USG Presidential Candidates Myesha Jamison ’18 and Rachel Yee ’19 debated their platforms and visions for the University student community in the Whig Senate chamber on Sunday.
Undergraduate Student Government announced the candidates for next year's offices last Sunday. Dan Qian ’19 is running for vice president of the student body. As vice president, Qian hopes to make USG projects more transparent by surveying student opinion on Senate projects before priorities are set and relaying results of weekly administrator meetings to the student body. With experience on the Senate, Executive Committee, and Core Committee, he has worked with the Vice President, President, and the rest of the Senate.
Class of 2018 Senator Myesha Jemison ’18 and former Class of 2018 vice president Rachel Yee ’19 have entered the race for USG president.
Leila Clark '18 started gathering petition signatures on Nov. 21 for a referendum to publicize the demographics of eating club members and bickerees.
petition meeting
The Undergraduate Student Government met with Deputy Dean of the College Elizabeth Colagiuri to discuss potential changes to the academic calendar and required coursework in their meeting on Sunday. Colagiuri is a member of the Task Force on General Education, which recently released a report outlining various recommendations that the report describes as being designed to provide students an education that “reflects both breadth and depth of study.” Among the recommended changes to current coursework are identifying tags that will exist in conjunction with current distribution areas.
Street sat down with Undergraduate Student Government (USG) president Ella Cheng ’16, one of the many new female leaders on campus.
This Intersession, Princeton students had a third option beyond going home or staying on campus and hibernating for a week.
In its final meeting of the year Sunday night, the USG Senate unanimously passed a series of constitutional amendments that require the class governments to report their budgets and hold monthly meetings.
At its weekly meeting on Sunday evening, the USG unanimously approved amendments requiring each of the four class governments to hold its own monthly public meetings and to publish and report its own budget each semester. The remaining amendments, which proposed to fully separate the Senate and the class governments, were tabled indefinitely. In a vote of 17 in favor and four against, the USG decided not to continue its own Summer Storage Initiative and not to collaborate with Princeton Student Agencies.
For incumbent USG president Shawon Jackson ’15, reelection would mean “moving forward” and building on his current term. “Essentially, the message that I want to get across is that now that I’ve been on USG for about a year as president,” Jackson said, “I don’t just want to stay stagnant, but I want to learn from the mistakes that I made this past year and learn from the successes and then carry that forward into the next year.” Headded that he is running for president because he has enjoyed this past year and would like to continue working on projects in the future now that he has an understanding of what the USG can do. Originally unopposed, Jackson faces a challenge from Class of 2015 senator Zach Ogle, whowon his appealto run in the election Sunday evening. “Even though I’ve been president this past year, if I am reelected, it doesn’t mean that I would do my term the same exact way as I did the past year.
Despite a late start to campaigning, Zach Ogle ’15 said he will rely on his perspectives as a student in USG and in other campus groups to win the campus vote, emphasizing the importance of increased outreach to student groups. “I’m running for USG president because I feel like USG can do a much better job of reaching out to non-USG students,” Ogle said.
In a break from recent trends, three of the four USG committee chair positions — Campus and Community Affairs Committee,Social Committee and Academics Committee — have contested elections.
With a platform of student outreach, USG senator and presidential candidate Zachary Ogle ’15 called for a focus on best serving the needs of the student body at the USG presidential debate on Wednesday.
The USG Senate and class governments could become two independent bodies if the Senate passes several amendments in its upcoming meetings. The proposed amendments were discussed and written jointly by the class governments and members of the Senate, USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 said.
Current USG president Shawon Jackson ’15 is running for reelection unopposed, chief elections manager Rachel Nam ’15 announcedWednesdayin an email sent to the undergraduate student body by Jackson. “I’ve really enjoyed being USG president this past year, and I’m excited to serve in the position again,” Jackson said.
A proposed amendment to the USG constitution would change the relationship between the class councils and the Senate.
Changes could be coming to the University’s final examinations period.USG Academics Committee chair Dillon Sharp ’14 presented a series of recommendations for the final examinations period to the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing on Friday.
U-Council Chair Elan Kugelmass ’14 proposed creating a three-member “USG Transparency Committee” at the weekly USG meeting on Sunday evening. Responding to criticisms he said he’d received from students about how many of the USG’s projects take place outside of the Senate meetings, he said the proposed three-member committee would be an “experiment” with the role of distributing USG information to students who request it. The role of the committee would not overlap with that of Richard Lu ’16, who currently serves as the USG communications director, Kugelmass said.
Students will soon be able to rent mattresses for overnight guests as part of a program initiated by the Undergraduate Student Government.
