This week’s SGA meeting highlighted several programs that the SGA would like to see implemented in the future. Among those discussed were the bike share program, a plan to expand Spring Fair and the approval of funding for a grant that would support projects to improve student life. The SGA members also talked about the letter of apology issued by MSE Symposium to the Korean Students Association (KSA) regarding the recent controversy over an event that the former had hosted.
The Bike Share program would allow students to sign up rent bikes at a low cost — ideally for free.
“We’ve got positive feedback; we met with a cycle shop in Hampden that would come to campus to do maintenance in addition to providing the bikes.” SGA President Mark Dirzulaitis said regarding the SGA’s ongoing involvement in the program.
The bikes would be racked at The Mattin Center and the Athletic Center. They would also come with locks.
“We hope to approve funding by the end of the semester and start setting it up by the second,” Dirzulaitis said.
The SGA also hopes to expand Spring Fair this year.
“Spring Fair used to be huge,” explained Dirzulaitis, “And then after campus beautification . . . it has become a really downsized fair.”
The Spring Fair Chairs and SGA representatives will be meeting with President Ronald Daniels and Provost Lloyd Minor to pitch the idea of increasing the Spring Fair budget up to $25,000.
The idea is to make Spring Fair a music festival of sorts that would pack the quads and involve the community. The majority of the bands would be local, with a few spots for student groups. In addition, if the 25,000 goal is reached, it opens up the possibility to get a big name musical headliner for the event.
The SGA is also aiming to promote course review guide that the University already has in place to help student decide on what courses to take this coming spring semester.
“We are doing work related to this, but we decided the best way deal with the issue right now is to promote what is already there,” Dirzulaitis said.
The review guide allows students to see data collected in surveys taken by students who were enrolled in the class during previous semesters.
There was also talk of putting up suggestion boxes, where students can submit ideas for improvements at Hopkins and the most popular suggestion might be implemented by the administration.
Additionally the SGA plans to meet with all the student groups that are funded by the finance committee as a means of an outreach.
“This will help us find new projects and assure us groups are being efficient.” said Dirzulaitis.
The last event of the evening was the approval of a one-time pilot grant that focuses on improving student life.
“The grant consists of a onetime award of $500 to $1000 to a student or student group on campus that have a general life improvement project that they want to undertake — something that makes student life better; it can be physical, it can be technical, just a basic way for people to get involved,” Dirzulaitis said.
As an example, he gave the student housing project, an online database that allows student to report on properties off campus.
“Students are able to review properties and enter themselves in a prize drawing, and look up old rating and people will be able to leave comments,” Dirzulaitis explained.
The meeting also focused on a letter of apology by the Cultural Chinese group that gave the ‘Colorful China’ performance held on October 28th for a misunderstanding regarding the use of Korean customs in the performance.
The letter states that MSE Symposium had no intention of causing controversy or offending the Korean community at Hopkins, but that it nevertheless apologizes for “any misunderstanding the show has caused.” The letter also noted that MSE Symposium had sent a letter to the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China regarding the confusion.
The SGA members and the two representatives of the Korean Student Association reached the conclusion that student groups hosting cultural speakers or events talk with the Office of Multicultural Affairs to make sure such controversies do not occur in the future.
