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 on Sunday to hear updates from members of the Residential Life & Learning team, discuss current events within the Senate and hear two resolutions which will be voted on in upcoming weeks.
The ResLife team includes Christina Alch, the director of Residential Life & Learning, Zach Tepper, the associate director for residential education, Perry Doherty, the associate director of residential operations, and Angy Sosa, the associate director for residential education of off-campus engagement. The group presented to the TCU Senate about the work they are currently doing and answered questions from senators.
“We’ve had a lot of really successful collaborations with TCU in the past,” Alch said. “Over the past couple years, we’ve been having conversations about renting baking items at [a] resource desk, so that is something that in the coming year, we are hoping to actually permanently offer within Residential Life. … There’s also been a lot of success with vending machines this year, [and] I know [they’ve] been a big addition to a lot of communities.”
Tepper also spoke about the application process for the resident assistant position which opened later than usual at the beginning of March.
“Our new resident assistant process usually would have launched in September or October of the fall semester for the following academic year, [but] this year, for a few different reasons, [it] was pushed to the beginning of March,” Tepper said. “We had a lot of students who were very interested in the RA role as a solution for going through [the] housing selection process [or] as a solution to secure housing as a junior or senior.”
Tepper further explained that the amount of applicants they are able to accept is dependent on the amount of returning RAs. For this application cycle, the office will be limited to hiring less than 50 new RAs.
“This year, 87 RAs were extended the opportunity to return in the future, 83 of whom said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it,’” Tepper said. “So if you do that math, that comes out to about 45-ish spots for new RA applicants, and [with] 145 [students in] our new applicant pool, that means only a third of our new applicant pool are going to get some good news on April [17] after they go through their interview process.”
Additionally, Sosa mentioned her efforts to increase support for students living off campus.
“We have also, this last semester, been doing a number of surveys for off-campus support,” Sosa said. “We recently sent out a couple of surveys for off-campus students, one about the renewal process [for leases], … [and] another survey that we’re currently collecting responses for … is really to gauge students’ understanding and their needs as it relates to food access, financial wellness and preparedness. ”
Senators were then given the opportunity to ask questions about residential life on campus.
Class of 2028 Senator Gracie Felsenthal asked about what maintenance in rooms looks like year-to-year, citing an issue with a hole in her ceiling upon moving in.
Class of 2028 Senator Gunnar Ivarsson also asked about how ResLife decides which items they prohibit, highlighting that there is confusion amongst the student body as to which items are prohibited and which are not.
“From some people I’ve talked to, it seems like there’s a gap between what students know as a prohibited item and what ResLife views as one,” he said.
Services Committee Chair Shefali Bakre, a sophomore, shared information about the upcoming Earth Fest, which the TCU Senate is hosting on Friday.
“It’s going to be a huge event,” Bakre said. “We’re doing it with [Tufts University Social Collective] and the [Sustainable] Core Fellows on the Academic Quad. … There [will] be food trucks, different clubs tabling, different vendors there [and] music.”
The Senate then began looking towards the next few weeks and the rest of the semester by talking about finishing ongoing projects.
“I want folks to start wrapping up their ideas and projects, because we are one month away from the end of the semester,” Alexander Vang, a senior, TCU vice president and general board chair, said. “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel in the last month of school.”
TCU Parliamentarian Anastasiya Korovska, a junior, also read two resolutions, one asking the TCU Senate to establish a Religious and Philosophical Student Organization Community Senator Seat and a resolution calling on Tufts to establish a credit system for performance groups on campus. Both resolutions will be voted on in future meetings.
TCU Historian Defne Olgun, a junior, shared that TCU had picked its recipients of the student leadership stipend, a stipend that aims to support students who have shown high amounts of dedication to their organizations.
“We received a total of 84 applications, and we … selected to give out a total of $15,000 to 24 students who are receiving $250 and then 18 students who are receiving $500,” Olgun said. “[It’s] really exciting to start that program back up for this year and just support our students who are helping run this campus.”
Allocations Board recommendations for the Tufts Chinese Students Association, Tufts Tae Kwon Do, Tufts Mexican Culture Club, BlackOut Step Team, Tufts Korean Student Association, the Tufts Pre-Dental Society, Tufts Vietnamese Students Club, NeuroNetwork and Tufts Pen Pals all passed the wider Senate body. The Senate additionally passed a higher number for Tufts Table Tennis Club than the Allocations Board recommended.
