They say that connections are everything.- This year, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate will be working very hard to make even more of them.
"The goal of the Senate this year is to better serve the entire student population instead of just a segment," Senate Historian Neil DiBiase said.
The body hopes to revamp its role as liason between the student body at large, the administration, and Tufts' community neighbors.
One of the Senate's main jobs is to allocate funds to student groups - and accordingly sees less of students less active in campus life. "If you're not involved in a student group, your connection to the Senate is pretty limited," DiBiase said.
The Senate will reach out to these students with a new monthly forum where students can voice their concerns to the Senate and Dean of Student Affairs, Bruce Reitman.
Reitman credits Tufts with an outstanding precedent of facilitating conversation between students and the power structure.
"I think that communication between the students, the TCU Senate and the administration is critical," Reitman wrote in an e-mail to the Daily. "I also think that it is one of Tufts' strengths as a community. The number of joint ventures and shared policy making opportunities that involve students and faculty and administration is unusual at Tufts."
And new collaborations are in the works. One example, conceived by TCU President Mitch Robinson: softball games fielding teams of community and university officials and TCU Senators. President Bacow's office and Reitman are planned for the roster; the first game is slated for Sept. 29, on Fletcher field.
The Senate will also try to warm relations between students and the Medford and Somerville communities.
With the help of elected officials, Robinson has been working to organize community barbecues that would be open to students and local residents.
"Part of improving community relations starts with the students getting to know the rest of the community," said Robinson. "If you're on Boston or College Avenue, and there's a problem with the community, rather than calling the police immediately, you now have an option to lower the stress between the two communities."
Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel said that community relations are a persistent concern in neighborhoods where loud parties try neighbors' patience.
Any effort to get students and neighbors talking is a good idea, Rubel said.
"I think it's a fantastic project, and Mitch and the Senators helping him are doing a great job reaching out to both elected officials and neighbors," she said. "I think engaging students who live off campus and urging them to meet their neighbors and see things from their perspective is a necessary step."
Robinson is also working to choose eight community liaisons, four students and four Medford/Somerville residents, who will mediate disputes that arise between the two groups.
"Their concern is not that students are throwing parties, their concern is that you're not adhering to the needs of the community and being a good neighbor," he said.
Improvements to student life are, as always, a priority.
Thanks to the Senate, the Tower Caf?© will also be open later. Students may now study there until 3 a.m., though food service will stop at 1 a.m. as before, according to DiBiase.
Dorm life will be another focus this year.
"Along with having a more vocal role in the furniture that's chosen, we're also looking to have a more active role in improvement of dorms in general, starting with Wren and Haskell," Robinson said.
The Senate also plans to follow through with last year's decisions, DiBiase said, like the planned extension of Tisch study hours.
"Last year the Senate really got a lot of stuff done," he said. "Our goal is not only to continue that momentum but also to utilize what we did last year."
Another goal is improvements to the Tufts ID card system. ID cards now open the doors of Tilton and Sophia Gordon Halls, a convenience the Senate hopes to add to all dorms. "We want that to happen on every part of campus," said Robinson.
Lazy students wanting to know whether to "wait or walk" to Davis will also be in luck when the Senate wraps up its Joey GPS project. The student-conceived system, which uses the GPS signal of an inexpensive cell phone to plot the shuttle's location on an online map, was successful in several pilot runs last semester.
"We're working on the technology so that's something that's going to be completed this year," promised Robinson.
An ambitious Senate staff and involved student population will drive this action, said Robinson. "We have one of the best executive boards, and one of the best student bodies, in the history of the Senate," he said.
Plans aside, DiBiase said, the Senate's ears are open. "We want to know what you want before we tell you what we're going to give you," he said.
"I don't really want to make any promises to the students before they happen," said Robinson. "The big picture is we want to have a senate that hears and works to improve the life of every single student on campus."
