Fourteen members of the newly-elected Tufts Community Union Senate convened yesterday at an optional meeting in the Zamparelli Room to finalize the candidates running for the 2006-07 TCU presidency.
For the presidential hopefuls to become official candidates, each needed to obtain a vote of confidence - essentially a vote by the body indicating their confidence in the candidate's ability to run, according to Elections Board (ELBO) Chair Denise Wiseman.
Each hopeful required a two-thirds majority to make their candidacy official.
All four candidates, Harish Perkari, Mitchell Robinson, Denise Lyn-Shue and Brody Hale, received this vote of confidence and are now official candidates for the election, which will take place online on Apr. 20.
This race marks the first time in Tufts history that more than two candidates are running for TCU president. Previously, this situation was prevented by the Senate's constitution before changes in 2003 permitted more than two candidates to run.
After the nomination process, each nominee spoke briefly about their platform for the coming year.
Perkari, the current TCU treasurer, who has served on the Senate since his freshman year, announced his platform, FORWARD. The acronym stands for Facilities, Off-Campus community, Residential life, Wireless, Academic Development, Reaching alumni, and Dialogue.
Perkari seeks to improve the "common campus space," as well as help students living off-campus integrate with their Medford and Somerville neighbors. "It's a call to make students who live off campus get to know their neighbors, [like] having a barbecue for the entire street," he said in a separate interview with the Daily.
He intends to push for renovations to the dormitories picked last in the housing lottery and increase the availability of wireless Internet connections.
He also hopes to develop greater variety of coursework and "widen the depth and breadth of academics at Tufts." Examples of such improvements would include the expanding the Communications and Media Studies minor into a major, establishing a queer studies program, and developing the current ExCollege Hindi-Urdu curriculum into a full-fledged language program.
Overall, Perkari hopes to emphasize communication between the Senate and the student body.
Robinson, who has served on the Senate since the beginning of the semester, articulated a three-point plan that focuses on "things that I know can be done."
First, he hopes to reduce costs, specifically the Student Activities Fee and students' everyday expenses. "Students shouldn't feel like they're being cheated," he told the Daily. "They should feel like Tufts is working for them."
Robinson also hopes to define a distinct Tufts image. "It's important that we together focus on the idea that Tufts is an asset for us as students," he said.
He would also like to improve technological advancement and facilitate dialogue among all campus and community individuals and groups.
Lyn-Shue, the 2005-2006 chair of the Senate Special Projects committee and two-year veteran of the Senate, promoted an "agenda" rather than a platform, saying that a platform implies rhetoric while an agenda implies results.
Lyn-Shue's agenda includes a revamp of the advising program so that faculty can better understand the needs of freshmen and sophomores can make better choices about their advisors.
She also hopes to improve networking, specifically bringing Career Services to students rather than vice versa, facilitating more discussion between undergraduates and Tufts graduate students, and bringing alumni closer to the school.
She also hopes to increase spirit and bring campus groups closer together with more administrative support.
Hale has served on the Senate since his freshman year. "I've tried to do whatever I could to help any part of the community where I saw problems," Hale told the Daily. "I enjoy thinking creatively for looking for solutions to come up with solutions to any number of problems."
Hale would like to see significant reform in Tufts' Foundation Requirements. "Above all else, I'd like to see a four-year writing program without adding additional foundation requirements to the already-long list." Such a program would help students improve their writing across the curriculum.
He would also like to see reform in the World Civilizations requirement. "I'd like to use the World Civ requirement to show how cultures are interacting in today's world."
Hale hopes to also address concerns of facilities and laboratory space for scientists and engineers on campus. "I have a lot of friends who are engineers and people who [study the sciences at Tufts]. They complain and note that fact that labs are very small and somewhat antiquated."
He would like to see renovations to current laboratories and possibly the construction of a new laboratory building.
"I see a need here and I'd like to do what I can to give back to Tufts and to help my fellow students by running for, and if elected, serving, as TCU president," Hale said.
He also stressed the importance of public speaking and supported making it a requirement before leaving Tufts.
After closing remarks, a question and answer session followed. At the close of the meeting, the now-approved candidates were officially allowed to begin their campaigns as per ELBO's election guidelines.
