Senate Constitutional Convention addresses problems

Last Friday's Constitutional Convention allowed students to debate and devise solutions for any problems they perceived in the Tufts Community Union (TCU) constitution. TCU President Melissa Carson and Senate Historian Alison Clarke sponsored the convention as the first event in a continuing effort to create a reformed, more accepted, constitution to present to the school.

During last year's presidential elections, Carson and Clarke, who were both candidates, discussed holding a "very large dialogue" to gather student input on the constitution. The recent debate on creating a conservative culture rep showed that the campus environment still required a dialogue on the constitution, Clarke said.

"So, we as people, and not as the Senate, decided that we needed to have this conversation and have as many voices as possible," she said. The Senate is committed to major change if the student body expresses the desire for it, Clarke said.

The room in Eaton where the convention was held was packed full with students who wanted to share their opinions of the constitution. An overwhelming majority of the students, however, were associated with either the TCU Senate or the Primary Source. Only a small handful of those in attendance were not associated with either group.

Junior Emily Rhodes, one of the few non-affiliated students, said it was "upsetting but not surprising that it was mostly student government [attending the meeting]." The absence of a wide range of student interest means that the Senate risks becoming "an inbred group forgetting what it's fighting for," Rhodes said.

The opening meeting was used primarily to brainstorm and list the flaws students saw in the constitution. Many of the convention's attendees expressed the desire for reform in the Senate committee system, the election system, the protocol for presidential resignation, the commuter rep system, and the Senate absence policy.

Much of the meeting focused on the Primary Source's recent bid to gain a conservative culture rep. Some students felt the culture rep system violates the "one man, one vote" principle, and that minorities are amply represented through their class senators. Since culture reps are elected by their respective cultural groups, the system means that "certain groups get a vote in two places," junior Senator Josh Belkin said.

Another "logical flaw" in the system is that the entire student body votes on whether a group can have a culture rep or not. This process allows the majority to vote on minority rights, Belkin said.

The addition of new culture reps also indicates a lack of confidence in the Senate, sophomore senator Chike Aguh said, and raises the question of the exact definition of the "marginalized groups" for which the culture reps speak.

Defining what groups are "marginalized" is further complicated by the need for the entire student body's approval for new culture reps. "The whole school voting no [on the Primary Source's conservative culture rep] shows that they are marginalized," freshman senator Alex Mendell said.

Other students feel the presence of a culture rep is the only fair way to represent minorities on the senate. "Discrimination at Tufts is the basis for this issue and the need for culture reps," Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) culture rep Juliana Zapata said.

Some students proposed the complete elimination of culture reps, but others suggested less drastic steps, such as revoking the culture reps voting privileges, and having the student body select the students who serve as culture reps. The constitution should also define the term "marginalized group," the convention's participants said.

The Senate's body includes four culture reps chosen by various groups, including the Asian Community at Tufts (ACT), ALAS, Pan African Alliance (PAA) and Tufts Transgender, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Alliance (TTLGBC). The culture reps are elected by their respective "cultures" and their votes are equal to those of the other senators.

Senate leaders plan to address the constitutional reforms in committee-style "themed meetings" to focus specifically on those issues. The "themed meetings," which will be held on a regular basis next semester, will be open to the public. The solutions developed by the smaller groups will then be proposed to a larger group before the referendums are voted on by the entire student body.

"The senate should make people come," junior Helen Tong said, stressing the importance of input from students who do not already participate in the Senate. "It's just the same people debating the same thing among themselves; they need to get more input."

Carson was satisfied with the first meeting, however. "I'm very optimistic... it's going to require a lot of discussion and there's limited time but I think we'll get through it and come up with something to propose to the students by [the spring]," she said.

The meeting was a "good start," Aguh said, "but now we need to make sure it ends well too." Aguh attributed the forum's abundance of senators to their familiarity with the issues at hand, but added, "Hopefully, as this goes on, it will be less of us talking and more of [the average student]. It's not about us, it's about them. It's about the ordinary student."