On Sunday, the Princeton Justice Project approached the USG Senate to ask them to sign onto their amicus brief in support of gay marriage in New Jersey. Rather than passing judgment itself, the Senate has instead decided to put the issue to a student vote in the upcoming USG election. While we are glad that the USG had the consideration to consult broader student opinion on this issue, we do not support the Senate's decision. No matter the merit of the PJP's amicus brief, it is simply not the role of the USG to take a stand on issues that have no direct effect on either the functioning of this University or the lives of its students as members of the University community.
Fundamentally, the USG should not get involved in campus discussion of issues outside its scope and pseudo-officially declare the majority view — even if they conduct a poll to make sure they are right. This is the stuff petitions were designed for. Neither do they have the expertise to judge whether the amicus brief itself is a solid document. Because of these limitations, the USG should remain tightly focused on issues that directly affect life on campus and taking concrete action to represent student views with respect to those issues.
This does not mean that national concerns should never cross the USG's table. In the rare case when a political issue will have a direct impact on the functioning of the University or calls into question the ethical nature of certain University decisions it is certainly within the USG's power to address these issues. This was true for the ROTC issue last spring as well as for the issue of divestment from South Africa in the 1980s.
It may also be appropriate for the USG to respond to national issues of higher education, like the National Tuition Endowment Act, which is dependent on solidarity between students across universities to gain national support. Such issues can certainly be considered on a case-by-case basis.
While gay marriage is an important issue in this country, it is not one that affects universities in general or Princeton in particular. As such, it is simply not the USG's place to sign onto the brief — whether or not students support its sentiment.
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