Senate subcommittee reaches out to students

A month after the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a bylaw encouraging members of the committee on Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs (CECA) to reach out to their constituencies, it appears the initiative is receiving positive results.

In an attempt to improve Senate-student relations, Senators are now heading to cultural groups instead of waiting for students to come to them, and the bylaw is being hailed as a possible model for the future of the Senate's role on campus.

The by-law was instated add insurance that CECA is representative of the opinion of all its constituent groups. CECA members are now immersing themselves in campus cultures "beyond their comfort zones" to better represent their constituents, according to CECA co-chair Kelly Sanborn.

The change came out of the need for CECA to do more community outreach, Sanborn said. CECA members now attend meetings of groups such as the Swahili Club, Polish Club, Hillel, and the Orthodox Christian Fellowship "that are not attended regularly by senators," according to Sanborn.

Each of the ten CECA members is obligated to attend meetings of three to six groups out of a pool of 30. Although the time commitment is sizeable _ some groups meet for several hours each week _ CECA members find it necessary. "It's important for students to know CECA and the Senate care," CECA co-chair Chike Aguh said.

CECA is the first Senate committee to require, through official bylaw, that its members go out to the students to hear their constituents' concerns. Aguh and others hope this will inspire other senators to do their own outreach. "I know it will take a long time to make a big difference," Goldberg said, "but it definitely should be looked into as a [model] for the rest of the Senate."

Their job is to "act as a liaison" and to let the groups know how the Senate can help them in their goals, according to Sanborn. "We avail ourselves as a resource, a tool" where groups can "use us a much or as little as they see fit," Aguh said.

So far, CECA representation has been welcomed at group meetings. Sanborn has received only positive feedback and said that people are happy "to see the Senate is taking a less 'elitist' approach".

"People seem to be pleasantly surprised," Senate Historian Alison Clarke said. "[The bylaw] shows a tangible commitment CECA and the Senate has made to improve relations with students."

CECA members are also pleased to have the opportunity to attend the meetings. "I'm glad to get the perspective I might not normally see," Goldberg said. "It helps us do our job better," said Aguh.

Many senators believe that the bylaw could be the foreshadow to a possible, larger Senate movement. "It's a great program," Sanborn said. "This might work as a trial run of a system that could work on a larger scale [for the rest of the Senate.]"

According to Clarke, the Senate has been trying to improve relations. "Senate outreach is definitely encouraged," Clarke said. "CECA is setting a really good example."

The list of group meetings CECA attends was compiled from categories used by the Senate Allocations Board (ALBO), which groups student organizations into "councils" for treasury purposes. Council I consists of TCU Judiciary-recognized culture groups, Council IV is religious groups, and Council VIII is for political and community groups, including the African Student Organization (ASO) and the Tufts Transgender Lesbian Gay Bisexual Coalition (TTLGBC).

Attempts at improving Senate outreach have been ongoing for some time. Last year, former Senator Pritesh Gandhi passed a set of bylaws that required an extended open forum at the beginning of every other senate meeting. It also had senators spend their office hours gathering feedback from students around campus, instead of being in the Senate office.

These bylaws which created two class collectives, made up of the freshman and sophomore class and the junior and senior class, respectively, which would meet once a month might have been too much for the Senate at once. The Open Extended Forum was all that seemed to remain of the reforms in the spring semester. Gandhi had also wanted senators to meet with their corresponding Programming Board class council.