The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Feb. 12 passed a resolution to join United for Undergraduate Socio-Economic Diversity (U/FUSED), a network that encourages discussion and cross-collegiate participation in raising awareness and finding solutions for issues of socioeconomic inequality, according to TCU Sophomore Senator Joe Thibodeau.
The resolution to join the organization was passed by a vote of 25-4-0.
Thibodeau drafted and submitted the proposal.
"I think one immediate thing that we will get from this is to get a space to constructively discuss these issues and also at the same time have the opportunity to connect with schools that we don't normally connect with," Thibodeau said.
Some of the benefits that come with joining U/FUSED include working toward need-blind admissions at Tufts and helping support students who receive financial aid but still face a number of other costs at Tufts, including textbooks and transportation for trips with university organizations, according to Thibodeau.
"There's all these little expenses that come up, so trying to find innovative solutions to address those issues and support students while they're here so they can fully participate and fully be a part of this community is a really important thing," Thibodeau said.
TCU Vice President Wyatt Cadley said inspiration for the initiative came in part from results of the fall 2011 TCU Senate Survey.
"Based upon the data that we've received, students are indicating that Tufts is not doing an adequate job of preparing them to deal with issues of socioeconomic diversity," Cadley, a junior, said.
"I think there's a demand on the campus to have those dialogues happen."
According to Cadley, a great deal of support for U/FUSED exists at Tufts despite a lack of tangible results at other schools that are members of the network.
"Part of the reason that I think we saw the support to the extent that we did was because of the potential, and … these are partnerships that should be forming and dialogues that should be happening, not just [within Tufts] but within the collegiate community as a whole," Cadley said.
Colleges and universities across the country have already joined U/FUSED, including Dartmouth College, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Southern California and Middlebury College, according to Thibodeau.
Thibodeau added that some of these schools have embarked on their own projects that are relevant specifically their student bodies.
"I guess the next step for us is to see where we're at and to create solutions that are specific to Tufts," Thibodeau said.
Senior TCU Senators Jonathan Danzig and Timothy Lesinski were among the four senators who voted against the proposal.
"I think our approval of it is based primarily on a misunderstanding of Senate's role," Danzig said.
"What Senate's role is, as defined by its constitution and in my own opinion as well, is that it's a platform. It doesn't do anything on its own, but what it does is allows others to do things, and so this commits us to actually being the center of activity as opposed to allowing others to commit that activity."
Danzig added that it would have been more appropriate to establish U/FUSED as an independent student group at Tufts rather than directly connecting it to the Senate itself.
Lesinski said he voted against the resolution because it lacked specifics about what joining U/FUSED would entail.
"I think we voted on this without really knowing too much about what is going to be involved in it, and that was another objection I had to it," Lesinski said.
"There are a lot of unknowns here in what we're voting on, and I felt like we should have just done our homework more before just joining something without knowing what it is."
Despite the lack of specific goals for the organization at Tufts, Thibodeau said he is looking to start working as soon as possible.
"I want to get things done before the end of the year," he said.
"I'm in the stage of still collaborating and talking to different people … I think this is an issue that needs to be addressed now and should continue to be addressed as the years go on."
