Ettman ’13: Recreating her campus identity

Ettman earned 48.4 percent of the total votes cast for president in the first round, but ultimately lost by four percentage points in the runoff in a come-from-behind victory by former Class of 2013 senator Bruce Easop ’13.

Ettman’s tenure with the USG began the same week as her involvement with women’s issues on campus.

On afternoon during her freshman fall in 2009, Ettman received a personal phone call from President Shirley Tilghman, asking her to serve on the Steering Committee on Undergraduate Women’s Leadership, which investigated the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions.

Tilghman did not know Ettman well at the time, learning of her through her active participation in a discussion at a Gender and Sexuality Studies luncheon a few weeks prior.

That same week, Ettman was elected as a senator for the Class of 2013; she was re-elected the following year and then eventually elected USG vice president.

Despite her loss last fall, Ettman has not abandoned her involvement in the USG, continuing to be involved through sub-committees. While she has scaled back her commitment to the Mental Health Initiative, which was a major part of her campaign platform, she continues to serve on the Academic Life Total Assessment committee. She also co-chairs a non-USG committee looking at leadership on campus.

“I felt like I had an opportunity to recreate how I interact with the campus,” she said.

Ettman said that she did not seek an appointed position in Easop’s administration.

“I felt like I owed it to Bruce and the new administration to [allow them to] go in their new direction and do what they wanted to do,” she said. “Bruce is a very capable, passionate president, so I [feel] that the USG is in good hands,” she added.

Despite her disappointment after the election, Ettman said she still highly encourages women to risk running for positions of influence.

“It takes someone who is very confident to withstand the potential risk, [but] I can say from my own experience that it’s not that bad — you lose and you move on,” she said. “You pick yourself up and you keep going. The thought of losing is really scary, but once you put yourself out there once, you can do it again.”

Ettman said in retrospect that she would have knocked on more doors before the first round of elections and sought the endorsements of other USG members if she were to run again. Many of her supporters, she speculated, became overconfident following her sizeable lead after the first round of voting.

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But as she scales back her role in student government, she has scaled up her involvement in mentorship and leadership opportunities for female students.

Her interest in gender issues has only grown during her time at the University. During the summer after her freshman year, she visited five other universities and observed effective mentorship programs among female students, administrators and alumni.

Once the committee published its exhaustive 100-page report in the spring of 2011, both Mathey College and the Women’s Center expressed interest in establishing mentorship programs: The former wanted a Mathey-specific system, while the latter wanted to create a program that would span all the residential colleges.

After Ettman spoke with the directors of both groups, they decided together to create pilots of both programs and determine which was more effective.

After a summer of planning, Ettman and Caroline Kitchener ’14 co-founded the Women’s Mentorship Program, which began in fall 2011 and was capped at 81 women, drawn from all years and all six residential colleges. Kitchener is also a former columnist for The Daily Princetonian.

The program sponsors group activities for pods of four women, one from each undergraduate year, in order to bring together women from different walks of campus life.

“The idea is that we’re creating these relationships and networks to foster a sense of empowerment for young women,” Ettman said. “It’s important for upperclassmen especially, because when you’re independent or in an eating club, you don’t really have a reason to go back to your [residential] college,” she explained.

The Women of Mathey Advising Network, the other program, also began in the fall. The program will continue to share resources with the Women’s Mentorship Program until one of them is deemed more effective.

Ettman said that her interest in women’s leadership lends to her academic work as well. A Wilson School major pursuing a certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ettman is writing both of her junior papers and is planning on writing her senior thesis on female education and leadership.

“I’d love to dedicate my life to decreasing the gap between women and men in leadership positions in the corporate world, in government and in the third world as well,” she said.

Now that she has largely moved on from USG, Ettman said that the “weirdest” change has been having free Sunday nights, when USG senate meetings are traditionally held.

Through all the time she spent with the USG, Ettman felt it was most rewarding to see students use the resources that she helped to create, including Princeton2014.com, USG senate retreats and other resources.

“Princeton, unlike other universities, really values the student opinion. I always felt like my voice was heard and appreciated,” Ettman said.

Former USG president Michael Yaroshefsky ’12 said that Ettman was a key source of counsel in his administration and was a talented project coordinator. Yet he added that it would take a while for the University community to recognize her contributions.

“Since the results of the women’s mentorship initiatives and project ALTA are forthcoming, it will take time for her full legacy to be realized.”