The Tufts Community Union Senate convened for its third meeting of the semester this past Sunday, where senators unveiled a new “task force” process for working on long-term projects.
Senators typically pick and contribute to one of five committees devoted to various aspects of student experience at Tufts. However, these committees, and their associated projects, can be disrupted by year-to-year changes. This initiative is therefore intended to provide a new avenue for longer-term projects than the normal committee process allows for.
“A lot of students talked about how we’re not working on long-term projects because it’s difficult to work on an initiative developing [for] more than a year,” Vice President Shefali Bakre said in a speech to the Senate.
“It’s a way to provide structured feedback for the exec board to work on long-term projects that require significant institutional change and collaboration,” Bakre said. “It’s difficult to do those sorts of projects in a committee because they take more than a couple years to do.”
Senators will be free to join any of the four new task forces announced last Sunday or to propose their own. The task forces announced will focus on several aspects of TCU Senate policy, both internal and external.
These projects include finding funding sources among TCU Senate alumni and establishing the Senate as a model for fundraising around campus, working with the bookstore on merchandise design and textbook availability, auxiliary and facility services and an internal TCU institutional review.
“The Mayer Campus Center was actually a TCU Senate initiative,” Vice President Bakre said in an interview with the Daily. “There’s a continuation of knowledge. So after I graduate, someone else can pick up my work and then continue it on, and then they can see [it] in the next 10 years or five years.”
Additionally, TCU Senate Historian Michael Williamson outlined the schedule for the body’s upcoming retreat and training sessions, which will begin after election results are announced on Friday. New senators will celebrate with the committee heads and the executive board on Friday night before training and photoshoots the next day.
President Brendan French also discussed several updates regarding Tufts’ parking policies.
“Right now they’re breaking ground supposedly on the new swimming facility, and because of that, there’s less parking spots.” French said. “The university right now is trying to stop students who live off campus and leave their cars overnight from continuing to do that, because they want to ensure that there’s space during the day for when faculty and staff are coming on campus for courses.”
French also announced the possibility of another tuition transparency town hall, with a particular focus on dining, facilities and auxiliary services.
Finally, the Senate deliberated on a number of supplementary funding appeals from various organizations. The Leonard Carmichael Society and the Society of Latinx Engineers and Scientists came in person to argue their case for further funding. Their appeals passed by votes of 12–10–0, and 17–5–0, respectively.
