At the Student Government Association (SGA) meeting on Tuesday, the group focused on spring events, including a new bill detailing Project Chi —an outdoor festival in the spring semester—and the HOP’s decision to allocate all of its money from the cancelled Neon Trees concert to Spring Fair.
The SGA’s goal this year is to create more events that will benefit the entire Hopkins’ community.
“Surveys last year said students wanted more student programming done by the SGA,” Executive President Moses Song said.
SGA and the Interfraternity Council (IFC) decided to co-sponsor Project Chi, an event that will take place towards the end of the spring semester, potentially on the last day of classes in May. Executive Vice President Alex Schupper asked the SGA to vote in favor of allocating an additional $15,000 for the event.
“This money will go directly towards bringing an artist to campus and soundstage production,” Schupper said.
The vote passed almost unanimously with only one member abstaining and one voting against it. This money will be used to bring an entertainer to campus along with an outdoor soundstage. The event is most likely going to be held on Keyser Quad with a rain location in the Ralph S. O’Connor Recreation Center.
Although the event is co-sponsored by the fraternities, the SGA members emphasized that this is event is not only for those involved with Greek Life, and that they want the entire community to attend.
“This event will really benefit the entire student body, being co-sponsored not only by the SGA but by the IFC which represents every fraternity on campus,” Schupper said.
By having the fraternities co-sponsor the event and pledge not to have parties at the same time as Project Chi, more students will go to the event. One idea that SGA members had to ensure that everyone on campus feels welcome at the event is to invite other big groups to come and potentially perform. Senior Class President Alexandra Larsen suggested bringing in additional groups, such as a cappella and dance troupes, to ensure that students not involved in Greek Life feel welcome.
Additionally, the SGA discussed plans for Spring Fair. The HOP decided to combine money from the cancelled Neon Trees show with the Spring Fair budget. By adding the Fall Fest budget to Spring Fair, Spring Fair will have a budget of around $100,000, which will allow for Hopkins to bring a big name artist to campus.
The SGA is also taking initiative to reduce Hopkins’ carbon footprint. They are in the early stages of a project that will increase the number of water bottle refilling stations around campus, and try to reduce the number of plastic water bottles sold.
“A huge cause of waste is plastic,” Freshman Class Senator Kyra Toomre wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “For now we are just trying to install more of the refilling stations around campus (similar to the one in the Recreation center) so that people have easy access to more sustainable water. Then, and only then, will we think about and possibly attempt to reduce the number of water bottles sold on campus in order to reduce our carbon footprint.”
The Finance Committee also discussed the Buildings A and B project, which discusses potential names for the two freshman dorms. The options are to name the buildings after an alumnus, after something other than a person or to rename them AMR III. The Buildings will probably be referred to as AMRIII A and AMR III B for next year’s freshmen.
