Class council positions largely uncontested in spring election

All positions for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 class councils are uncontested except for the Class of 2016 vice president, the USG released on its website after registration for spring elections closed Saturday evening.

The Class of 2016 vice president position is being contested by Daniel Chen '16 and Gwen Lee '16. No candidates have registered to run for the Class of 2015 social chair.

At the USG meeting Sunday night, senate members said they were surprised that all but one of the positions were uncontested because the Class of 2016 class council was elected in the fall as a body rather than for individual positions.

“I think this is the phenomenon that Julian [Dean ’13, former chief elections manager] brought up in December: internal primaries,” U-Councilor Elan Kugelmass ’14 said. “Undoubtedly, the ’16 class council all decided in advance what position each of them were going to run for to eliminate contested elections.”

Chief elections manager Rachel Nam ’15 also asked the members of the senate what they thought about using the computers on the 100 level of Frist as voting stations, with screens set to the Helios voting website and posters at the welcome desk reminding students to vote.

Members of the USG debated whether the wording of the Elections Handbook allowed for this new policy. Nam said she did not think candidates should ask students to use the Frist computers to vote for them. Social committee chair Carla Javier ’15 questioned Nam’s objection, saying she didn’t see a difference between telling someone to vote at a computer in Frist or voting on a personal laptop.

Javier is a senior writer for the news section of The Daily Princetonian.

USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 explained that the difference was in the public setting of the Frist computers.

“I think [candidates] should be telling kids that this is available now and that they can now go to Frist to vote but that they can’t physically bring them,” Class of 2016 senator Ella Cheng said.

Cheng is a staff writer for the news section of the ‘Prince.’

Class of 2015 senator Deana Davoudiasl added that it would be difficult to place a “restraining order” on the candidates’ presence near the voting stations.

Nam will meet with Adam Ouellette of Student Computing Services at the Office of Information Technology on Monday, when a decision will be made regarding the use of Frist computers as polling stations.

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Student Groups Recognition Committee chair Benedict Wagstaff ’14 announced four recently approved student groups on campus. The University will now recognize the Princeton Pre-dental Student Association, a group for students interested in pursuing a career in dental medicine; German Association of Princeton, a group that will provide students who are native speakers or students of German with a community to interact and celebrate German language and culture; Spoon, a group that will talk about food; and Princeton Gates Millennium Scholars, a group that will promote awareness of academic resources on campus.

The USG unanimously approved a funding request allocating $7,600 for expenses for Communiversity, a celebration of the University-town relationship that will take place on April 28.

According to Campus and Community Affairs chair Trap Yates ’14, the amount requested is $2,600 more than the USG budget typically allocates for Communiversity. He explained that the additional funds are needed to cover overtime pay for workers because the event was moved from Saturday to Sunday.

Yates is a former associate editor for the Street section of the 'Prince.'

He added that the cost will likely be more than the allocated budget again next year, saying that the USG should take this higher price into account when forming the budget for the 2013-14 school year.

Treasurer Christina Yu ’14 finished the meeting by presenting the state of the USG’s budget, which still has $174,386.70. The Frist Ad-Hoc Committee’s upcoming survey and the SCORE Rewrite Project were also discussed at the meeting.