The USG approved a resolution calling for cooperation between the University and the eating clubs on financial aid for eating club membership fees at its meeting yesterday.
Though the USG acknowledged it has no formal control over financial aid policies, the resolution encourages the University "to design a system in which the cost of joining a club is counted as part of demonstrated need" and to work with the clubs on implementing such a policy.
The resolution — fully titled "Resolution of the Princeton Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Recommending Financial Aid Reform for Dining and Social Options Provided by Princeton's Eating Clubs" (see full text) — was motivated by the approaching implementation of the four-year residential college system, which is set to open in the fall of 2007. The four-year system is "another weight on the cart rolling downhill" of economic stratification between club members and students who choose other options, USG vice president Rob Biederman '08 said.
Though the USG Senate unanimously approved the resolution, several USG members acknowledged that the body has no power over University financial aid programs and that any resolutions they pass on aid issues are strictly recommendations meant to illustrate undergraduate student sentiment. "The actual program is worked out by the University and the clubs," USG president Alex Lenahan '07 said.
At present, the difference between residential college dining contracts and full eating club membership fees ranges from a few hundred dollars to over $2000, depending on the club. The University provides no financial aid grants for these expenses, but loans are available through the financial aid office, just as there are for unsponsored trips or computer purchases.
Some students, Lenahan and other USG members argued, are deterred from joining a club because of these higher costs. But an aid program could help eliminate these financial concerns. "Someone with less financial means should be able to participate in this part of the Princeton experience," Lenahan said.
ICC chair Marco Fossati-Bellani '07, who is also president of Colonial Club, described an economic and social divide between club members and non-club members. "The University is fooling itself to think there isn't a divide," he said in an interview following the meeting.
Suggesting that the current lack of University cooperation with the clubs on financial aid issues ignores "the deeper social fragmentation," U-Council chair Becky Brown '06 said trustees and administrators are often surprised by the fragmented nature of campus social life.
A University-sanctioned financial aid program supporting club membership could repair some of the fragmentation, but "the specifics of how [a policy is] going to work is not something we have any say over," Lenahan explained in an interview.
Fossati-Bellani said that any aid program would have to be negotiated between the University and individual clubs, particularly by club graduate boards and not only by student officers. "It's not a very transparent system," he said. "The clubs will not get on the same page about this since their interests are not the same ... so I can't express a unified view" for the ICC.
Nevertheless, he added, "our point of view is that we want as many people to have the option" of joining a club, regardless of financial concerns.
Related
— USG tables club aid resolution (March 13, 2006)
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