In an effort to bring together the Tufts community and foster relations between students and their elected senators, Tufts University Television (TUTV) has created a special broadcast that will be airing the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate's weekly meetings.
The meetings will be broadcasted live every Sunday at 7 p.m. to all three of Tufts' campuses on channel 23.
The broadcast will initially be very simple, with only one camera and one microphone, but freshman Michael Eddy, the producer of TUTV's TCU Senate tapings, would eventually like to add additional equipment as the project progresses.
The first broadcast was supposed to air Jan. 30, but was cancelled due to technical failures.
TUTV is currently working to resolve the problem and hopes to be fully operational as soon as possible.
The purpose of the live broadcast is to increase student interaction with the TCU Senate, as well as enable students to become better informed about various events on campus.
TCU Historian and sophomore Andrew Caplan said that "watching the Senate's weekly meetings is a great chance for all the students to see what the senators actually do and realize that there is a lot to the job."
"The Senators are not afraid to voice their opinions because they were elected to represent the students and their opinions," TCU Treaurer and junior Jeff Katzin said. "The live broadcast will give the students a chance to see why we ask them to elect us to the Senate," he added.
Following TCU Senator and junior Shaun Glassman's resignation last semester, questions were raised regarding the efficiency of the lengthy Senate meetings, which often run for three hours.
Nevertheless, Eddy is optimistic that students will embrace TUTV's newest program. "Hopefully they'll watch at least part of it; and see what [the TCU senators] do during the meeting, and see how the senate is run," Eddy said.
"We're hoping that as we continue broadcasting the meetings, interest among the student body will increase," he added.
Last year TUTV's estimated audience included 500 students, and their current goal is for viewership to reach into the thousands.
TUTV President and senior George Rausch said that the main goal of TUTV is to being together the Tufts community and to showcase the best of Tufts.
He added that through this project, he would like members of the Tufts community to embrace TUTV, as TUTV can assist other student organizations to expand their audiences. In the near future, TUTV will start offering services to other student organizations and departments, enabling them to broadcast their events as well.
