Tufts students will vote tomorrow for the next Tufts Community Union (TCU) president, who will represent them during the 2006-2007 academic school year.
The candidates are juniors Denise Lyn-Shue, Harish Perkari and Mitch Robinson.
Dean of Students Bruce Reitman thinks that the TCU President should be seen as an influential student lobbyist, rather than a policy maker.
"I tend to pay a lot of attention to what they say," he said.
Before being elected, outgoing TCU President Jeffrey Katzin campaigned on a platform of many goals, some of which he was able to implement as TCU president, and some of which he was not.
"When [administration members] have an idea of what your priorities are [ahead of time], it helps them," Katzin said.
One of Katzin's primary accomplishments was the implementation of the new housing lottery system with The Office of Residential Life.
He said, however, that during the semester some of his preconceived ideas ran into obstacles and fell apart.
We "tried to adopt a peer advising program through the Academic Resource Center," Katzin said.
This effort flopped, according to Katzin, after Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser and the Academic Resource Center (ARC) did not provide the support and training needed to maintain such a program.
Reitman said that such issues, which affect the workloads of academic faculty members, are rarely influenced by students.
It's "not in [the] control of a candidate," he said, calling goals of advising and teaching reform long term goals.
"When you get into issues that require a vote of the faculty ... that stuff is a lot slower," he said.
"Teachers here need to continue to develop and better get [their] teaching method across to students," Robinson said, adding that one student, for example, might respond better to multiple teaching methods, both audio and visual.
Lyn-Shue suggested a training program for freshmen advisors. She feels that they're often "not well informed" about student requirements. Members of the administration, though, indicated that many programs are already in place to educate both faculty and peer advisors.
Associate Dean Charles Nwabeke currently is in charge of the process by which professors who serve as freshman advising are briefed with the host of requirements necessary for every student.
"We train them," he said. "There is no faculty member without training."
In addition to a training session that takes place in May of each year, all faculty advisors are briefed again during orientation and supplied with a handbook containing all academic requirements.
The administration is "very, very thorough" with selecting its peer academic leaders, who are also briefed on the requirements, Nwabeke said.
Perkari intends to lobby for students looking to expand Tufts' academic offerings by, for example, turning the communications and media studies minor into a major, establishing a queer studies program and establishing a permanent Hindi/Urdu program.
"Just because many members of the student body do not see the relevance of certain academic subjects, the fact that there is an organization demanding [them] is reason enough for their development," Perkari said.
Academic growth, however, is "a hard thing to accomplish," Glaser said, "because you need to have the faculty to do it. I don't think it's a short term goal."
Robinson focuses his plans for academic change around leadership. He said this approach originated as a result of his internship with Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick, for which he is receiving credit in the political science department.
He called the internship "one of the greatest experiences I've had here at Tufts," and worries that students often don't get recognized for applying classroom learning to outside experience. He said that, if elected, he would support Dean of Arts of Sciences Robert Sternberg's proposed Leadership Minor by giving Sternberg his take on which courses best foster leadership.
Sternberg declined to comment for this article, as he did not want to appear to be endorsing one or more candidates.
On-Campus Community
While academic and advising issues require a long-term effort, administrators say that TCU presidents can show a shorter-term influence in other areas.
Accomplishable goals "tend to be issues of services and non-academic policy," Reitman said.
Robinson, Lyn-Shue and Perkari all agree on the need for greater networking among Tufts' diverse student groups.
"[The campus has] all this amazing diversity," but "we don't have one common voice that articulates all these other voices or understands them," Robinson said.
As a candidate last year, Katzin promised to establish a "Council of Presidents" to help facilitate communication between student groups. The creation of the council was not successful.
"Getting everyone together [was] much more difficult than I had anticipated," Katzin said.
If elected, Lyn-Shue plans to take up this effort again by hosting "several forums to have student groups come in and discuss their ideas and their concerns with each other and with me," she said. "Scheduling can be tough, which is why I believe several forums at different times are needed."
