Princeton Undergraduate Student Government

The Pace Center would like to thank the undergraduate student body for investing in civic engagement opportunities through the recent referendum. A student Pace Steering Committee (PSC) has been formed with a total of a dozen members representing the USG and  each sub-organization that falls under the Pace umbrella: Student Volunteers Council (SVC), Community House (CH), Pace Council for Civic Values (PCCV), Breakout, and Internships.

Relations between students, public safety and the Borough police are a constantly evolving dynamic that is driven in large part by issues of underage drinking. The main area of agreement between these different players is that student health and safety are of utmost importance, but there remains substantial disagreement as to how to achieve this. The result is a number of disparate attitudes and uncoordinated initiatives that can often work against one another.

The USG has identified this as one of the most important issues in student life, and we believe that as student representatives, our voice is one that should not go unnoticed on this issue. We recognize that high-risk drinking is a social norm in some circles at Princeton and on most college campuses, and we realize that effecting the necessary culture change is unrealistic in the short term. As such we have focused in the short term on making sure that high-risk drinkers make it to health services or to the hospital. We believe that students are generally responsible in helping intoxicated friends, but we want to make sure that in the borderline cases, students are not deterred from calling for help.

As a result of the recently conducted elections audit, the USG found an error in the 2012 senator elections this past year. Michael Yaroshefsky and Julie Chang had received the most votes, however the system reported that Julie Chang and Rebecca Lee had won the election.

Michael was given the opportunity to assume Rebecca's position as 2012 senator, however he declined this option to continue his role as the USG IT Chair. As a result, following constitutional procedures, USG President Connor Diemand-Yauman and Class of 2012 President Lindy Li held a series of interviews to appoint a new 2012 senator.

In the end, they decided to appoint Rebecca Lee back to her position as Class of 2012 Senator. So for the remainder of the year, Rebecca Lee and Julie Chang will be the Class of 2012 Senators.

The main objectives of the USG's Alcohol Policy Working Group are to create a safe drinking environment on campus and promote responsible drinking behaviors in students, thereby decreasing high-risk drinking and the negative outcomes that can be and often are associated with it.  Our focus for much of the last semester has been on expanding the range of methods we use to address these issues by examining them on a community- and state-wide level on top of our on-campus initiatives.  We have begun to implement this strategy in two ways.

The USG has worked hard in many ways to reduce general costs for Princeton students. One potentially cost-saving area we looked into was Pequod, an independent for-profit business that charges students $30-$200 for a booklet of readings. To reduce this expense, it appears reasonable to simply put all those readings on e-reserves, where students can access them for free.