Every Monday in Dewick, students hawk candy in exchange for ideas. These are the same students who managed to convince Dean of Students Bruce Reitman to defend the ailing social scene and poke fun at the average college kid to a bumpin' beat. These students are the proud members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate - but what exactly do they do?
Well, some won't even try to guess. "I don't know what the Senate does," one sophomore said. According to junior Eric Greenberg, vice president of the Senate, the Senate's responsibilities are two-fold. The Senate manages the student activity fund, which is distributed among Tufts' 100-plus organizations. It is also responsible for representing student opinion to the administration and addressing student concerns on campus.
The Senate determines the concerns of students in a number of ways. The senators keep a suggestion box in the campus center's information booth, as well as providing an open forum during the body's weekly meetings, in which students can speak their minds. Finally, every Monday, senators welcome students to come by and talk to them while they table in Dewick and Carmichael. Occasionally, they use the power of persuasion to encourage students to voice their opinions.
"At the beginning of the semester, we were handing out M&Ms just so people would come and talk to us," freshman senator Nick Abraham said.
So, what big things have they done this semester? "We've done a lot of work on the social scene this semester," Greenberg said. "A lot of students, especially returning students, couldn't find the social scene they were used to when they got back this year."
The Senate's work included an open forum for students to voice their concerns directly to Reitman and representatives of the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD).
"We've also been working on the wave of hate crimes this semester," Greenberg added. The Senate attempted to promote awareness of these crimes through posters and has been working toward the prevention of such crimes in the future. The creation of the Cultural Coordinating Committee, although predating the current rash of hate crimes, is now available to shoulder the responsibility of hate crime education, as well as work on retaining minority faculty, and racial and cultural issues on campus.
The Senate's duties have also been confused due to the recent Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) ruling. "People often think we had something to do with the TCF issue earlier this semester, but that went through the [Judiciary]. It was not under Senate jurisdiction," Greenberg said.
However, the Senate did have to contend with the overwhelming outpouring of student opinion and discontent regarding the decision. According to one TSAD (formerly Tufts Students Against Discrimination) member, although the Senate did meet with administrators over student discontent, TSAD members were the ones to actually get something done.
"I think TSAD is great. They are fighting for student issues. If the campus shows that it cares, it helps the Senate in their official actions with the administrators," Greenberg said.
"The Senate is very supportive of TSAD," said sophomore Adam Carlis, a TSAD member and trustee representative in the Senate. "They even stopped by our sit-in." Some students point to different facets of the Senate to criticize or praise. "It is the best Senate since I've been here," sophomore Sam Dangremond said. Although acknowledging that this is only the second Senate he has witnessed, Dangremond was nonetheless enthusiastic.
"They are productive. They avoid the power games and bickering that plagued last year's Senate," he said. "They are also not media-hungry."
He had special compliments for Senate President Dave Moon, who is currently working on a lecture series intended to spark campus debate on controversial issues. As an editor for the Primary Source, such an undertaking is near and dear to Dangremond's heart.
Freshman Philipp Tsipman has an entirely different view. "They have done nothing for hate crimes. They didn't help the party scene and it took TSAD to get an explanatory statement from the administration about the nondiscrimination policy," he said.
Tsipman also feels that the Senate does not fairly represent the student body. "They are the only democratic representation for students on campus. I think they don't know the opinion of the students they are representing so they represent their own opinion," he said.
Tsipman added that the electoral process needs to be amended before the Senate can be expected to represent student opinion. In the meantime, he said that TSAD is filling in well. "TSAD made some people feel safer on campus. They made it clear that some people were dissatisfied and did it without endangering freedom," he said.