"A lot of groups want to branch out [and] offer support to other groups," she said, adding that she thinks more campus unity will increase Tufts' school spirit.
Lyn-Shue also hopes to improve relations between student groups and the Allocations Board by improving information exchange between both parties.
Robinson intends to create a "program that really works with those groups in building infrastructure or leadership core."
Perkari holds similar goals. He intends to create collaboration through a meeting of the leadership of Tufts 15 largest student organizations.
"Student leaders can plan events together," he said. Currently, he said, "this rarely happens."
He also emphasized Senate outreach. "There's definitely a vibe on Senate where we expect students to come to us," he said. "A more effective way at creating change is by getting students' opinion; creating a model where we go to the students."
He plans to send senators to student organization meetings to get a greater sense of what is happening on campus.
Off-Campus Community
Robinson proposed the creation of a Campus Improvement Fund that would support technological improvement, student resources, improvement of facilities and common space, training for student groups, and opportunities for greater faculty-student interaction.
Robinson, Lyn-Shue and Perkari all stressed the importance of building community off-campus. All backed a much discussed idea on the Senate: an off-campus barbecue including Medford and Somerville residents.
"Wherever there's free food, Tufts people would definitely come," Perkari said.
But as Katzin pointed out, "the barbeque is already happening ... hopefully whoever is president could work on [other] community relations projects that we've laid out."
Reitman said that such community efforts "need energy to keep going."
Robinson also discussed a plan for "community care" in which students would have the chance to get to know their neighbors by helping them out with yard or household tasks, with pay supplemented by Tufts. Robinson would continue efforts on this plan.
According to Katzin, the idea was originally proposed by former TCU president Dave Baumwoll.
Katzin said that it was "hard to gather tasks [to be completed] from community ... organizations" and that he hopes that next year's president will do more.
It's "easier said than done. It needs a large time investment," Katzin said.
Facilities
Lyn-Shue is concerned with the conditions of the Engineering Project Development Center (EPDC), one of the few campus study spaces specifically designed for engineers.
If elected president, Lyn-Shue, the only engineer currently on the Senate, said she would make sure that engineers are not forgotten when the Senate assesses the needs of the student body.
She said she has been in contact with the administration to see what can be done about the poor lighting in the computer lab. "They [the administration] ignore it if it's not brought up to them," she said.
Dean of Engineering Linda Abriola said that the administration is in the process of prioritizing computer lab renovations that will take place over the next five years.
She did not specifically mention which labs are being considered, but said that securing funding for such renovations is a "top priority" in the Capital Campaign fundraising push to take place this November.
Abriola added that over the past two years, the University has renovated facilities in Anderson Hall, the Science and Technology building, Bray Hall and Halligan Hall.
While Lyn-Shue put in a strong word for improvements to science spaces, Robinson and Perkari emphasized improvements to common spaces on the Tufts campus.
In light of Tufts' $40,000 tuition, Robinson said, common room improvements should be made. "There's a lot of broken chairs, a lot of stained couches that are very old," he said. "We shouldn't need mouse-traps."
Perkari also highlighted dorm common room improvements. "I plan to see that our common spaces are better maintained," he said.
Perkari recognized that improvements to common rooms may not be seen during the next academic year, but feels the effort is still necessary.
"It's all about starting the effort," he said. "Hopefully future Senates will be working on it."
Technology
Robinson wants to use money from the Student Activities Fund to "invest in... technological advancement," such as the expansion of wireless Internet on campus. He has not started working to plan such an expansion, but believes that the "entire administration" needs to get involved in this and other technological advancement.
Perkari said that he will push the administration to make wireless Internet access a priority. He added that he has not started to examine the costs or potential source of funding for wireless on campus.
"We need to set up wireless in residential areas first," he said.
But according to sophomore TCU Senator Alex Pryor, the Senate has already learned that the expansion of on-campus wireless access will occur.
