A week after she lost her sexual harassment case against The Primary Source, senior Iris Halpern will speak to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Monday during an open forum about guidelines for on-campus publications.
She will address the forum with Lou Esparza, a member of the Coalition for Social Justice and Non-Violence and the Radix, the Source's left-leaning counterpart.
There are currently no official Senate guidelines for University-funded publications - which is what Halpern and Esparza hope to change.
Senate President Eric Greenberg said that the senate received an e-mail from Esparza requesting a meeting with certain committee members. He said Esparza was concerned about the decision reached Monday by the Committee on Student Life (CSL), which dismissed Halpern's sexual harassment charge against the Source. The committee cited the magazine's first amendment right to free speech.
Sam Dangremond, the Source's editor-in-chief, hopes to attend the forum on Monday. But he said he has no plans to speak, even if Halpern or Esparza criticize the Source.
"I am not planning to turn the Senate into some sort of circus," Dangremond said.
Greenberg said he was not sure what role the Senate could play in the quelling the controversy.
"When there are guidelines to what students can or can't do, I think it falls under the CSL," Greenberg said.
"We could pass a resolution saying guidelines should be made," he said. "But it would have no binding affect."
Greenberg added that the senate would not likely criticize the CSL, which counts Dangremond among its members. "We haven't been in the business of criticizing CSL decisions in the past," he said.
Esparza said senators need to hear how student have reacted to the CSL's decision.
"There are lots of students that are upset about what happened Monday," he said. "We'll be discussing how students are reacting."
Currently, there are no University regulations regarding what can appear in student publications, even though many of the publications are at least partially-funded by Tufts. Most publications' constitutions do not govern content, either.
The controversy surrounding the Source began last month when the magazine printed remarks about "well endowed female SLAM members" and a caricature of a Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) member with large breasts in the Oct. 11 issue. SLAM is an activist group on campus that supports higher wages for Tufts' custodial staff.
