To students, $20 is a lot of money and deciding how to spend $100 constitutes a big decision. So when the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate was given the task of distributing $687,780, it was a downright scary amount of money. There were literally thousands of ways to mess up the decision and spend it unwisely. The fear of wasting the money ended up overwhelming the TCU Senate, eventually leading to an ultra-conservative decision to save nearly all of it. Out of the whole sum, only $88,000 was spent directly on student groups or projects.
Both of us, along with the six others who voted against this proposal, could not be more disappointed by the Senate's lack of action. The 18 members of the body that voted for this proposal let their fear cripple their optimism and duty. This sum of money may have been frightfully large, but the opportunity to make real, tangible, positive change on campus was even larger. By doing nothing, the Senate ran away from this opportunity with its tail between its legs.
Receiving the recovered funds was an unbelievable and totally unique way to give back to the student body. As senators, we had near complete freedom regarding the funds, as long as we: 1) were being fiscally responsible, 2) were not binding future Senates with a decision and 3) were doing something to truly benefit the student body. The decision made on Dec. 7 and into the morning of Dec. 8 addresses the first two charges but ignores the third. The Senate chose to save approximately $300,000 in a low risk and low return savings account; to put $300,000 into a higher interest and higher risk endowment to gather interest and to benefit student activities; and approximately $88,000 to be distributed to the student groups through the Allocations Board.
This is, of course, the fiscally responsible way to deal with the money, but it is also the path of a body that simply refused to make a decision. There were a number of legitimate plans and proposals on the table, but none were deemed worthy or necessary. Financial aid, campus center renovations, grants for creative programming, wireless and other great ideas were deemed unworthy by the TCU Senate. Moreover, helping build a new trips cabin, a measure visibly supported by Tufts Mountain Club and many other students at nearly all recovered funds functions, did not even make the final ballot the student body was able to vote on. The dismissal of all of these ideas was a slap in the face to all students that campaigned and worked hard to get their ideas passed through the system.
As senators, we are entrusted with the burden of making difficult decisions that promote the welfare of the student body. As senators, we failed to meet our responsibility in regards to the recovered funds. Spending recklessly would have been just as foolish as not spending, but there were numerous good ideas being discussed. Saving the money for the sake of saving is a ridiculous notion. Does the TCU Senate simply believe that one day a new brilliant idea will arbitrarily surface? Why not at least give the money back to the students in an innovative grant program that allows them to control the funds (junior Xavier Malina's idea)? Money is meant to be spent and has absolutely zero utility when sitting in a bank account. The ideas were there; the courage the senators needed to vote on them was not. Hopefully, this lack of decisive action will be only a temporary roadblock in the quest to better the Tufts experience.
Fortunately, the benefit of saving the money is that it is still there. Both of us encourage everyone in the student body to press their senators a little harder this semester in an effort to make them decide on something concrete. In fact, between the wounded economy and the shrinking endowment, saving the money for programs might actually be a good idea. But it is important that the saved money is earmarked for something. The whole point of this article is to re-launch the conversation. New ideas are always welcome, and pressure on the TCU Senate is always appropriate. As elected representatives, the desires of our constituents are of paramount importance to us, and with some student activism, hopefully some other senators will begin to make decisions they can be held accountable for. If you see a senator walking down the street or at a party, please tell him or her how you feel. Tell him or her that we have a golden chance to make a timeless impact on the Tufts community. Tell him or her to do what is right for Tufts.
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Brandon Rattiner, co-chair of the TCU Senate Education Committee, is a junior majoring in political science and philosophy. Elliot McCarthy, a TCU senator, is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.
