Organization and Transparency
Using Our Budget Better
USG is an enviable position compared to other departments and organizations at Princeton because our budget has not been cut. This is because our budget is built from student activities fees, giving us a steady source of funding and allowing us to provide the same level of programming as in years past. However, this should also be seen as an immense responsibility: students are entrusting us to spend their activities fees in a way that supports them and meets their needs. Here’s how we can better live up to this ideal:
Provide more funding to Projects Board:
I’m proud to have increased Projects Board funding as Treasurer for the first time in years to counter budget cuts and keep student organizations able to run their own programming. However, student groups will need more access to funding as budget cuts get worse and departmental funding becomes inaccessible.
I would work with the next Treasurer to further increase funding for Projects Board, giving students more control over how their activities fees are spent and allowing them to bring their ideas to life.
With this also comes more oversight of Projects Board. USG members should be attending the big events that these activities fees fund to collect feedback and better understand gaps in programming that could be filled by other student groups or USG itself.
More Oversight of USG’s Spending and Core Committees
USG’s work is primarily built around its seven core committees, which do policy advocacy, student engagement, and programming work. However, these committees currently operate with too little oversight and have priority access to our budget, leaving us with allocated but unspent funds that should have made it back to students.
I would work with the next Treasurer to make the budget allocation system quarterly, not semesterly, with required updates from committee chairs on spending to the USG Senate to ensure that every dollar we allocate gets used to support students.
I would facilitate more communication between committee chairs and class government to ensure that the events that all USG programming does not conflict with each other and is diverse enough to meet a wide array of needs on campus.
This increased oversight would also mean more support: I would meet biweekly with all the committee chairs to help them fulfill their visions for programming and policy work, and use my experience as a previous committee chair and treasurer to help them better understand what USG can do and the role that our events play in creating community on campus.
Remaking the Senate
USG’s weekly Senate meetings, which include all Class Senators, U-Councilors, and Committee Chairs, should be one of our main ways of engaging with the student body. These meetings often host administrators to update students on policy changes, highlight student groups on campus, and allow USG to update students on the work it is doing. However, when important issues are discussed, these meetings often lack transparency and fail to provide the space necessary for USG, administrators, and students to have a real dialogue. Here’s how I’ll change that:
Roll Call Voting and Stricter Attendance Policy
USG doesn’t currently record the votes of each member, even on critical issues in which students have vested interests. As President, I’ll ensure that we take roll call votes on anything remotely contentious and that these votes are recorded and accessible so students know where their representatives stand.
USG allows Senate members two consecutive absences before conducting an attendance review, in which the Senate votes on whether or not to retain the member. However, members can always use someone else as a proxy instead of showing up to a Senate meeting. Furthermore, attendance reviews are always held in Executive Session, preventing students from having a clear understanding of who is showing up and who isn’t. As President, I would make attendance records public so Senate members have more incentive to engage in Senate meetings and so students better understand how they are being represented.
Putting Students and Administrators in Conversation with USG
Senate meetings, especially when discussing contentious issues, have been more about internal debate than meaningfully engaging with students on critical topics. When we host administrators, it is often just for us to ask them questions instead of facilitating a conversation between them, us, and the larger student body.
One barrier to creating this environment is Executive Session. Whenever there is an issue that might prompt disagreement between Senate members openly in a meeting, USG members move for Executive Session, kicking out students and reporters to privately discuss key issues. As President, I would end this practice so USG engages with all students on these issues and so students know where their representatives stand. This would not only increase transparency but also engagement by giving students a meaningful place in our discussions and allowing them to see our perspectives.
USG’s agenda for Senate meetings is often set at the last minute, mentioned at the end of a newsletter, and not advertised enough to have meaningful student engagement, especially when administrators are on our schedule. As President, I would more clearly advertise the agenda for Senate meetings beforehand and reach out to students who might have concerns about these topics or interact with University administrators who come to present to make Senate meetings a place where meaningful and important dialogue takes place between USG, administrators, and the student body.
Committee, Working Group, and Task Force Updates
Committee Chairs, Working Groups, and Task Forces under USG currently present their programming and policy work to USG’s Executive Committee every week, allowing the President, Vice President, and Treasurer to keep track of all that USG has going on and provide input and support. However, this excludes the larger student body from this information and impedes their ability to understand how USG functions.
As President, I would ensure that at least two Committee Chairs present to the Senate and student body every week to keep students informed of USG’s goals and hold Committee Chairs accountable for following through on their proposals (especially when there is funding attached to them).
I would also have Task Forces and Working Groups present at Senate meetings at least twice every semester to keep students informed of the policy work that USG is doing and give them a way to provide input into our work. This would also hopefully spark student interest in joining these groups (which are open to all members of the student body) and engaging with policy work at Princeton.
Recenter the U-Council and CPUC
USG’s U-Council is made up of ten students who (along with the President and Vice President) sit on the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC), which is where key policy changes, especially those relating to Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities (RRR) and University administration, are put forward and discussed. In my time on USG, the U-Council has not been emphasized as much as the Senate, hindering our ability to guide University policy and advocate for students in these changes. As President, I would refocus USG’s policy work on CPUC and organize U-Councilors to be better advocates.
Dedicated Training for U-Councilors
USG’s orientation program currently focuses more on communication, programming, and teambuilding; all of which are important, but fail to meet the needs of incoming U-Councilors.
As President, I would work more closely with the U-Councilors than Presidents past to keep them informed on key issues like RRR reform, camera and recording policy, and free speech and protest regulations to ensure that U-Councilors are ready to advocate for those they represent at CPUC.
I would build out a comprehensive policy tracker for institutional reforms that have been proposed in the past 5 years and will surely come up again to ensure that U-Councilors are prepared on all these issues and understand what their role is in the policymaking process of CPUC.
Forming a Student Bloc
USG members are not the only students who sit on CPUC, as the Graduate Student Government (GSG) has seven members on the committee as well. However, there is a lack of communication between USG and GSG members on CPUC, preventing student power from being built to oppose administration policy when necessary.
As President, I would work more closely with the GSG’s President and its other members to build a student bloc on CPUC united by our common interests and the needs of those we represent. This would give USG and GSG members a stronger position in advocating for (or against) policy on CPUC that impacts student life, rights, and support.
Setting the CPUC Agenda
Despite USG’s representation on CPUC, the agenda is often dictated to us as we are forced to negotiate reforms on the University administration’s terms instead of pushing for policy ourselves.
As President, I would work more with the U-Council chair to conduct rigorous student outreach and push for policy changes that will better support students instead of simply fighting (or giving in to) what the University has decided is most important.
I would come into CPUC’s Executive Committee Meetings with a list of student priorities and be a forceful advocate for their placement on the CPUC agenda to ensure students’ issues are discussed from our perspectives instead of being sidelined until the administration deems them important.
