Ever wonder how things happen around campus? Decisions - about who gets recognized as a student group, how much money these groups receive, and what kind of events occur on campus - happen all the time, but the process isn't always so clear. In this new three-part series, the Daily investigates the decision-makers around campus.
After last semester, most students probably believe that the Tufts Community Union Judiciary (TCUJ) exists to make controversial decisions involving rifts between religious groups and more liberal organizations. Well, it does, but it's not what the members normally do - honest.
In fact, the TCUJ is not only responsible for investigating contention between individuals and groups or between groups and other groups, it is responsible for the recognition of every organization on campus. The concept of recognition is an important one: Without the TCUJ's approval, student organizations cannot receive a share of the student activities fund (which every student contributes to each year as part of the required University fees), or even poster around campus or use the Tufts name.
The process of recognition, though not complicated, is nevertheless essential to ensuring that student funds are appropriated fairly. The TCUJ doesn't deal with the money issue, however, that job falls to the Allocations Board (ALBO) after a group has been formally recognized. The Judiciary is simply responsible for seeing that new organizations meet the established requirements.
Sophomore Alison Clarke, one of the two re-recognition chairs on the TCUJ, summed up the steps a new organization must take before it is formally recognized. It's easy enough at the beginning: Clarke said that students simply need to go to the Office of Student Activities to receive temporary recognition, which allows them to sign up for meeting rooms for initial organizational tasks.
After that, the group must create a constitution in accordance with Tufts policy. The members also need to prepare some kind of "proof of activity," such as posters for an upcoming general interest meeting. Finally, the group needs to gather the signatures of 15 interested students. Then it's ready to present itself to the TCUJ.
This last point is one that Tufts likes to brag about, Clarke said. "That's what the school loves to say - you only need 15 people to start a club. I must have heard that about six million times on tours here," she said.
Though Clarke maintained that the Committee on Student Life (CSL) plans on creating new guidelines for the TCUJ to consider when recognizing new campus groups, for now it's pretty simple: as long as the above requirements are met, the group only needs to demonstrate that another, similar group doesn't already exist.
"You also have to be open to the entire student community," Clarke added. While this point caused controversy last semester - when the TCUJ found that Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) violated the school's nondiscrimination policy after it blocked bisexual member Julie Catalano from running for a leadership position - the requirement is not a difficult hurdle for most groups.
Clarke estimates that there have been about ten new recognitions so far during the 2000-2001 academic year. They certainly run the gamut: from socially aware, to purely academic, to just plain fun. There's Tufts Religious Unity Cooperation Ecumenicalism (TRUCE); Human Factors and Ergonomics, formed to aid students complete Tufts' new engineering psychology major; and the No Homers Club, Tufts' official Simpsons club, just to name a few.
The TCUJ won't let allow these new clubs - or any student organization for that matter - to fall by the wayside. The re-recognition part of the J is essential in making sure that current clubs are staying active and obeying the rules. Every campus group must be re-recognized every two years, and must meet the same criteria that it did when it was formed.
While student groups remain a first priority of the TCUJ, junior and chair Mike Ferenczy described the other major purpose of the J - mediating conflict. This includes handling charges of violations of Tufts or TCU rules against a recognized group by an individual or another group, and it also involves any serious or criminal allegations against a student, be it theft, assault, or any number of other harmful actions. In cases such as these, the University's decision is based on the input of two TCUJ members and three faculty members.
While it's not usually a group that gets much attention, the TCUJ is undoubtedly an essential organization on campus - and it takes a lot of work. "I underestimated the time commitment of the J when I started," Ferenczy said.
So why would anyone want to join a committee that requires lots of work with little tangible reward? The answer seems to come from an interest in student government, along with the tight-knit feeling of belonging to something that few understand, but that all benefit from. "I heard about [the TCUJ] through the TCF thing... it really intrigued me," said Clarke, who was elected to the board last September. "Everything that followed made me grow really attached to the body."
It was the case between Julie Catalano and the TCF that really put the TCUJ in the spotlight. "Before that case, students really didn't know the J was around. After, there were two sets of opinions about us: one that said we screwed up, and one that said we did okay," said Ferenczy.
Clarke agrees. "Before the TCF thing, no one really knew we really existed. Now everyone does," she said.
Although Ferenczy was unhappy with what he deemed negative attitudes, directed at himself and the rest of the council during the ordeal, he predicts that the TCUJ will once again be placed on the back burner of most minds on campus. "When I started, my goal was to make it four years without being in the Daily. That didn't happen, but I think we're still doing all right," he said.
