Schroback resigns from Senate

Freshman Nick Schroback stepped down from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate late last semester, opening a Senate seat for this term. He cited the main reason for the resignation as an overloaded plate of activities and schoolwork.

Schroback said he was completely content with his first semester spent with Senate at Tufts. "The experience was worth it. There are a lot of people I know from it, and I really liked campaigning," Schroback said. "Everyone was very nice towards me, but I was a genuinely bad Senator. That's why I dropped."

TCU President Chike Aguh respected Schroback's decision. "He decided that it was best for him to resign from Senate in light of some new responsibilities he was taking on this semester," Aguh said. "He knew he would not be able to put his all into Senate and he made a very selfless decision."

"I feel that senators do have a lot to be done, so it can seem to be overbearing," freshman Senator Andrew Caplan said. "If you keep the eye on the target, though, it is definitely possible to balance."

According to Schroback, this overwhelmed feeling stemmed mainly from the weekly Senate meetings. "Meetings were from 7 to about 12:30, and could have done without reflecting at the end on how the meeting went. The extra hour put me over the edge," said Schroback.

"There are many cool people in it [the Senate], but they wanted a big time commitment," Schroback said. "I had the time, but no desire to spend all of it on Senate."

Other senators understood Schroback's difficulties with Senate requiring many committed hours. "The Senate is a big time commitment so I respect his decision," said Senate Historian Jeff Katzin.

He had only kind words for his fellow Senators. "A lot of kids were funny," he said, "But they were really into Senate, and I wasn't as much."

"He didn't have time to be good or bad," Caplan said. "Senate's the type of thing that can take up all or as little of time as you want. The excitement comes when you're really digging into it."

Schroback's resignation opens a spot for a Senate seat. Along with the freshman class seat is an open seat in the junior class. The TCU Judiciary also has an opening resulting from the graduation of senior Michael Douglas.

The elections for the new seats are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, Feb 4. Candidates are holding a Forum meeting Feb 2 at 9:30 p.m. in Hotung. The candidates meeting is on Thursday, Jan 29, when all interested students must submit petitions to run.