A handful of senators and campus feminists are pushing a referendum that would grant Tufts women a culture representative position on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate. If passed, the representative would join the four existing culture reps and one commuter rep as senators not selected by process of student elections.
The TCU constitution grants culture representatives to organizations representing the Asian/Asian-American, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community, as well as Latino and Pan-African communities. The commuter community is also given a representative on the body.
Last spring, an amendment was passed stating that "additional representatives may be added to the TCU Senate through the established amendment process." According to Senate Parliamentarian Andrew Potts, the process entails a referendum to change the constitution's wording to be approved by the entire student body.
Although there are seven female senators - comprising slightly less than a third of the body - those advocating the new rep say having a women's culture representative is nonetheless necessary. "Just because there are women on the Senate does not mean, nor should it, that their agenda is specifically tailored to women's issues," Tufts Feminist Alliance (TFA) Co-Chair Abby Moffat said. "The idea behind culture reps is that a contingency of students who feel that their needs are underrepresented by the Senate can voice the opinions of their student group."
Not having a Senate representative promoting women's agenda keeps students from taking full advantage of the women-related services Tufts offers, according to Moffat.
Newly-elected sophomore Senator Ariana Flores agrees with Moffat, especially in light of the recent controversies surrounding a failed sexual harassment complaint filed against The Primary Source and images of scantily-clad women in fraternity rush posters. "It's not to say that wouldn't necessarily happen with a female representative, but it would be helpful," Flores said.
Culture representatives are appointed by their respective cultural organizations to represent their community's agenda. Unlike senators, they are not charged with representing the student body at large.
But some Senators say that despite the effectiveness of the culture reps, there are problems with their presence in government. Senate Historian Suman Rao disagrees with the process of selecting culture representatives, but says it does serve a purpose in the Senate. "I disagree with the spirit, because then every concentrated minority should be getting a representative, every culture," he said.
Rao is in favor of having a "feminist" culture rep, but believes the entire student body should vote in the election. "There needs to be a mechanism that creates a diasporic Senate body of all student interests," he said. "They should be elected by the whole student body, not a concentrated majority."
Flores says she is reluctant to present the issue to the Senate because of the controversy still surrounding the culture rep amendment that passed last spring - at the time, the student body elected to give culture reps full voting rights within the Senate. If the TFA were to have a rep, then, that person would be a voting member of student government.
Although Flores believes culture reps should be able to vote, a number of other senators do not, because the reps are elected by their respective organizations and not by the student body.
Potts, though in favor of the proposal to add a women's culture rep, says he may vote against the plan because of the voting issue, saying "it creates an automatic voting block." Culture Reps, he said, tend to vote together on issues. "It's just illogical, the fact is that the job of a culture rep is to support one group of people 100 percent of the time.... The job of a senator, as mandated in constitution, is to do what's best for the TCU."
Moffat agrees that culture reps should not have voting rights. "To have only four culture reps with votes on Senate undermines the entire system invented by and run by the students of this university - one person, one vote," she said.
She added that students can cheat the system by joining several culture groups. A person who belongs to multiple groups could vote on several potential representatives, and elect more than one representative to the Senate.
If students choose to create a women's culture representative position, there will be a question as to which campus organization will choose the representative. Although the culture rep could come from TFA, Moffat said that not all women at Tufts agree with the organization's viewpoints. Another possibility would be for the rep to come from the Women's Board, a group that meets weekly to address women's issues on campus.
The current culture reps are chosen from student-run organizations, not from University groups. For instance, the Association of Latin American Students chooses the Latino rep, not the Latino Center.
Other organizations' methods for choosing culture reps have elicited controversy. Tufts Transgender, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Coalition (TTLGBC) has a new culture rep on the Senate, as Kelly Sanborn recently replaced Angel Vail. The election for the TTLGBC was held this fall because Vail was appointed to the position and not elected by the TTLGBC.
