Before voting for the Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Board begins on Friday, Hopkins clubs classified as Advocacy and Awareness groups have banded together to form the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance, which vowed to endorse certain candidates who promise to meet the alliance’s demands while in office.
On Wednesday night, the group announced their support of Janice Bonsu for executive president, Kyra Toomre for executive vice president, Will Szymanski for executive treasurer and Adelaide Morphett for executive secretary.
“After extensive conversations with all SGA Executive Board candidates this week, we have determined that these candidates are most closely aligned with our interests and goals,” the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance wrote in a statement. “We hope that this ticket, which we believe is the most qualified to execute the changes which we wish to see on campus, will reach out to Maxwell Dickey for advice and guidance, as his platform deserves special consideration.”
Dickey is running for Executive Treasurer without a formal ticket.
The alliance’s goals center on the difference in funding that SGA awards groups labeled as Advocacy and Awareness. In early Feb., SGA announced to certain political groups that their former classifications as Special Interests and Hobbies, which included stable monthly funding, did not accurately fit the groups’ purposes, and so SGA consequently changed the political groups’ categorization to Advocacy and Awareness.
“The formation of the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance was prompted by the recent reclassification and consequent fund redistribution faced by the Hopkins College Democrats, College Republicans and Hopkins Feminists,” junior Carrie Resnick, co-president of the College Democrats, wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “This reclassification, from Special Interest and Hobby to Advocacy and Awareness, made me aware of the lack of funding available for Advocacy and Awareness groups, which are ineligible for annual funding.”
The groups that constitute the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance include the Hopkins College Democrats, Hopkins College Republicans, Hopkins J-Street U, Hopkins Feminists, Voice for Choice, Voice for Life, Students for Justice in Palestine and Students for Environmental Action.
“We are a coalition of Advocacy and Awareness groups committed to diverse political and social activism on the Johns Hopkins campus. We believe that all students groups deserve equal opportunity of funding, especially in the form of annual budgets, and that the SGA budget and grant appropriations process should be made more transparent. We take these positions because we aim to increase the political activism and civil discourse on campus,” the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance wrote in its statement.
Although the groups that make up the alliance span the entire political spectrum in terms of their viewpoints, they decided to band together to reform funding.
“Even if we disagree with each other, we agree that, given Hopkins as a campus, the reduced funding as well as the change to monthly funding isn’t helping,” Vice President of the College Republicans and President of Voice for Life Andrew Guernsey said. “We all share a common interest which is why we are kind of mobilizing to try and get Student Government candidates elected who will restore that ability to fund groups in a normal consistent way that’s fair with the way that other groups are treated.”
According to Resnick, who took on a leading role in forming this coalition, the alliance aims not only to reform SGA’s budgeting process, but also to eliminate confusion in funding for student groups as well.
“In addition to equal opportunity in the budgeting process, we are also asking for more transparency in club funding,” Resnick wrote.
The endorsements are appealing to SGA candidates because the alliance presents the opportunity for guaranteed support from unified groups of students like the College Democrats, which is composed of 40 active members.
“We will be notifying all of our club members about which candidates we endorse and the reasons for the endorsement, so they know where the candidates stand on our issues,” Resnick wrote.
Other members of the alliance voiced their opinions and emphasized that the group’s formation helps foster increased political activism on campus.
“I hope that in the coming semesters, SGA will realize that there is great potential to foster positive political activism on campus, which is partially contingent upon funding,” President of the College Republicans sophomore Christine McEvoy wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “While Hopkins students might be wrapped up in an upcoming Orgo test or problem set, it is, in my opinion, vitally important for us to consider how our unique skill-sets can impact the outside community.”
Certain groups like the College Republicans also elaborated on their plans to aid the alliance and further promote unity.
“We hope that our two upcoming events, the Maryland Republican Party Gubernatorial Primary Debate in Shriver on April 10 and our annual debate with the College Democrats moderated by Charles St. News on April 14 in Mudd 26, will further promote campus-wide unity for not only Advocacy and Awareness groups, but also for overall political awareness,” McEvoy wrote.
McEvoy also plans to continue the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance’s mission beyond SGA elections.
“If Advocacy and Awareness groups cannot receive substantial annual funding, I hope that the University might consider an alternative like endowing a fund that would provide money necessary for Advocacy and Awareness groups to bring speakers to campus,” she wrote.
The results of the Advocacy and Awareness Alliance’s efforts will soon be known as SGA Executive Board Member winners are announced on Monday.
“We are happy to be working with the other Advocacy and Awareness groups to strengthen activism on campus,” Resnick wrote.
