USG discusses elections, mental health concerns

The Undergraduate Student Government senate discussed the upcoming elections timeline during its weekly meeting on Sunday.

Chief elections manager Sung Won Chang ’18announced in an email on Thursday that the USG president, vice president, treasurer, class senators and committee chairs are among the positions to be elected at this time.

Chang said that while former chief elections manager Grant Golub ’17 had been working on revising the elections handbook, the existing rules will continue to apply for this election cycle.

Chang said that he wants to increase candidate participation as well as voter turnout, noting that the traditional turnout has been around 40 to 50 percent. He noted that he would be in touch with the Women’s Center, the LGBT center and the Davis International Center to encourage students in those organizations to consider running for office.

“There are traditionally underrepresented groups, we can definitely encourage them to run,” Chang said.

U-Councilor Ethan Marcus ’18 said that having someone tabling in Frist Campus Center is probably the best way to get people to vote, because Frist is easily accessible.

Chang also said he might plan an elections speaker series in which current or past members of USG could talk about what kind of changes were implemented while they were in office to give those interested students a better idea of the work they would be doing if they were to be elected.

Deputy Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said that he is concerned that USG elections currently take too long.

“When you get into a runoff, it’s a third of an academic semester that you’re campaigning, which is a lot to juggle,” Dunne said.

Campus and community affairs chair Michael Cox ’17 said that Restaurant Week is starting on Monday, and noted that he felt that there was great turnout in terms of the number of restaurants that participated.

Twenty restaurants are offering discounted rates or prix fixe meals to students with their PUID until Friday.

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USG president Ella Cheng ’16said she is concerned with how long people have to wait to get Counseling and Psychological Services appointments, especially in light of the alleged attempted hanging in Scully on Oct. 30.

Cheng is a former staff writer for The Daily Princetonian.

Mental Health Initiative Board co-chair and U-Council chair Naimah Hakim ’16 said that the board will continue to discuss the difficulty of obtaining CPS appointments, noting Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun’s email about mental health concerns with regard to this incident.

The Senate briefly discussed the new UMatter bus system that started running the week before fall break. Vice president Aleksandra Czulak ’17 said that it would be useful to have set stops so that students could take full advantage of the buses to and from Prospect Avenue.

When asked how the UMatter buses were different from existing transit options, Cheng explained that this bus was distinct because previously existing buses did not go to Prospect Avenue.