USG holds last senate meeting of the academic year

The Undergraduate Student Government senate held its last meeting of the semester on Saturday, in which it wrapped up projects and invited committee members for an end-of-the-year celebration afterward.

At the beginning of the meeting, Honor Committee chair and U-councilor Dallas Nan ’16 introduced newly selected Honor Committee and Committee on Discipline members to the senate.

“We had a very strong applicant pool. It wasn’t hard to select five candidates who were going to do extremely well,” Nan said of this year’s selection process.

The senate approved the selection of five new members and the reappointment of three candidates who currently serve on the Honor Committee.

Stuart Pomeroy '18, Vanessa Phan '18 and Angela Hillsman '18 will serve on the Honor Committee, and Charlie Shaw '17 and Gabi Agus '18 will serve on the Committee on Discipline. Charlie Jacobson '16, Matthew Silberman '17 and Carolyn Lisiewski '18 were reappointed to the Honor Committee.

Nan said that the returning members will serve as great mentors for the new members.

The senate approved the fall Lawnparties fund request of $72,000, which will allocate $60,000 for the main act and $12,000 for operational and food costs.

Social chair Simon Wu '17 said that approximately 1,100 students responded to a recent survey emailed to the student body by USG president Ella Cheng ’16.

The survey asked students what genres they prefer for the Lawnparties act and the concert series for the fall.

“The act we’re choosing is aligned with what people wanted,” Wu said.

Wu added that the artist the committee had chosen for the fall was “markedly neutral politically.”

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U-councilor Danny Johnson ’15 noted that the last Council of the Princeton University Community meeting of the semester, which was held on May 4, included discussions about the Sexual Misconduct Policy, as well as updates from the Resources Committee.

“This meeting was probably one of the more active meetings of the CPUC. The Princeton Sustainable Investment Initiative had a protest during the Resources Committee presentation,” U-council chair Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 said. “Great to see that students see the CPUC as a forum to express their views.”

Aleksandra Czulak ’17 said that the USG Students Groups Committee working group hopes to increase the transparency of student organizations on campus.

Chief elections manager Grant Golub ’17 noted that the spring elections are now officially over, since the Class of 2018 treasurer runoffs concluded when Yash Patel was elected a week ago. The majority of the class council positions were unopposed, Golub said.

Golub is a former staff writer and senior copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.

U-councilor Jacob Cannon ’17 suggested that the elections committee make a “cheat sheet,” or a list of specific guidelines and deadlines, available to make it easier for interested potential candidates.

Okuda-Lim noted that if such a cheat sheet were to be made, it should include a disclaimer at the end, indicating that there is a discrepancy between the itemized guidelines and the official rules.

With regard to the recent divestment referendum, Golub said thatboth sides pushed boundaries of what was permissible under the USG's election handbook.Golub suggested making the opposition group of any referendum subject to USG elections rules, and also make them transparent on the ballot itself. The No Divest side in this case was not technically under USG Elections Committee oversight, Golub noted.

University Student Life Committee chair Kathy Chow ’17 said that the bathroom code survey will be coming out on May 18 via email. Chow said the results from the survey will be used to move forward with bathroom lock changes in campus buildings.

The earliest changes will be next summer, Chow said.

Campus and Community Affairs chair Andrew Sun ’17 said that the spring Restaurant Week is not as grand as the fall one, since the fall one usually corresponds to the week of the Orange and Black Ball.

He noted that some of the restaurants added new deals later in the week, and he said that he is working on a survey to collect feedback about Restaurant Week.

Although the committee doesn’t know how many students participated since restaurants don’t keep track, there has been positive feedback, Sun said.

Academics Committee chair Ramie Fathy ’16 noted that he had begun planning for the fall academic expo, as well as the fall Writing Center freshman seminars.

The senate also voted a second time to approve an amendment to the senate constitution regarding the senate's attendance policy.