USG Senate

Click the dots on the right to learn about all 9 Senate projects.

1 Independents & Co-Ops Support

Members: Naimah Hakim ’16, Dallas Nan ’16, Lavinia Liang ’18

See the project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

2 Underclassmen & The Eating Clubs

Members: Aleksandra Czulak ’17, Paul Draper ’18, Ethan Marcus ’18

See the project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

3 Financial Aid & The Eating Clubs

Members: Deana Davoudiasl ’16, Miranda Rosen ’18, Shobhit Kumar ’18

Project Status: Have met with the Financial Aid Office and are now working on refining and identifying short-term and long-term project goals given feedback.

4 Real World Princeton

Members: Kishan Bhatt ’17, Kristen Coke ’16, Cailin Hong ’17, Brandon McGhee ’18

See the project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

5 Wintersession 2015

Members: Jacob Cannon ’17, Hunter Dong ’17, Lavinia Liang ’18, Chris Hsu ’18

See the project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

6 Thanksgiving Buses

Members: Brandon McGhee ’18, Jacob Cannon ’17

See the project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

Project Status: The fund request and logistics for this event have been passed by the Senate and confirmed. Tickets will be on sale after fall break and the buses will be ready for Thanksgiving break.

7 Low Income Student Support

Members: Cailin Hong ’17, Kristen Coke ’16, Brandon McGhee ’18

8 Extended Leave Support

Members: Jacob Cannon ’17, Katie Cion ’18

We are following up with administrators to implement the recommendations proposed by the USG 2014 Extended Leave Report. See the initial project planning form, with team members, goals and timeline, HERE.

Project Status: We have met with Dean Jill Dolan and Career Services to advocate for the implementation of the top 4 recommendations in the report. We will be following up with Dean Dolan in a few weeks to check up on implementation progress. Meanwhile, we are re-defining a short-term project that this project team can execute this semester.

9 P/D/F Policy Reform

Members: Ramie Fathy ’16 (lead), Kishan Bhatt ’17, Miranda Rosen ’18, Shobhit Kumar ’18, Ethan Marcus ’18, Chris Hsu ’18

Project Status: Finalized P/D/F policy survey questions, will be administered to student body soon.

Click the dots on the right to learn about what Ella is working on.

1 Town Hall Series

Connecting students with administrators through town halls and weekly USG Senate meeting open forums.

Project Status: COMPLETE. Have already invited VP Calhoun, Dean Dolan, Public Safety and the Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct Student Reps to weekly Senate meetings. Joint Town Hall with VP Calhoun and Dean Dolan open to all students scheduled for Dec. 3.

2 Referendum Reform

Working with former Chief Elections Manager, Grant Golub on revising the referendum guidelines in the elections handbook to address problems and issues that occurred with the Spring 2015 referenda.

Project Status: Referendum handbook separated from elections handbook and revised to include new procedural changes. Up for a vote after fall break.

3 Student Activity Fee

Investigating the possibility of changing the student activity fee to allow for a greater budget for more Social Committee programming and free Campus Rec group fitness classes.

Project Status: Initial research and administrative meetings completed, assembling USG task force to research for and draft proposal

4 Chairing the Campus Dining Student Advisory Board

Increasing communications and collaboration between Campus Dining and the student body through the inaugural Campus Dining Student Advisory Board, co-chaired by the USG President and the Executive Director of Campus Dining.

Project Status: Convened for first meeting, meeting on monthly basis.

5 Misc. Projects

Facilities: Toilet Paper and Garbage Pick-Up Times
Task force of student leaders to improve room reservations form and process
Frist Campus Center Equipment Rentals Program
ODUS Student Group Leader Training
Infographic about student representation on University committees
USG Office Revamp

Note: These projects are all in different stages of exploration or execution.

Events and Services

Lawnparties
Dean’s Date
Battle of the Bands
Weekly USG Movie

Free Group Fitness Classes
Restaurant Week
Wintersession
Thanksgiving Buses

Rachel Park

Social Chair

Click the dots on the right to see the projects of all 4 Social subcommittees.

1 Music & Concerts Subcommittee

Concert Series

Created in order to connect students to the greater arts/music scene beyond Princeton. Sending students to concerts in the Greater NYC / Philadelphia area. USG subsidizes the buses, and ticket prices are capped at $35 dollars. Past concerts include Zedd, OK GO, and Chainsmokers.

