Senior Athena Bogis and freshman Andrew Lee have resigned from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate. They gave their decision to TCU President Jeff Katzin, a senior, on Monday.
Bogis said she is taking the rest of this semester off from school, which prevented her from keeping her seat. Only full-time students can be senators, Katzin said. "Our hands are tied," he said.
Bogis declined to say why she is taking the semester off, but she said she was aware of the TCU Senate policy before she made her decision. She had been on the TCU Senate since transferring from Barnard College to Tufts her sophomore year.
She said she expects to return to Tufts, ideally next semester. Depending if there are open seats when she returns, Bogis said, she hopes to run again for the TCU Senate. "As long as I'm considered a member of the Tufts community, I would love to be involved with Senate again," she said.
Lee said he resigned because of the time commitment the TCU Senate demanded. He was the leading vote-getter in the Sept. 14 election for freshman senators. "In the end, straight up, I just don't have time for it," he said.
He said he was told the position would require attending the three-hour TCU Senate meeting and an additional committee meeting each week. Once on the Senate, Lee was also elected to the Allocations Board, which required another meeting each week that lasted at least two hours.
The three meetings were too much for Lee, who is also a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corp program and the cross country team. "It's a little overwhelming," he said.
Lee said he appreciated his time on the TCU Senate and what he was able to accomplish. "It was really disappointing and really saddening to have to resign," he said. But with his current commitments, he said, it is unlikely he will run again.
The Senate will hold a candidates meeting on Nov. 1 for students interested in running for Bogis and Lee's seats, Katzin said. If there is a contested election, there will be a debate on Nov. 7, and the election will be on Nov. 8 - the same day as the mid-term elections for Congress.
