USG discusses mental health initiatives, Senate budget

The Undergraduate Student Government discussed mental health programming and the Senate budget in their weekly meeting on Oct. 16.

Mental Health Initiative Chairs Sarah Sakha '18 and Nathan Yoo '17 presented a series of updates to projects that are being implemented this year.

Sakha is an associate opinion editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Yoo described the results of MHI's Mental Health Weekend, which was designed to "raise awareness of the board and the resources on campus."

Yoo indicated that the weekend events were relatively light, and that MHI is reserving heavier discussion for their main Mental Health Week program, which will occur Feb. 19-25, 2017.

Sakha said that MHI is hoping to add a Peer Nightline program in the spring. Peer Nightline will be a Princeton-specific phone line which students can call from 9 p.m. - 2 a.m. and talk with student volunteers who are trained in specific areas.

"Oftentimes, it is easier and inspires greater empathy if you're talking with someone who knows what you are going through first-hand," Sakha said.

Sakha also explained that MHI has been working closely with Princeton's Counseling and Psychological Services in order to make them more student-friendly. One of changes enacted allows students to schedule their first CPS appointments online, rather than in person. However, Sakha also indicated that the current wait time for a CPS appointment is typically around three weeks, and that MHI would be pushing for the addition of more counselors.

USG Treasurer Hunter Dong '17 presented the Senate’s September budget. The allocations included an increase in the Wintersession budget, which Dong said was due to the previous year’s success. Senate task forces, especially one for the promotion of women’s leadership, received extra funding due to their expanded scale.

Dong indicated that the current social budget was relatively low, and that his committee was planning to raise the student activities fee. The student activities fee is currently $75 for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, and is slightly higher for seniors to accommodate a greater variety of senior programming.

Dong explained that increasing the student activities fee would allow for a greater variety of acts at Lawnparties. He noted that this year’s budget request for Lawnparties was lower than those of previous years. However, he maintained that the Lawnparties budget still constituted the vast majority of the Senate’s social spending.

“There’s a lot more we would like to do, but it gets cost prohibitive pretty quickly … The price of [musical acts] increases at a much faster rate than our budget,” Dong added.

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The changes to the student activity fee would only be marginal, and would leave the fee on par with comparable institutions such as other Ivy Leagues, MIT, and Stanford, Dong said. He also affirmed that any changes would not affect students on financial aid.

USG Chief Elections Manager Sung Won Chang '18 presented the results of the Fall 2016 Senate Election. In total, five candidates were selected as Class of 2020 government officers. Chang noted that student participation in the election was much higher, on both the candidate and voter side, than in last year's election, with 29 candidates and 703 voters this year compared to 16 candidates and 538 voters last year.

U-Councilor Pooja Patel '18 presented an update on the Cultural and Ethnic Studies Task Force. Patel explained that the task force's goals would be "understanding issues with current curriculum, and what each group would ideally like to achieve." She added that current task force members would be contacting specific student cultural groups, such as the Asian American Student Association and the Latinx Collective, to search for new additions.

The USG Senate voted in Katherine Leung '20 as a first-year representative in the Honor Committee. Honor Committee Chair Carolyn Liziewski '18 stated that the interview process consisted of both personal questions as well as in-depth studies of hypothetical situations. Liziewski said that Leung's impressive analytical skills and articulate thinking resulted in her gaining the position over 10 other applicants.