The upcoming Spring Fling stands to be a more star-studded affair than in years past. The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate Allocations Board allocated $65,000 in buffer funds to Programming Board for the Spring Fling budget last Sunday. The amount is up from the $25,000 the Programming Board requested and is an addition to the annual $85,000 reserved for Spring Fling. Therefore, the budget for Spring Fling this year has jumped to $150,000, up from the usual $110,000.
The reason for the increased budget was to attract headliners and opening acts with higher price tags. Those who felt that the combination of The Roots and RJD2 at last Spring Fling could have had a wider appeal should be appeased.
TCU Senate President Tomas Garcia said that this funding decision was made because Spring Fling is an event attend- ed by almost everyone on campus. As a result, the surplus money spent would benefit a large number of students. We couldn't agree more.
The Senate should be commended for spending the student body's Student Activity Fee money wisely. It was a good call to spend the money on something that is accessible and unequivocally benefits the entire student body.
It's a move that stands in stark contrast to the Senate's controversial April 2009 decision to grant $230,000 of recovered embezzled funds to build the Trips Cabin, located next to Tufts Mountain Club's Loj in North Woodstock, N.H.
While the use of the Trips Cabin is available to all students — and the cabin was arguably the most developed proposal at the time — some accused the Senate of voting with their own experiences in mind instead of their constituents', given that the Senate uses the Loj for retreats. Similarly, others felt that on-campus uses of the funds could have had a greater impact on a larger number of students.
The current TCU Senate, in deciding to put its money into making one of the largest and best-attended events on campus even bigger, shows that Tufts' student government can be trusted to keep its constituents at heart.
The decision to increase the Spring Fling budgeting, in order to make the event all that it can be, was a wise one. Increasing the budget means the funds were undeniably devoted to improving the experience for everyone on campus, something for which the Senate should always strive.
