Princeton University

August 2022 Lawrence Committee Minutes

At 4 PM on August 25th, the Lawrence Committee held a monthly town hall meeting over zoom. The following are the minutes of this meeting.

  • This academic year, the committee is planning on hosting a town hall on the second Tuesday of every month (note the change from last year) at 4 PM. The link to the meeting is: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/91035366786
  • The committee would like to clarify that the area behind Building 12 is not being taken down. Rather, facilities arrived for a clean up, noticed the fence was in unsafe condition, and started replacing it so the area would be safer.
  • The committee addressed concerns from residents regarding communication to spouses of Lawrence Residents, who are not added to the Lawrence-Res listserv.
    • Housing informed the committee that they are unable to add non-housing contract holders to the Lawrence-Res listserv. They recommended that contract holders forward Lawrence emails to spouses at their own accord upon receipt of the email.
      • The committee thinks that setting up some sort of auto-forwarding of Lawrence emails to spouses could make this process easier. 
  • The committee is working to address the dire situation with package misdelivery. 
    • For places like building 1, the committee is looking into installing shelving to help organize clutter.
    • While the committee can advocate for solutions to better organize packages, at the end of the day, packages will continue to clutter buildings until they are picked up by recipients. Please do not order packages or deliveries if you are not able to pick them up promptly or know you won’t be on campus, especially large packages like furniture. Package clutter is becoming a fire hazard in places like Building 1.
    • Failure to pick up packages in a timely manner can (and has) lead to weather damage as well. Cluttering also makes it harder to find packages.
    • For PhD students receiving highly important packages who are worried about theft or misplacement, we recommend shipping to your department. The committee recognizes that non-PhD students may not have this option.
    • The committee will also look into seeing if Frist can allocate some package lockers for students in Lawrence.
  • The committee would like to clarify that the bins in the Building 1 laundry room can be used for clothing donation and recycling.
    • The company that picks up the bins (Helpsy) sorts through and picks out what is/isn’t reusable.
    • According to their website, 75% of what they collect is reusable, 20% is recyclable. Higher grade items are sent to thrift stores, lower grades get turned into rags for industrial and other use. Clothing reuse “reduces the enormous environmental burden of the second most polluting industry in the world.”
  • The committee will look at clarifying the language and methodology behind room reservation at Lawrence.
    • The common procedure is to email Kevin Fleming in Housing to reserve a common room. This information has now been posted on the website. If a common room doesn’t look like it’s in use, residents should feel free to use it for small things (e.g. talking with friends, studying), but recognize that they could be kicked out if someone else has reserved the room.
    • The Lawrence Facilities manager will print out, laminate, and post a small sign on common room doors indicating the procedure for reserving a room.
  • The committee discussed garden logistics and funding
    • The Garden Coordinator will apply for funding for garden transformation later this month. With the addition of a Garden Events Manager, we will need to do a little work to transform the garden into a fabulous location for hosting events.
    • The Garden intends on using a combination of GSG events board and Lawrence Committee funds to acquire: a table and chairs (which, according to housing, need to be secured); a new shed; an umbrella; and other supplies.
    • The Garden coordinator will create an itemized list of garden supplies so the committee has a breakdown of what money needs to be spent on.
  • The committee will send a separate email with resources for students with families who are new to Lawrence.
  • Committee Members in Attendance
  • Deepen
  • Hassan
  • Liz
  • Michelle
  • Josh
  • Kristin
  • Jessica
  • Kevin