The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate met on Sunday, Oct. 2 for a second vote on an elections management resolution and to hear committee updates, including a report on this semester’s Lawnparties.
The elections management reform, which amends the USG Constitution to establish the role of Deputy Elections Manager, unanimously passed both of the two consecutive votes required for a constitutional amendment in meetings on Sunday, Sept. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 2.
The change, which is the result of the work of USG’s reform project, aims to provide additional support to USG’s Chief Elections Manager.
Social Committee Chair Madison Linton ’24 delivered a report on Fall 2022 Lawnparties, noting that the Social Committee received positive feedback from students who enjoyed the change in genre this semester from rap to indie rock. Linton also reported that, with regards to the headliner performance, of those who responded to the Lawnparties survey, “more people were satisfied than dissatisfied.”
USG also received constructive criticism in the survey. As a result, the Social Committee is considering ways to improve the variety of food at future Lawnparties and to make food available for longer amounts of time, as well as putting up more easily readable signage.
Linton explained that while the most common piece of negative feedback the committee received regarded “the lack of student involvement in the choice of the headliner,” they will likely be unable to implement a new system of direct student input in future headliner choices because of limitations inherent in the bidding and contract processes with artists.
U-Councilor Chair Stephen Daniels ’24 suggested that USG consider adopting a Battle of the Bands structure with student performers and allocating the large headliner budget into other areas, noting that he believes that the social aspects of Lawnparties are more central to the experience for students than the headliner.
Housing and Facilities Task Force co-chairs Sean Bradley ’24 and Mariam Latif ’24 gave a report on the task force’s box fans initiative, which distributed 625 box fans to students in non-air conditioned dorms. While the task force ran out of fans after their initial order of 500, they were able to acquire an additional 125 fans to distribute, Bradley and Latif reported.
Bradley said the effort was a “very successful pilot program” that the task force hopes to institutionalize in the future.
”Not having air conditioning was very much a mental health burden on the students [surveyed by the task force],” said Bradley.
The Senate briefly discussed possible options for fan collection and distribution in the future, including an idea about dropping off box fans in non-air conditioned rooms prior to move-in.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Chair Braiden Aaronson ’25 gave an update on their committee and its plans for an international student brunch mixer on Saturday, Oct. 8. The committee is collaborating with the Graduate Student Government (GSG) on the event with the goal of facilitating “meaningful connections” between undergraduate and graduate international students.
Aaronson also gave an overview of the DEI committee’s structure for the semester. The committee encompasses seven subcommittees focused on dining accommodations, campus accountability, gender equity, student spaces improvement, eating club transparency, transportation accessibility, and absence equity regarding religious observances.
Campus and Community Affairs (CCA) Chair Isabella Shutt ’24 provided an introduction for her committee as well, which has formed working groups focused on Tigers in Town, Pay with Points, social impact internships, local government, Community Action (CA) orientation feedback collection, promoting local happenings, and working towards Princeton’s standard of service learning.
Specific project ideas mentioned included exploring possibilities like getting students to sit on local boards and committees and implementing a service learning distribution requirement.
Following Shutt’s presentation and the vote to establish a Deputy Elections Manager, the Senate voted unanimously to enter a closed executive session, ending the meeting to the general public.
USG Senate meetings are held in Betts Auditorium in the School of Architecture at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoons and are open to all.
Annie Rupertus is a sophomore from Philadelphia and a News staff writer who covers USG for the ‘Prince.’ She can be reached at arupertus@princeton.edu or @annierupertus on Instagram and Twitter.
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