The recommendations stem from the USG’s Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) survey, which aimed to determine how socioeconomic issues affected student life on campus. Thirty percent of students completed the survey, which was administered last May.
Biederman will be working with Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson, Dean of Undergraduate Students Kathleen Deignan, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne and residential college masters to determine if or how to implement the recommendations.
“[Administrators] were extremely positive towards the [survey’s] recommendations,” Biederman said of the response to the survey.
These recommendations include a proposal that the University increase the number of course books on reserve for classes and encourage professors to either abstain from the use of Pequod packets or to offer students alternatives to purchasing Pequod packets. The survey showed that students from both low- and high-income families frequently do not buy necessary course books because of their high cost.
“Compared to other changes the University makes, this should be one of the lowest costs,” Biederman said of increasing the number of books on reserve.
A second significant recommendation based on the COMBO results is the continued expansion of residential college events and increased social interaction between under and upperclassmen.
Citing the success of Rocky-Mathey Wine and Cheese Night, Biederman explained COMBO’s recommendation that residential colleges expand their social events, specifically those that cater to upperclassmen and serve alcohol.
Biederman explained that such events are accessible to all upperclassmen “regardless of what high school they went to or what eating club they [are] in.”
COMBO also advised an increase in upperclassmen’s free weekly residential college meal allowance and the creation of a low-cost, five-meal-per-week plan to make it easier for upperclassmen in eating clubs to participate in residential college life.
“I think they’re really terrific,” President Tilghman said of the proposals. “Instituting a lot of these recommendations makes a great deal of sense.”
The CPUC meeting also featured a panel discussion to examine the successes and failures of the first year of the four-year residential college program.
“We set out to provide options, choices, for juniors and seniors, more choice than we have had in recent years in Princeton,” Malkiel said.
Most of the panel members had positive things to say.
“It’s been extremely successful,” Butler College Master Sanjeev Kulkarni said.
Rockefeller College Master Jeff Nunokawa noted that many students who are members of eating clubs ate in the Rocky and Mathey dining halls.
“Some of the most clubbed-up kids are there, at meals, having a gay old time, in the old sense of the word,” he explained.
There were, however, a few criticisms of the program.
Panelist and U-Councilor Liz Rosen ’10 noted a lack of interaction between RCAs and upperclassmen in residential colleges.
Rosen asked whether there has been “any additional [training] or modification of the training for RCAs” to help them better interact with upperclass students.
“Mostly RCAs focus on freshmen because the freshmen need the most support,” Kulkarni explained. “But that said, we’re trying to, in Butler and in the other colleges, make sure that the RCAs are doing programming, reaching out and trying to involve all students.”
Kulkarni also presented the work of the Alcohol Coalition Committee (ACC). The ACC, which held three workshops this past February, is currently drafting a strategic plan to address high-risk drinking by students on campus to present to the Healthier Princeton Advisory Board at its May 9 meeting.
Out of these discussions came “a huge range of ideas,” Kulkarni said, citing the implementation of a party registration system. There are “no real concrete ... thoughts on exactly how this [system] should work,” Kulkarni added, though he explained that students throwing a party in residential colleges would have to register the event and have meetings with a Public Safety officer.
“I can’t yet claim that we’ve had an impact on the culture of high risk drinking,” Kulkarni said. “But I can claim that we’ve had an impact on the process to address [it].”
Campus Club Director Dianne Spatafore detailed the renovations to the club, which is slated to be an informal space for students to use, she said, adding that the club will be a social space that is an alternative to the eating clubs.
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