The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate this year has extra funds at its disposal, thanks to surpluses from last year, and is implementing a distribution program to fund students' visions for improving campus life.
The Senate currently has approximately $450,000 in surplus funds, according to TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a junior. Slightly over half of that surplus is leftover money from last year, as the Student Activities Fee was not spent in its entirety. A quarter of it is surplus rolled over from previous years, and the remaining quarter is made up of returns from some of the recovered funds projects.
The Senate intends to distribute $200,000 of this surplus to student groups this year through a newly instituted grant system, de Klerk said.
The surplus program will fund new campus projects by awarding grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, according to de Klerk.
TCU President Sam Wallis said the grants are available to anyone who submits an application.
"I would really encourage any group to apply," Wallis, a senior, said. "Any group that has experience in doing programming or on−campus activities" would be a good candidate, he said.
De Klerk, the architect of the program, said the Senate plans to award the grants to projects that would have a long−term impact on the campus and would not otherwise have been funded.
"From year to year, students have these grand ideas for capital projects, things that need to be improved, but they can never get the money," de Klerk said.
Going forward from this year, the Senate will implement the use of the grant program whenever the surplus exceeds $200,000, de Klerk said.
Groups seeking funds must submit their grant applications to the TCU Treasury by Oct. 29, according to de Klerk. The Senate will select the awardees before the Thanksgiving break, which begins Nov. 24.
Applications must present a proposal for a one−time capital expenditure that will benefit the greater Tufts community, last for a minimum of five years and be implemented by the beginning of the next academic year, de Klerk said.
"There aren't strict guidelines for what that proposal should look like because we're expecting a wide range of projects to come forth," she said.
TCU Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack, a junior, said all types of student groups can apply, including athletic groups.
The potential grant sizes are $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000, according to de Klerk, although the Senate will determine the number and variety of grants after reviewing the applicants.
Wallis said the surplus grant program is a solution to a longstanding debate about how the Senate's surplus funds should be spent.
"We finally found a solution to the budgeting issue, which really is something we've struggled with all four years that I've been here," Wallis said.
Pasternack said previous allocations of surplus funds have sparked extensive debates, citing the 1998 decision to build the Mayer Campus Center patio and the 2009 vote to fund the Loj's Trips Cabin.
"We basically noticed that when Senate has a large surplus, it becomes very controversial to spend it on one project," Pasternack said. "The idea was to break it up into smaller pieces."
De Klerk said the Senate's original plan was to create an endowment from the surplus funds, but the administration rejected the proposal.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said administrators from the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering felt that the Student Activities Fee should more directly benefit the students who paid it, rather than members of future classes.
He said the fee is collected for immediate use, not for the purposes of funding an endowment or future activities.
"The thought is that they're collected from everybody who is enrolled for the purpose of funding that year's activities," Reitman said.
The Allocations Board (ALBO), which is responsible for the disbursement of the Student Activities Fee, will consider all submitted proposals over two meetings, de Klerk said.
Following the first meeting, groups will get the chance to fix any flaws in their proposal, while ALBO will meet with administrators to determine the feasibility of the projects, according to de Klerk.
In the interim, ALBO will also solicit senators' and students' opinions during an open Senate meeting, she said.
"My hope is that would not be a particularly long discussion, but it would be to let the ALBO chairs get a sense of what Senate and what any members of the community would like to see as winners," de Klerk said.
After the second meeting, ALBO will eliminate proposals that do not meet its criteria and select a list of projects for the Senate to choose from. ALBO will also draft a runners−up list in case the Senate does not like the recommendations.
One student group hopes to found a safe−rides system at Tufts through the surplus−grant program. Senator Tabias Wilson, a sophomore involved in the project, explained that a safe−rides system would service the whole campus and run on Thursdays and weekends until 2 a.m. Work−study students would staff the service, reducing some of the pressure on Tufts University Police Department's escort service.
"It's a complement to the police," Wilson said. "It's important that police are guarding campus and looking for people who don't belong here."
He said that the group aims to purchase two vans for the safe−rides service. "It's really just beginning, so we're not sure how much money we would need," Wilson said.
Another group hopes to use surplus−grant funds to establish a bike−sharing program at Tufts. Senior Jason Merges said that such a program would empower students to navigate the local area.
"There's a lot of places that you can't get to by using the Joey," Merges said, referring to the shuttle between campus and Davis Square. "My vision is to give access to the surrounding area and also to give people something fun to do."
Merges said many students want bikes but do not have them here at Tufts, in part because bikes are expensive in the Boston area. The group has been talking to other universities with bike−sharing programs to build a model for Tufts.
