Just three weeks into the Lenahan administration, the USG is busy formulating plans to increase social options and ease students' academic pursuits.
A newly redesigned student course guide will open this week, and after spring break, an on-campus bar may provide students with an alternative to traditional University nightlife.
The University is in need of a place where students can "sit down, relax and have a nice beer," USG Senator Alexander Gibson '06 said. Gibson has been working for more than a year on creating a bar that would be open to all University students, faculty and staff over the age of 21. The University will issue its final decision on the plans sometime next week.
"I'm from Canada," Gibson said, "[and] I was stunned that we didn't have a campus bar."
The University did once have a campus bar in Chancellor Green, but it was shut down after the current state drinking age was established in 1983.
Chancellor Green Cafe is to be the initial site of the prospective bar, which would then move to a permanent location on campus if there is enough interest. Gibson hopes to have steady events every Friday that invite University members to mingle with each other in a calmer social setting than the Street.
With events such as a potential "France vs. Italy wine-off" or Oktoberfest — because "[you] can't have Oktoberfest without beer" — Gibson hoped to celebrate cultural diversity.
Alcohol is a crucial part of every nation's socialization, Gibson said, and the University needs to promote responsibility rather than "denounce" the use of alcohol. The bar would also create greater "social cohesion" between undergraduate and graduate students, he said.
If approved, the bar will start serving after spring break. At least initially, only students over 21 will be granted admission.
Starting Wednesday, a fully operational — and newly renovated — Student Course Guide (SCG) will be unveiled. One new feature of the SCG is that students can now comment on grade deflation and send their complaints directly to the administration.
The new SCG was created by Joe Perla '09 and will be quicker and more efficient than its predecessor was. "Our goal is to make it as useful to students as possible," USG president Alex Lenahan '07 said.
The new guide will have up-to-date course listings and can act as a course scheduler. Pictures of the professor will also be featured alongside each course's description. Students can comment and review courses that they have taken, and these results will be displayed along with the official registrar course evaluations from the previous semester.
The USG will also hold discussions with the administration on the grade deflation issue, working both to "monitor the implementation of the policy" and decide if the policy is the "best possible grading scheme for Princeton University in 2006," USG vice president Rob Biederman '08 said.
The goal, Lenahan said, is to begin a "conversation about implementation of the policy."
In particular, the USG may send out a campus wide survey on student experiences with the new grade deflation policy.
Students in the Class of 2008 will be the first to have had all four years of their coursework evaluated under the new standard. The USG hopes that the difference between their views and those of upperclassmen might provide insight into the policy's implementation.
Once survey results are in, the USG will decide how to move forward.
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