In a retreat Saturday afternoon in Whig Hall, USG officers set goals for the upcoming semester, including addressing LGBT concerns and improving elections and voting.
USG president Pettus Randall '04 said he hopes to continue responding to student concerns.
"We want to continue our roles as activists looking for the big issues on campus and trying to combat those issues," he said. Last year, USG opposed the seven-week moratorium on athletic practices and resisted increased Borough police intervention on the Street.
USG officers at the retreat discussed creating an ad-hoc committee to discuss issues facing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on campus, Randall said.
"We cosponsored a forum last year, and a lot of frightening things came out of it about the discrimination they're facing on campus," he said. "This hasn't been directly addressed in student government, so this ad-hoc committee will be able to recommend policy changes that we could then give to the administration."
Cosponsoring events with student groups also emerged as a major goal for the semester, Randall said. "We want to actively be a part of what student organizations are trying to do."
Randall said USG could help in the organizing, advertising and funding of events.
During the retreat, USG officers also discussed changes in the type and variety of social events that the USG funds. Randall said he planned to diversify the use of the organization's $375,000 annual budget — some of which goes toward the fall and spring concerts.
"Instead of just one big fall concert and one spring concert, we want to buy tickets in other venues as well," he said. "We can use our money to send students to Philadelphia or New York, or we could host smaller concerts for a variety of different music."
Senior class president Eli Goldsmith '04 spoke at the retreat about an amendment to the USG constitution calling for greater collaboration between the student government and class governments, including having USG senators attend class meetings, Randall said.
Last year USG and class governments worked together to convince OIT to replace or fix defective OIT-provided laptop computers, contributing to the idea for USG-class government collaboration.
With elections for Class of 2007 representatives two weeks away and general elections in December, USG officers also discussed election reform. "We tried to come up with ways to make it more of a fair process," Randall said.
"We had complaints last year about students harassing other students to vote," he said.
Changes considered include prohibiting campaigning near voting stations and moving the time of votes, according to the minutes of the retreat.
Events planned for later this semester include a block party on the Street and meetings where USG officers will hear individual students' requests.
"I get so many emails from students, and I want to be more proactive in responding to students' complaints," Randall said.
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