USG creates new IT committee

The USG Senate is striving to expand its online presence and address problems with dining hall overcrowding, officers said during the organization's first meeting last night.

USG vice president Josh Weinstein '09 announced the creation of an information technology committee that will be headed by Phil Stern '09 and USG webmaster Bruce Halperin '09.

The committee will oversee planned improvements to Point and the launch of a new USG website, as well as helping USG members with websites for their projects.

The IT committee is involved with the "revamping, reshaping and redesigning [of] Point," Weinstein said.

USG president Rob Biederman '08 explained the creation of a five-tiered marketing approach to re-publicize Point, a web portal that includes event listings and links to other Princeton-related sites. The campaign will include posters, emails, a study break, video advertising and free T-shirts all intended to increase student use.

The USG will also sponsor a series of focus groups that will give faculty, students, USG members and administrators a chance to discuss the future of Point.

Possible changes to the site include an improved events list and a simplified welcome screen. Another new feature will let users receive personalized alerts about events put on by groups in which they are interested.

Meanwhile, the new USG website should be launched next week, Weinstein said, explaining that it will include a list of USG goals for the year and publicity about past events.

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The senate also discussed Whitman College's current dining hall overcrowding problems. Mike Wang '10, the new student-dining liaison, will communicate with Dining Services Director Stu Orefice, in an effort to figure out what kind of short and longterm changes can be made.

USG members offered possible ways to ease overcrowding in Whitman's dining hall and to boost use of the relatively empty Wilcox and Wu dining halls. Biederman suggested offering students a discount — such as charging them only half a swipe of their prox cards — to go to the less popular dining halls during peak hours.

"We need to make sure that Butler and Wilson kids don't end up being Whitman kids who don't live in Whitman," he said.

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Tom Dunne told the senate that imbalanced dining hall traffic is "part of a transition schedule." In a few years, he added, he thinks the crowds will spread out as the other dining halls are renovated.

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To encourage more activities in the colleges, the USG Projects Board has also been granted an additional $9,000 to help student groups put on events in the residential colleges.

During the meeting, the senate also approved the appointment of Aaron Spolin '08 to replace Andrea Pasinetti '08 as one of the senior class senators. Pasinetti is studying abroad in China for the remainder of his term, which ends in January.

Class of 2008 president Tom Haine, who ran against Spolin and Grant Gittlin '08 in last semester's race for the senior class presidency, said he selected Spolin from a large applicant pool.

"I'm thankful he chose to appoint me," Spolin said. "It was honorable of him to consider me, especially considering we were technically opponents in the last election."