Ask any high school senior to talk about diversity at the colleges she is applying to and she could list some pretty accurate percentages on ethnic groups. Many colleges, including Tufts, are able to boast some attractive numbers in terms of diversity. But community representatives serving on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate are feeling unheard and unsure of their role in the body. There is concern over how to attain a sensitive balance between adequately representing student groups in the Senate while still ensuring that those groups do not override Senate members who are meant to stand for a broader constituency of students.
Currently, there are four community representatives serving on the Senate, one each on behalf of the Asian-American Alliance, Queer Straight Alliance, Pan-African Alliance and Association of Latin American Students. These members, who vote on Senate decisions that do not involve the allocation of funds, go through a different selection process than that of those who are elected by their classes. In order to send a community representative to the Senate, a group must collect 250 signatures from members of the TCU — essentially, all undergraduates. If the petition is successful, TCU members then vote on the petition through an election conducted by the Elections Comission; a majority in an election with at least 25 percent voting is enough to earn a spot. After that initial victory, the student group must only hold annual internal elections to decide who will represent it in the Senate from year to year; no more campus-wide votes are required.
One problem with the current system is this election process. The number of TCU members who actually vote for the community representatives is very small, and the election does not follow the same process as those of typical senators. If campus groups want to have meaningful voices in decisions about student life, the best way to ensure this is to work to achieve the same level of visibility and breadth of support that senators do — out of necessity — when they campaign for votes every year.
Another issue is that only four groups currently have community representatives. Most of Tufts' highly visible student organizations committed to promoting diversity are spoken for, but the ranks of the community representatives in the Senate are few. By expanding the variety of groups represented, diversity organizations' stock in student government could rise without a serious change in the machinery of how senators and community representatives interact.
If Tufts is to do justice to its flattering diversity numbers, the school should be giving its minority populations not just token representation but, if anything, a microphone. As we were reminded on Black Solidarity Day yesterday, there is much work to be done before many American minority groups will be on equal educational and financial footing with whites. Elite universities have a disproportionate opportunity — and duty — to further this goal, and they can start by listening hard for students' voices.
