Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate President and senior Mitch Robinson will send the student body an e-mail today outlining the Senate's efforts to date this year to widen dialogue between the student body, the administration and the Medford-Somerville community at large.
"When the new Senate was elected, what we wanted was to be responsive and make every facet of student life better," Robinson told the Daily.
Earlier this year, the Senate helped launch Jumbo's Trunk as an overarching outlet for students to comment on the school. "Students wanted to be able to voice their complaints, concerns, anything," Robinson said.
Open forums between the student body and the administration have also set the foundations for a high level of communication between the two groups, Robinson said.
"I don't think there has been a year with more town hall meetings and opportunities to interact with an administrator," he said.
Robinson said the Senate is currently planning a meeting that should bring together University President Lawrence Bacow and Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman to speak with students. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for some time next month.
On another front, Robinson said that the Senate's response, through a variety of forums and its work to create a diversity ad hoc committee, also exemplified a commitment to the student body.
The ad hoc committee, which is still being formed, will address diversity on campus and will bring together a plethora of student organizations such as the Bias Education and Awareness Team (BEAT), members of the Group of Six, and Greek organizations, Robinson said.
"We're going to invite people that have been involved directly or indirectly with diversity to pull them together," he said. "If there's anything we can do to foster a better relationship between students, we need to do that."
According to Senate Historian and sophomore Neil DiBiase, this goal of "better serving the entire student population, not just a segmented population," has also manifested itself in other ways.
He pointed to the prominent say students have had in shaping the new Hotung Caf?©, which will serve alcohol and feature a new menu, as an example of the Senate trying to reflect student opinion.
"We're not there to kind of pass judgment, and we're not there to push our own personal goals," he said. "We're there to find out what the student body wants."
According to Robinson, the intensive student involvement in Hotung's planning, through surveys, focus groups and other forms of input, is part of the Senate's response to student criticisms of the lackluster social life at Tufts.
The improved Hotung will bolster the school's social offerings, making the cafe "a destination spot, and not just a spot to walk through," he said.
The Senate has also worked this year to strengthen community relations and ease the tension that had been simmering between Somerville residents and student neighbors.
According to DiBiase, there are student community liaisons in the area bounded by three streets - Conwell, Curtis and Chetwynd. After instating the liaisons, he said that the number of calls to the police reporting unruly student behavior in the area has dropped, which indicates positive progress. "The neighbors and the students are getting along better," he said.
Still, the program has not yet left its infant stages. "We're in the process of solidifying the roles of community liaisons. We ... did a pilot program this year and we're trying to figure out what works best," he said.
Although the program will likely expand, some areas of the community are not amenable to the liaison program, and DiBiase said that the Senate is still trying to figure out appropriate programming for those sections.
Robinson also cited events such as community-student barbeques in Somerville as exemplifiers of improved town-gown relations. A "Tufts in Davis Square" event further bridged the gap as student bands, a capella groups and comedians worked together with Somerville residents such as comedian Jimmy Tingle to put on a performance.
As the Senate approaches the final few weeks of the year, the body will remain focused on obtaining final approval to complete the renovations on Hotung. DiBiase also said that a GPS system tracking the Joey is almost in place.
"Joey GPS looks like it's going to be live in the next couple weeks, which will be a huge thing," he said.
