Editor’s Note: Gunnar Ivarsson is a former chair of the Daily’s Ethics and Inclusion Committee. Ivarsson was not involved in the writing or editing of this article.
The Tufts Community Union Senate met Sunday evening to vote on a resolution encouraging professors to include a civic engagement statement in their syllabi, review committee updates and hear three appeals for funding from student organizations.
The resolution was introduced by JumboVote, a nonprofit organization advocating for civic engagement. It calls upon Tufts professors to include a statement in their syllabi providing resources on voting, requesting a response from Dean Bárbara M. Brizuela of the School of Arts and Sciences, Dean Kyongbum Lee of the School of Engineering and the Faculty Senate within two weeks.
JumboVote representatives and resolution authors Seona Maskara and Camille Utter spoke on the proposal at the meeting.
“Including voter information in syllabi is a great way to reach every single student,” Maskara said. “Through in person interactions and data, we just know that people don’t vote due to a lack of information, and this would be a pretty easy way to get people some information, [which] really aligns with what Tufts stands for.”
Enforcement of the resolution would be up to the respective deans. TCU President Dhruv Sampat, a senior, drew comparison to the StAAR Center statements currently on syllabi as a potential model for implementation.
After a discussion period and minor amendments, the Senate passed the resolution unanimously.
The Senate also discussed student feedback from the Services and Education Committees’ joint tabling in the Campus Center.
Ideas included restarting the defunct grocery store shuttle, purchasing more student streaming subscriptions and creating an updated JumboCash list.
Education Committee Chair Gunnar Ivarsson, a sophomore, added that students expressed a desire for more information on the Senate’s open syllabi project.
“I noticed a lot of people talking about the open syllabi project and wanting a little bit more information on how it works [and] where to go, also just to encourage [professors] to do it,” Ivarsson said.
Community & Diversity Committee Chair Jesse Kitumba, a sophomore, expressed that students have been appreciative of the Senate’s recent work, specifically citing the new coffee and tea vending machine in Tisch Library.
“Everyone was more appreciative about what the Senate’s doing,” Kitumba said.
The Senate then heard appeals for funding from representatives of Shir Appeal, the Tufts Chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and Tufts Buddhist Mindfulness Sangha.
Shir Appeal, a Jewish acapella group, asked for $8,400 to record six songs over two semesters. The Senate voted to approve a smaller amount of $4,200.
Tufts NSBE requested $15,934 to send 15 members to an important national convention in Baltimore.
Tufts NSBE representatives expressed frustration over having to repeat the same appeals process and debate the same arguments year after year. Sampat acknowledged the issue and the strain of the appeals process, citing changing levels of funding.
“It is more so to do with changing context of how much the university gives us [in terms of] funding,” Sampat said. “That context and that balance changes every single year, which is why, unfortunately, and as unreasonable as it is, this is something that has to be a continuous and collaborative project, but I absolutely agree that we should have a more set way of talking about these kinds of things so it’s not as taxing.”
The Senate passed the full number of $15,934 in a 18-4-1 vote.
Tufts Buddhist Mindfulness Sangha appealed for $5,117 for a two-day retreat in New Hampshire. They were granted the full amount in a 21-1-2 vote.
