SGA discusses rally to support student center

The Student Government Association (SGA) voted at their weekly meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 9 to pass a bill to provide funding for the Homewood Brick Rally on Oct. 22. The Rally aims to showcase SGA’s commitment to advocating for a dedicated student center that would address student concerns and promote the well-being of students.

SGA members will give students the opportunity to write their names and messages on 300 bricks in the Levering courtyard and then bring them to Garland Hall to build a structure which will symbolize their desire for a student center and will remain standing for a period of two days.

Sophomore Class Senator Sam Mollin noted that although the Hopkins community has discussed a student center for a long time, little to no progress has been made.

“It’s really important that we galvanize student action and add pressure on the administration,” he said.

Sophomore Class Senator Isaac Lucas agreed, stressing that the rally would be important to help counter a common perception that SGA is ineffective, which had been reflected in survey results Junior Class President Dean Chien had brought up earlier.

“Some people think we’re stalling or waiting too much,“ Lucas said. “Waiting for the administration would contribute to that.”

Student Leadership and Involvement (SLI) Director Kirsten Fricke said that she was pleased that SGA had chosen to support the initiative of a student center. Nevertheless, she also expressed her concerns about the rally, including the delivery and transportation of the bricks.

“I would encourage you all to do your due diligence, to check in with grounds, check in with facilities. One of the liabilities is that if you all decide to move forward without having those conversations and something goes awry, that would reflect poorly on you as an organization and would detract more than support your cause,” she said.

Junior Class Senator Miranda Bannister, who endorsed the rally, claimed that such issues were unrealistic and improbable.

“This is a good form of protest — art can be really powerful. This is performance art, which is even better,” she said.

Senior Class Senator Gianni Thomas agreed with Bannister but emphasized the importance of fellow Senator Jennifer Baron’s concerns about cleanup after the rally. According to him, damage caused by the rally could potentially be valuable provided that it does not involve personal injuries.

“If there were damage that affects the school, the student body might even view that as positive on our end,“ he said. “Technically it would be bad, but the publicity associated with it be positive.”

The bill passed with 11 members voting in favor.

SGA members then confirmed nine students to the Policy Research and Development Commission (PRDC) and four to the Student Activities Commission (SAC). They also confirmed four new students and reconfirmed two members to the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee and the Committee on Student Elections (CSE), respectively.

SGA also passed an initiative to allocate tampons and pads for all students who menstruate in women’s and all-gender restrooms in prime locations across campus. 

Sophomore Class Senator Lauren Paulet, who introduced the legislation, defined the initiative as a first step in implementing a sustainable and inclusive menstruation products program, a goal which she hopes the administration will work toward. SGA will partner with Wings, a student group that supports menstrual health, to distribute products.

SGA also passed the Semester.ly-HopHacks Funding Bill to provide funding for Semester.ly-HopHacks outreach programs, including server maintenance, flyering and on-campus events. According to junior Semester.ly project leaders Dalton Chu and Kristin Yim, who spoke at the SGA meeting, the funding will soon be depleted, and they have already started to pay out-of-pocket. They hope to expand Semester.ly’s user engagement, which has progressively decreased in recent years.

Next, SGA approved a funding bill to direct additional resources to IDEAL, a non-partisan civic discourse advocacy group. The funding would help IDEAL with their after-school program that works with community partners to encourage students from local Baltimore public schools to participate in civic discourse and engagement. It would also help with funding for IDEAL’s upcoming Halloween party, which is meant to motivate attendees to come to future meetings. 

SGA also passed the Healthy Hopkins Bill, which Junior Class Senator Pavan Patel had introduced the week before. In accordance with the Task Force on Student Mental Health and Wellbeing’s May 2017 findings, the program will partner with the Recreation Center to offer students up to two free group personal training sessions. 

Correction: The original version of this article stated that an Ideal Lab grant IDEAL received has not yet been made accessible to them. IDEAL does have access to funds from IdeaLab.