The Student Government Association (SGA) passed the 2011-2012 executive budget and established a new student services committee at their second meeting of the semester this past Tuesday.
One of the budget's principle items was the Bike Project.
Allotted a sum of $5,000, approximately one-sixth of the year's budget, the Bike Project will attempt to make bikes more accessible to Homewood students.
While the majority of the SGA supported this part of the budget, some members such as senior Kirk Sabani, head of the Campus Affairs/Student Services Committee which oversees the Bike Project, had serious qualms about the program's insertion into the budget.
Sabani said that he was not opposed to the idea of the project, but was concerned with the lack of specificity for the allocation of money and questioned whether such a project should be the responsibility of an independent student organization and not the SGA.
In contrast, Mimi Gu, head of the Committee for Appointments and Evaluations, said that the $5,000 allotted for the project is more of a symbolic show of faith than a sunk investment, indicating that the funds will help get the Bike Project going, but that perhaps not all of the money will be spent.
Junior Joanna Gawlik, Executive Treasurer, assured the SGA that after talking to the necessary officials and carefully calculating the logistics, $5,000 was an appropriate sum.
In addition to this year's budget, the SGA passed the Committee Efficiency and Productivity Act, thereby dissolving the Campus Affairs Committee and replacing it with the Student Services Committee.
Sabnani, the resolution's sponsor, felt that the Student Involvement Committee was being underutilized and the Campus Affairs Committee was overburdened.
A fundamental change was also made to the way the budget is structured. In prior years, the SGA was given a lump sum of money with which to work. This year, each committee and each class will be apportioned $500 that they can access at a time.
In order to exceed the prescribed $500, committees can appeal to the Finance Committee for additional funds. There is approximately $14,000 in the budget that is listed as reserve.
The purpose of this structural change is to expedite the committees' different initiatives.
Sophomore Merrill Anovick, head of the Finance Committee, asserted that one of the reasons the Bike Project was unsuccessful last year was because of the SGA's inefficiency. It could take up to three weeks to pass a piece of the Bike Project's budget. Such delays impaired the process considerably.
Junior Alexandra Larsen, head of the Academic Affairs Committee, suggested a new ISIS feature to keep track of students' major requirements thus alleviating the stress of scrambling to check if one has the right amount of credits.
She also suggested that the drop period be extended. The drop period usually ends before anyone has had a chance to write an essay or take a test in a particular class. Extending the drop period would allow students to come to a better decision. Her committee will attempt to speak with the administration about these ideas.
Greg Smith, Associative Director of the Hopkins Parking and Transportation Office, gave a briefing about the new Blue Jay Shuttle. The Blue Jay Shuttle system features several new modifications. The shuttles now feature online trackers to allow students to look up on either their smart phones or computers the exact estimated time of arrival of the next shuttle as well as a map of the different routes. Every thirty seconds the page will refresh and show the vehicles' advancements. Smith stressed that while the Parking and Transportation Office worked its best to have the best system possible, the new system is still not perfect.
As of now, the shuttles have fixed locations, but the eventual goal is to one day be able to flag shuttles from wherever you want. The SGA encourages students to be vocal about their suggestions regarding the new Bluy Jay shuttles
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