USG discusses Honor Committee appointments, rules on resolutions

With the spring elections cycle beginning soon, the Undergraduate Student Government discussed Honor Committee appointments, amending the USG Senate’s standing rules on resolutions, and proposals for the spring elections timeline during its weekly meeting.

Honor Committee Chair Elizabeth Haile ’19 and Honor Committee Chair Emeritus Carolyn Liziewski ’18 introduced the four Honor Committee nominees: Alan Wong ’21, Apria Pinkett ’20, Michael Wang ’21, and Scott Aravena ’21.

Liziewski stated that the Honor Committee sought to expand its diversity by accepting more STEM students from both B.S.E. and A.B. concentrations during this application period. However, Senator Michael Asparrin ’19 challenged the racial and socioeconomic diversity of the Honor Committee.

“If we’re trying to fix issues of mistrust, I think making the Honor Committee look more like the undergraduate population is one way to do that,” Asparrin said.

Liziewski responded that she welcomes any advice and feedback on how best to improve the diversity of the Honor Committee.

The Senate voted to confirm all four appointments during executive session.

Senator Brad Spicher ’20 proposed a resolution to amend the standing rules of the Senate. The resolution would require USG to publish how particular Senate members vote and would allow voting Senate members to submit brief individual or joint opinion statements regarding their votes.

The Senate passed the resolution unanimously.

Chief Elections Manager Laura Zecca ’20 and Parliamentarian Jonah Hyman ’20 advanced a proposed six-week schedule for both USG and class government elections and USG referenda. However, Liziewski raised concerns about sufficient publicity around the Senate’s discussions of the drafted referenda, alluding to the fall referenda on the Honor Code.

“I would encourage that [publicity] as a pre-emptive measure to prevent this sort of situation from the fall because, to me, it was quite frustrating,” said Liziewski, regarding the discussion of the referenda.

Senator Elizabeth Bailey ’21 presented on discussions between the Women*s Center and the Women’s Leadership Task Force, a USG initiative. According to Bailey, the Women*s Center believes that USG does not advertise Women*s Center programming sufficiently and that the sponsorship of certain student groups by USG belongs under the umbrella of the Women*s Center.

Bailey is a contributing copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Projects Board Co-Chair Eliot Chen ’20 submitted two requests for projects requiring more than $1,000: Princeton’s Annual Dodgeball Tournament, hosted by the Colosseum Club, and Service in Style’s annual charity fashion show, Fashion Speaks. The Senate granted the requests.

Community and Campus Affairs Chair Caleb Visser ’20 also suggested coordinating with the Pace Center for Civic Engagement to offer a one-time service event for the USG Senate members.

Visser will propose a resolution on the topic at the next USG meeting on Mar. 11 at 4:30 p.m.