USG debate sees candidates discuss mental health issues, P/D/F options

The main issues addressed by the presidential candidates at the Undergraduate Student Governmentpresidential and vice presidential debate on Sunday includedensuring the USGis a unified voice representing all student groups, making the pass/D/fail option rescindable and providing better facilities for student mental health.

Presidential candidate Aleksandra Czulak ’17 emphasized the importance of collaboration, action and results. She said that student groups on campus did not see USG as their platform, as was evident from the protests last week, and her goal would be to remedy that.

Presidentialcandidate Grant Golub ’17 said that the student body needed to be more united when presenting demands to the administration.

He also noted the inaccessibility of mental health services on campus, and said that as USG president, he would work with administrators to allocate more resources to mental health issues.

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

Golub and Czulak both noted the need for rescindable P/D/F options and said that the administration was more open to the possibility now.

Czulak said that her two years’ experience in the USG and her current position as the current vice president would help her to lead the USG.

Golub, on the other hand, said that people who have been in the USG since freshman year become insulated and are not connected to student groups.

“I think we need someone coming in from the outside to look at issues from a different perspective,” he said.

Golub also discussed the possibility of creating a chief of staff position to take over some of the responsibilities of the vice president and allow the vice president to look at some of the bigger issues.

Vice presidential candidate Shobhit Kumar ’18 said he welcomes the creation of such position as long as the roles of the vice president and chief of staff are demarcated clearly.

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However, Jeremy Burton ’18, another vice presidential candidate, said that an integral part of the vice president’s role was to manage internal communications, and that dividing responsibilities would not foster effective communication.

Kumar said his platform emphasizes the elimination of superfluous discussions in senate meetings and focuses on issues that students really want answered.

He explained that talking to students on campus about what the USG could do for them has brought up a lot of questions that need to be answered.

“Students are wondering why NJ Transit tickets are not subsidized, whether the repealing of grade deflation has actually changed GPAs,” he explained.“These are the questions that the USG should seek answers to.”

Burton noted that some standing committees in the USG, such as the Mental Health Initiative Board and the Diversity and Equity Committee, were out of touch with student groups and did not have enough presence on campus.

Both candidates stressed the need for transparency and efficiency in the workings of the USG.

Presidential candidate Simon Wu ’17, who could not attend the debate due to a prior commitment, said in an email statement to chief elections manager Sung Won Chang ’18 that he wanted to increase intercultural dialogues on campus and increase the student activities fund.

The debate was attended by 10 people, and took place in the American Whig-Cliosophic Society Senate Chamber at 2 p.m.