Margolin '05 reflects on tenure as USG president

This week's election may have made history. For perhaps the first time during the current administration, the Undergraduate Student Government had a major event and USG president Matt Margolin '05 wasn't the one running things.

"It's all the election managers," he said.

It is ironic that Margolin, one of the most active USG presidents in recent memory, worked so little on the event that unofficially signals his departure from office.

That's not to say he stood idly by during the earlier stages of the election process — Margolin said he hopes the new emphasis placed on debate and the link on the Point portal site to the election would increase voter turnout.

This year's election also caused Margolin to reflect on his own election, and on the legacy he hopes to hand on to his successor.

"It didn't feel like I took on anything from my predecessor," he said. "But I'm handing on a bunch of issues to the next president."

Initial skepticism

Margolin began his term amid skepticism and disillusionment.

"[I was] elected when everyone else was saying the USG sucked, that it was irrelevant," he said. "I came into the USG after three years of inaction. I had the deck stacked against me."

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Margolin's election seemed to promise change, but he quickly faced setbacks. A 'Prince' article published on Feb. 3 — the day after he took office — suggested Margolin had become less optimistic about reducing Pequod packet prices. Some students felt he had misled voters, and a Feb. 12 'Prince' editorial accused him of "hedg[ing] his campaign promises."

Margolin insisted, however, that he acted according to the best information available.

"About a week before I decided to run, the administration told me it was going to happen," he said in an interview last week. Commenting on the way his situation changed, he added, "You will convince one administrator, you will jump all the hurdles . . . but then one other person can put their foot down."

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne agrees that Margolin's campaign reflected realistic expectations.

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"He put in the requisite time and effort to fully explore that issue," said Dunne, who advises the USG. "It was a realistic campaign promise or goal."

U-Councilor Brandon Parry '06, with whom Margolin worked extensively on the issue, agreed that their expectations changed as they learned more about the issue. After six to eight months of research they "ended up realizing that Pequods are here to stay and they're going to be expensive," he said.

Margolin called his experience with the Pequod issue his "awakening as to how things work" at the University.

Eventually, he and Parry met with success when the Office of Financial Aid agreed in May to increase student aid packages by $155 to cover the cost of the packets.

"I think maybe in the end they just wanted to make me quiet," he said.

Despite the frustrations, in the end all parties seemed pleased with the outcome. But the issue of Pequods would not be the only time Margolin felt hindered by the administration.

Perhaps his most public disagreement with the administration came over grade inflation.

"It was the most memorable part of my time in office," Margolin said.

He publicly opposed Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel's proposal to cap the number of A's awarded.

Under his guidance the USG drafted a letter, which was placed in every professor's mailbox, encouraging faculty members to vote against the proposal. Margolin also organized a debate with Malkiel on the topic.

His efforts ultimately failed to prevent the faculty from overwhelmingly approving the measure. Although Margolin said he was proud of the USG's efforts, he also expressed disappointment over what he saw as the administration's failure to listen to student input.

Parry phrased the USG's sentiments more bluntly.

"Dean Malkiel was very good about soliciting student opinion, but I feel like she was paying lip-service to student concerns more than really taking our objections and concerns to heart," Parry said. "My basic problem is that students widely disagreed with the implementation of the new grading policy and were at no point consulted before it was created. It was foisted upon us and despite our objections, she went ahead with it anyway. That's a problem."

Malkiel, who praised Margolin's leadership on the issue, contested Parry's suggestion.

"I've tried always to listen to the USG's concerns," she wrote in an email. "But it's essential to remember that really listening doesn't necessarily mean always agreeing or always responding exactly the way the USG wants."

Dunne suggested that Princeton students might not appreciate the degree to which the administration accepts student input, especially when compared with the University's peer institutions.

"Students have tremendous access to all levels of the administration. Maybe undergraduates don't realize how special that is. It's very atypical for a university this size," he said. At many institutions, he added, "it wouldn't have been unreasonable if Dean Malkiel had decided to have very limited student input."

Despite their differences of opinion, Malkiel praised Margolin for his "excellent leadership on grade inflation."

"He represented very well the views of concerned students, and he did his best to make sure that we provided ample and varied opportunities for students to be heard," she said.

And as the students' spokesman, Margolin earns the most praise from administrators.

"I found him to be a good spokesperson for the student body, and one who is able to understand the perspectives of others," President Tilghman wrote in an email.

It may be surprising, then, that a USG president who garnered such respect as a communicator was faulted by fellow USG members for failure to communicate effectively within the organization itself.

"Matt's been very good working with administrators," said USG Vice President Shaun Callaghan '06. But, he added, "a lot of students don't know what the USG's doing."

Callaghan also suggested that Margolin wasn't always effective in holding USG members accountable for their jobs.

Parry also cited occasional breakdowns in communication under Margolin's watch.

Margolin offered a different perspective. While he said there was room for improvement in communicating with students, he also pointed to the gains he had made.

"I made a very conscious effort to [communicate] better than [previous USG President] Pettus [Randall '04]," Margolin said. "I wish I had done that better . . . but I definitely made strides."

Much of Margolin's energy seems to have been spent working within the USG itself.

"The USG did a lot of soul-searching the second half of his term," Parry said, in a process he said was necessary but took a good deal of energy away from other issues.

Margolin said he was proud of the changes he brought about in the USG.

"We passed a number of amendments cleaning up and modernizing the constitution and a lot of reorganization of the internal ways the USG works," he said. He also said meetings were now shorter and more intense, which he thinks will benefit the next president.

These changes have also helped bolster student confidence in the USG, strengthen voter turnout and increase the number of students running for USG offices, he said.

Dunne called the USG's restructuring one of a number of "real tangible accomplishments and benefits that . . . have directly impacted the experiences of undergraduate students here."

Accomplishments also included the creation of the Pre-Rade and Point student website. Dunne also praised Margolin for avoiding the temptation to use the USG "as a springboard to weigh-in on national and international issues, at the expense of tending to day-today experiences of students," a problem that often plagues student governments at other institutions, he said.

Unfinished business

Despite his accomplishments, Margolin will leave behind a number of unfinished items. The USG is still working to open 24-hour study spaces, a move opposed by the University because of its belief that "students need to be encouraged to sleep and rejuvenate," as Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson said in an email.

Perhaps more surprising is that Margolin enacted no significant changes in what he called one of the two most important issues during his campaign — academic advising.

Margolin said he approached Malkiel about ways to improve the advising system, such as by introducing "Princeton ambassadors," upperclass students who could answer questions about some aspects of course selection.

Malkiel pointed out that, among other things, the University already has peer advisers, and the program was put on hold.

And in regard to Margolin's second staple election issue, minority affairs, the jury is still out.

The USG conducted a survey on race relations last March, the results of which will be released to the CPUC at an upcoming meeting.

But Parry pointed out that every USG president will have only mixed success.

"The legacy of every USG president will be, 'he could have done more,'" he said. "Matt's legacy will be one of hard work, dreaming big dreams and limited success — which I think is the essence of the USG. On the whole, I think he did an excellent job."

USG presidential candidates Callaghan and Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 also praised Margolin's record.

"I think Matt has definitely done a better job than USG presidents in recent memory," Joseph said.

Margolin said he was proud of his leadership of the USG.

"We've done a great job," he said. At the same time, he recognized the incompleteness of his work.

"My last project will be to really institutionalize all the changes I have made to how USG functions and to the accomplishments and the projects underway," he wrote in an email. "The most important thing for me to do is figure out how to link my work and progress to the next president and USG."