"We will have wireless access either by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, on the Residential Quad, the President's Lawn and the Academic Quad," Pryor said. "That was our accomplishment of the year, [sophomore Senator] Evan [Dreifuss] and I."
Pryor added that, though "the administration intends to be fully wireless" eventually, the process would have been a lot slower "if [Senate] didn't push for it." She also praised Vice President for Information Technologies and Chief Information Officer Amelia A. Tynan for her work in extending on-campus wireless access.
Campus Safety
Robinson said that if elected, his first priority will be to improve safety on and around campus. Somerville's SAFE-Start initiative currently works to address pedestrian safety in the area. Reitman said the city is currently assessing which areas most need safety improvements.
Robinson's first goal in improving safety is to help improve traffic control near the rotary on College Avenue, several blocks from where Boryana Damyanova was struck and killed by two drivers in November.
He also wants to see street lights added to dark side streets around campus, and said that he considers the issues of crime and policing on campus secondary to pedestrian safety.
Reitman said that adding street lights to areas could be difficult. "There are certain regulations about how bright it could be," he said.
Greek Life
Lyn-Shue was the only candidate to directly address Greek life on campus in her campaign.
"Most students don't know about all of the great things fraternities and sororities bring to campus," she said. "All students know about are the scandals and the problems of the Greek system."
"I want to have "fraternities and sororities work with other student groups [to] show students first hand that there is more to Greek life than parties," she said.
Katzin, who led the Senate in working with fraternity consultant Thomas Jelke this year, called the improvement of Greek life "probably one of the bigger issues on campus right now."
President of the Inter-Greek Council (IGC) Ray Radovich, a junior, said that the most direct contact a TCU president has with the Greek system is through being a member of the Committee on Fraternities and Sororities (CFS).
"Through their involvement in CFS, the president can give objective feedback to the Greek community on a regular basis," he said.
Managing Costs
Robinson also wants to ease the financial burden for Tufts students. "Students should not be nickeled and dimed at this University, ever," he said.
According to Robinson, small decreases in cost can make a big difference in a student budget. He hopes to reduce the price of making on-campus copies, eating at the campus center and purchasing books at the University bookstore.
But according to Director of Dining and Business Services Patricia Klos, campus food prices are controlled by trustees, not Tufts Dining.
In terms of bookstore prices, Reitman said that "pricing policies are not determined locally." The campus bookstore is owned by Barnes and Noble Booksellers. "I doubt we can change [prices]," he said.
TCU Vice President John Valentine, a senior, made an effort this year to encourage professors to turn in their book lists early enough to let students buy books online for cheaper prices. This plan did not work: Valentine said that only a fraction of professors submitted their booklists early.
Valentine thinks that a "larger scale effort is needed besides a few members of senate" in order to get this plan to work.
Alumni Involvement
Robinson advocated a proactive approach to links with Tufts alumni. "As soon as you declare a major, they should link you up with two or three alumni," to help with advising and career counseling, he said.
Robinson also said that he wants to "make sure we [students] have a seat at the table" in future decisions that affect the Tufts image.
Perkari plans for a comprehensive look at alumni networking that would include positive student-alumni relationships and communications through student organizations.
"[Alumni] complain that they are asked for money without other contact," he said. Perkari wants to change this through initiatives like connecting years' worth of past Leonard Carmichael Society presidents together.
"As president, I'll make it a point to have Career Services and Alumni Relations involve students in the process of contacting alumni," he said.
"I'll also have them host more events on campus that will give students an opportunity to meet fellow alumni and network with them," he added.
Glaser said he likes the spirit behind efforts to bring alumni and students together, but thinks that Career Services already does an appropriate job of putting students and alumni in contact with each other, at the appropriate time.
Kristen Sawicki, Daniel Lutz, Jamie Bologna, Christopher Charron, Kat Schmidt and David Cavell contributed reporting to this article.