Super Smash Brothers Tournament

An informal event to play and compete in the popular Wii U game Super Smash Brothers.

2 Arts Subcommittee

Focused on creating programming and structures to connect the disparate visual arts community on campus, in addition to having more spaces to show student art.

Listerv

Creation of a Listserv to consolidate and connect the disparate art community on campus.

Frist Space / Campus Club / Career Services

Creation of a system to streamline these exhibition spaces’ availability to students. Have done shows here in the past, including “Humans of Princeton,” “Reflections of Princeton,” “Amber Stewart.”

Placemat Project 2.0

Created to let students run into art, rather than having to seek out and find it. Collection of student art, that we will then photo-set, and print on to laminated placemats to be placed in the dining halls. Pilot last spring went well, may do another batch this fall.

Arts Fund

General programming for more trips down to the museums, arts events and such.

3 Speaker & Events Subcommittee

CHVRCHES’ Lauren Mayberry Talk on Misogyny in Music Industry

Working with Dean Dunne, Dean Dolan to arrange a talk by Lauren Mayberry, the lead singer of popular indie pop band CHVRCHES on misogyny in the music industry. First week of December.

Nights out Calendar

Figuring out a method in which to streamline the information about the Street, and other events on campus. Working with Senate projects.

4 Lawnparties Subcommittee

Tabling / Profile Pictures

In an effort to increase the information and transparency of the Social Committee’s processes of booking, programming, etc, we will be tabling in Frist as a means of letting people know more about us.

Lawnparties’ Graphic / Video

A quick way to disseminate information on how we work.

Survey

Planning on re-vamping the survey that we send out to students for Lawnparties.

Academics Committee

Shannon Osaka

Academics Chair

Click the dots on the right to see all 8 Academics Committee projects.

1 Academic Calendar Reform

Through surveys and discussions with administrators and students, we are devising a proposal for an alternative calendar, that would better support academics, independent research, mental health, accessibility and extra-curricular and co-curricular programming.

Project Status: Have been in talks with ODOC and academics-related administrators and drafted potential calendar. Will be releasing schoolwide survey about calendar soon.

2 Academic Advising Reform

Through polling students, we aim to present recommendations to the administration about improving underclassmen academic advising.

Project Status: Drafting and finalizing poll questions

3 End-of-Term Course Evaluation Question Revisions

We are working on revising the end of term evaluation questions so that they are provide more meaningful and useful information for students shopping for and choosing courses.

Project Status: We have presented draft questions to the relevant administrative academics committees, and are in the process of revising the questions for approval.

4 Sophomore Academic Exploration Event

Piloted successfully first in Spring 2015, we are looking to hold this event, which connects Peer Academic Advisors with sophomores deciding on what majors to declare, again in fall or winter 2015.

5 Midterm Course Evaluations

We are working on implementing midterm course evaluations, for professors who are interested in using this venue to collect feedback.

Project Status: In progress since the 2014 Senate term, in the process of final confirmation and implementation

6 Research Day Committee

Academics Chair, Ramie Fathy, is serving as a student representative on the University’s inaugural Research Day committee.

Project Status: Ongoing

7 Collaboration with Principedia

We are collaborating with the McGraw Center to hold its inaugural Principedia Hackathon, to build an interactive, wiki encyclopedia which gathers, organizes and circulates local knowledge about effective learning in various Princeton classes. Visit the website HERE.

Project Status: COMPLETE

8 University Committees Representation

Faculty Committee on the Course of Study

Connor Pfeiffer
Erika Kirgios
Joan Thompson
Andy Loo

Faculty Committee on Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid

Alex Robinson
Boriana Gjura
Devin Kilpatrick
Chris Yu
Aleksandra Czulak (sub)

University Student Life Committee

Jenny Zhang

USLC Chair

Want to learn about USLC’s projects and members?

Visit the USLC Website

Campus and Community Affairs

Michael Cox

CCA Chair

Click the dots on the right to see all 7 CCA Committee projects.

1 Fall 2015 Restaurant Week

Project Status: COMPLETE, occurring November 9-13. Follow this Facebook event or visit the Restaurant Week website to see all the deals available!

2 Outdoor Decorations

Because who doesn’t want a more festive Nassau Street.

