Policy Platform
Below are lots of my policy ideas, which have been informed by my experiences on USG, listening to many student perspectives both in and out of USG contexts. While I divide them into Academics, Student Life, and Community Engagement, many of these policy ideas are designed to address issues in each of these categories as well as issues that transcend these categories like mental health and equities in the Princeton experience. Some of these policy ideas deal directly with the pandemic crisis and others strive to secure long-term change; I believe that USG must hold onto both of these timelines at once.
Academics
Student Life
Community Engagement
Academics
- Midterm Grades: Ensure that all courses automatically communicate a midterm grade to all students so that they are aware of their performance, which can be particularly difficult and equally important in the virtual-remote setting
- Retroactive PDF: Finish the job on the first-year retroactive PDF so that students can explore different departments in their first year with freedom and use their PDFs where most applicable
- Mixed Concentrations: Get the first mixed concentrations up and running by finishing the formulation of a streamlined process for departments to craft their own mixed concentrations
- Mental Health Training: Introduce a mental-health training module for faculty members to ensure that academics at Princeton is a source of learning and not mental-health difficulties
- ASL: Build up capacity of the American Sign Language program so that it can fulfill the University’s language requirement
- Summer Session: Craft a Summer Session for the summer of 2021 with student input that meets the needs of students whose academic experiences have been hindered by the pandemic
- Keep the Positive: Execute a study of virtual-remote learning so that any positive changes that have come out of the flexible learning formats we have all been adapting to are considered in the future when academics return to normal
- Hybrid Learning: Build student-generated hybrid-learning best practices to ensure that hybrid learning across departments will work for all students, whether remote or on-campus
- Course Evaluations: Reform course evaluations to include questions of mental health impact and to make it easier for students in small seminars to answer honestly
Student Life
- Financial Aid: Relieve the deduction of external scholarships from financial aid packages so that students, particularly FLI students, are compensated for the scholarships they achieve
- Race at Princeton: Elevate the voices of students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to inform conversations on racial inequities at Princeton
- Accessibility: Include the voices of students with disabilities to ensure that all campus buildings, including the new residential colleges under construction, are accessible to all students
- Off-Campus Providers: Implement transportation to off-campus mental health providers to make seeking help off-campus for a variety of needs easier
- Leaves of Absence: Reform leave-of-absence policies so that students can manage life’s circumstances, including the pandemic, in ways that make sense for their educational trajectories and needs
- Honor Committee Reform: Work with the Honor Committee to monitor the newest penalty-structure changes and ensure that the system is as equitable as possible
Community Engagement
- Election Holiday: Work with Vote100 to implement an election holiday for federal elections to lower barriers to voting for students, faculty, and staff
- Eating Clubs: Work with the Street and the ICC to meet the needs of each class, whether remote or on-campus, particularly those classes that have yet to engage with Eating Clubs or take full advantage of their membership
- Independent Meal Exchange: Continue to work on and implement a meal-exchange program for independent students so that they can use their meal swipes to exchange with friends in eating clubs
- Sustainability: Expand the scope of the Sustainability Committee to encourage sustainable practices in USG and the University at large
- Community Building: Work with the Student Life Committee and other partners to continue student networking exchanges so that students can meet and get to know each other from afar
- Administrative Access: Organize further administrative Q&A sessions to ensure that students have direct access to administrators as they undertake important decisions