At its weekly meeting on Tuesday, the Student Government Association (SGA) passed a viewpoint neutrality bill, which will allow all student groups to apply for equivalent amounts of funding. Although SGA can still deny a group’s request for additional funding, they cannot do so on the basis of the group’s agenda or mission.
SGA also discussed the logistics regarding its new Facebook page “WTF [What to Fix] Hopkins,” which launched on Sunday.
Executive President Janice Bonsu reintroduced the bill on viewpoint neutrality, which was discussed but not voted on last week.
This bill addressed funding issues brought forth by Advocacy and Awareness groups that had their funding cut following SGA decisions last year.
After Bonsu gave a brief summary of the bill, SGA voted unanimously to pass the bill. However, the funding changes outlined in the bill will not be made until the 2015-2016 academic year.
Following the vote, SGA discussed an upcoming spirit week, which the sophomore class council is organizing for the week of the final home football game to start on Nov. 15.
SGA members debated the name for the spirit week. Although they have been referring to it as “Homecoming Week,” they plan to choose a different name so it is not confused with the traditional homecoming week in the spring.
Executive Vice President Kyra Toomre recently met with alumni to ask for their opinions on a name for this new and upcoming event.
“They said that they really don’t want it to be called ‘Homecoming Week’ because they need a lot of money from alumni [to fund Homecoming] that they just don’t have right now, so they suggested Blue Jay Pride Week,” Toomre said.
Matthew Brown, a sophomore class senator, then proposed the idea of buying a sophomore class council banner, which they could hang at events they are sponsoring during the fall spirit week.
“A sentiment that I have been getting from a lot of students is that they will get stuff from the beach or in front of Brody and not actually know who gave it to them,” Brown said. “The class banner would advertise SGA.”
The group then discussed its newest social media outlet, the WTF Hopkins Facebook page. The page is designed as a resource for students to suggest ideas or ask questions anonymously.
The page allows for anonymous requests, which have run the gamut from the sandwiches served at Stone Mill Bakery to erecting new campus-owned housing for upperclassmen.
“Can Hopkins please upgrade the JHMI application? It is never accurate about when the next bus is coming, nor does it show whether that JHMI is local or express,” one anonymous Facebook user wrote on the WTF Hopkins page.
A concern for personal style resources also appeared on the page.
“Can we build an Intermix next to Chipotle? It would really help the fashion quality of this school,” another user wrote.
Junior Class Senator Amy Sun, who launched the page on Sunday, opened the discussion with feedback from students.
“A ton of people expressed concerns that we are getting ideas from them but we’re not following up with the ideas or giving them a progress report,” Sun said.
The SGA then discussed how best to respond to the posts. Bonsu brought up the necessity of making sure the SGA’s responses are accurate.
“I want to caution everyone that if you don’t know exactly the answer, and you think [it] is the answer based something you heard, do not post it,” Bonsu said. “Because then you’re speaking for the SGA and we [look like] we don’t know what we’re doing.”
Junior class President Jahan Mirchandani expressed concern about the ability of non-SGA members to comment on posts.
“I personally don’t think we should comment because there’s no way for us to distinguish the SGA voice,” Mirchandani said.
He suggested that the WTF Hopkins page respond via posts on behalf of the SGA and specify which post they are responding to by number.
Sun responded by suggesting that everyone be given administrative duties.
“We would all post with the WTF logo,” Sun said.
Senior Class President Destiny Bailey reemphasized the need to make sure responses are accurate and suggested responses be reviewed before being posted.
“If you have administrative access, post with the consent of a few other senators,” Bailey said.
Senior Class Senator Parth Patel suggested that only certain people be given administrative duties.
“I think committee chairs and presidents [should be administrators] and if not committee chairs and presidents, then a group of SGA members can volunteer to help,” Patel said. “I don’t think we need 25 members [posting].”
At the end of the meeting, Toomre mentioned a recent JHU Politik article written by senior Nash Jenkins entitled “Why Hopkins?”
“Basically, the sentiment behind the article is that people don’t like going to Hopkins, that the administration is using social media well enough to make us prestigious and that students are perpetuating the ‘we hate Hopkins’ mentality,” Toomre said.
To address the issues causing this mind-set, Toomre suggested organizing student focus groups to discuss the issues and then presenting the issues in a town hall hosted by SGA.
Bonsu then made an announcement regarding a new initiative to encourage students to safely cross N. Charles Street, which recently opened to limited traffic after several years of construction.
“[SGA volunteers] would give out [non-monetary] citations to people who aren’t following proper crossing [rules],” Bonsu said. “This is kind of a spinoff of the Road Scholar program.”
Toomre concluded the meeting by mentioning the upcoming SGA dinner outing.
The bonding event is planned for the weekend after freshman class council elections, which are scheduled to occur later on in the fall semester.
