The SGA opened this week with a compelling bid given by Hopkins’ Student-Community Liaison, Carrie Bennett, requesting that the SGA help her out in her recently created program, JH-U-Turn. JH-U-Turn, a “huge undertaking” where Bennett and other eco-volunteers collect unwanted items during move-out, was an enormous success last year, and generated nearly $6,000 that went to charities like the Johns Hopkins Neighborhood Fund and The United Way. Bennett appealed to the SGA members, asking them to “get [their] classes involved” and start generating interest in the program, which she hopes will be an even bigger success than last year.
After Bennett spoke, the Office of Sustainability made a similar pitch to the SGA, saying that in order to meet the goal of reducing Hopkins’ emissions 51% by 2025, the SGA needed to help the Office of Sustainability spread the eco-message to various areas of the school.
The office has been unable to attract associations like Greek Life.
By appealing to the SGA, the Office believes it will not only be able to publicize its current laurels in sustainability, for instance, the green-roof above the South Garage is one of the largest in North America, but hopes that the SGA will also help promote the Office’s new initiatives, such as recycling at all athletic games, and increasing recycling rates to 40 percent.
The SGA seemed to be largely in favor of supporting both JH-U-Turn and the Office of Sustainability’s fight towards lower global footprints, and members even came up with ideas like holding the goods collected from the dorm rooms until September and selling the merchandise back to students come move-in time, and creating incentive systems for students to lower their emissions were just a few of the SGA’s postulations.
Though the SGA members seemed eager to help these other enterprises, it is by no means to say they are without initiatives of their own.
Currently, the Committee on Campus Affairs is working on bringing a system of bike rentals to Hopkins.
Schools like Regis University and California State University, Fresno, and over 59 other colleges and universities have already implemented such programs and are claiming them as huge successes.
“I’d be very interested in a bike-share/rental program at Hopkins, in fact, I was debating whether or not to buy a bike myself, but this would be much easier,” said freshman Ian Scott.
A bike rental program here at Hopkins would kill two birds with one stone. Not only would students be given a more efficient way of getting around campus, but the bikes would also reduce our transportation emissions to and fro campus, thereby pleasing the Office of Sustainability as well.
Though nothing is official yet, senior representative Max Dworin, a spearhead of the project, commented, “we have zip-cars, so I don’t see why we can’t have a similar service for bikes,” especially because the bike program “would help alleviate some of the transportation problems as well.”
This week’s SGA session also saw the first Freshman Class Council Report.
The Freshmen Class Council seemed to be getting off to an eager start, with ambitious projects like making a Freshman Class Facebook Page, having class nights at Nolan’s and even putting together a freshman formal.
Sophomore Class President Alexandra Larsen said her cabinet discussed “something like a ‘Miss Johns Hopkins University’” pageant as a fundraiser idea and Senior Class President Josh Ayal said he and the senior class senators were working on ideas like a Senior Bar Night and HOPtoberfest.
In terms of old business, the SGA discussed the Greek Weekend Party and hired two people this week as programmers for the Off-Campus Housing Database.
This year, SGA president Mark Dirzulaitis created a Mentorship Pairing Program for freshmen SGA members. The program pairs an upper class member of the SGA with a freshman in the hopes that it will better the freshman SGA experience.
During the closing minutes of the meeting, Dworin shed light on the recent troubles the University of Michigan’s Student Body President has been having. The president, Chris Armstrong, a gay male, is being openly attacked by Andrew Shirvell, a state assistant attorney general and alumnus of the University of Michigan.
Dworin urged the SGA to “let [Armstrong] and the rest of the student government know that [Hopkins] supports him” and asked that the SGA write a letter illustrating their support. Dworin commented, “As somebody who is involved in student government, I think it is appalling for this to go on.”
