The Student Government Association (SGA) held impeachment trials and discussed the possibility of submitting a proposal to protect undocumented Hopkins students during their weekly meeting on Tuesday.
The results of the impeachment trials, which occurred during a closed meeting, have yet to be announced. SGA Executive President Charlie Green told The News-Letter that there may be no official announcement of the results.
Although SGA did not disclose the names of the members being held on trial, Senior Senator Tiffany Onyejiaka and Executive Secretary Andy Kim left the meeting when the trial began.
Green went on to speak about why impeachment trials occur.
“[Impeachment trials are] in place to make sure people are going to their meetings,” she said. “It’s to check attendance. I think we are trying to hold senators more accountable.”
In an email to The News-Letter, Green elaborated on the reason behind the trials.
“Attendance is not an issue, we are just following the constitution and holding trials after two unexcused absences per semester to check in on those senators,” she wrote.
During the regular meeting, Senior Class Senator Jonathan Brown introduced a proposal to make Hopkins a sanctuary campus for undocumented immigrants.
In an email to The News-Letter, Brown detailed the need for the SGA to take a proactive role in protecting the rights of the members of the student body.
“I brought the idea to SGA because I think we need to engage more with student activism on campus,” Brown said. “I feel that we wait until popular opinion is on one side of an argument to act, and that’s not what leaders should do.”
The idea for the proposal was spurred by a petition that has been circulating around campus in response to the promises made by president-elect Donald Trump to deport undocumented immigrants during his presidency. This includes repealing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which was enacted under Obama’s presidency. The act allows undocumented immigrants who entered the country before the age of 16 to receive a two-year work visa and also attend university.
Similar petitions for creating sanctuary campuses are being circulated at Harvard, Yale and Brown. They call for universities to not assist authorities in finding or identifying undocumented students.
Senior Class Senator and Chair of Academic Affairs Tiffany Onyejiaka emphasized the importance of protecting students.
“I don’t think it even has to be about politics and [the] president because a student that’s an undocumented immigrant is still a student,” she said. “And as student government we should be protecting the rights of the students.”
Freshmen Class Senator Alex Walinskas stated that it would be better to wait to enact this proposal until Trump is actually in office, when the threat of students being deported is more imminent.
“Because of the inconsistencies that [Trump] has shown, is it worth it to wait until he enters office, if this picks up as a tangible outcome and then implement it?” she asked. “That is my only hesitation about putting it out there.”
Other SGA members, such as Junior Class Senator Sathvik Namburar, felt that it was best not to consider the proposal from a partisan lens.
“Regardless of the political scenario, this is a [Hopkins] policy that we will be implementing,” Namburar said. “It can be used as a political thing, with regard to the current election, or it can also be the steps we are taking to protect our students, regardless of who’s going to do what or what’s going to happen.”
Brown echoed this viewpoint while reflecting on the partisan nature of the proposal.
“In the case of this petition, it definitely has a partisan slant, but the petition’s purpose is to ensure that members of our student body are not put at risk by the policies of Donald Trump,” Brown said. “There was an argument made [during the SGA meeting] that we don’t know if Trump will actually act on his campaign promises, but I’ll respond to that point with the following question: Are you willing to wait until mass deportations start, if they start? Why not make the gesture now?”
A proposal is currently being drafted by Brown, though no decision about whether or not to submit it has been reached.
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