At the Tufts Community Union Senate meeting on Sunday, members discussed the tuition transparency town hall, upcoming outreach initiatives and expanding relations with members of the Tufts administration.
The town hall will take place in the Cabot ASEAN Auditorium at 6 p.m. on Feb. 10 and will be open to all students. A panel of several senior university leaders will speak at the event: vice president for finance and treasurer, Thomas Malones, provost and senior vice president, Caroline Genco, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Bárbara Brizeula and Dean of Engineering Kyongbum Lee.
“This event offers an opportunity to better understand how tuition dollars are spent across major university priorities,” TCU Senator Anastasiya Korovska, a junior, said in an email to the Daily. “Panelists will address key questions about what drives tuition increases, how Tufts approaches long-term financial planning, and how tuition revenue supports affordability initiatives and financial aid.”
The Senate is also holding ‘TCU Talks’ Wednesday from 1–3 p.m. in the Mayer Campus Center. Senators will be there to chat with students and share information about current and past Senate initiatives. Senators will hear student perspectives and feedback forms will be available to fill out.
They also plan to send out an official newsletter giving an overview of projects completed last semester.
Senators including TCU President Dhruv Sampat, a senior, recently met with members of the Dean of Student Affairs Office. Sampat expressed interest in inviting members of DOSA to the Senate meetings.
“The idea would be to bring them to our meeting so we can have a broader discussion with them,” Sampat said, “as opposed to emailing them and meeting them on a one off sort of basis.”
He cited several DOSA members as potential invitees, including Christina Alch, director of residential life and learning and Joe Golia, director of office for campus life.
Disability Senator and first-year Kirthi Vengat recently met with the StAAR Center about the sensory room in Tisch Library. The room, located in 104A, was renovated in November due to lack of use.
The room is intended as a place where students who are sensitive to sensory input can go to work through their emotions and interact with an array of multisensory experiences.
After renovations, the StAAR center put up a QR code in the room in order to garner feedback and ideas for improvement. They are looking for ways to promote the survey in order to get perspective on what to do with the room.
First-year Senator Michael Williamson was appointed Assistant Historian by Historian Defne Olgun.
“I’m very excited to work alongside Defne Olgun to organize Senate meetings and also to create more events for the Senate to get to know the student body and vice versa,” Williamson said.
The Senate also saw two Allocations Board appeals.
Tufts Bhangra appealed for a trip to a national dance competition in Maryland, while the a cappella group Tufts S-Factor requested funding for a trip to perform at a historic Black church in Washington, D.C.
Bhangra was granted $0 in a 16-6-2 vote, while S-Factor received a part of their request $3,474 request in a 20-4-0 vote.
