Tuesday night marked the beginning of election season on the Hill, and already our Facebook and Twitter accounts are being bombarded by campaign slogans, biographies and candidate platforms. While we support the election process and appreciate the effort the presidential hopefuls put in, we also recognize the importance of keeping voters as informed as possible. Every year, candidates come in with full dockets that are either overly ambitious, outside of their control or simply unachievable.
In 2011, both Tomas Garcia and Ben Richards cited the need for a TCU newsletter to increase senate accessibility, a move the Daily supported. Yet here we are, a year later, with no progress made on that front. And this is just one example of a TCU presidential campaign articulating an unclear and overly ambitious agenda that does not come to fruition.
We at the Daily encourage voters to bear in mind the feasibility of the more ambitious aspects of both candidates' campaign platforms and focus on the pressing issues where the candidates can actually make a difference.
Take, for example, the sparkling new Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, which will open next semester. Time and time again, talk of these renovations has come with promises from the administration that they will not only benefit varsity athletes but the rest of the campus population as well. It is important that the opening of the building come with increased access to equipment that will help reduce waiting times. It should also make possible the reinstatement of the winter intramural season, which was cut in December 2010. Intramurals, which promote community, sportsmanship and fitness, barely have a place on the Tufts campus and are exactly the kind of issue the president can realistically impact.
Major campus-wide events are also an area that could use serious improvement. While our concert events remain strong, Tufts is lacking in those signature events that bring the entire campus community together. In the wake of the Naked Quad Run's cancellation, then-TCU president Sam Wallis said he was "especially confident that the new event [would] be successful because of the resources available to us for it." Instead, we got WinterFest. Clearly this is something partially under the control of Senate, and another year of such abysmal programming would be an affront to the student body.
But perhaps the most challenging and important issue facing Tufts today is the issue of financial aid. We understand that Senate has passed resolutions on the subject in the past, but the issue requires more than a piece of paper. On matters of financial aid, the administration has to take a great deal of other factors into account, including the size of the endowment, where else money needs to be going and whether donations are earmarked or can be used freely. The president has the ability to meet and discuss these issues with the administration, so we want to hear specific solutions to the financial aid problem in the candidates' campaigns, not vague statements about the need for something to be done.
This year's two presidential candidates have a chance to change the trend of candidates offering overly grandiose ideas. Senate should look to tangibly improve policies on campus, and the student body needs a president who recognizes realistic opportunities to solve real problems. The candidates should start with the issues that directly affect Tufts students, not with the ones they grumble about when complaining that life on the Hill isn't a fairytale. And, perhaps more importantly, students should hold candidates accountable for doing so before casting their votes.
