50 students are running this year in a crowded field of Undergraduate Student Government (USG) candidates. Following a presidential race last year that was uncontested following a last-minute candidate exit, current USG Social Chair Enzo Kho ’26 and current USG Treasurer Uma Fox ’26 are squaring off, both leading small coalitions of down ballot candidates.
While Kho and Fox share broad similarities in their policy stances, nuances lie in their approaches to USG’s relationship with the administration and solutions to issues of free expression on campus. The two participated in a presidential debate hosted by the Whig-Cliosophic Society and The Daily Princetonian on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Both candidates critiqued the University administration’s free speech and protest policies following the spring’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
“This is one of the examples where institutions sometimes weaponize laws to limit free speech,” Kho said, referring to the way the University tightened guidelines for demonstrations this fall.
He said he would establish a “formalized, advocacy-driven working group” to collect student input and make recommendations to the University about free expression issues.
Fox specifically called out the administration’s “time, place, and manner” restrictions on protests, saying she wanted to work with the University to amend these restrictions.
“What this would effectively do is create more opportunities for student input into what that means, and not have it be a fully top-down approach to deciding what that looks like in cases of free expression,” she said.
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Fox said she was specifically referring to inconsistencies in how time, place, and manner restrictions are described in different sections of Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities (RRR). She cited RRR 1.1.3, which says that the University “may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of expression,” comparing it to section 1.2.3 which does not include that caveat that regulation must be within reason. Others in the campus community have called for similar modifications, including Lillian Paterson ’28 in the pages of the ‘Prince.’
Paterson is a contributing Opinion writer for the ‘Prince.’
Fox argued that the University should have to “reasonably apply time, place, and manner in a way that’s consistent, in a way that has established past precedent behind it.”
Discussing protest rules at the debate, Fox referenced her record, saying, “I spent numerous hours during the encampment liaising with admin to make sure that students had opportunities for things like due process.”
Neither candidate directly answered an audience question about the spring sit-in which asked, “Did you participate or do you condone the student encampment?”
However, both Fox and Kho provided more specific answers in interviews with the ‘Prince.’
Kho said that he did not participate “on the ground,” but that he was “in conversation with some people who were participating” and focused his energy at the time on his role in USG planning Lawnparties, which coincided with day four of the encampment, and the Dean’s Date celebration on day 13.
“I was communicating with the people who were not part of USG in terms of how we move forward,” he said, “with people who were very engaged and involved in the encampment.”
“I was present for parts of the encampment. I was not involved in the planning of the encampment,” Fox told the ‘Prince,’ when pressed for details.
Fox explained her presence: “From a USG capacity, I think that when there is an event on campus that is impacting students from a diverse array of perspectives and backgrounds, on a very day-to-day level, it is our prerogative to know what is happening and to also be engaged in ensuring that we have a good sense and a good grounding to know how to best support all impacted students.”
When asked the question at the debate, Fox discussed communications she had with USG and administrators during the three-week protest “to make sure that we could protect student rights and student free speech.”
“In many ways, I think that we failed the student body on that front,” she said.
In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Kho agreed, saying, “USG wasn’t prepared to face any of these matters.” In the frenzy of the days after the encampment and USG’s debate over a proposed statement condemning the arrest of two graduate students, he added, “our goal should have been, ‘how do we make sure student wellness was at the center of how we move forward?’ But that wasn’t addressed until the very last minute.”
In the debate, Kho brought back up his potential working group and discussed his personal history as an activist in his home country of the Philippines.
Repeatedly throughout the debate, Kho leaned on one anecdote.
“I had political involvement in the Philippines. I was an activist, which caused me and my family’s house to be burned down,” he said.
Kho clarified in an interview that official reports did not confirm foul play, but that he believes the fire was not an accident. “We really don’t know,” he said, noting that the fire occurred the day after he faced harsh criticism in local media for speaking out about a local election. He added that he does not believe there was a meaningful investigation into the fire due to a lack of resources in his rural area.
He referenced Maria Ressa ’86, a journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who faced attacks and censorship by the Filipino government, as an example of activist pressures in the country.
Kho told the ‘Prince’ that he chose to share the story at the debate because “that experience really helped me a lot in terms of navigating difficult conversations or making decisions, especially in a high pressure environment.”
Also relevant to the candidates’ conception of a relationship with University administration were their approaches to referenda on USG election ballots.
Ballot referenda have been points of contention for USG in the past although most only possess an advisory power, even if a majority of undergraduates vote in favor of them. The ability of a referenda to affect concrete change hinges on the discretion of the University administrators to whom the referenda statements are sent.
Both candidates emphasized USG’s role in translating referenda to real change after measures have passed.
Kho said he would aim to be a “bridge” between students and administration by “making sure that students are being heard” and ensuring that momentum around referenda continues after the voting period. He added in an interview, speaking broadly without referring to any specific referenda, “we’ll make sure that these referendums won’t die.” He noted a lack of transparency in how some previous referenda have been handled.
Fox noted that she knows “how to make sure that [a referendum] gets to the right people” after being passed. She said that as president, she’d prioritize using USG as “independent, neutral facilitators of the dialogue on campus.”
Following the trend of her campaign, Fox leaned on her breadth of experience in various USG roles when discussing referenda. She has previously served as a U-Councilor and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Chair, in addition to her current role as Treasurer.
She referenced her experience in 2022 sponsoring a referendum that called on the University to “establish a commission to investigate and provide recommendations on how the University may convert the majority of residential campus restrooms to be gender-neutral.” It passed with 58 percent of the vote.
“I’ve successfully passed a very controversial referendum around gender neutral bathrooms, so I've seen both sides of this process, and I know how we can make the referendum process easier to go through,” she added.
Another question posed by moderators captured the belief among some students that USG doesn’t have much real power in the eyes of the University, asking how candidates would “represent the student voice to the larger institution.”
Fox argued that it’s the job of USG to create seats at the table for more students in decision-making spaces.
“This is something I started doing by bringing affinity groups to many of my meetings when I was DEI chair,” she said. “And as opposed to just being a one-on-one meeting, it would become a group meeting where everyone could voice their concerns.”
Kho focused more on his goal of building up USG’s communications team, saying he would use the team to collect “genuine student feedback.”
Both candidates also raised concerns about Princeton’s disciplinary process and said they’d collaborate with the Peer Representatives to determine potential solutions. Kho emphasized collecting more information about policies such as the new “suspension (not served)” and encouraging transparency within the Honor Committee, while Fox zeroed in on specific areas of improvement. She pointed out “due process” issues in the disciplinary process and a lack of “impartial fact finders.”
In an interview with the ‘Prince,’ Fox clarified that per RRR, “there’s no sort of standard for what a conflict of interest is” and no official process for students to request a recusal of a dean or investigator dealing with their disciplinary case who they believe to be impartial for any reason.
Voting opens at noon on Monday and closes at noon on Wednesday. Voters should likely expect results on Friday afternoon.
Annie Rupertus is a head News editor for the ‘Prince’ from Philadelphia, Pa. who often covers activism and campus governance.
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