At least 100 people went to thecoat giveaway hosted by the Undergraduate Student Government onThursday, scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m., but only 50 to 60 coats were available, University Student Life Committee chair Kathy Chow '17 said.
“People showed up ... an hour before the event was supposed to start, so it was very difficult to keep track of what people were doing,” Chow said. “We made it very clear that you should not take coats until 8:30, but the problem was that there were so many people that it was difficult to keep track of what was happening, so people took the coats earlier than the start time.”
USG and USLC members tried to regulate and organize the event, but ultimately the demand made it too uncontrollable, USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said.
Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.
Sam Bernstein ’19 and Andrew Inoue ’19 said they arrived at Campus Club before 8:30 p.m. and found that there were no coats left. Inoue added that he arrived at 8:25 p.m. and people hoping to get coats were already leaving the building empty-handed.
“I was told that at 7:30 people were coming in wanting coats,” Bernstein said. “I think they should have a policy that they don’t give out anything until the time that the event is supposed to start.”
Cheng said that demand far outstripped supply.
“In a way it was difficult for me personally to hear about the amount of people who showed up and had to be turned away because there weren’t enough coats,” she said.
Chow noted that one of the main problems with the event was that USG and USLC did not foresee the demand for the coats, and in fact were not sure people would even come to the event.
“There’s no way we can predict the amount of demand because we can’t identify and we also don’t want to identify students who are in need because we don’t want to create a stigma,” Cheng explained.
Chow noted, however, that the giveaway was successful in that many people attended and got coats that they needed.
Cheng said that the USLC is currently talking with administrators and staff about the possibility of their donating coats, so that the responsibility of donating coats to fill the need will not not be limited to students alone.
The USG office will have a box in which people can donate their coats starting Monday, Chow said, adding that if students would still like a coat, they can email her and she will help them get one. USG plans to open the box up not only to students, but also to staff and faculty, she added.
Chow added that she is working on investigating emergency funds at residential colleges, explaining that although she is unclear on how the emergency funds work, she believes that students could possibly use these funds for coats.
“I’ve heard a lot of anecdotes about people who have used it or have heard of someone else who did," she said. "Part of my project is to clarify if those funds even officially exist and if so what the policies are for getting them.”
Cheng noted that the availability of University funding for projects such as this one can be ambiguous and unclear.
“We’re working with the University to try to push them to think about other ways that they can support students who really need this resource for the winter,” Cheng said.
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