Diemand-Yauman '10 to tackle alcohol, USG infrastructure

In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman '10 said that his tenure will be shaped by his ability to effect change while dealing with controversial issues like the USG election process and the discrepancy between University and Borough alcohol policies.

Alcohol policy

Diemand-Yauman, who is currently facing charges in the Borough for serving alcohol to a minor, has announced that reforming University and Borough alcohol policies will be his first priority.

He called his personal experience with these policies a “kind of a blessing in disguise."

“It allowed me to see serious shortcomings of the Borough system that I had previously not been aware of,” he explained, adding that he would be taking the same course of action had he been exposed to the information by other means.

“This is one of the few policies in recent history that can actually mean the difference between life and death for students,” he said.

In recent months, Diemand-Yauman has been working with University administrators to help coordinate the University and Borough alcohol policies.

Former USG president Josh Weinstein ’09 said in an e-mail that he believes Diemand-Yauman’s personal experience with Borough policy will “help his cause.”

“While the lack of a Good Samaritan policy wasn’t exactly the reason for his troubles, he can hopefully leverage this incident to further the necessary policy change,” Weinstein said.

USG restructuring

The USG is in a state of transition after the months-long confusion surrounding the vice-presidential race between Mike Weinberg ’11 and Nick DiBerardino ’11 that ended with DiBerardino's withdrawal Wednesday night from a revote.

“The student body doesn’t want to see the USG in the spotlight all the time,” Diemand-Yauman said. “Neither do I. Everybody wins.”

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Still, Diemand-Yauman said he does not view the public perception of the USG as paramount.

“I’m not going to worry about the USG brand or advertising the USG to the student body," he said. "My job is to enact and influence real policy change. Whether or not the student body thinks the USG is working is, quite frankly, irrelevant to me.”

Previous administrations, Diemand-Yauman added, helped perpetuate the idea that the approval of the student body is vital to the USG’s effectiveness. He noted that he does have plans to reform the USG’s infrastructure, especially in light of the recent election debacle.

Weinstein said he was concerned that Diemand-Yauman’s experience as president of the Class of 2010 might influence these changes.

“I think Connor may be quick to try to roll back a lot of the structural improvements we made last year because it’s very different from class government,” Weinstein said.

Diemand-Yauman said he will “make it a priority to address the ethical, procedural and constitutional shortcomings that have been revealed by prior administrations.”

He said he plans to address presidential endorsements, the powers and rights of the election manager and the integrity of the voting program, adding that he also wants to look into the “succession of office in class governments when one of these offices is vacated.”

To accomplish all this, Diemand-Yauman said he plans to form an ad hoc committee to be led by U-Councilor Jacob Candelaria ’09.

“This committee will be charged with reviewing the constitution and making suggestions for its reform, evaluating elections procedures [and] establishing a central code of ethics by which the USG will govern itself,” Diemand-Yauman explained.

In addition to reforming the election process, Diemand-Yauman said he is worried that having too many students involved in USG committees “dilutes the ownership [of these committees] that the individual committee members feel and therefore stunts productivity.” Weinstein expanded the USG during his tenure with several new positions and committees.

Other initiatives

Diemand-Yauman said he also plans to renovate the systems the USG uses to collect and analyze student input.

He said he is unlikely to continue the Weinstein administration’s “Which Do You Want More” site in its current form, adding that he doesn’t want to “fall into the trap of being led solely by anecdotal evidence.”

“The results of this program are not clear to me,” he said. “It would be irresponsible of me to place an enormous amount of emphasis on this data as it currently stands.”

Diemand-Yauman noted that his plans to revamp the student-input system include deploying a second Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) survey and a “more rigorous analysis of the data of the first COMBO survey.” He added that he also plans to create a committee to analyze Princetonian attitudes.

Diemand-Yauman also addressed issues that are conventionally associated with the USG, saying that he would consider departing from the norm when it comes to initiatives such as study breaks.

“I feel that study breaks and events without a clear function relating to policy change or addressing student concerns are superficial and a waste of resources and human capital,” he said.

Still, he noted that he plans to face student concerns such as reforming the academic calendar. He said he believes the USG can help in mobilizing both the administration and faculty in “beginning to address aspects of the calendar such as finals before winter break.”

Diemand-Yauman also said he will be working to make “all Pequod [packets] available online, creating a more centralized fund-distribution system for student groups, [improving] Public Safety relations and feedback on written work [and looking into] prox swiping on Nassau and the pass/D/fail policies.”

He also said he would work to “encourage the University to adopt more rigorous sustainability standards” and increase student awareness of environmental issues.

Weinstein’s administration worked on extending Firestone’s hours, but Diemand-Yauman explained that he does not plan to continue those efforts.

“I don’t feel it is prudent to advocate for extending library hours when the University is doing everything it can to keep all of its employees and our financial-aid system intact,” he said.

Broader challenges and the future

Though he has been involved in several extracurricular activities, Diemand-Yauman said he plans on dropping all of them except singing with the Nassoons now that he is USG president.

He said he will be stepping down as co-president of Princeton Disability Awareness and will be “slowly relinquishing control” of the "Own What You Think" campaign, which he founded last year. Greening Princeton will take over his exchange program for compact fluorescent light bulbs.

“The Nassoons, while a considerable time commitment, keep me grounded and happy,” he said of his decision to continue with the a cappella group. “I don’t know how other USG presidents managed to work efficiently and stay sane without an outlet such as the Nassoons.”