USG shifts winter elections to before Thanksgiving, debates limiting slates in contentious meeting

At its Sunday meeting, the Undergraduate Student Government introduced two significant amendments to the winter USG election cycle, presented a Fall Lawnparties summary, and approved a package of budget requests for upcoming events.

The first proposed amendment dealt with changes to the election schedule, while the second change — aimed at eliminating candidate slates for non-executive officers — incited fierce debate among members of the USG senate. 

Chief Elections Manager Emi Ren ’29 opened election discussions by presenting changes to the winter voting timeline, which passed unanimously. The change will ensure that the voting and campaigning processes would take place before Thanksgiving break. According to the revised election handbook, this year’s winter elections will fall between Nov. 9 and Nov. 16. 

According to USG Vice President Anuj Krishnan ’27, the schedule changes were aimed at increasing voter participation and guaranteeing that candidates can campaign while students are still on campus. Last year’s election occurred during the week of Thanksgiving break, and, according to Ren, only had 38 percent of the student body cast ballots. 

The second proposed amendment to the election handbook sought to prevent candidates running for offices other than USG president, vice president and treasurer from running on a slate. According to the proposed change, “a joint campaign may include … no more than one candidate for any single office.” The amendment would prevent prospective committee chairs from campaigning alongside and sharing funds with students running for president, vice president, and treasurer. 

USG President Quentin Colón Roosevelt ’27 shared his concern that current slate culture creates an unhealthy, divided political party system that discourages non-slate candidates from getting involved in USG. 

“I felt like I had to because my opponent had all these people on the slate,” Colón Roosevelt said. “I just felt like I have to play the game now the way it’s constructed, but I don’t think the game is constructed in a fair way to people who are more USG outsiders.”

“This move would create a more objective election — a fairer landscape for our elections to take place on, wherein the candidates at the top of the ticket are not able to shape and essentially install USG insiders to the positions they’re running for,” U-Council Chair Isaac Barsoum ’28 said. 

He said that a candidate’s association with other candidates can be very consequential. Given that the majority of students pay closer attention to executive elections, presidential candidates can significantly influence committee chair votes through endorsements or slate participation, Barsoum added. 

“I think this is dangerous to University democracy — to the ability of voters to pick candidates who align with them,” Barsoum said. 

Barsoum is an associate Opinion editor for The Daily Princetonian.

The motion failed, with three in favor — Roosevelt, Krishnan and Barsoum — 18 opposed and 4 abstaining. U-Councilor Ian Mann ’28 made multiple requests to extend discussion time, one of which was denied by Krishnan. USG Academics Chair Isaac Bernstein ’28 made the motion to vote on the proposed amendment, before voting against it.

Bernstein is the only current committee chair to not have run on a candidate slate. He said that slates are not necessary to win elections, but are nevertheless an essential right for candidates.

“Building a slate is a way to connect over policy, support each other’s initiatives in a more intentional way and inform the greater student body that a vetting process has occurred,” he said. “Being able to create an aligning slate, if desired, should be up to the prospective candidates themselves, as it has been intentionally for years.” 

The meeting continued with a Fall Lawnparties summary presented by Social Committee Chair Vivian Chang ’28. According to a survey of the student body, a vast majority of students said they enjoyed the event, felt safe and had access to sufficient food and water. Chang said that she hopes future social committee chairs will build on this success in the future by bringing in more pop headliners, working with eating clubs to provide more non-alcoholic beverages and disseminating the Food and Activities Map through more channels for the spring.

The USG also approved two Projects Board requests. The Princeton Blacksmith Club requested $2,300 to cover the material costs of a workshop with the New Jersey Blacksmiths Association involving hands-on blacksmith experience and a talk by Craig Arnold, a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering. The second approved event was $3,000 for a female founder conference involving entrepreneurial undergraduate attendees, startup teams, student founders, and non-founder attendees. Contingent fund requests were also approved for next Saturday’s Porchfest. 

A motion to approve new members of USG committees passed 23–1 during the meeting, with one member abstaining.

The meeting also saw the announcement of Executive Vice President Katie Callow-Wright’s attendance at next week’s meeting to announce search committee specifications for the next vice president for campus life, following W. Rochelle Calhoun’s retirement announcement. Following the announcement, Krishnan encouraged students to attend the next meeting to provide their opinions on the search committee’s specifications.

USG meetings are held weekly on Sundays at 5 p.m. in Robertson 016.

Claire Ding is a News contributor for the ‘Prince’ and a member of the Class of 2030. 

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