Just days after two freshmen were elected to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate in a special election, the Elections Board (ELBO) will have its hands full again. Sophomore Senator Pritesh Gandhi announced at Sunday's weekly meeting he would resign at the end of the month. Gandhi plans to stay involved in Senate programs, but will no longer serve as a senator.
"I am resigning because it is in the best interest of myself right now," Gandhi told the Daily last night. He will, however, continue a number of projects he had been working on in the Senate. He said his resignation was a problem of scheduling, not commitment.
"The student body has my commitment to the student issues and I don't need the TCU Senate as a vehicle for me to achieve my goals," he said. "My resignation is for the efficiency of my day to day activities, but not so I can quit from student concerns."
Gandhi, who co-chaired the Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs (CECA) committee and headed up the Cultural Coordinating Committee (CCC) this year, was widely publicized for initiating new bylaws to increase student-Senate communication. Senators in October voted overwhelmingly in support of the bylaws, which instituted a biweekly extended open forum at meetings and required Senators to talk to students for project ideas. The bylaws also created "class collectives" - meetings intended to boost interaction between senators and class councils from the same year.
Gandhi initiated the changes last fall because of frustration with the Senate body as a freshman. "I felt [Senate was] detached, inefficient, and incapable of providing the leadership that a student organization should provide," he told the Daily four months ago.
The implementation of Gandhi's bylaws played a role in his decision to leave the Senate. "He said he chose this time because he felt the Senate was on track with a number of projects, and ...felt it was a good time for him to leave," TCU Senate President Greenberg said.
He worked on a plethora of other ongoing Senate projects this year, including efforts to create a 24 hour study space, attempts to develop the Hindi-Urdu Ex-College classes into a University program, and discussions with Joseph's Transportation to improve shuttle service.
Other Senators gave insight into his departure. Greenberg said that due to "personal reasons," Gandhi had been contemplating leaving for a few months. "He just couldn't be there in an official capacity anymore" Greenberg said.
Senate Vice-President Melissa Carson said his plans to go abroad next year made his departure this semester easier. "This is the best thing for him as a person and he was going abroad next year anyway," Carson said. "This gives us time to work with him in transition before he goes away."
ELBO member Joe Colletti said his committee would soon set plans in motion for another special election to fill the vacancy. "[We'll] probably get underway as soon as possible," he said. The TCU Constitution gives ELBO a timeline of just over two weeks to set up and hold the election.
Carson said that the elections of new senators will invigorate the Senate with new blood. "I think that Pritesh is definitely one of the most vocal senators. He's very strong and his resignation is going to be a big loss," she said. "But there's a lot of new energy and strong leadership from old senators, so this is by no means going to cripple the Senate, especially because he'll continue to be involved."
Gandhi is the sixth Senator to resign from the organization this year. Seniors Michele Shelton and Erin Ross, junior Kathryn Klencheski and freshmen Brendt Patterson and Vuong Nguyen all resigned from the Senate this year.
Carson, however, says that resignations are typical in the Senate; this year they are occurring for the right reasons. "I think resignations in the beginning, especially the seniors were because their lives had changed," she said. "They saw themselves as [having] different roles in the University. It's not like several years ago when senators resigned in protest. People are resigning because of changes in their lives."
