Cost-cutting measures define outgoing TCU Senate's projects

    Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators taking up the annual practice of adopting projects and self-imposed goals this year took an approach particularly marked by considerations of student costs, as they strove to help undergraduates ride out the economic storm.
    Completed projects addressed this priority through measures ranging from the elimination of ticket costs for certain on-campus student performances to cheaper food at the campus center.
    Newly elected TCU President Brandon Rattiner, who served on Senate this past year, spearheaded a project aimed at decreasing the costs of purchasing textbooks.
    Rattiner, a junior, worked with Tufts faculty and administrators to push for course syllabi to be posted prior to course registration, which he said would give students more time to purchase textbooks from online and other sources offering the most competitive prices.
    Sophomore Sam Wallis, who served on Senate this year and was recently reelected, also aimed to reduce textbook costs, drafting a resolution that urged faculty to post reading lists online and to try to refrain from requiring new editions of textbooks.
    Wallis led two other initiatives directed at easing the financial burden placed on students.
    Working closely with Director of Dining Services Patti Klos, he created a value menu for Hotung Café in an effort to bring on-campus food costs in line with off-campus prices. He also chaired the Senate's ad-hoc Task Force on the Financial Crisis, designed to help students weather the downturn and give students recommendations.
    "It was mostly advice to students on how to reduce their spending, how they could save money and where deals are," Wallis said.
    The TCU Senate passed its largest budget in history for fiscal year 2010, which included provisions to eliminate ticket costs for on-campus student-led events open to the entire student body. The decision aims to make on-campus productions more financially feasible for students to attend.
    Some senators, including this year's TCU treasurer, Matt Shapanka, have called into question the sustainability of the ticket-cost initiative. Shapanka said, though, that the change will still make a difference.
    "No matter what I think about the process we used to do it, the bottom line is next year, activities for students will be cheaper, period," Shapanka, a senior, said.
    The TCU Senate also significantly increased its co-sponsorship budget by $25,000 — for a total of $27,000 — after University President Lawrence Bacow's office announced it would no longer be able to provide student groups with co-sponsorship funds.
    This semester, the Senate has provided financial support to student groups including Tufts' mock trial program and students attending a climate and energy policy conference in Washington, D.C.
    "I think they did a good job helping new members and leaders of student groups navigate through all the Treasury procedures," said freshman Caroline McHugh, who was the vice president of social programming for this year's Freshman Class Council. "I know that Matt Shapanka worked a lot with our treasurer, helping her understand the ins and outs of using money at Tufts."
    The Senate has also allocated a significant amount of funds toward revamping infrastructure around campus.
    Senators in April approved a $100,000 loan to Tufts Student Resources for a revamping of The Rez café in the campus center.
    The decision came as part of a larger project spearheaded by junior Antonella Scarano, the Senate's incoming vice president and this past year's historian, to make minor facelifts to the entire campus center, including new carpeting, furnishing and lighting.
    Other individual projects include renovations to the common rooms of Metcalf, West and Carmichael Halls, improvements to the roommate-matching questionnaire for incoming freshmen and the addition of two restaurants to the Merchant Off-campus Points (MOPs) program.
    "We had one of the most successful years ever," Shapanka said. "We try to be very ambitious. I think, that being said, we got a lot done."
    Though many senators accomplished their yearlong goals, Rattiner said the Senate focused more on collaborative efforts.
    "I think that this year's Senate was defined more by teamwork than by individual projects," Rattiner said.
    As Rattiner prepares for his role as TCU president next year, he emphasized the importance of continuing to curtail costs on campus, though there remain limitations to the Senate's power.
    "I think it's important to keep perspective," he said. "The Senate is not a body that's going to be able to really reduce macro costs or really change the way that finances operate on campus."
    Still, he said, the Senate has the ability to ease students' financial burden on a smaller level.
    "It's critical for next year's Senate to remember that they're not going to be able to decrease tuition or increase student aid," he said. "We can't fix the economy or increase economic equality, but we can work to fix the problems associated with it."