SGA debates measures to reduce student stress

The Student Government Association (SGA) discussed student organization resources and mental health at their weekly meeting on Tuesday.

The meeting opened with an introduction from Mikhail Osanov and Linda Tchernyshyov, representatives from the Graduate Representative Organization (GRO). They explained that GRO serves a similar purpose to SGA but for graduate students at Homewood Campus, and that they hope to collaborate with SGA in the future.

Executive Vice President AJ Tsang gave a recap of Well-Fest, which was held on Friday in Levering Courtyard. Tsang said that the event was well-attended and provided information about different mental health resources on campus.

Sophomore Class President Anthony Boutros discussed the Civic Engagement Committee’s plans to host Munk debates, a style of policy debate, with IDEAL, a nonpartisan political awareness group on campus. These debates would potentially feature two experts in a particular field, each partnered with a student to argue either side of an issue.

SGA also welcomed Assistant Director of Student Organizations Clifton E. Shambry, Jr. and senior Kat Gross, a student organization programming intern, both from the Office of Student Leadership and Involvement, who gave a presentation on the Hopkins Groups website.

Shambry and Gross reviewed the features on the website, such as facilitating elections and managing documents for student groups, and also recommended that SGA work with their office to keep their own web page up to date.

“The way that we come into play is by supporting the SGA and GRO with the recognition process,” Shambry said.

Next Tsang announced that after receiving about 20 applications for the Judiciary Committee, the Internal Affairs Committee will narrow the list down to five to bring to the SGA meeting next week. At the meeting they will choose the two newest members of the Judiciary Committee from this shortlist.

Junior Class President Ash Panakam reviewed the Stop the Stigma funding bill. The Health and Safety Committee plans to host a number of events and giveaways starting after Thanksgiving and contnuing through reading period to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around mental health.

Panakam elaborated on the motivations behind the bill.

“There is a pretty high prevalence of mental health issues, however severe, on campus that people typically don’t deal with,” Panakam said. “It’s commonly seen as a form of weakness, and that’s something that we want to change.”

She also said there are not enough existing resources for mental health on campus and that Health and Safety intends for Stop the Stigma to supplement the University’s current resources.

She added that they are continually pushing for the Counseling Center to implement online scheduling for students who are not able or might not want to call to make an appointment during business hours.

“Sometimes people realize they need help late at night or when the Counseling Center isn’t open,” Panakam said. “By the time the daytime rolls around, they might not really want to do it anymore.”

According to Panakam, the Stop the Stigma campaign will also provide healthy snacks during reading period for students and will continue working with the meditation app Calm.

They will also create and distribute stickers that relate mental health with Hopkins and host a Semicolon event to promote suicide awareness. In addition, Stop the Stigma will pass out fortune cookies that contain Hopkins-specific or motivational messages inside.

SGA members discussed the nuances of the various messages proposed for the fortunes inside the cookies, particularly the phrase, “Be the change you want to see on Blackboard” and its relevance to Stop the Stigma’s goals.

Senior Class Senator Trevor Lee explained the thinking behind this and other phrases.

“We take a couple of famous quotes and swap a couple of words out,” he said. “Some of these definitely are not directly related to mental health and well-being necessarily.”

Sophomore Class Senator Alex Walinskas suggested that the fortune cookies not reference school or work at all.

“Honestly, maybe just don’t even make them about grades,” she said. “Why remind people of that?”

Freshman Class President Sam Schatmeyer echoed this sentiment and advocated for keeping the messages funny.

“‘Dreams don’t work unless you do’... is pretty intense for a fortune cookie,” he said.

SGA voted to pass the Stop the Stigma funding bill unanimously on the contingency that they will work out the exact wording of the fortune cookie phrases later.

To conclude the meeting, Boutros suggested that students try to stop trivializing mental health issues.

“I have seen and heard people either use the word ‘suicide’ or ‘I want to kill myself,’” he said. “It’s just become normalized in our discussions and our attitudes and our culture... If we hear it, let’s listen, see if that person is okay.”