USG passes reforms to election process

Reforms for the upcoming USG elections were discussed and approved at the USG Senate meeting in Frist Campus Center on Sunday night.

Elections manager Laura Eckhardt ’14 presented the timeline for the spring elections process, which begins this week. The USG social chair, all existing class government positions and 10 U-Councilor spots are up for election in the upcoming cycles.

To run, all candidates are required to attend one of two mandatory open houses that will be held on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Following Eckhardt’s presentation, Class of 2013 senator Andrew Blumenfeld and Class of 2014 senator Dillon Sharp together proposed three different reforms to the USG’s election policy.

The first proposal, the establishment of the USG Leadership Accessibility Reform, aims to increase the accessibility of USG positions to candidates in a two-step approach.

The elections manager’s role in advertising and publicizing the upcoming elections will be increased under this reform. According to the proposal, the elections manager will hold office hours through each election cycle to provide information to potential candidates about both the election process and the various jobs within the USG.

Under this reform, current members of USG will also be asked to update a newly created “Descriptions of Positions” document, which will include details on the job description, projects undertaken, useful skills, people with whom they frequently work and examples of opportunities and challenges for each position.

The USG Referenda Reform requires each page of future petitions to include the text of the proposed referendum that the petition is advocating.

The USG Elections Regulations Packet Reform updates the Elections Regulations Packet to reflect the two above referendums and makes additional changes to increase transparency and fairness.

All three proposed reforms were approved and adopted by the Senate and will be applied to the upcoming elections cycle. The reforms will be available online soon, USG representatives said.

Community service chair Alexandra Gecker ’12 made a presentation to the Senate covering the success of the Community Service Committee’s Fitness Fest event held last Friday at Dillon Gymnasium.

Class of 2012 senator Flavia Brancusi also presented on the progress of the LED light bulb exchange. This project, sponsored by the Office of Sustainability, will allow students to exchange CFL light bulbs with LED light bulbs for use in dorm rooms.

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A proposal to increase the Lawnparties budget by $3,531.20 was also approved by the Senate.

The Senate also approved a new student group at the meeting. The Princeton Analytics Group, whose approval was tabled until further discussion at last week’s meeting, was invited to give a presentation of the new organization.

Jasmine Chen ’12, who represented the Princeton Analytics Group, discussed the structure of the group as well as proposed projects to be undertaken by the organization.

Chen described the group as more of a task force than a consulting club. After a Senate discussion, the group was approved.