The tone and substance of this year's TCU presidential race demonstrate the promise of next year's student leaders. The two candidates, junior Amanda Richardson and sophomore Neil DiBiase, bring vibrant ideas and energy to Tufts that bode well for the future, regardless of which candidate wins the race.
The proposals each candidate outlined have the potential - and the potential responsibility - to make Tufts a better place than it currently is. The Tufts Daily, however, endorses Neil DiBiase because his ideas and experience offer the best chance to bring the most positive change to Tufts.
Many of Amanda Richardson's ideas seem to center on making small but noteworthy improvements to student life. Her ideas to update the Career Services Web site, digitalize the Points system via a new Web site, and to create an efficient housing database are needed changes and should be implemented. Her plans to increase student-body-wide social programming should also be applauded.
Richardson's more ambitious proposals, however, are large issues that no TCU president could enact in just one year. Modifying the advising program and increasing language options are long-term efforts. Though students may campaign for change, these initiatives are ultimately within the jurisdiction of the administration and faculty. The Senate has already passed a resolution supporting the addition of Hindi and Urdu to the Tufts undergraduate curriculum; at this point it is up to the administration to make the next move.
Another tenet of Richardson's campaign, expanding Tufts study abroad options, is a process that takes many years; the Senate has already passed a resolution endorsing a Tufts program in an Arabic-speaking country, but the process is now out of the hands of the students and up to the Office of Study Abroad, which has told the Daily in the past that the Tufts in China program took at least three to four years to implement. With the Office already in the preliminary stages of adding the Arabic program, there is little for the Senate left to do; certainly no more programs could begin to be implemented now.
We are confident that Richardson will make a great senator next year; however, it is Neil DiBiase's platform that is most appropriate both for the needs of the student body and the abilities of a student body president.
Neil DiBiase's detailed vision to improve campus life builds on his considerable accomplishments as a member of the Senate. He clearly has the experience and potential to make many of his plans come to fruition. His planned changes to the Greek system and his proposal to establish a Tufts identity hold great promise if they are broadly supported. But most of all, his plan to create a liaison program between individual campus groups and the TCU Senate is the most practical and potentially beneficial of all the ideas mentioned in either of the campaigns.
Moreover, DiBiase's plan to create an "Innovative Program Fund," which would encourage campus groups to work together, accomplishes the necessary cooperation amongst student organizations that a close-knit community should strive to create.
DiBiase's lengthier experience on the Senate will undoubtedly help him effect his goals. It does, however, have the potential to be a curse as well as a blessing; we hope that the current Senate historian will be able to adjust his concerns to consider the broader role of the TCU president and will not find himself insulated from the Tufts student body by spending too much time in the minutiae of the Senate.
When faced with these two capable candidates, the Daily endorses Neil DiBiase for TCU president. The scope of his vision, buttressed by his accomplishments and Senate experience, gives him the greatest chance of making the biggest impact across the Tufts community. As a Senate veteran, we believe DiBiase will be able to work with his fellow senators to accomplish his plans.
For the good of the entire Tufts community, we hope that the two current candidates work together in the coming year and implement the best of each of their ideas, as well as those from outside the Senate.
