Yaroshefsky ’12 leads by 14 points in early poll

The poll also indicated that grade deflation was the most important issue in this election for 38 percent of students surveyed. Toilet paper was ranked most important by 12 percent of voters, while 11 percent said pass/D/fail reform was their top issue. Textbook prices came in fourth, with 10 percent of voters selecting it as the most important issue, followed by 9 percent for late meal reform, just more than 7 percent for sustainability initiatives, 7 percent for alcohol policy, 5 percent for civic engagement and 1 percent for election reform.

Forty percent of the students polled were freshmen, 32 percent were sophomores, 19 percent were juniors, and 9 percent were seniors.

This past Friday, the three USG presidential hopefuls — Altman, Lindeman and Yaroshefsky — debated their platforms and merits as candidates in a forum moderated by Whig-Cliosophic Society president Ben Weisman ’11, who is also the director of national sales and development for The Daily Princetonian.

Lindeman began his speech with an explanation of the evolution of his campaign. “When I started running for USG, it mainly came from my desire to change the toilet paper around campus. It was really the only problem I had with Princeton,” he noted. “As I starting running, I noticed more and more problems around the USG and around Princeton that could be fixed, and that’s what I really want to start focusing on.”

Still, “I am way more than toilet paper,” he added, explaining that he will provide a “fresh perspective” in a student government that is currently “spread too thin.” He proposed de-emphasizing certain perennial issues in favor of ideas generated by the student body.

“The USG tries to take care of things that will not be fixed, like the problem of grade deflation,” Lindeman said. “We need to move past that. We’re not going to change it. We can’t even focus on it anymore ... I want to move past unreachable goals.”

Yet grade deflation is the central issue in Altman’s platform, the candidate said. Altman explained that his two “main goals” in this area are to create national awareness of the policy and provide students with a “grade deflation-adjusted GPA.”

“As long as this policy is being inflicted upon us and we don’t know what our grades would be without it, we deserve to see how we would be compared to our fellow students,” he said.

“The president is most effective if he is able to orchestrate and rally the efforts of all ... students to work towards a common goal,” Altman explained. Altman, who currently serves as the USG executive secretary, said he plans to emulate current USG president Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10 by addressing U-Store payment methods, “unreasonable” campus fines, late meal concerns, library hours and the printing quota.

Yaroshefsky, the USG IT Committee chair, concluded the brief speeches. Citing his work with the IT Committee, Yaroshefsky explained that his technical background drives him to experiment with goals and projects deviating from past precedents. “I have fresh perspective, I haven’t been engrained in the USG dogma, and I’m interested in changing things,” he said.

If elected, Yaroshefsky said, he hopes to make the USG more accessible and effective. He cited his work with the elections reform project as a demonstration of “my ability to identify a problem, follow through with it, work with administrators, work with the USG and get it done on time.”

After the speeches, the floor opened to questions, the first of which addressed the recently established eating club task force. Altman expressed concern that problems with the Street would not be high priorities for University administrators, while Yaroshefsky said he hoped the administration would take a more positive approach to engaging in dialogue with the eating clubs. Lindeman suggested that the task force should involve club officers more openly.

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Later, when asked about improving attendance at athletic events, all three candidates said they supported the idea of providing incentives to increase student attendance.

The candidates summarized their aims in their concluding statements. “It started with toilet paper,” Lindeman said of his campaign, adding that he has realistic goals in mind and that “a vote for me is a vote for a new Princeton.”

In his remarks, Altman stressed his experience and ability to relate to students. “I’ve loved the USG over the past year,” he said. “I just want to say that I’m in touch with the student body.”

Yaroshefsky again emphasized his technical background. “I’m a kind of person who likes to identify problems,” he said.

Polling data collected by staff writers Molly Brean, Sara Connolly, Jason Jung, Ha-Kyung Kwon, Henry Rome, Andrew Sartorius, Ameena Schelling, Tasnim Shamma and Lauren Zumbach.