Is there room for diversity in democracy?

In light of the recent controversy surrounding culture representatives, we have lost sight of why they are important to have in the first place. Two decades have passed since the first culture representatives were added to our student senate and last year, these representatives got the right to vote. Yet people continue to question the right to this representation.

This year, The Princeton Review ranked Tufts the seventh-worst university for race and class interaction in the United States. Although this ranking is controversial, it may have some truth to it. Past incidents come to mind, such as when the words "Kill all Chinks and Gooks" were found in a bathroom in South Hall, and when Capen House was broken into and defaced last year. Also, in just the past three months there have been six acts of bigotry towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Too often people look the other way, trying to believe that acts of intolerance are committed by a select few, but we plead you to confront the reality of bigotry on this campus.

Anyone may be a target of discrimination; anyone may hold a prejudice; anyone may say they are oppressed. However, true oppression results when who you are and what you stand for are not recognized or validated in society. Although on-campus conservatives comprise a "minority" group, they still enjoy nationwide support and recognition, whereas the Asian American, Africana, Latino/a, and LGBT communities are constantly stifled because of their identities. These communities, which make up more than a quarter of our campus, need to be heard. This is why culture reps are so important to the empowerment of minority groups at Tufts.

In the past, when culture reps were non-voting lobbyists, they were only able to lobby their cause if a senator agreed to speak on their behalf. Most of the time however, the senators either did not agree with the issues or did not find them important enough to address. Recently, culture reps were given the right to vote, which ensures that their specific needs will be addressed. Some students believe that minorities who are not satisfied with their representation in senate should run for positions. However, we can safely bet that not many people would vote for a student if his or her platform was primarily focused on advancing a minority community.

It is obviously not true that members of the culture groups think the same way or have the same concerns as their culture representatives. However, the representatives are usually directly involved with their minority groups' organizations and activities, thus able to find out about the general atmosphere and concerns of their culture groups. Ask yourself: have you ever seen or known of a member on the student senate genuinely interested in learning about issues that are pertinent to the minority community through visiting different culture centers, or attending events held by clubs/organizations? Perhaps a few, but definitely not enough.

The university should certainly strive to meet its students' needs through realistic and reasonable means. Having cultural representatives with voting powers enables the system to deal with common matters of culture groups who are underrepresented and underprivileged both inside and outside the school system.

The majority of the student body is not able to understand these issues because they have not experienced them. If you read the Viewpoints written ten years ago, you would think they were from yesterday's Daily. The reoccurring debate over the need for culture reps is partly due to the fact that the political conduct on this campus does not reflect the politics of the nation. Of course, having culture reps in the US government would be undemocratic, but at Tufts they are a necessity.

Rushi Nayak, Li Ouyang, Kavita Patel, and Sonali Paul contributed to this viewpoint. Sonya Jairaj is a senior majoring in Bio-Psychology and Biomedical Engineering. Karina Ku is a senior majoring in International Relations and Child Development.