Project Status: Looking into deals with facilities.

3 Winter Music Exhibition

A showcase of the wonderful talent on campus.

Project Status: Brainstorming

4 On-Campus Transportation Project

Project Status: Have had conversations with students and administrators.

5 Nassau Street Deals List

Project Status: Compiling list

6 Communiversity Committee

Project Status: Forming Committee

7 Spring 2016 Projects Preparation

Communiversity and Spring 2016 Restaurant Week.

IT Committee

TigerApps

Ben Parks and Maxim Zaslavsky

IT Chairs

Click the dots on the right to see all 3 IT Committee projects.

1 TigerApps

We are working on maintaining active TigerApps, recruiting new TigerApps and retiring underused, outdated TigerApps.

2 Venture Fund

We are working with the USG Treasurer, Hunter Dong, to create a fund that will incentivize and reward the invention of potential TigerApps that would benefit the student body.

3 IT and Website Support

The IT Committee provides website and IT support for all USG committees and projects.

Mental Health Initiative

Mental Health Week Website

Nathan Yoo and Sarah Sakha

Mental Health Initiative Chairs

Click the dots on the right to see all 4 MHI Board projects.

1 Mental Health Week 2016

Continuing upon the success of and looking to improve upon past Mental Health Weeks, we are working on planning and organizing an earlier Mental Health Week, this time during the January 2016 reading period.

Project Status: In Progress

2 Expansion of CPS Distress Awareness and Response Workshops

We are in talks with Dr. Calvin Chin (Director of Counseling & Psychological Services) to increase the accessibility and frequency of bystander intervention workshops for mental health.

3 Joint Event with other Mental Health Groups

We are working on forming collaborating with the Student Health Advisory Board, To Write Love on Her Arms, and the USG University Student Life Committee.

Project Status: In Progress

4 Increasing Social Media Presence

We are working on increasing the number of blog posts and social media engagement of the Mindful Princeton website and content.

Princeton Perspective Project

PPP Website

Mary Heath Manning

Princeton Perspective Chair

Click the dots on the right to see all 4 PPP projects.

1 RCA Core Group Meetings

Members of the PPP team will be visiting RCA Core Group Meetings in all residential colleges to engage with RCAs. They will give a short presentation to help RCAs recognize opportunities to refer zees to PPP’s website and events. RCAs will also give feedback to members of the PPP team regarding ways in which they think PPP’s outreach (to freshmen, in particular) can be improved.

2 Battle for a Burrito

This event was designed and hosted last year by Emily Adler ’16 in Mathey College to serve as an opportunity for students to acknowledge the fact that everyone is fighting a battle we may know nothing about. The Princeton Perspective Project partnered with Emily to host the event in Mathey again this year and we are planning to host the event in as many residential colleges as possible. Butler will be up next (details to follow)!

3 Ivy Plus Conference Presentation

The PPP team will be presenting to a team of administrators from Ivy+ colleges and universities on November 13th about the importance of student leadership in a project like PPP.

4 Behind this Smile Conversation Series

PPP will be collaborating with a different campus organization each month to host events during which students will be encouraged to discuss the overlap between PPP and the other organization.

Diversity and Equity

Ozi Obi-Onuoha

Diversity & Equity Chair

Click the dots on the right to see all 3 Diversity & Equity Committee projects.

1 LEAD Summit

To follow up with the success of the inaugural Leadership Education and Diversity (LEAD) Summit, we are organizing the second conference, for which we hope to double the attendance capacity.

Project Status: Continuing to plan logistics and finalize funding sources. The conference is confirmed to take place on January 22-24. Those interested in attending the conference may apply HERE.

2 Conversations Summits

Committee member, Sol Taubin, is collaborating with the Carl A. Fields Center and Sustained Dialogue to consistently hold Conversations Summits, forums for students to discuss issues of identity across different social groups (first piloted as a joint USG-ODS initiative in May 2014).

Project Status: The Carl A. Fields Center has adopted the Conversations Project and is planning to host the first event at Late Meal on November 23.

3 COMBO Survey

We are working on creating the fourth iteration of the USG Committee on Background and Opportunity (COMBO) Report, to follow up on the Diversity and Equity Task Force’s recommendation of collecting and publicizing data about student backgrounds, diversity and inclusion.

Project Status: Drafting questions and determining methodology