USG creates new liaison positions

The USG voted unanimously last night to confirm several amendments to its constitution, which required a second consecutive vote of approval to take effect, and inducted two new members to its ranks.

Phil Stern ’09 and Braeden Kepner-Kraus ’10 will fill the roles of IT chair and senior elections manager, respectively.

“Take a lot of leadership in project management and project development,” USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 said to the convened senators. “I’m really looking forward to what you guys can accomplish over the next few months,” he added.

To facilitate this kind of individual leadership, USG liaisons, including the restructured and renamed position of civic engagement liaison and the new post of internal social chair, are intended to emphasize Weinstein’s focus on pet projects.

Similarly, the U-Council has created a number of new liaison positions, ranging from facilities/building improvements to public safety/transportation/sustainability, to divide responsibility for various areas among U-Councilors. The move is intended to facilitate communication with the administration on all student-government projects, U-Council chair Sarah Langberg ’09 said.

The USG’s agenda for the coming year includes transitioning to online course evaluations, as tested in freshman seminars, academics chair Ben Lund ’10 said. In terms of the academic calendar, “final exam reform and reading period are the big issues,” Lund said.

Speeding up the expansion of Dillon Gym, which is slated to take 10 years to complete, continues to be a key issue for the USG. “We’re going to be trying to work on Dillon Gym and see what’s going on with Dillon Cafe because that’s kind of come to a standstill,” Undergraduate Life Committee chair Arthur Levy ’10 said. Other major projects will include planning Campus Club’s opening, the creation of more 24-hour study spaces and improvements to heating systems on campus.

USG social chair Christian Husby ’08 plans to develop an integrated campus social calendar, which will include events “not only from the [USG] social committee, but from other clubs around campus as well.” The social committee is currently working on finding a venue and a band for Spring Lawnparties 2008.

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Another new program will be weekly USG video commercials, which will serve to publicize initiatives and events, USG communications chair Andrew Malcolm ’09 said.

Weinstein also addressed complaints about USG DVD and P-Rides. Citing a recent editorial in The Daily Princetonian, Weinstein acknowledged concerns about the past management of USG DVD and explained that improvements will begin with the creation of a new office manager position for the service. P-Rides, which has recently been out of service, will resume service today, Weinstein said.

He also commented on what he said was the success of the two Alcohol Coalition Committee (ACC) workshops that have taken place. “ACC workshops were very well attended for the second week in a row. What’s been coming out of the ACC workshops has been very productive,” he said. A show of hands confirmed that many USG members had attended Friday’s ACC workshop. “Hopefully we will take all that good stuff we’ve been coming up with and put it into practice,” Weinstein added.