By winning this year's Tufts Community Union Senate presidential election, Larry Harris has accomplished the first step towards his goal of affecting meaningful change on campus. The next step, however, will be far more difficult.
As we look forward to next year, one word dominates our thoughts: potential. Harris has the potential to be a dynamic and effective leader, moving forward from his success as treasurer to improve the way Tufts students govern themselves. On the other hand, Harris also has the potential to be a divisive force, if he holds true to some of his campaign rhetoric. Therefore, the Daily challenges Harris on three different fronts:
- We challenge Larry Harris to find practical ways to implement his positive ideas.
During the campaign, Harris' best ideas were not necessarily driven by grand ideology. Instead, his strongest proposals, such as monthly meetings to discuss the Senate surplus, were specific, concise, and well-thought out. Harris clearly indicated that these meetings would help to satisfy his goal of encouraging student involvement in the Senate, allowing for more practical application of financial resources. Similarly, his intention to add a shuttle to Harvard Square and Lansdowne St. is a straightforward approach to increasing social options. Such a plan would not be difficult to carry out.
However, Harris got himself into trouble when attempting to stand on a campaign soapbox. Harris' proposal to establish a Cultural Coordinating Committee sounds nice when he claims that it will allow culture groups to coordinate their political and programming agendas. A danger exists, however, if Harris fails to take his idea to the next level: answering the question of how this will be beneficial to the entire campus.
If he plans to use the Cultural Coordinating Committee as a method to improve political diversity at Tufts, he needs to make that clear, and then elaborate. Similarly, if this is just a mechanism to improve the relations between, and effectiveness of, culture groups, he must explain how this relates to the rest of campus. Otherwise, Harris runs the risk of pushing through a narrowly-tailored agenda that leaves much of the campus in the dark. That said, his idea for a Leadership Alliance, bringing together the heads of all campus organizations once a semester, seems worthwhile and easy to accomplish; Harris needs to capitalize on and pursue these and other ideas to their logical conclusion. - We challenge Larry Harris to incorporate some of Vivek Ramgopal's strong ideas into his agenda.
Harris has taken the first step towards meeting this challenge by announcing his intention to make Ramgopal part of his cabinet. However, the real test will be whether Harris can forget what, at times, was a contentious campaign, and employ the ideas that Rampgopal used to garner such a large percentage of the vote.
Ramgopal put fundraising at the heart of his campaign, while Harris did little more than pay it lip service in his "Six Points of Light" plan. Harris threw out the term "corporate sponsor," as a possible solution to the University's financial problems. Certainly, that sounds good and attracts attention. However, attracting a corporate sponsor is infeasible - Harris should forget some of the promises of his own campaign, and co-opt the better parts of Ramgopal's.
Harris should follow Ramgopal's lead and attack the root of the problem: Tufts' woeful system of soliciting alumni contributions. Harris should make a recommendation to the administration for improving the University's fundraising organization. Successful fundraising requires effort by both the administration and students. By addressing the fundraising issue, Harris can not only fix a major problem, but also set an example for cooperation within the Senate. - We challenge Harris to avoid taking an antagonistic stance towards the administration.
We admire Harris' willingness to stand for students' principles against the administration. However, we implore him to give the administration a clean slate at the beginning of the year. There is no need to start next year off with antagonism, especially since the Senate is far from autonomous from administrative decisions.
The Senate, while representing student interests, must be the body that strives to reconcile the differences between the administration and more radical campus groups. By announcing he is "not interested in being friends with any administrators," Harris insinuates that he will be unwilling to compromise. A successful president must be capable of articulating student concerns in an effective manner, and that means being able to negotiate with the powers that be. Open hostility is counter-productive to this goal, and Harris' attitude could potentially prevent students from accomplishing meaningful change.
Harris has said that he intends to "blaze the trail to set a new precedent in the role of the TCU President." We challenge him to make that a trail worth following.
