USG amends 2020 Spring Election rules

During the April 4 meeting, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) passed a resolution to extend the 2020 Spring Election voting period by 24 hours and to limit the number of campaign emails that can be sent to listservs to two per campaign for the entirety of the election cycle.

The election will be held for Class Officer and U-Councilor positions. Voting will begin Monday, April 13 at noon and will now run until Thursday, April 16.

The Senate discussed the possibility of an initiative with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students (ODUS) to express thanks to the University faculty and staff for their efforts during this pandemic.

“A number of people in facilities and dining offices have been working to support the students who stayed on campus, and our idea was to recognize that those individuals are doing it in pretty difficult circumstances themselves,” Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said.

“Many of these people have families and kids that are out of school, and some of those individuals do have the concern about their work impacting their home lives, as far as just being attentive to safety and not being able to shelter in place because they’re deemed as essential workers,” he continued.

U-Councilors Sarah Lee ’22 and Allen Liu ’22 gave a summary of the March 30 Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) meeting, which centered around the University’s COVID-19 response.

During the summary, Lee noted changes made to on-campus dining, which are intended to address some of the student concerns noted in the meeting. Students have complained that the meals did not offer variety and were packaged in a way that did not allow them to see what the meal was. Others had found the meals unaccommodating to dietary restrictions.

“Since this meeting, I’ve talked to on-campus students who felt that dining has improved a lot, and I’ve personally seen on Instagram Princeton dining is posting menus beforehand,” Lee said.

The meeting proceeded to a discussion of academics on campus, specifically regarding mandatory and optional pass/D/fail (P/D/F) options. The Senate then voted to move the meeting to an executive session, effectively closing it to the public.

The meeting was held via Zoom at 9:30 p.m. EDT.