USG announces meal exchange site online

The USG approved funding for a free monthly Zumba event for undergraduates and discussed issues such as improvements to TigerApps, Lawnparties and the Summer Storage Initiative at the USG Senate meeting on Sunday night.

The large-scale Zumba events will likely be held on the first Friday of every month on the main floor of Dillon Gymnasium, USG undergraduate life committee chair Adi Rajagopalan ’13 said in his proposal to the Senate. According to the Campus Recreation website, the first USG Zumba Party will be held on Oct. 7 at 9 p.m.

“We like this set-up because it creates big social events on Friday nights,” Rajagopalan said.

The Senate approved $3,100 of funding for USG-sponsored fitness classes for the coming semester.

USG IT committee chair Rodrigo Menezes ’13 also unveiled a number of improvements to TigerApps, including the release of the “iPrinceton” iPhone app and an electronic upperclassmen meal-exchange system known as MealChecker.

“Some of you remember the blue slips to do meal exchanges at eating clubs,” Menezes said in his report to the Senate. “Now we have an electronic meal exchange site that solves those problems.”

Menezes has also revamped TigerTrade, the USG DVD website, Point and the USG elections website. A new website for student groups has also been created.

“It is very synchronized with P-Cal. You can subscribe to a group even if you are not a member,” Menezes said of the new website, which he described as “a nice platform in that it is like a Yellow Pages for student groups.”

“You can host files and link to other sites the group is involved in,” he added.

The new USG website will replace the current list of student groups on the website of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.

“This will be the biggest event in TigerApps we’ve ever had,” Menezes said.

Meanwhile, USG member Dillon Sharp ’14 reported on the USG’s free bagel initiative that took place on the first day of classes.

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“We spent over $1,000 on food but we were out of food by 11:30 a.m.,” Sharp said. “It shows that students love free food, and if it is nice out and the table is in a convenient location, people will come.”

In addition, the USG discussed Lawnparties, the Athletic Football Bash and the Summer Storage Initiative. Haebin Kim ’13, who coordinated the Summer Storage Initiative, reported that the USG made $22 profit off of the venture.

“Next year, we’ll have to make the payment system online so we don’t have to move around so much cash,” Kim said. “There was one lost box and one damaged box. We are resolving these problems.”

The USG also passed a fall 2011 ethics code during the meeting. The ethics code guides practices within the USG, including notes about communications with the press, fair election practices and how each USG member should conduct themselves during meetings. The new item in the ethics code is a move to promote further participation among USG members so “the burden is spread more evenly across USG members,” Yaroshefsky said in the USG minutes.