The purpose of the culture reps in the Senate is to offer their perspectives on voting issues that come before the group, as well as to act as a liaison between their specific student groups and the Senate. Good culture reps will tell the Senate every Sunday night what their group is doing, what events they are planning, and what issues, if any, they face on campus. Good culture reps will then let their group know what the Senate is doing, perhaps in response to an issue that that group is experiencing. And when an issue comes before the Senate, good culture reps would offer, when relevant, information on how that issue affects their group.
Last Spring, the student body voted in referendum to give culture representatives a vote in Senate decisions. the Pan-African Alliance (PAA), Tufts Transgender Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Collective (TTLGBC), Asian Community at Tufts (ACT), and Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), each hold elections for a person who not only has a vested interest in the group but is also competent in conveying the group's interests to the Senate. This person sits on Senate and votes on everything from technology issues to new group funding, because they aptly represent their culture group.
You can vote for a culture rep too if you want to have a say in who is voting for many issues that affect you, regardless of your race or culture, simply because you are a student at Tufts University. The rules, as I understand it, may vary from group to group, but in general, you must attend three meetings of that culture group in order to participate in that election. And there are people on this campus who do just that: voting in five different elections (four cultures and their class rep), in order to get specific people onto Senate who will vote their way.
I understand the perspective of those who would like to see a Senate free from culture representatives. Over break I came in contact with friends from different colleges, all of which handled such an issue in different ways. But more often than not, the answer was the same. When I asked a friend at Yale (who also runs the budget for the Women's Group and is very active in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender group there) what she thought about culture reps in student government, she looked shocked. "If anyone ever approached our black group on campus, or our gay group, and suggested that they should have their own rep in government, they would be SO insulted."
Apparently at other schools, to suggest that a group is incapable of voting for a class rep who holds their views is an insult, and also a very big error. I understand that here at Tufts, few people understand what is happening in the Senate, but adding more members who are voted for by fewer people is not the answer.
A culture group can be informed of Senate issues without having a personal liaison. And their issues can, of course, be heard without having a member on Senate. The open forum system takes place already: during the first part of any Senate meeting, students can voice their views or concerns on any issue for whatever reason. That way, when an issue that affects women comes up, I may tell the Senate information that I think is necessary in casting a vote. And I can perhaps participate in their debate, and be a part of their decision-making process, because it matters to me.
But I would feel like I were cheating if I made my way onto the Senate by being a good representative for women, and then voted on issues that had no more of an affect on us than on anyone else. For example, technology issues or whether we should grant Allocation Board's (ALBO) proposed budget for the Italian Club. That's not why I'm there and that is not why my culture rep is there.
I understand that each culture rep does not in fact represent a culture, but the perspective of their student group; and right now, the women at Tufts don't have a group to call their own. But that can be changed, and when it does, unless the student body as a whole makes culture reps nonexistent, women cannot, by precedent, and should not, on principle, be denied such a position.
I personally do not support the notion that culture representatives have votes. But the majority of Tufts Students do, so that's what we want, and that's what we have. So what does this have to do with a prospective women's culture rep? As I see it, and as I have witnessed it, there is no one currently sitting around the Senate table on Sunday nights who takes into account - or makes it their role to convey - a woman's agenda.
Issues on campus affect women differently than they do men, and many of these are ignored. In my opinion this is because no one on the Senate assesses how, for example, issues of campus safety, student complaints about TUPD, or even votes on what to do about a proposed resolution on sexual harassment, affect women on this campus.
Women make up over half of the students on this campus, a solid majority. Yet in terms of financial success, high paying jobs, or even pay comparable to men's, we make up the national minority. One in four women in this country are beaten by their spouse, and let's not forget that 95 percent of the beneficiaries of welfare are women. These are issues that may affect the women who graduate from Tufts.
These are also issues that women and men who graduate from Tufts have the ability to affect, but in order to do that they need to think about them now. Yes, rape and sexual assault and harassment affect the women on this campus. Yes, it happens more than most people here believe. But we absolutely have a say in how the campus handles these things, how our judicial process works for victims and aggressors of sexual assault, and what to do about the lack of education on such topics. If there is ever a group that needs to offer its perspectives, its voice, and its vote on Senate, it is the women.
Abby Moffat is a sophomore double majoring in political science and women's studies. Moffat is the Co-chair of the Tufts Feminist Alliance.
