Source advocates for conservative culture rep

Representatives of The Primary Source announced the publication's attempt to initiate a campus-wide constitutional referendum to provide for a "conservative culture" representative at the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate meeting Sunday night.

"Conservative culture" is as much of a culture as any other and therefore should have a culture representative, said Simon Holroyd, who spoke for the Source. Its staff members are "people who share common goals, feeling and aspirations," he said. The group "feels like it needs to be together," and therefore constitutes a "culture."

Conservative students are seeking to represent their "views and ideology," which are "often under-represented and discriminated against," Holroyd said.

The original argument for the existence of culture representatives was that some minority groups on campus are underrepresented in student government and should therefore have an outlet to express their ideas and address their issues. Generally, students see Tufts as a fairly liberal campus, which places conservative groups like the Source in the minority.

"Conservatives are a distinct group of students on this campus, who have suffered numerous acts of discrimination and are historically underrepresented on the TCU Senate," Holroyd said in his letter to the Senate.

For the Source to gain a representative, the student body would have to pass an amendment to the TCU Constitution, which defines who sits on the Senate. Four culture representatives currently serve on the senate, representing the Asian Community at Tufts (ACT), the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS), the Pan African Alliance (PAA), and the Tufts Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Collective (TTGLBC).

Each culture representative holds a full Senate seat and votes on all issues. Unlike other senators, however, the student body does not elect the representatives; they are elected by their respective organizations.

For a constitutional referendum to be voted on by the student body, the TCU Judiciary must approve the wording of the ballot question, and the Source must submit a petition for a vote with the signatures of 250 students to the body.

If the Sources' referendum succeeds, the publication will be the umbrella group for the new culture representative. The representative would be a Source member, but would answer to all conservatives on campus.

Some senate members questioned why the Source, which originally opposed the very existence of culture representatives, now wants its own representative. But it is necessary to have representation in order to encourage change, Holroyd said. "How would [we] change the system [we] disagree with if [we] don't have a vote?"

Many senators who heard the Source members' address have yet to decide how they feel about the issue. "I definitely need to hear more... before I go supporting that specific referendum," Senator Andrew Potts said. "I want to hear how they answer some more questions from the student body. I'm not outright against it but I'm not for it yet either."

Potts said the proposal is so new that he is still trying to "figure out what it is they say that they want before [deciding] whether [to] support it or not." Based solely on Sunday's presentation, "they do have a bit more planning and sorting it through that needs to happen," Potts said. He awaits further discussion of the issue, possibly at an open forum and through Viewpoints.

"I can understand where they're coming from and I could perhaps see how a representative of what they're asking for could be useful," Potts said, "but I'm not sure if they're doing it properly and that's what I need to see, if this group is actually coming out and doing it for all the right reasons."

Some senators, in casual discussion outside of Sunday's meeting, suggested the possibility that a new student group be created that is not tied to the Source, to foster conservative culture on campus, Potts said. Such an organization might make a conservative culture representative "slightly more acceptable" to those who "automatically write off anything that comes from" the Source.

Unlike the Tufts Republicans, such an organization "would include all of the conservative thought, not just the platform of the political party," Potts said. Such an organization might better be fit to "foster a good and real and meaningful debate" on the issue than the Source, since many students automatically choose not to listen to any proposals tied to the controversial group, Potts said.

The Source was responsible for the appearance of posters and chalkings across campus Thursday night featuring a statement made by TTLGBC culture rep Kelly Sanborn, Liotta said. The statement read, "If any group wants a rep... they should run a referendum. I'll support it."

"The importance [of the chalkings] was not that it was Kelly Sanborn," Source Editor-in-Chief Megan Liotta said. "The importance was that it was a current culture rep who said they'd support any group who wanted a representative, and we're a group who wanted a representative."

Sanborn was displeased with the use of her words. "By distributing the posters around campus, I feel The Primary Source is personalizing an issue that doesn't need to be personalized," she said. "The quote was taken out of context from a discussion last spring that was not debating [the] rights of the Primary Source to have a culture rep."

A conservative culture representative would not only represent members of the Source staff but all of conservative culture at Tufts, Holroyd and other advocates of the referendum stressed. Although the Tufts Republicans have backed the referendum, Holroyd said the seat would represent conservative culture, not just conservative politics.

The purpose of having a conservative representative is so that all cultures, not just four, are represented in the Senate, according to Liotta. "We feel that if there's going to be culture reps who have a vote, then every culture needs to be adequately represented," Liotta said. "If you define culture as a group of people with similar beliefs and practices, then I think that yes, conservatism is definitely a culture and definitely a minority culture."

Representation of conservative culture is important "especially since the student government has a penchant for passing referendums on issues in national politics," Liotta said, referring to the spring 2002 referendum on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. The referendum was proposed, but never actually passed.