Tufts Student Resources (TSR), a large employer of Tufts students, will expand and improve its services as part of a re-branding campaign, with the goal of creating a stronger, more unified voice on campus.
The student-run organization is responsible for running several student services, including the Rez, a café in the campus center; an aerobics program; and laundry, dry-cleaning and MicroFridge services. The group also runs the Collegeboxes storage program and a service that allows students and parents to order goodies for students' birthdays and other special occasions.
TSR is organized into five divisions, each concentrating on running a particular service. According to TSR President Ali Osman, TSR executives are in the process of expanding these sections and changing the overall way in which the organization is portrayed.
"We are now able to start getting our divisions together," Osman, a junior, said. "We went through a whole re-branding process; we have new marketing products, a new logo [and] a new business identity," he said.
TSR Vice President of Finances Patrick Dugoni said that it is important for TSR to establish itself with a stronger, more well-known brand.
"We've created a new logo and a new business identity that we can promote, instead of promoting [our services] separately," Dugoni, a freshman, said. "A lot of people are aware of a lot of the services that we offer, but people don't connect the dots."
Along with the re-branding campaign, Dugoni said, TSR is also trying to spread awareness about their services to students who may not possess a full understanding of everything thatTSR does.
And a part of TSR's shifted focus includes offering newer and better student services, Osman said.
"There are a lot of things that we're zoning into right now and working on right now," he said. "A lot of our services have changed, and they've become more reliable."
TSR is working on partnering with different groups at Tufts to renovate the Rez, and they also hope to make the laundry service more professional.
Next year, students will have the option of signing up for a TSR membership, although the group has not yet ironed out the details, according to Dugoni.
"We're going to introduce a TSR membership to encourage people to use other branches of TSR," he said. "You'll probably have to pay 15, 20 bucks — if you sign up to rent a MicroFridge or laundry we'll probably throw one in there [for free]."
Unlike other student groups, TSR does not run on an academic-year calendar. Its new executive team began work last month.
TSR's board of directors, made up of representatives from various Tufts offices, hires the four-person executive team.
A group of managers and employees works alongside the division managers and employees. According to TSR's Web site, the 28-year-old organization employs about 60 students.
Last year, some of TSR's revenue was allegedly lost in an embezzlement scandal involving two former Tufts administrators.
Osman said that he was excited about his group's transformation in light of last year's event.
"It felt like we were running five or six different businesses," instead of running one overarching business, he said. "That's not because of the previous management, that's because of the embezzlement and the way things ended up becoming for TSR."
According to Osman, the publicized embezzlement had many ramifications for TSR, including increased caution by the administration about financial activity.
"Because of the embezzlement, our focus was on how can we continue to run our business last semester, and we did a good job doing that," he said. "We've definitely fixed things with the university, and we run [more smoothly]."
