Primary Source' fails in bid for Senate representation

Students voted against a proposal to give The Primary Source a culture representative in the TCU Senate in a referendum yesterday.

All students were asked whether they approved Amendment 3, which would have created a conservative culture representative on the Senate controlled by the Source, a rightward-leaning campus publication. Freshmen and sophomores were also asked to vote for new senators to represent their classes; they chose sophomores Jill Friedman and Saj Pothiawala and freshman Jeffrey Katzin.

Elections Board Chair Joe Coletti said that 36 percent of freshman and sophomores voted in the senate election. By comparison, only 20 percent of freshman voted for class senators in the fall TCU senate elections. The numbers for the referendum were not released by press time last night.

The failure of Amendment 3 brought "disappointment but not discouragement" to the Source, according to the publication's editor-in-chief, Megan Liotta. "It was an effort to reform the culture rep system that many people have a problem with... we tried two ways and we will find another way," she said.

Liotta was referring to the attempt last spring to eliminate culture representatives through a referendum and replace them with non-voting lobbyists for any group which wanted one. Students voted against the

proposal.

Liotta said that the group's biggest mistake was probably putting the Source's name on the proposal because the representative was then labeled a Primary Source representative, not a conservative representative as she said it would have been in

practice.

"The Source took this very seriously... we were trying to get someone within the system to reform it," Liotta said.

"[The issue] will definitely come up again," Senate Vice-President Andrew Potts said. "Everyone pretty much agrees that [the culture representative system] is not a perfect system," he said. "It isn't dead."

Existing culture representatives representing the Asian Community at Tufts, the Association of Latin American Students, the Pan-African Alliance, and Tufts Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Collective - so-called "umbrella groups" which represent minority groups on campus - declined to comment on the results of yesterday's referendum.

In the elections for senate seats, Katzin defeated freshmen William Dunn, Bianca Flores-Wyont, Naomi Mower, Loi To and Bharat Burman. Friedman and Pothiawala, both sophomores won seats over Alex Chassin, Zijiang (Rodney) Yang and Cartter Evans.

"I know that the other candidates would have done wonderful jobs, but I'm ecstatic and can't wait to get to the Senate and start representing the freshman class," Katzin said last night.

While Kaztin is eager to start "laying out plans" for things he would like to work on, he is also ready to get acquainted with the system first and to "take it from there."

Potts said he was looking forward to working with new senators. "It's always great to have a few new people with fresh excitement," he said. He is confident that the new senators will "do just fine," despite the difficulties they might face as new members in an organization in which they have no prior experience.

"We will do our best to make them feel as comfortable as possible," Potts said. The executive board of the Senate and a few of the current senators will give Friedman, Pothiawala, and Katzin, a "mini-orientation" before their first meeting to get them acclimated to the Senate and its procedure.

At the beginning of this year, Potts was responsible for assigning each new senator a "big-brother/sister" senator who acted as a sort of a senate advisor. The new senators will also have the opportunity to find mentors and those people will help them get used to the job.

"There is definitely a learning curve to [understanding the senate].... It will take at least two weeks for them to get into it, but after the first meeting, they will at least have a general idea of what to do... [and] will be able to start some projects," Potts said.

He added that the existing senators are excited for their new colleagues and have already offered their guidance for the new senators.

The seats which Friedman, Pothiawala and Katzin will now assume were vacated two weeks ago when freshman Pranav (P.K.) Kapoor and sophomores Larry Mahl and Jonathan Gold announced their resignations. Kapoor and Gold cited personal reasons for their resignations and Mahl said he had problems with the time commitment involved with being a senator. All three expressed their regret at having to step down but felt that due to their circumstances, others could do the job better.

Potts thinks that senators elected midway in the semester are more likely to keep their position. "It's easier for them to add in Senate... they are already acclimated to Tufts and know their schedules." Pothiawala specifically stated in his official platform that he would "definitely not resign halfway though my term."