope that (once it launches) you enjoy JHU-Mobile!
Thank You,
Steven Presser
I would like to thank the following people for the work they have put into JHUMobile: the anonymous donor who made this project possible; President Daniels and Vice-Provost Steinberg for their support and guidance; our advisory board: Fred Bosworth, Helen Burdman, David Croft, Lauren Custer, Phil Gianuzzi, Steve Hellen, Abbey Lattes, Jason Lewis, Kristie Oppitz, Kate Pipkin, Elena Thompson, Robert Turning, Michael Vaughn and Erin Yun; the SGA Ad hoc committee: Kirk Sabnani, Luke Sand, Nick Trenton, Moses Song, Maaiz Khan, Joshua Goodstein, Nash Jenkins and Mahzi Malcolm; the professional staff at IT@Johns Hopkins: Steve Hellen, Deborah Savage, Matt Dragon, Cao-Ly Tran, and Ali Soylu; my team at Student Technology Services: Lia Cefalu, Sierra Costanza, Shijit Dasgupta, Bennett Ellis, Jed Estep, Amanda Garcia, Alexandra Gutten-tag, Jamie Hittman, Matthew Lehmann, Alannah Lejeune, Chang Liu, Kyle Mercer, Jes-sica Noviello, Michelle Plonch, Azwad Sabik, Garvi Sheth and Daniel Swann; and finally, the whole team at BlackBoard.
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