Student government talks spirit, funding and clubs

The Student Government Association (SGA) met on Tuesday to discuss three bill proposals as well as the addition of several student groups.

One bill proposed a pep rally to be held on Nov. 22, the day before the men’s football team’s championship home game. Another regarded an ad hoc committee, the Peer Advising Fellows (PAF) program, which is being developed by the Academic Affairs Committee. The final bill was first presented last week for the SEE Grant for Sustainable and Ethical Events, sponsored by the Committee for Sustainability, Security and Development (SSD). Additionally, the clubs up for membership were the College Diabetes Network, the Men of Color Hopkins Alliance (MOCHA), the JHU Irish Dance Group and the Tropical Clinics for Rural Health.

Executive Secretary Kyra Toomre was a vocal proponent of the pep rally bill.

“I’ve been talking about the T-shirt burn for a while now,” Toomre said. “Dean Boswell has agreed to put $1500 toward getting shirts if SGA puts in the rest.”

It was crucial for the Nov. 22 project that the bill for the pep rally event be passed during this week’s meeting in order to have enough time to plan it. The event will be held in anticipation of the men’s football team finals, though if the women’s soccer team continues its successful season, it will also be cheered on at the rally.

“There will be a lot of different fire pits to grill s’mores. People can bring their shirts from other schools in exchange for a brand new Hopkins shirt. The old shirts will be donated to charity. We also want to sell ‘superfan’ shirts at cost or a little above cost at the championship game the next day. We’ve been talking about school spirit the whole semester. This is a great way to support it,” Toomre said.

The bill was passed with unanimous consent.

Senior Class Senator Zoe Cohen and Junior Class Senator Parth Patel presented a bill to create an ad hoc PAF committee through the Academic Affairs Committee. By the end of the meeting, however, the pair decided to rescind the proposal because of the scheduling difficulties it would present for such a committee to meet every week. Despite the lack of an ad hoc committee, Academic Affairs, chaired by Cohen, continues to pursue the PAF project.

“What we envisioned was a way for incoming freshmen to figure out what classes they want to take. There’s nothing in place for them right now to let them know about specific classes,” Cohen said.

The Academic Affairs Committee intends to implement Skype calls between upperclassmen advisors and incoming freshman regarding course registration.

“This isn’t a big issue for juniors and seniors because they have their established groups to turn to [for course recommendations], but that doesn’t really exist for freshmen,” Cohen said.

The committee would like to pilot the program for a select group of majors this spring.

The SEE Grant bill was addressed and ultimately tabled so that SSD can look into other fundraising options for the grant. Members of Students for Environmental Action (SEA) originally presented the bill last week, and SGA had a chance to discuss it.

“Dylan [Gorman, the executive treasurer] and Rob [Turning, faculty advisor to SGA] gave SSD a lot of feedback last week. The applications for the sustainability bill will be due either at the same time or before the [Student Activities Committee (SAC)] requests are due. We also added in Rob’s suggestion that school-wide events be considered the highest priority. If the event only serves a certain class or group, the money isn’t going as far as we want it to. Also distribution of funds will not be retroactive, so a group can’t ask for money after its event,” Junior Class President Destiny Bailey, who sponsored the bill, said.

The bill was met with opposition from the Finance Committee, which was skeptical of the grant’s logistical efficacy.

“The Finance Committee does not recommend this bill. We were hesitant in thinking that once groups have sustainable options for this one event, they will revert to cheaper options at other events,” Finance Committee Chair Alex Pressman said.

Gorman suggested that SSD use the products of some of its other fundraising efforts to finance the grant. The bill will be reevaluated next week once SSD has considered these options.

All four of the groups proposed at Tuesday’s meeting were approved.

“The College Diabetes Network wants to make a connection between all Type 1 Diabetes students on campus, educate and learn how to manage diabetes. One thing this group said in its interview that was important was that when coming to college students with diabetes, look for a college that is accommodating to their diabetes,” Mahzi Malcolm, chair of the Appointments and Evaluations Committee, said.

The group was approved unanimously as an advocacy and awareness group.

“JHU Irish Dance wants to educate and entertain. They only need a budget for costumes and shoes. They practice once a week. They want to attend competitions in the future. Apparently a lot of east coast schools have Irish dance groups and we don’t,” Malcolm said.

The group was approved as a performing arts group.

“Men of Color Hopkins Alliance (MOCHA) is a development group for minority males. They help attain the tools necessary to graduate and form an alliance amongst each other. They’re in touch with a lot of alumni including SOBA. They’ve been having a lot of very effective events,” Malcolm said.

SGA approved MOCHA, but its categorization was delayed until the next meeting.

There was some controversy leading to the eventual approval of the Tropical Clinics for Rural Health.

“We feel it appropriate to deny Tropical Clinics for Rural Health. What they want to do is provide equal healthcare, regardless of where anyone lives. They want to focus on Kenya by raising money on campus and send money and supplies to locations in Kenya. The committee felt that if their true motive is to help people in underdeveloped countries, they can partner with Global Medical Brigades or donate to their causes without approval [of SGA],” Malcolm said.

Despite the committee’s objections, the group was approved and categorized as International Service Group.