Communiversity, organized by both USG’s Campus and Community Affairs Committee and the Arts Council of Princeton, will take place on Saturday in downtown Princeton on Nassau and Witherspoon streets, in Palmer Square and throughout the University’s campus.
The Projects Board is a branch of the USG that provides funding for student groups’ events. The Projects Board asked the Senate to approve funding for the annual town-gown event.
Apart from funding Communiversity, Projects Board has been running out of funds more quickly than in previous years, Deesha Sarma ’13, one of the Projects Board’s three co-chairs, said.
Sarma cites the reinstitution of the Orange and Black Ball as the chief reason the Projects Board was depleted of its allocated funds sooner than usual. Even though the Alcohol Initiative, not the Projects Board, funded the Orange and Black Ball, Sarma says that there was a “trickle-down” effect whereby student groups that applied to the Alcohol Initiative for funding but were rejected by the AI because of the deficit created by the OBB then applied to and received funding from the Projects Board.
Jack Ching ’13, another of the co-chairs, noted that the additional $2,500 would pay for a stage, a bounce house and a dunk tank, among other items. In an email, USG president Bruce Easop ’13 called this “the rationale for their contribution.”
“I don’t agree with the claim that this isn’t a student group’s event,” U-Councilor Lily Alberts ’13 said. “I think that Projects Board should be funding this event.”
Alberts explained that the Projects Board, rather than the USG, should fund this event because the majority of the cost isn’t funding things the USG normally funds. Alberts is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian.
Whenever the Projects Board requires more than $1,000 in funding, it must not only see the USG for approval but also present an itemized report of what exactly has to be funded, according to Easop. However, Projects Board apparently did not meet the requirement of providing an “itemized breakdown” of what it needs for Communiversity.
Though the USG approved the $2,500 in funding, Alberts argued that the requirement for a “line item budget” be more strictly enforced in the future.
Eighteen USG Senate members approved the additional funding, and four abstained from the vote. No senate members voted against the funding request.
The USG also discussed the outcome of Taste of Prospect, in which freshmen are invited to learn about joining eating clubs on Prospect Avenue.
259 freshmen and nine eating clubs participated this semester. The program was financed by the Office of the President. This year also featured an added mentorship component: Eating club presidents were receptive, and activities ranged from tours to dinners with pairings between freshmen and club officers.
According to U-Councilor Cameron Henneberg ’14, fewer freshmen participated this semester than last semester. Also, four graduate students responded to the invite even though it was only sent to freshmen listservs. Henneberg said that the four graduate students were turned away.
Easop said that in the future he would like to expand Taste of Prospect to co-ops and independent eating options so as to make the event less “eating-club centric” and to better showcase all of the University’s upperclass eating options.
Correction: Due to reporting and editing errors, a previous version of this article misstated the nature of the Projects Board funding request from the USG. The Projects Board's request of $2,500 to fund Communiversity was part of a routine request for funding parts of the town-gown event, but the USG did discuss streamlining the funding for the event in the future. While the Projects Board did report that it faced funding difficulties related to the spending on the Orange and Black Ball, these did not directly impact funding for Communiversity. The article also incorrectly stated that Projects Board had already funded student group participation in the event. The 'Prince' regrets the errors.
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