With so many culture groups at Tufts, it's sometimes hard to recognize individual group identities and perspectives on an issue. But the recently created Cultural Coordinating Committee (CCC), a branch of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs (SECA) committee, may help sort it things out - and bring group members together, too.
The CCC draws its membership from Tufts' many cultural organizations, including the African Students Organization (ASO), Asian Community at Tufts (ACT), Tufts Transgendered, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Collective (TTLGBC), and the Association of Latino-American Students (ALAS).
Over the past year, Tufts has dealt with a number of concerns regarding tolerance and cultural awareness, including crafting a University response to several incidents of hate vandalism this past fall, and deciding whether to broaden the world civilizations requirement to include classes on tolerance and race awareness. Many cultural organizations were separately involved in these policy issues, but some felt that Tufts needed an organization dedicated to promoting coordination between the groups, and expanding the student body's access to Senate resources.
"The CCC allows the cultural organizations to get help from senators and other students in working on projects with the administration," Senate Treasurer Michele Shelton said.
Shelton says that Tufts should support cultural organizations as much as possible and the CCC is its latest attempt to achieve that goal.
Senate Vice President Eric Greenberg said that cultural organizations serve a multifaceted purpose. First, he explained, the groups provide a support system for minority students. Second, they educate the Tufts community through events and general meetings. Third, the groups provide the campus with enriching social activities. Finally, cultural organizations provide minority groups with valuable lobbying power on campus.
The CCC has been successful in supporting these four causes. This past fall the CCC was responsible for the Blue Ribbon Campaign, which responded to the hate incidents on campus. Strong efforts to ensure diversity in the faculty and administration have also been made, as well as cultural awareness initiatives in curricula. Some orientation activities for the Class of 2005 will focus on tolerance and cultural awareness - programming that may be connected to the Many Stories, One Community panel. The goal will be to teach the new freshmen class that Tufts is a community that does will not tolerate hate.
"We have been discussing this issue with Dean [of Students Bruce] Reitman and others, and hope to also have RA's mention this during first hall meeting, to make students aware - but not afraid - of what can happen on campus, and making sure they know how to report any incidents," said Senator Margery Yeager, the CCC chair.
As CCC chair, Yeager is responsible for the group's activities over the past year. She sees the CCC's value in its ability to strengthen the influence of minority groups on campus by giving them a unified voice.
"I think the most important function of CCC is to make sure that the
different cultural groups work together and present a stronger force to
work on the issues that are important to them," she said.
In a year, the group has been successful in establishing itself as a valuable Senate committee. With this reputation, the CCC's future efforts look promising. Projects slated for the future include providing emergency financial aid to international students and further awareness-raising curriculum changes.
The CCC has built a strong structure, ensuring continuity in its leadership, by doubling as a forum for discussing past events and projects with younger members.
"Leadership methods are passed down from older to younger students, and past events are shared with the younger members," Shelton said. "This is beneficial because the new generation of leadership can have a strong knowledge of Tufts' history and put that knowledge to good use."
