The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate welcomed seven freshmen into its membership this week after the freshman senate election on Wednesday, in which 44 percent of 1,283 eligible freshmen voted.
Corey Briskin, Callie Kolbe, Piyali Kundu, Constance "CJ" Mourning, Xavier Malina, Duncan Pickard and Scott Silverman will now be representing the Class of 2010 in the TCU Senate.
The new members will be able to meet their older counterparts at the Senate retreat this weekend in New Hampshire to examine and discuss campus life as well as the changes that need to be made to it.
Some of these ideas were brought up during the Candidates' Forum, held on Sept. 14. Platforms raised issues like the lack of panini-makers in Carmichael and the need for wireless Internet in the dorms and paper towels in the bathrooms.
A few candidates voiced their concerns about the lack of freshman awareness regarding Senate activities. "I found that many freshmen didn't really know what was happening on the Senate or the avenues through which they could effect change," Pickard said.
However, many of the newly elected representatives agreed on the fact that they were too new at Tufts to really know which issues have the highest priority.
"I agree that there are a lot of things to change, but I don't know which need to be changed first," Malina said.
He believes that many of the students who were elected didn't focus on specific issues but rather ran on a platform that showed more broadly that they were "willing to effect change."
Briskin echoed this attitude. "As 'copout' as this sounds, I haven't been here very long, so I don't know enough to make big promises," he said.
The election process itself was marked by change. Voting percentages won by each individual candidate will no longer be released to the Daily, due to changes in Senate bylaws.
-by Pranai Cheroo
