Ten members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) government gathered in the Mayer Campus Center last night to draft a number of procedural changes to the TCU Constitution. The draft of the new document will require 250 student signatures by Wednesday to qualify for a general referendum of the student body at the general elections this April.
Though the convention was open to all members of TCU, it was only attended by seven senators, including President Wyatt Cadley and Parliamentarian Robert Joseph, two members of the TCU Judiciary and Treasurer of the Elections Commission (ECOM) Daniel Johnson.
Joseph, a sophomore, said he was underwhelmed by the sparse attendance, but felt that they had addressed the issues that the convention was called to discuss.
"We addressed everything that we needed to talk about," he said. "If I wrote the constitution the way I planned to submit it and I didn't get that input, I didn't know who was going to oppose it."
With so few in attendance, the group decided to approach only non-controversial topics in this referendum, leaving more controversial issues for individual members of the TCU to add with their own referenda.
"The constitution is lagging behind where we are," Joseph said. "We're just trying to make modernizations to it in response to things that have happened."
The new draft would bar the Judiciary from issuing judicial orders before the event referred to in the order occurs. This came as a response to the events of Dec. 9, when the Judiciary issued an order to prevent senators from voting on a resolution in conflict with the Committee on Student Life's then-untested "justified departure" policy.
The convention attendees also agreed to put an end to independent fundraising in Senate presidential campaigns. Under the current constitution, candidates may donate money up to the fundraising limit out of their own pockets. The new draft also requires Tufts ECOM to publish the rules of a given presidential election 30 days before the election. This would apply to any ECOM decision about how much money each candidate would receive from the TCU Treasury's coffers to spend on campaigns.
Following extensive debate, the Senators and other TCU government members agreed on a new clause stipulating that each vacancy in the TCU must to be filled, so long as more than 25 percent of meetings required of the position in question remain in the academic year.
Attendees quickly disposed of a change that would allow community representatives to attend two-thirds of Education or Administration and Policy Committee meetings instead of the Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs Committee.
"There were a number of changes that we were going to propose, and they turned out to be more contentious," Joseph said. "Everyone has a different idea of what should be in the constitution, and it's good to get a diversity of opinions, that's the most important thing."
Additional edits replaced the Senate Executive Board position held by the body's Associate Treasurer with the Diversity and Community Affairs Officer and amended the procedure by which members of the Senate's Allocations Board are elected. Another change would mean the TCU Historian would no longer be mandated to also serve as the Chair of the Student Outreach Committee. All agreed-upon changes to the document will need to garner 250 student signatures before they are placed on a referendum for voting by the student body.
