Although the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate did not meet officially until Sunday night - three weeks after the school year began - senators started their work long before.
According to TCU Senate President Eric Greenberg, the meeting was intended to put student representatives back "into a business frame of mind." But several of the senators spent the time describing specific projects that are underway.
"Some [Senators] started projects the first day back," Greenberg said. "We're ready to get into action."
But the entire Senate did not attend the first meeting - the eight freshman representatives will be elected on Friday. On Saturday, the Senate will leave for its annual retreat to lay out goals for the year.
This week, students can already take advantage of one of the year's first projects, new campus directories produced by I-Text, which replace the defunct Collegiate Web. The directories include menus, business listings, and student phone numbers. The Senate mailed copies to on-campus students today, and more than 1,000 copies will be available at Dowling Hall and the campus center.
The Senate will also contribute to fundraising for relief efforts after the terrorist attacks earlier this month. The Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs (CECA) committee, chaired by Pritesh Gandhi and Gautan Kitchlu, will donate money to the United Way's Sept. 11 fund, which benefits victims of the attacks.
CECA also scheduled weekly student discussion forums on the attacks, beginning this Friday in Dewick and continuing for as long as needed, so students can "air out their concerns," Gandi said.
Gandhi said that CECA hopes to expand the arts and sciences curriculum to include more courses based on student input and work on increasing financial aid packages for international students.
According to Jill Bier, the Administration and Budget (A&B) committee is looking to increase parking spaces for sophomores and improving Tufts' social life, although no concrete plans have been made.
The treasury adjusted the capital expenditure budget, the fund for new student groups and the buffer fund, which covers student groups' requests for extra-budgetary financing. According to Treasurer Ben Lee, the treasury shifted $5,000 to the new groups fund. In previous years, he explained, so many groups were founded that the Senate was forced to dip into the buffer fund to finance some of them.
The senate will also be subject to change if bylaws proposed by parliamentarian Andrew Potts are passed. Potts hopes the bylaws will shorten meetings and debates.
But senators still have one important task ahead of them - establishing new connections with the administration. Their main contact, former Vice President of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering Mel Bernstein left his post last year to become provost of Brandeis. Rather than replace him, the University delegated his duties to several administrators, and Kitchlu explained that senators will have to reconfigure their approach to the administration for enacting projects.
