Gauri Seth will bring leadership, experience to TCU Presidency

The time has come again for the student body to make the decision of who will be the next Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate president and who the student body believes can help lead Senate in making necessary change on this campus. Both of this year’s candidates, juniors Gauri Seth and Ryan Johnson, focus on the core issues that students are concerned with, from housing and club sports funding, to academic reform and financial aid, to diversity and inclusion on campus. However, the candidate with the experience, leadership and know-how to implement the vision spelled out in both candidate’s platforms is Gauri Seth.

Amid the perception that Senate is a bureaucratic entity that lacks transparency, Seth is refreshingly accessible. While a vote for Seth is in many senses a vote for the establishment, considering her three-year long tenure in Senate and two years as an executive within Senate, the work that Seth has done in her roles on Senate has consistently bridged the gap between what the Tufts community wants to see happen and what the Senate works on. She recognizes that her biggest obstacle is breaking the bubble that Senate can seem to be operating within, in order to represent and fulfill the interests of all students at Tufts, and both her platform and campaign team champion engagement with all communities on campus.

Seth has been a part of major accomplishments that Senate has had in recent times, including replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day and not only retaining but expanding Late Night Dining services. Her ideas for the year ahead look both internally at Senate to address structural problems within the body, its funding allocations and its outreach mechanisms, and externally at how Senate can lobby the university to better serve students on matters great and small. While Johnson is right that Senate needs reform — the disengagement between the student body and Senate is clear with consistently low election turnout and a small pool of "career" candidates — the candidate who has the best shot at fixing those issues is Seth. 

Voting for Seth is not a vote for the status quo but a vote for the continued progress that Senate has made this year and movement toward real solutions to existing problems. If elected, Seth will not only be the first woman to be TCU President since Melissa Carson in 2002 but also the only one of the candidates who can transform words and platforms into a reality.