The Tufts Community Union Senate met with representatives from the Office of Residential Life & Learning to discuss student housing concerns. Senators discussed the club funding, late stays at the end of the semester for international students and possible collaborations between ResLife and Tufts Dining among other issues.
Associate Director of Residential Operations at ResLife, Perry Doherty, told senators about their future plans, including the opening of the newly renovated Blakeley Hall and preparing students for summer housing.
Angy Sosa, associate director for Residential Education for off campus engagement, spoke of her efforts to inform students about the best practices for off-campus living, including a variety of upcoming webinars such as helping students negotiate with landlords and maintain their security deposits.
In efforts to recruit students to work in various residential life support staff roles, associate director for residential education, Zach Tepper, discussed including a $15 an hour position and other positions that will be compensated with room and board during the summer.
Junior Senator Arman Tendulkar, asked Sosa about forthcoming resources at Tufts to help students with the subletting process.
“We are trying to consolidate those [resources],” Sosa said. She mentioned a partnership Tufts has with Apartments.com with a “roommate matching option,” which she described as similar to “swipe left/swipe right dating apps.”
She also mentioned a Canvas page for students, a series of webinars and an e-list form for students to find optimal sublettors or lessees.
International Community Senator Naisha Luthra asked the ResLife representatives about extended stay for international students with flights scheduled past their check-out time.
Doherty cited an expanded extended stay policy and a practice of announcing move-out dates far in advance through the academic calendar. She also cited the fact that ResLife has only “seventy-two hours to get those buildings ready for commencement housing” as one of the main challenges to increasing extended stay policies.
When junior Senator Eraste Talla asked about increasing community engagement for students living in community housing and off-campus housing, Sosa cited the hiring of university students as “Jumbassadors” to serve as community liaisons.
“We’ve got a couple of seniors, a junior and a graduate student who are there to serve as a connection point,” Sosa said. “This is a very new role. When I had this conversation as we were looking to hire these students, we framed it as: we are working in a startup.”
After the meeting with ResLife ended, TCU Treasurer and junior Dhruv Sampat began the process of hearing from clubs appealing funding decisions made by the Treasury’s Allocations Board.
Senators proceeded the appeals process taking into account the $300,000 spent this semester in supplementary funding. This amount spent at this point of the semester is the most in the fifty-year history of the Treasury, and twice as much as the same time around last semester.
Representatives from the Tufts Association of South Asian Students appealed ALBO’s decision denying additional funding for their Culture Show’s social event; they proposed a lower amount for Senate consideration.
Allocations Board members originally zeroed out the supplementary funding request because $2,000 had already been allocated for this social event in the club’s yearly budget. Members explained they felt $2,000 was sufficient to host the event on campus.
Senators raised concerns about the club’s revised request, $3,700 in supplementary funds to rent Big Night Live in Boston, with multiple senators saying Big Night Live had a history of safety concerns for Tufts students.
Club members cited the presence of over 150 student performers as a justification for why a bigger venue like Big Night Live would be required, as opposed to hosting the event on campus or a venue closer to campus.
Opponents of the funding noted bad experiences with Big Night Live staff. They also argued members could have found a more cost-effective venue especially considering the amount of money left in supplementary funding for future requests and this being a request for supplementary funding as opposed to a bookmark redemption.
In the end, senators denied the $3,700 in supplementary funding, resulting in members of TASA sticking to their originally budgeted $2,000 for the event.
Next, Club Cheerleading presented their request for $10,323 to travel to their national championship, a decrease from their initial request of $27,520. To reach the reduced number, they cut out or lowered requests for transportation and certification fee reimbursements.
Senators voted narrowly to zero the request out, upholding the original Allocations Board decision of funding $0 for Club Cheerleading’s request considering the fact that ALBO has about approximated $80,000–100,000 left for the rest of the semester, according to Sampat.
