UNITE HERE Local 7, a chapter of the international labor union that represents Hopkins employees in food service, staged a rally on Homewood Campus on Friday afternoon in response to the University’s decision to suspend payment to its furloughed workers.
Amid the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, graduate students have come together to ask the University for support. In an email written by the Graduate Representative Organization (GRO), Graduate Student Association (GSA), the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Student Assembly (JHSPH SA), and Teachers and Researchers United (TRU), graduate students voiced their expectations for the University.
Hopkins Alumni Association announced that Homewood’s Alumni Weekend will be held online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual Alumni Weekend will consist of various events from Thursday, May 14 through Sunday, May 17.
In an interview with The News-Letter on Wednesday, University President Ronald J. Daniels stated that Hopkins will “almost certainly” apply for the $3.1 million of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding available to it.
The Student Government Association (SGA) discussed changes to funding for student groups at its last weekly meeting of the semester on April 28. Executive Treasurer Eric Armstrong announced that due to University-wide austerity measures, SGA’s operating budget will likely decrease for the next school year.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted the summer plans of many rising seniors, who typically take this summer to gain valuable professional experience before entering the job market full time. While this means a shift to remote work for some, it may result in the cancellation of internships altogether for others. Last Friday the Life Design Lab (LDL) held a webinar for juniors who are reshuffling plans and finding new ways to stay productive this summer.
Earlier this month, sophomore Melanie Alfonzo founded Advocates for Reproductive and Sexual Health (ARSH). ARSH aims to foster greater reproductive advocacy and sexual health education at Hopkins and in Baltimore. In an interview with The News-Letter, Alfonzo cited her work with Planned Parenthood as the inspiration for launching the group.
In its second Digital Diversity Days, The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) hosted an event, titled “What Does Critical Race Theory Have to Do With Asian Pacific Americans?” on Thursday, April 23. The event, which was broadcasted via Zoom, featured Robert Chang, executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality.
Several student groups at Hopkins commemorated the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22. As a result of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, students had to find unique ways to celebrate.
The Second Commission on Undergraduate Education (CUE2) held two town halls to discuss its proposed set of recommendations with the student body. The town halls, held over Zoom this past Wednesday and Thursday, were open to the public.
The University has committed itself to “a series of broad-based and decisive austerity measures” in response to newly-projected large budgetary shortfalls in both the present fiscal year (FY) as well as FY21. University President Ronald J. Daniels announced these measures in an email to the Hopkins community on Tuesday night.
The University is mourning the death of Varvara (Barbara) Konyaeva, who passed away last weekend. Konyaeva was a freshman from Russia studying Chemistry in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
“I started thinking about the jobs I had on campus and how I was going to support myself in terms of rent. How would I pay? Do I go home?” That is how senior Sean Stielow, a First-Generation Limited-Income (FLI) student, recalled his reaction to the announcement on March 10 that in-person classes would be canceled through at least April 12.
As Hopkins transitioned into remote learning in mid-March, so did its student organizations. Community-service based groups in particular have found creative ways to stay active even though many of their members are no longer living in the Baltimore communities which the groups serve.
The Student Government Association (SGA) hosted an online forum on student organizations on Monday. The forum included leaders of student organizations as well as Dean of Student Life Smita Ruzicka, Executive Director of Student Engagement Laura Stott, Student Leadership and Involvement (SLI) Director Calvin Smith Jr. and Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) Joseph Colón.
In an email to the student body on Thursday, April 23, Vice Provost for Student Health and Well-Being Kevin Shollenberger announced that the University is partnering with TimelyMD to make TalkNow, an on-demand mental telehealth line, free and available for all Hopkins students and trainees from April 30 until at least July 10.
In an email addressed to the Hopkins community, University President Ronald J. Daniels announced that the University will face serious financial challenges as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Spreading alongside coronavirus (COVID-19) are incidents of racism and xenophobia primarily targeted at the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) community. In response, the Inter-Asian Council (IAC) has launched a project titled #RacismIsAVirus to raise awareness of how those in the APIDA community and others have been affected by the racialization of COVID-19.
Freshmen Julia An and Kylie Ning and junior Zach Wheeler recently launched the An Excuse to Talk podcast project on Spotify and iTunes. Each of the two currently available episodes feature short answers by unnamed Hopkins students to open-ended questions posed to them by the staff.
The Committee on Student Elections (CSE) announced the results of the 2020-21 Student Government Association (SGA) Class Council elections on Monday, April 20. Voter turnout decreased from 1508 to 1173 votes, a 22 percent decrease from last year’s.
