For 2 USG senate spots, 15 freshmen in the race

Fifteen freshmen are running for the two Class of 2015 senator spots this year, with voting to open on Monday and the winners to be announced on Friday. Their names are: Phway Aye, Elise Backman, Caleb Bradford, Gavin Cook, Chris Costantini, Deana Davoudiasl, Kyle Douglas, Mary Funk, Shawon Jackson, Dalia Katan, Nabeer Khan, Madhu Ramankutty, Paul Riley, Shu Saha and Yifan Zhu.

Aye said that if elected she would look to change the lock-out policy and the pass/D/fail policy, among other things, and added that she would be able to represent a broad cross-section of the undergraduate community through her involvement in a variety of extracurricular activities ranging from Model United Nations to Debate to club sports.

“I have a lot of interests,” she explained.

Backman is running in conjunction with Funk, though not on a ticket, a practice not allowed under USG campaigning rules. She said she wants to improve the experience of introductory courses on campus, make TigerTransit a more effective means of transportation and increase student access to McCosh Health Center. Funk, whose platform matches Backman’s except that it does not advocate reform of introductory courses, said she wants to see more charity fundraisers organized by the USG to mobilize student interest.

“I feel like there’s a lot of people who like to do stuff like that, and I want to see more of it broadcasted,” she said. “That’s my main thing that I want to get done in USG.”

Meanwhile, Cook’s campaign is focused on academic policy reform. Cook said he wanted to see more interdisciplinary certificates and more opportunities for students to take courses P/D/F.

“Right now we only have four classes we can P/D/F in total,” he said. “I’d like to increase that to eight, so you can do one a semester.”

Cook added that he would like to have entrepreneurship “formally instituted as an academic branch.”

Costantini said his high school experience with a literary magazine and newspaper gave him an understanding of the structure of student organizations and added that he would like to see more freshmen-only events to “get the class bonded.”

“I feel as if there’s still separation between the res colleges,” he explained.

Davoudiasl said that since her arrival at the University, she has “made every effort to keep [her] hand on the pulse of this campus.” She also said in an email that she wanted to bolster school spirit by reinstating the Tiger Universe program, which promotes student attendance at athletic events through a system of rewards. She also hopes to explore the possibility of providing late meal in places other than Frist.

Douglas took a slightly different approach from the other candidates.

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“I’m trying to be the candidate who’s kind of more down-to-earth, almost like the average student,” he said. “I’m not trying to be somebody who’s really flashy, somebody who’s trying too hard.”

He said he would examine the regrading policy and try to give club sports more publicity, while also affording students a chance to express their views on USG issues through online polls.

Jackson said he would institute a similar system of gathering student feedback online through a Google document, while also starting a “freshman senate blog” to keep his class informed about USG issues. He added that he has been to every USG meeting since the first one this year.

“I’ve been trying to get an idea of what the issues are now, so if I am elected as senator, I can go right into it without having to waste time,” he explained.

Katan, like the other candidates, said her broad range of interests on campus has equipped her to represent her class well, noting that she pulled “the classic high school move of joining every club on campus.”

“I want to be able to give back to my classmates by looking out for our various interests and by undertaking projects that will help both our academic and social lives,” she said in an email.

Ramankutty, who served as her high school class president for two years, also supported increased student contact with the USG through an online Google document and added that she wants to make sure her classmates are aware of all the opportunities open to them at the University.

“Princeton has a wealth of resources just waiting to be tapped into, but often, students aren’t aware that these exist,” she explained in an email.

Another veteran member of his high school class government, Paul Riley said he wants to see the addition of a 24-hour study space aside from the residential college libraries, along with reform of the academic calendar and a system of enhancing school spirit by focusing on different events and extracurricular activities each month.

“I really like the idea of working on school-wide policy and with a lot of people and dealing with serious issues,” he said.

Caleb Bradford, Nabeer Khan, Shu Saha and Yifan Zhu did not respond to requests for comment.