The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Sunday night passed three amendments to Senate bylaws that revise the way in which community representatives to the Senate are elected and serve their constituents.
The student body in September approved the changes in a school-wide election pitting two referenda — addressing the community representatives — against one another. The language of the winning referendum was immediately applied to the TCU Constitution, but the Senate determined that the amendments' wording was not clear enough to be applied to the body's bylaws, which outline for the Senate how the constitution is to be implemented.
Sunday's amendments to the bylaws did not change any of the provisions outlined in the original referendum and only affected their wording, TCU President Sam Wallis said.
"We're not changing the referendum that was passed," Wallis said. "These aren't changes to what was voted on; it was implementing those changes. We were just flushing out the changes," he said.
Referendum 3, which won in the ballot election by one vote, included a provision that community representatives be granted full voting rights on all TCU Senate issues, including fiscal matters.
The newly amended bylaws, as guided by September's referendum, also change the way community representative candidates are selected and establish a Diversity and Community Affairs (DCA) Officer position to oversee the community representatives and all diversity issues on campus.
TCU Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack chaired a special committee that drafted amendments to three of the Senate's bylaws. He said the amendment to the bylaw regarding community representatives, Bylaw 5, required the most dialogue within the committee.
"We essentially completely rewrote the language we had and the process by which the community representatives are elected because before, community representatives were elected within TCU-recognized groups and the groups largely controlled that process, whereas now it's a TCU-wide election, so we needed to ensure that there was language for that process," Pasternack, a senior, said.
The special committee, in addition to finalizing changes to the Senate's community representative bylaws, also drafted amendments to the bylaw concerning membership and attendance in the Senate as well as the one that outlines the body's general procedures and regulations.
Wallis said the Bylaw Amendment 3, which changed the selection process for community representatives, was the most controversial point of discussion. According to the amendment, any TCU-recognized group can apply to get a candidate on a school-wide ballot. Additionally, ‘student leaders' from any Group of 6 center can apply to submit a candidate only after they receive support from the director of the center.
Senator Tim Lesinski, a junior, voted against Amendment 3 because of concerns that the selection process may become corrupt.
"My issue was that a very small group gets to choose who is on the ballot instead of the whole community or the whole student body, so by the time it gets voted on, it's been narrowed down by a small group … which would lead to a corrupt system," Lesinski said.
"It's a group of under ten student leaders who pick, and they could choose to only allow their friends. My amendment fixes that by removing some of the power so [the leaders] still have the power to say which candidate they support, but they all get to be on the ballot."
Lesinski's proposed amendment to Amendment 3, which would have lessened the power of student groups to have final word on who gets on a ballot, did not pass.
Senator Logan Cotton, a sophomore, said he supported the special committee's amendments, saying that Lesinksi's proposed changes weren't in line with the goals of Referendum 3.
"I feel like our job right now with the bylaws is to create a procedure that maintains harmony with the spirit of the referendum that was passed," he said.
The amendments to Bylaw 5 passed with a 17-4 vote with 2 senators abstaining.
Pasternack said he expects no further changes to the wording of the amendments to the bylaws.
"We tried to be as thorough as possible," Pasternack said. "If there are any things that need to be changed, it will be after we've tried out the whole process. This year will be a trial year even though the process will be in effect."
