USG hears presentations on transportation and academic performance, indirect budget cuts announced

The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) senate heard presentations from University administrators about transportation and student academic performance at its Sunday meeting. USG Treasurer Marvel Jem Roth ’28 also shared that, though USG funding is not facing direct budget cuts, some cuts to the USG budget will likely be necessary next semester.

USG President Quentin Colón Roosevelt ’27 said at the start of the meeting that members of USG leadership will meet with Executive Vice President Katie Callow-Wright on Friday to discuss adding student representation on the Environmental, Safety, and Risk Management Committee (ESRM). The committee is chaired by Callow-Wright and makes policy decisions related to campus safety and security.

In an interview with The Daily Princetonian after the meeting, Colón Roosevelt explained that two areas on which he would particularly like student input are e-bikes and on-campus cameras. Last week, the ESRM announced a decision to ban e-bikes from most parts of campus starting in June.

“Students are pretty divided on the e-bike policy, and I think there was an idea that there wasn’t enough student input in the process, and so being on that committee would have allowed students to have a strong voice in that process and a formalized role,” Colón Roosevelt said. He also said that student input is “really important” in discussions about potentially increasing the number of cameras on campus following the mass shooting on Brown University’s campus in December.

“Students are trusted to be confidential on a lot of other committees,” Colón Roosevelt noted, citing the Honor Committee and Committee on Discipline as examples. “I don’t see why a student couldn’t be on that committee even if what’s going on there is confidential.”

Roth said that the University’s budgetary environment “likely will mean there will be some cuts” to USG’s budget. She explained that, although USG is funded by the student activities fee and thus is not directly subject to budget cuts, USG has increased Projects Board funding to make up for cuts in other areas of the University, limiting the amount of remaining funds at the end of the semester.

“We don’t have this rollover of massive quantities of money from previous semesters because we actually spent it this semester,” Roth said. “We will likely be needing to make some redistributions of USG spending… I will try to make that the least impactful for students as possible.”

Following Roth, Director of Transportation and Parking Services Kevin Creegan and Assistant Director for Campus Engagement for Transportation and Parking Services Amanda Stevens spoke about campus transportation, specifically discussing possible TigerTransit bus service adaptations in the wake of the new e-bike ban.

“We are looking at ways to leverage AI and a couple other modeling practices to try to see if we can time bus schedules based on things like class schedules, standard events,” Stevens said. Creegan noted that he thought most athletes were well-served by morning buses, but described “getting [athletes] from those outside locations back to the eating clubs and dining halls to make sure they get dinner” as a “hurdle.”

Creegan also called for impacted students to share their feedback using the TigerTransit feedback form.

“We don’t know what we don’t know, and we can’t plan for what we don’t know,” he said.

Roth also asked a question about whether the University foresees “increased partnership” with NJ Transit to make student travel more accessible. She described the $42 round trip train ticket from Princeton to Penn Station as “prohibitively expensive.” In response, Stevens said cost reductions were difficult because, if NJ Transit makes a deal with a university, it would be offered to all public and private higher education institutions in the state.

“We are hopeful that there will be a couple different avenues to at least streamline the experience, if not streamline the cost. We cannot guarantee any cost reductions,” Stevens said.

Following the transportation presentation, Jed Marsh, the vice provost for institutional research, spoke about student academic success and shared data from the Year End Assessment, which all students are asked to complete each spring.

Marsh’s presentation divided students into three groups to analyze their success — the bottom 25 percent who have lower-than-predicted GPAs, the top 25 percent who have higher-than-predicted GPAs, and the middle 50 percent. Marsh said the predicted GPAs are calculated from “the level of academic preparation from the admissions data, your year of study … and then there are differences across the four divisions,” referring to areas of study.

According to Marsh, for students with lower-than-predicted GPAs from 2022 to 2025, 76 percent felt “generally satisfied” or “very satisfied” about their education. This compares to 87 percent for those with similar-to-predicted GPAs and 92 percent for those with higher-than-expected GPAs. Marsh pointed out the group of students who feel “ambivalent” about their educational experiences. Eighteen percent of students in the lower-than-expected group felt this way, compared to six percent in the higher-than-expected group.

Marsh also highlighted the students who report not knowing any faculty members well enough to have them write a letter of recommendation. For the group with lower-than-expected GPAs from 2022 to 2025, that number is 17 percent, while it is 10 percent and eight percent for the similar-to-predicted and higher-than-expected groups, respectively.

“This is troubling for everybody here. Everybody should know at least somebody on this campus, on the faculty, well enough to get a letter of recommendation,” Marsh said. However, he noted, “it’s been that way for a decade.”

Marsh underscored the University’s expectation for students to make use of the available advising resources.

“The University expects you to ask for help. [There are] a lot of people whose job is to provide help,” he said. “Going back to the budget, if those people want to keep their jobs, they need to be busy. So help them keep their jobs. Go talk to them.”

At the meeting, Arosheny Puvanenthirarajah ’26, the Student Groups Recognition Committee chair, and Morgan Hoang ’27, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) chair, also presented.

Puvanenthirarajah described a new policy that will require newly approved student groups to submit a progress report after their first semester. “We want to see how they’re carrying out these projects … and how we can support them,” she explained. “This is mostly because we’ve seen so many groups fall off.”

Hoang outlined efforts to make prayer spaces more accessible around campus. Last semester, the DEI committee expanded its prayer mat lending program.

“What we realize is that the biggest problem isn’t necessarily that [students] don’t have access to prayer mats, but rather that they don’t have access to spaces to pray,” Hoang said. She noted that there are quiet rooms located around campus and said “we want to have these silent spaces be recognized as a place for students to pray.”

The USG senate typically meets every Sunday at 5 p.m. in Robertson 016. It will not meet next week, on April 26, due to spring Lawnparties.

Oliver Wu is the assistant News editor for the ‘Prince’ leading town coverage, focused on the Municipality of Princeton and beyond. He is from Stony Brook, N.Y. and can be reached at oliver.wu[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.