Though the Tufts Union Community (TCU) Senate has not held its first meeting, senators say several projects are in the works, including support for students affected by last Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
"There will be no major Senate initiatives before the entire Senate is elected," said Melissa Carson, the Senate vice president. The date of freshmen Senate elections is undecided, but the eight new representatives must attend the Senate retreat on Sept. 29.
The Senate will decide during its first meeting when to put into effect the constitutional amendments approved last spring. One amendment will give culture representatives full voting privileges.
"It will give the culture reps more power," Senate President Eric Greenberg said. "They can participate in every part of the meetings now and they get to vote. People will respect the culture reps more."
After the terrorist attacks, individual senators worked behind the scenes on last Wednesday's vigil and other projects to support the student body. "We didn't want it to be a PR thing, it was a personal project," Carson said. "It was my response as a leader of the community."
Greenberg spent the summer on campus, planning Fall Fest and undertaking other initiatives. For his efforts, Greenberg was paid $3,400.
The Senate was influential in the recent changing of the school's alcohol policy. Residential Life now places students on probation for substance-related violations in dorms, taking jurisdiction away from Judicial Affairs. Another change allows students on Residential Life Probation I to remain in "good standing" - allowing them to participate in extracurricular activities and rush Greek houses.
"It was the Senate's choice to shift the probation over to Residential Life," Greenberg said. "Now, you would receive the same punishment as if you got written up because of violating quiet hours. It is a sort of a warning."
Greenberg campaigned for president on a ten-point platform last year, and said he will pursue many of the same projects - finding a better cable and telephone service provider, passing social life initiatives, releasing housing lottery numbers earlier in the year, adding more economics courses, updating classroom technology, and increasing the number of classes dedicated to race and culture issues.
One of Senate's projects last year, a shuttle to Boston, may no longer needed now that the MBTA offers extended bus hours, Greenberg said.
Other executive board members worked on summer projects in addition to Fall Fest planning. Carson realized that students would miss the Collegiate Web when it went out of business last year, and found a similar replacement. "The Collegiate Web is just a tradition that we didn't want to see disappear," she said. "The Web became a part of Tufts culture."
Carson identified a suitable replacement, published by I-Tech, a company that works on a number of area directories. The booklet will be delivered to on-campus students in the next few weeks and the campus center and Dowling Hall will also carry extra copies for off-campus students. "The main difference is that I-Tech has full page menus and ads. There are no coupons except for WingWorks," Carson said.
While TuftsLife.com includes menus and comparable information to the old Web, Carson said that not every student can easily access the site. "Lots of off-campus students [cannot get] on the Net with the same ease as the on-campus students, so having information in printed form makes it easier for them," she said.
In another effort to make life more convenient for students, Senate Treasurer Ben Lee spent the summer working on a new machine that allows students to buy merchandise from the campus center information booth with points. "The machine is operating now," he said. "You can buy stuff like movie and theater tickets using your points."
