At its March 29 meeting, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) senate pushed back new student organization approval for a second week, heard a presentation on issues with the outside scholarship system, and edited the language of a referendum focused on the Committee on Discipline (COD).
USG President Quentin Colón Roosevelt ’27 recapped his presentation from last week’s Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) meeting and meeting with the Department of Public Safety. He also previewed an important meeting with the University administration on April 3.
“We’re meeting with President Eisgruber,” Colón Roosevelt said, referring to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83. “We’re still very much in flux about what we even should bring up with him. So we would love to hear from all of you.”
For the eighth consecutive meeting since the start of the term, USG opened the floor to public comment, which was one of the major promises of Colón Roosevelt’s campaign. No student has used the opportunity to raise concerns or ask questions to USG leadership thus far.
USG Treasurer Marvel Jem Roth ’28 recapped budget expenditures in the next part of the meeting. The Mental Health Committee’s purchase of 125 tote bags and 200 shirts for the One Too Many campaign headlined expenses. The Undergraduate Student Life Committee also paid for an X account in order to gain broader reach with students. An X account named “Princeton Undergraduate Student Life Committee” has not posted since Feb. 14.
After last week’s release of contingent funds, the USG budget has been almost entirely allocated to different student ventures. According to USG leaders, this is especially important in a time of budget cuts and is rare among previous USG administrations. Roth said, “we are basically at complete utilization of all contingencies and all non-contingent funds.”
Emi Ren ’29, chief elections manager, highlighted the upcoming spring USG elections, which will see new U-Councilors and officers for the Classes of 2027, 2028, and 2029. U-Councilors are voting senate members and represent the student body at CPUC meetings. Class president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and social chair for each class government are all on the ballot but are separate from overall USG leadership because they deal with solely class-specific events
Candidates have until 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday to complete the registration and petition forms. Last semester, the registration deadline was pushed back after few candidates applied. In a March 30 email to undergraduate students, the USG Elections Team said that the positions were uncontested.
“That’s always the question — how do we get people politically engaged on campus?” Ren said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian.
The Elections Team previously held an event on March 24 with free boba and has expanded Instagram outreach in order to incentivize candidates and voters.
$1,250 in Projects Board funding was approved for the Muslim Students Association’s (MSA) upcoming conference. The MSA has collaborated with similar student groups from different universities about the conference, which will host leaders in industries like finance, medicine, technology, and influencing.
Oscar Barrios ’27, the Undergraduate Student Life Committee (USLC) chair, gave mid-semester updates and released findings about limitations with the University’s outside scholarship program.
Davis Hobley ’27, leader of a USLC working group focused on scholarship reform, said that numerous arbitrary qualifications limited the efficacy of non-Princeton scholarships. Under the current system, multi-year scholarships are only allowed to pay out for one year, a $3,500 limit is imposed on outside awards, and arbitrary delineations prevent students from buying textbooks with the money.
Hobley is a staff Opinion writer for the ‘Prince’ and has previously written about the outside scholarship policy.
Hobley said that the group had engaged in conversations with administrators about reforming the system. “I feel like they actually have not thought of this recurrent scholarship [limit] compared to someone who got the same value in a one-time scholarship,” he said. “I guess this is not something that’s been brought to their attention very much, and this policy has existed for 15 or 16 years at this point.”
USLC also established campus dining and housing as a priority, focusing on incorporating student voices into policy decisions and finding solutions for the 111 students who bickered or tried to sign in and did not receive an eating club bid this winter. Barrios said he was trying to reestablish the Campus Dining Advisory Board to meet multiple times a semester and write recommendations for dining policy.
The USG senate then conducted a language review on the COD reform referendum that students will vote on this spring. Aum Dhruv ’27 proposed the referendum, which seeks to raise the threshold for finding responsibility in cheating allegation cases from a simple majority to a three-quarters supermajority vote.
“I think the simple majority standard is too low for finding responsibility,” he said in an interview with the ‘Prince.’ Dhruv said his proposed referendum was inspired by former Peer Representative chair William Aepli ’26.
After clarification edits from Roth, Roosevelt, and others, the referendum laid out that students must be notified at first contact of their rights and whether they are being investigated or contacted as a witness.
“I think the vagueness around whether you’re under investigation or whether you’re just a witness is not fair to students who are going through this seriously difficult process,” Dhruv told the ‘Prince.’
New student group approvals were stalled for a second consecutive week, despite some USG representatives stating at a previous meeting that club approval was not expected to be a problem. “This has never happened before,” said Arosheny Puvanenthirarajah, Student Group Recognition Committee (SGRC) chair, after the body’s new club recommendations were tabled.
Roth and Isaac Bernstein ’28, Academics Committee chair, noticed that a proposed opera club was too similar to an existing organization. Roth said, “I am under the impression that the Princeton Opera Company essentially fulfills the exact same niche as the Princeton Opera Society.”
Bernstein is a former staff News writer for the ‘Prince.’
U-Councilor Caleb Rosenfeld ’27 expressed concerns that two opera clubs wouldn’t be able to coexist because few people enjoy opera. This received calls of “Timothée Chalamet” from the audience, in reference to recent comments from the actor critiquing the art form.
Questions were also raised about the viability of Elms Equity club, which the SGRC had preliminarily rejected. Since all clubs are considered in one vote, the questions caused every approval to be stalled.
The senate agreed to vote on a motion to table the new club decisions until the next meeting. In a rare, narrow vote, the motion to delay passed with 11 “yes” votes to nine “no” votes and five abstentions.
The SGRC will present at an April senate meeting about other major changes to clubs, including mandated reporting of club practices.
The USG senate meets every Sunday at 5 p.m. in Robertson 016.
Gray Collins is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading university administration coverage. He is from outside of Philadelphia and can be reached at graycollins[at]princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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