Senior Maxwell Dickey presented three bills to the Student Government Association (SGA) at its weekly meeting on Tuesday in the Charles Commons Barber Room.
The majority of the meeting was spent discussing Dickey’s proposed bill for a new system of student government. Dickey said he was dissatisfied with the way SGA currently works.
“I think we can do more than revising some of the language of the constitution,” Dickey said. “I think we can restructure how some of our language actually works. It’s almost like this is a very exclusive club. If you’re not in SGA, it’s hard to break in and contribute. I’d be interested in seeing the [SGA] Senate strictly taking part in policy making and supervision.”
The bill proposed that organizations such as the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), which are open to all members of the student body and not officially aligned with the SGA, have a greater role in student affairs.
Under Dickey’s proposal, the SGA would be comprised of 32 democratically elected senators — 8 from each class — and would create an executive board within its own members. The executive board and the Senate would primarily be responsible for representation, policymaking and supervision.
The executive board and the Senate would then form four committees which would be responsible for the implementation of policies in four specific areas.
“We would benefit from four committees—student services, extracurriculars, academic affairs and student affairs,” Dickey said.
He also proposed the creation of student commissions comprised of non-elected students, asserting that this would allow more students to be involved in student government.
Dickey also explained that he finds it unethical for SGA candidates to hold giveaways, especially during campaign season, asserting his belief that SGA candidates and members should be assessed on responsibilities, such as policy making.
Dickey said that he believes it’s more beneficial for SGA candidates and members to be focused on specific aspects of their responsibilities, instead of stretching themselves to both make policy and put on fun activities for students.
Adelaide Morphett, SGA’s executive secretary, praised Dickey’s passion for the bill at hand and his dedication to preparing such a presentation.
“I think this is a great example for when someone is really passionate about something, that they can go and make a great presentation,” Morphett said.
Jahan Mirchandani, the junior class president, spoke to the possible consequences of Dickey’s plan.
“Based on these four categories, we would be at least doubling the size of student government,” Mirachandi said. “I guess just logistically, it would be extremely hard to get things to come together.”
The SGA will vote on the bill at its next meeting.
Dickey also proposed a bill for the creation of a student club census, which he said would allow the SGA to keep track of organizations students participate in and would increase the number of people who participate in SGA elections.
Senior Class Senator Parth Patel seemed to like the idea of the club census as a tracking tool; he said the bill could be used as a tool for exploration.
“This is a low-risk bill,” Patel said. “We can choose to do whatever we want with the census numbers when we get them... In the short term, we can try it out and experiment with it, and it might increase the number of people who participate in elections.”
That bill will also be voted on at the SGA’s next meeting.
Dickey’s third bill proposed at the meeting, which he called the Monthly Club Allocations Surplus Engagement Act, addressed how surplus funds can be repurposed for other uses.
Dickey’s plan would make a portion of surplus funding available to student groups. He also proposed that some of this money could be used as prize money for club-sponsored competitions and as bonuses for clubs as SGA sees fit.
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