The USG failed to reach a vote last night on a resolution calling for a financial aid system to support the cost of eating club membership. USG members tabled the resolution pending changes in its text, in a meeting where procedural squabbles overshadowed substantive debate.
"It is the opinion of the president that we should have discussed this and finished it tonight," a frustrated USG president Alex Lenahan '07 said at the close of the meeting.
The resolution, which Lenahan said most USG members will ultimately support, calls upon the University and the eating clubs to design with "all due haste" a financial aid system that covers the difference in cost between the four-year residential colleges and any of the clubs for those students in financial need.
"Any student at Princeton should be able to make a decision to join a residential college or eating club based on the food there, the ambience, the people — not based on a financial decision," USG Communications Director Carol Wang '07 said.
Invited guests at the meeting disagreed on how the USG should craft the resolution, and whether it would or should have any impact.
Tiger Inn president emeritus Tim Prugar '06 described the proposed resolution as "very good," but suggested a similar resolution should be directed at the graduate boards of the clubs.
"We have very, very wealthy clubs that can put a lot of money toward rebuilding and renovating, and I don't think it's unreasonable" to expect those clubs to contribute to financial aid for their members, Prugar said.
ICC president Marco Fossati-Bellani '07 said that the resolution would be better if it were more vague, since it is the support of undergraduate students, not any specific resolution details, that concerns the parties who would design any financial aid system.
"The USG is a very distant third party in this situation. The University and the eating clubs can very easily ignore any lobbying," Fossati-Bellani said.
Fossati-Bellani added that graduate board members and University Executive Vice President Mark Burstein have held private discussions about possible aid schemes, such as establishing a financial aid endowment for each club.
Lenahan said that while the University and clubs would work out the design of the plan without USG input, former ICC president Jamal Motlagh '06 told him that it was "a big deal" for the USG to offer its support.
Consequently, Lenahan and Biederman grew impatient when USG members debated details beyond their control, such as whether the financial aid would cover all social costs of clubs, including alcohol.
"We're not writing the University financial aid policy; we're just expressing sentiment," USG vice president Rob Biederman '08 said with some exasperation as USG members continued to propose additions and deletions to the resolution text.
USG members moved to table the resolution after deciding they needed more time to revise the resolution outside of the Senate meeting. Lenahan and Biederman opposed the motion to table.
The Senate now plans to revisit the issue at its first meeting after spring break.
After tabling the eating club financial aid resolution, the USG passed a resolution endorsing an Ivy Council resolution that calls on the Ivy League to end its ban on football postseason play. (Read the full text of the resolution.)
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