Editorial: The year in retrospect

The installation of Gender Neutral Housing, the establishment of the Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership and the pass/D/fail policy reform are all examples of the University’s success in responding to student concerns. In October 2009, the University announced that it would implement a pilot program for Gender Neutral Housing on campus. Also in fall 2009, in response to a ‘Prince’ article and editorial calling attention to the low number of female students in leadership positions across campus, President Shirley Tilghman established the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership at Princeton. Finally, in December 2009, the faculty adopted a new P/D/F policy that had been the product of several years of work on the part of the USG. The new policy will allow students to change their grading option to P/D/F as late as the ninth week of the semester.

Each of these reforms came about due to an increased level of engagement between students and the administration, and they should serve as a model for collaboration in the future. Despite these successes, there is still room for improvement, most notably with respect to the University’s grade deflation policy. Though the University has made some progress in this regard — for example, by sending an explanation letter to specific employers at students’ requests — more fundamental change needs to occur.

The University has made significant progress in improving its relationship with students, and this is thanks in large part to the diplomatic efforts of Connor Diemand-Yauman ’10, former USG president. Many of the successful policy changes of the past year were enacted because of the close working relationship that Diemand-Yauman and other members of the USG had with senior administrators. This proves that this collaborative approach is generally more constructive than the adversarial posturing of previous USG presidents. Current USG president Michael Yaroshefsky ’12 should build on Diemand-Yauman’s successes and maintain the same level of engagement with senior administrators — hopefully with equal success — in the coming year.