Michele Shelton and Eric Greenberg have finally made official what had been known for months. At last night's Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate special meeting, the two were nominated for the TCU presidency by their fellow senators and will meet in the April 25 election.
The candidates stated their official platforms for the first time, both stressing the need to reconnect with the student body as high on their agenda.
"The Senate should be the voice of the entire undergraduate population," said Shelton, who listed her main initiatives as renovating Tufts' antiquated classrooms, rebuilding the Senate's strained relationship with the Office of Residential Life, involving more students in the process of reworking the block schedule, and reforming student-faculty committees.
"The Senate needs to continue to put pressure on the faculty," to get more students on the committees, she said.
Greenberg said that his freshman year off of the Senate was an advantage for him in relating to a disaffected student body while pressing an agenda largely composed of social life concerns.
"If you had ever asked me if I was going to be running for president my senior year, I would have laughed at you," he said. Greenberg plans to push for more on-campus social options and a better University alcohol policy, while also supporting curricular diversification, an earlier release of housing lottery numbers, and a reassessment of our current cable, phone, and dining contracts with outside organizations.
"The Senate needs to reconnect with the people. We have fallen off the radar of the student body," Greenberg concluded.
Senator Erin Ross was also nominated but declined the nomination.
