Six students have announced their intentions to run for three Tufts Community Union (TCU) trustee representative positions. The TCU Senate will elect this year's representatives this Sunday.
Seniors Alethea Pieters, Jesse Levey, Tommy Calvert, Erin Ross, Sean McDermott, and Tristan Reed intend to run. Pieters and Levey, along with junior Adam Carlis, served as trustee representatives last year.
All candidates say they want to bridge the gap between students and the Board of Trustees. But McDermott, one of only two candidates who never served on the Senate, said the trustee representatives are too often political insiders who do not represent the student body.
The representation has been narrow in recent years, McDermott said yesterday, with ex-senators typically winning seats. "In the last few years, trustee reps. were very within the system," he said. "They've been coming from the Senate, from within that small family," he said. "They have a very narrow view and they seem to be somewhat out of touch with the real student body."
McDermott, the former International Club president, said he hopes to work on curriculum diversification and financial aid for international students. "It's a chance to try and bring a new perspective to the job," he said. "I know the system and I know how it works, but I have a very different background than most of the trustee reps for the past few years."
But Melissa Carson, the Senate vice president, said former senators make effective trustee representatives. Though outsiders can succeed as well, Carson said, experience with student government gives candidates a familiarity with the important issues at Tufts. "People who know the system well also know the needs of the community," she said.
The representatives serve on various trustee committees - academic affairs, development, and administration and finance - and report back to the Senate.
Often seen as a distant governing body, the trustees influence the development of the University's finances and make major administrative decisions. In past years, trustee representatives have presented student concerns to the trustees on issues ranging from the construction of a new dorm to faculty diversity and alumni relations.
"The trustees cannot be around every day to read the paper and to talk to students," Calvert said. "They need people who students feel comfortable going to and relaying their concerns and those students have to be articulate enough to convey those concerns to the trustees."
The student representative to the trustees do not serve on the Board of Trustees, but do take an advising role. "I think that the first and most important thing is for the trustee rep. to understand their role," Levey said. "[The] role is to be there to provide the student voice in the meetings [and] to advise the trustees on what this University is about and what they're here to do."
Trustee reps serve one-year terms, but Levey is seeking reelection because he feels he should continue his work on solving the housing problem through the construction of a new dormitory. "If it weren't for the dorm, I probably wouldn't be running," he said. "I'm running because I feel like because of my work in the past I'm in a unique position and could really solve the [housing] problem."
Calvert, along with Levey, first tackled the housing problem when he served as a trustee representative two years ago. Along with continuing to address housing, Calvert said he wants to sit on the academic affairs committee to work with trustees and administrators to boost the University's US News ranking.
"Not that I put all my belief in the rankings of these magazines... but at the same time, in terms of being a grad-to-be in the not-too-distant future, my earning power is somewhat determined with these rankings," Calvert said.
Pieters, if re-elected to a trustee representative seat, says she would join the academic affairs committee, saying she wants to focus on issues that affect curriculum. "I've been in contact with a lot of people working on initiatives to get more Asian-American faculty hired and to add more to the Asian-American curriculum," she said.
Saying she would better serve the community as a trustee representative, Ross resigned from the Senate two days ago. "It was an incredibly different choice to make, but I just felt my time is much better spent look at the broader issues and not the smaller issues the Senate has," Ross said.
The trustees will be particularly important this year as the agenda of the University's new president comes into sharper focus. The trustees are "very removed from everyday workings of the University and the questions they ask are not reflective of people who know what is going on," Ross said. "I'd like to give them a clearer vision of who we are as students and where we're going."
