SGA finalizes questions for upcoming referendum

 The Student Government Association (SGA) finalized questions for its upcoming referendum at its weekly meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Members also passed a bill to provide funding for Hoptoberfest and introduced the five new senators appointed to the senior Class Council.

SGA approved eight questions for the upcoming referendum. The questions were approved after internal review by the Senate and SGA’s Internal Affairs committee, as well as a public comment period. 

The approved questions are on topics including the construction of a student center; University divestment from fossil fuels; a potential private police force; mental health on campus; additional personnel for the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE); the restoration of covered grades; an undergraduate representative on the Board of Trustees; and the authority of SGA to amend their constitution with a two-thirds majority.

According to Executive Secretary Aspen Williams, the referendum questions will appear on the ballot during freshman elections beginning on Thursday, Sept. 20 and will open to the rest of the student body within the next two weeks. 

Executive Vice President AJ Tsang explained that the referendum’s purpose was to solicit concrete student input on SGA priorities. 

“We wanted to make sure that what we were doing in SGA this year had the support and backing of the student body behind it,” he said. 

Tsang said the questions on the referendum must be voted on affirmatively by at least 2,000 undergraduate students in order to pass. 

Sophomore Class Senator Lauren Paulet emphasized the need for SGA to heavily market the referendum. 

“The last thing we want is to work this hard and get all these questions done and then have all of them fail because not enough people voted,” Paulet said.

SGA addressed funding for Hoptoberfest and approved a bill allocating $1,000 in support of the group’s headliner concert next month featuring the Plain White T’s. The bill, which was supported unanimously, was sponsored by Paulet. Hoptoberfest members asked for funding because their usual cosponsor, the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP), declined to do so this year after overspending its budget on its Johns Hopkins Annual Music Festival (JAM) concert. Paulet encouraged fellow SGA members to approve the resolution.

“Hoptoberfest is an annual tradition, and they have a lot of programming that helps all of our students destress,” she said.

Smita Ruzicka, the new dean of student life, spoke to SGA for the first time at Tuesday night’s meeting. 

Ruzicka emphasized that she is here to serve a variety of students and will carefully consider the impact her decisions make on students and the student experience.

“I will commit that in the initiatives I lead and the decisions I make, I will always put students at the center of that,” she said. 

Ruzicka is committed to open communication, want to be the primary source of contact for SGA with the administration. 

During the meeting, new SGA members were introduced to the senior Class Council, who were sworn in to office to fill the seats left vacant after the last election. 

On Wednesday, Executive President Noh Mebrahtu sent a schoolwide email asking students to apply to join two SGA committees: the Student Activities Commission (SAC) and the Policy Research and Development Commission (PRDC).

SAC, as specified in the email, “supports registered student organizations by allocating funds that will result in programs and services to benefit the undergraduate community.” Because SAC is an agency under the SGA Executive Board, SGA members are not permitted to serve on it. 

In the past, the Executive Treasurer would reach out to students who they felt would be fit to serve on SAC. This year was the first time SGA has advertised applications to the entire student body. 

The second committee, PRDC, was created Tuesday, Sept. 11. Tsang said that SGA founded PRDC in order to increase student involvement with SGA.

“The PRDC is a new agency meant to support the SGA’s initiatives through data research and policy analysis, such that SGA can strengthen its efforts in changing University policies, practices and procedures, especially with the administration and high-level institutional bodies such as the Board of Trustees and [Public Interest Investment Advisory Committee] PIIAC,” he said.