The outgoing Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate this year undertook many initiatives to improve student life — particularly in the realm of enhancing students' academic and intellectual experience — and saw tangible progress and results.
Outgoing TCU President Brandon Rattiner, a graduating senior, said the 2009-2010 Senate was a success.
"I think it was a really great and positive year," Rattiner said. "We had a lot of senators that worked really, really hard to make life better for students."
The Education Committee was especially active this year, addressing the advising and course evaluation systems and creating the After Hours conversation series.
The committee drafted and circulated a comprehensive questionnaire to compile profiles of professors that students could refer to when seeking advisers for their majors, according to outgoing Committee Chair Nunu Luo, a rising junior.
"[The questionnaire will provide a] more comprehensive picture of the personal and academic side of the professor, so students are able to make informed decisions when they ask someone to be their adviser," Luo said.
Luo explained that many students face difficulties in finding advisers who match their academic interests because they have only taken classes with a few professors from their intended major department.
She noted that although some departments and professors have detailed profiles on their websites, there is no standardized system, and the availability of information differs greatly across departments.
The committee is still in the process of collecting completed questionnaires from professors, a process that will continue into the summer and possibly into next semester. The profiles will next year be posted on a Tufts website.
Luo said that the management of this system will eventually fall under the charge of Program Director for Advising and Scholarship Laura Doane. Luo hopes that department chairs will in the future ask new professors to fill out the questionnaire.
In regards to course evaluations, former committee members — rising senior Sam Wallis and rising sophomores Alice Pang and Meredith Goldberg — put forward a resolution to move course evaluations online and make them accessible to students.
Luo and Pang sat on the faculty Educational Policy Committee (EPC), which drafted a proposal to move to an online system and make available quantitative evaluation data.
The Arts, Sciences and Engineering faculty tabled the resolution for further discussion after debate arose over whether professors and departments would be given the ability to opt out of having their evaluations posted online.
The resolution will be considered at the next all-faculty meeting, which will take place this fall, Luo said.
Luo said the committee sought to give students a more complete picture of professors and classes. Senators also wanted a more open system so that students could feel their input makes a difference.
"If the process is more transparent and we see the effects of our evaluations, the students feel like they have an active role in the class," Luo said.
She added that an extensive review showed moving to an online system would bring Tufts in line with policies at peer institutions and Boston-area schools.
Another Education Committee-initiative was the new After Hours conversation series — originally proposed by Rattiner — in which professors were invited to participate in discussions with students in an intimate setting.
"The reason we created After Hours is because we have amazing, amazing professors on campus," Luo said. "We have valuable information and sources of discussion right here at the university."
In the realm of building community, the Senate this semester held its inaugural leadership dinner, which brought together student leaders from different organizations, according to Rattiner.
"The goal was to try to get leaders on campus, allow them the opportunity to meet one another and see what their friends and classmates were doing in their spare time," Rattiner said.
Rattiner said the dinner was successful for a first-time event, giving student leaders the chance to network. He expects it will be held again next year.
The Administration and Policy Committee, in particular rising sophomore Wyatt Cadley, this semester worked with administrators and Students Active for Ending Rape to improve the university's sexual assault policy, which has been criticized for being too lenient and unclear. Those involved in the discussions expect a new policy to be in place by the fall.
Senate also lobbied administrators to adjust the university calendar so that in the upcoming year, when scheduling is tight, classes will be held on Columbus Day instead of Veterans Day, so that the latter will be left free for students to honor veterans. This recommendation was in April approved by the EPC.
The Senate's trustee representatives also successfully lobbied the Board of Trustees, getting its go-ahead for a number of projects.
Graduating senior Duncan Pickard, the administration and finance representative, gained approval for further renovations to the Mayer Campus Center lobby. Construction will begin this summer and will make the design of the lobby more consistent with that of Hotung Café and the area around the Rez, which was renovated last summer.
"We wanted to keep the momentum going from the renovations that happened to the Rez," Pickard said. "The lobby seemed like the next logical step."
Graduating senior Adam Weldai, the university advancement representative, also gained the trustees' endorsement of a plan to start a new orientation program introducing incoming freshmen to the university's host communities of Medford and Somerville.
The Culture, Ethnicity, and Community Affairs (CECA) Committee pushed for re-evaluation of the Senate's community representative position, and the student body will in the fall revote on the two proposals that emerged.
CECA also expanded its yearly Culture Fest to a week-long event aimed at increasing campus awareness of diversity and at uniting culture groups.
