Senators continue outreach efforts

In an attempt to increase their accessibility, members of the Tufts Community Union Senate are currently developing a bylaw that would divide the student body into groups and assign a senator to represent each group.

The Outreach Responsibilities bylaw passed earlier this month assigns a senator to every student group on campus. But to reach all students, not just those involved in activities, the senate will divide the student body into groups of between 120 and 150 students and assign each one a senate representative.

"Every student's input should be heard, and we are placing more of a focus on student needs," explained Senator Josh Belkin, who is spearheading the project, along with Matt Pohl. "We've perceived some dissatisfaction for not having the best record of student outreach in the past."

Undergraduates will be contacted by their representative senator via mass e-mail, most likely on a monthly basis. Students will have access to their senator's contact information as well.

The senators are also considering more personalized means of outreach. "We may try to organize some dorm meetings, just so these students will know that they have a go-to person," Belkin said.

According to freshman Senator Rafi Goldberg, the senators will not be overly obtrusive. "We don't want to annoy people with massive amounts of e-mail every week; no junk," he said. "We will focus on those students who express interest and concern and [who] want the most out of this system."

This initiative should be especially helpful to freshmen and transfer students, proponents of the project say. Juniors who go abroad will also be assigned a Senate representative, Pohl said.

"The Senate wants to know about how these students have been impacted by culture shock and their overall overseas experience," he said.

The Senate is going to try to have "go-to senators" reach out to students of the same class, but the relatively small number of upperclassmen senators makes this difficult. One of the options is to increase the size of the upperclassmen groups, probably grouping together junior and seniors with whatever upperclassman senator is available, Belkin explained.

The Senate will be directing more attention to the project after spring break. "We are going to try and get everything down on paper by the end of this year and hopefully implement it next year," Belkin said.

"This is a step toward ongoing communications between the Senate and the student body."