As much as many of us poke fun at the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate and the popularity contests that tend to characterize its elections, our student legislature actually accomplishes more than we may realize.
Any senator will jump at the opportunity to remind you that neither Fall Ball nor Winter Bash would exist if not for the Senate, and surely we can all recognize the impending revolution that will be Joey GPS.
In all seriousness, though, this school year's Senate has been admirably prolific in enacting thoughtful and effective legislation for positive change.
To mention only a few of its accomplishments in the past year, the Senate has implemented a summer internship stipend fund, removed the hideous fence from the Powderhouse Boulevard side of Tufts' campus and convinced the administration to put the add/drop form online starting next fall.
Our student government is also currently in the process of changing its own constitution to improve accessibility and bureaucratic efficiency.
The most promising sign, however, that the Senate shows as much concern for the collective welfare of Tufts students as it does for shiny pet projects is its recent resolution announcing a push to create a de facto student Bill of Rights.
More than three years passed between the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788 and the ratification of the Bill of Rights at the end of 1791. In a bit of poetic justice, it has been almost exactly three years since the latest Senate constitution was ratified in April 2003, and according to Senate sources, we're likely to see Tufts' first student Bill of Rights some time before the end of the next year.
While nothing in the student resolution will truly be new - all the rights and responsibilities of Tufts students are scattered (randomly, it can seem) throughout the Pachyderm and other published resources - this will be the first time that we would have one singular document to which to turn when we have questions about Tufts policies regarding student rights.
To anyone who has wondered exactly what happens to someone who gets caught plagiarizing, whether your RA can enter your room if your door is closed or under what circumstances a professor must allow you to miss a test, a student bill of rights would save countless frustrated hours on the innumerable Web sites devoted in some way or another to some small niche of student policies.
For anyone who is unfortunate (or irresponsible) enough to face disciplinary action from Tufts, a student bill of rights would provide a clear, unimpeachable source of information about what you've done wrong and what punishment your infraction accords.
True, a resolution by the Senate carries no weight as real legislation, so we shouldn't get our hopes up that a student bill of rights is guaranteed to happen.
But the notion that someone is actually working on this project and that nearly all of the Senate supports it is a supremely heartening prospect.
If such a statistic could be drawn out of our tremendously apathetic student body, it would be interesting to see what the approval rating of the TCU Senate is these days. According to Gallup, the U.S. Congress's approval rating reached a 12-year low of 23 percent last week.
Given its recent productivity, and especially considering that we may finally be reaching our figurative 1791, our student legislative branch merits much, much more appreciation.
