USG senate discusses Mental Health Week, access to the arts in NYC

Committee applications, Mental Health Week and increased access to New York City were among the topics discussed by the Undergraduate Student Government at their weekly senate meeting on Sunday night.

Members of the senate discussed the recently received committee applications, and members noted that the number of applications received was lower than the numbers from the previous semester.

“I think it was much higher in the fall; I tried to maximize the amount of responses to the committee app,” USG president Ella Cheng ’16 said. “I think the timing was bad. We tried to avoid the first week, but it still looks like the apps are a little lower than we wanted.”

Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Cheng also explained that she met with University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 last week, and that Eisgruber encouraged members of USG to seek more direct contact with administration.

Led by treasurer Hunter Dong ’17, the senate also reviewed the procedure for requesting funds, and noted thatUSG also hopes to increase the transparency of its finances.

“The budgets are actually available to the public, but I doubt that anybody has tried to see them. So I will try to actually make them as public as possible, so people can see what we’re spending,” Dong explained, adding that he welcomed feedback about the budgets from the general student body.

U-councilor Naimah Hakim ’16 said that the programming for the upcoming Mental Health Weekwill include the “Dear World” photography project, which will allow students who wish to participate the opportunity to have their photo taken.

U-council chair Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 explained that participants can write something on their arm and share a story behind the writing, along with a photo of themselves. The stories can be positive stories of hope, or about vulnerabilities and insecurities.

“The feedback we received from last year’s Mental Health Week, a lot of students said they liked the photography aspect; they liked seeing this project where people shared their stories, but they wanted something with a more positive outlook,” Okuda-Lim said.

U-councilor Jacob Cannon ’17 noted that the photography project is a fun, new way for students to get involved.

“The other thing is that ideally there will be conversations as well, but those are harder to schedule because of the pace of this place,” Cannon said.

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Hakim said that the Mental Health Initiative Board plans to increase collaboration with other groups on campus. The board is also working with the Counseling and Psychological Services Director Calvin Chin to discuss ways in which students could better respond to friends or peers going through stress. Hakim noted that another change in the programming for Mental Health Week was the inclusion of “Me too Monologues.”

“As far as health and wellness goes, there are students that feel as though mental health may not be for them,” Hakim said, “that’s where the wellness part is really critical, that this really is a campus-wide initiative, that even if you don’t identify with these issues that it could be your roommate, somebody on your team.”

Cheng added that USG hopes this year’s Mental Health Week will see increased student participation.

Social chair Simon Wu ’17 proposed a way to provide easier access to arts events in New York City, explaining that the social committee is working with the New York venue Terminal 5 to launch a large concert series for which students will have to buy the concert tickets themselves, but for which USG would provide transportation.

According to Wu, the social committee is currently organizing a pilot run for two concerts, OK Go and The Chainsmokers, in order to better gauge student interest. One bus will be provided for each concert, and the committee hopes to have both underclassmen and upperclassmen take advantage of this opportunity.

“I think we should give it a chance,” U-councilor Dallas Nan ’16 said. “Maybe there’s a way to specify that a certain number of tickets are reserved for upperclassmen, because they don’t have that many opportunities.”

The senate also discussed the possibility of increased support for free fitness opportunities on campus, as well as plans for Princeton Preview for the admitted Class of 2019.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article inaccurately stated that the Dear World program requires a ticket. The 'Prince' regrets the error.