Website tracker to keep students updated with Senate projects

In an effort to do a better job seeing through Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate projects, a Project Progress Tracker webpage has been added to the Senate's main site. Unveiled earlier this month, it posts the status of every project that the Senate is working on.

"I think that the most important thing about the Project Tracker is that students can see what we do without even having to go to a single meeting," Senate Historian Jeff Katzin said.

TCU President Chike Aguh is especially pleased with how "a new level of accountability will be instilled for the TCU Senate," he said. By putting plans down on paper before the entire community, Aguh said that senators will have an increased desire to follow through with their projects.

Students can also get the senators' contact information and their office hours from the site, in an effort to make it easier for students to become more involved in projects in which they have interest

The idea for this kind of site was first broached at the end of last year by Aguh and Senator Randy Newsom. After gaining a sense that the Senate was too disjointed from the rest of the student body, Aguh and Newsom asked fellow senator Rafi Goldberg for help.

The actual creator of the program, Goldberg, worked on the tracker over the summer. "I hope that this will help bring the Senate and the student body closer together," he said.

Goldberg feared that, because the student body had no way of following the senate's projects, they would be oblivious to the positive changes the senate claims to make on campus. "Without that information, they'd have no reason to vote for us again," he said.

Freshman senator Zach Landau foresees great changes in the way students, especially freshmen, can get involved in projects on campus. "The Project Tracker is a wonderful idea...especially for freshmen who are looking for guidance as to how to make projects more effective and efficient," he said.

The Senate itself should also experience changes for the better through the Progress Tracker. The simplicity with which information can be updated and accessed will ensure that "the site will help senators to collaborate with each other and avoid redundancy," Katzin said.

"The Progress Tracker is going to change the face of student government at Tufts," Goldberg said. "For the first time ever, complete knowledge of exactly what every member of the Senate is doing will be just a few clicks away," he added.

The site has already shown great signs of success, according to Katzin.

"I got an e-mail from a girl earlier today because she saw that I was working on the MOPS system...She then asked if I could speak with Patti Lee Klos about improving laundry facilities. That's exactly the kind of feedback that we are hoping for from the Tracker," Katzin said.

"The Tracker will hopefully give us feedback from students as well as present concrete ideas about what the Senate does for the TCU," Katzin concluded.

The Tracker can be accessed on the Senate website.