New outreach bylaw to change senators' responsibilities

After nearly three months of drafting, discussion and fine-tuning, members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate voted to pass the Outreach Responsibilities bylaw two weeks ago. Momentum for the legislation slowly grew out of general dissatisfaction with relations between the Senate and the student body.

The bylaw outlines an intense commitment on the part of each senator to his or her assigned student groups. "Senators will go to their organizations' meetings at a reasonable and regular interval," and stay up-to-date on their organizations' activities, the bylaw states. Failure to live up to these expectations can result in disciplinary action by the Senate according to its bylaws and constitution.

"Over the past few years, there have been various efforts to change how students are represented by people on Senate," said sophomore senator Chike Aguh, who coauthored the bylaw. "Many people saw that there was a root problem with people not having faith in the Senate."

The first steps toward the bylaw's implementation will begin with a two-week period during which senators will gather information about TCU Judiciary-recognized student organizations. After initial data have been collected, senators will pick between five and seven organizations to be responsible for, a process that will ultimately be accepted or rejected by the Senate's Executive Board.

Given that only a handful of Senate meetings remain this academic year, senators will focus on "working out the kinks" of the bylaw in preparation for complete implementation next fall, Senate Vice President Andrew Potts said. The bylaw is currently at the level of the Senate's Executive Board, but the Senate will "do the best it can to enact [the bylaw] in its full spirit," he said.

The logistical regulations attempt to capture the spirit of the bylaw, which is to shape the role of the senator into a liaison between student groups, the Senate, and the administration. Additionally, senators will be "first responders" to their organization's complaints and answer any questions pertaining to Tufts policies and the TCU Constitution.

Another section of the bylaw establishes "culture clusters" to address the issues raised by culture groups. The clusters would consist of one member of the Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs (CECA) committee and at least two other senators.

This arrangement will preserve the powers of the culture representatives while connecting more senators with the significant portion of the student body represented by culture groups, said freshman senator Dave Baumwoll, who also coauthored the bylaw.

The Outreach Responsibilities bylaw was inspired by a CECA bylaw that assigned senators to be responsible for groups within CECA, Aguh said. The introduction of these bylaws served as a kind of "test" from which the Senate used feedback to craft the current bylaw, according to Aguh.

The bylaw's creation was steered by Potts and former TCU President Melissa Carson, but concerns voiced by many senators affected its final form.

"Some [senators] had questions about the accountability and enforcement," Aguh said. "I think we dealt with those issues pretty well."

Although it will ultimately be up to the student groups to accept or refuse the Senators' services, the bylaw will make the Senate generally "more visible and available," Baumwoll said.

The new bylaw represents a major change in senators' tasks as well, since they will now be required to attend groups' meetings and maintain contacts with them. It remains to be seen whether potential senators will be less likely to take on the added work. "When people run for Senate, they'll know that these are their responsibilities," Aguh said. "Hopefully, we'll get the right types of people to make changes."

Most senators are not expecting the bylaw to be a cure-all. "I don't expect [the bylaw] to fix all problems this year, next year, or even before I graduate," Aguh said. "Hopefully, this will be a long term goal that can be achieved."