At the beginning of the semester, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate announced its plans to create a diversity ad hoc committee.
Although the committee is still in its planning stages, some details have already been worked out.
According to TCU Senate President Mitch Robinson, there will be about 10 to 15 students, faculty members and administrators on the committee, which will "deal with issues of race" on campus.
"Because [of] some of ... the tensions with diversity on this campus, Senate felt it was necessary to put a committee together," he said.
A broad range of interests will be invited to join, including diversity-related groups such as the Bias Education and Awareness Team. Representatives from the campus media will also be invited.
"Because of the role that journalism plays, we want to involve leaders from media groups on campus," said Senator Duncan Pickard, a freshman who helped to spearhead the campaign.
In this same vein, professors with a strong background in journalism would also be included. "We want every perspective being served," Robinson said.
Still, Robinson said that the purpose of inviting the media will not be regulation. "Obviously we would love for journalists to involve themselves ... but this committee is not focused on trying to channel what journalists write about in any way," he said.
According to Robinson, the initiative to create the committee began this year, although it was not in response to any one incident, but rather to an overarching problem that exists both on and off the Hill.
Pickard said that part of the prompting for this committee came directly from the student body. "There's been a lot of response from different underrepresented members of the Tufts community that feel diversity needs to be addressed," he said.
While it was unveiled along with a host of other initiatives after the poorly received Primary Source carol "O Come All Ye Black Folk," Senator C.J. Mourning, a freshman, said that the committee was not a knee-jerk response to it.
"It's just addressing the diversity in campus. I can understand [why] it's being perceived as a response to The Primary Source but [I don't think it's] a direct response," she said.
According to TCU Vice President and senior Harish Perkari, although such a committee has "always been something that people have seen the need for," the creation of the Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) has allowed it to get its feet off of the ground.
The committee will "work directly with the office," Perkari said. Although the responsibilities of the committee have not been officially decided, the OID will help to direct them. "There's going to be a lot of initiatives through that office," Perkari said.
OID Director Lisa Coleman did not respond to requests for a comment for this article.
Although Robinson acknowledged that there are several well-established groups, such as the Equal Educational Opportunity Committee, that are devoted to dealing with similar issues, he said that the new committee will be distinct from them.
"[The committee] isn't going to be taking away from already existing bodies or places on campus that deal with diversity," he said.
"The idea is we don't want to step on anyone's toes," Pickard said.
While many decisions still need to be made and no definite timeframe for the formation of the committee exists, it should be "in place by the end of the semester," Pickard said.
