All student government candidates campaigning for seats on the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Judiciary and the Committee on Student Life (CSL), as well as rising sophomores vying for seats on the TCU Senate presented their platforms and responded to questions at the newly re-opened Hotung Caf?© last night as part of the lead-up to Wednesday's elections.
Hotung, which closed for renovations in November, opens to the entire campus community today, featuring a revamped menu and serving area. Those who attended the forum last night were able to get a preview of the new serving area, which features glass containers of fruit, a bar and stools, and a smoothie machine.
Students expressed their excitement about the advancements. "I really like the smoothie machine," freshman Khudejha Asghar said. "I wasn't sure what they were going to do with it, [but] it looks really cool."
Sophomore Samantha Schnier was also impressed with the new setup. "It definitely looks like [there are] a lot more healthy choices [that are] different from other options on campus," she said. "It looks really modern. I think the goal was to create a place where people could go and mingle instead of just having a quick meal, and I think [the renovation] did just that."
Last night, Hotung accommodated a large crowd of students, including a candidate pool of around 40 students running for the CSL, the Judiciary, or one of the sophomore class' Senate seats.
Rising juniors and seniors running for Senate did not speak at the forum because all of them won seats without an official election. While one more junior applied to run than there are seats for the class, the senior class was short one candidate, so one of the senior class' seats will go to a junior.
There are seven spots available for rising sophomores on the Senate, as well as seven seats on the Judiciary and five on the CSL. Eighteen students are running to represent the sophomore class in the Senate, 11 students are campaigning for a seat on the Judiciary and 11 are vying for a spot on the CSL. However, not all candidates participated in the forum.
"There is an incredibly large amount of candidates running this year, perhaps one of the largest pools ever at Tufts," sophomore Adam Weldai, the chair of the Tufts Community Union Elections Commission (ECOM), said.
Weldai attributed the increase in candidates to ECOM's promotion efforts. "We have worked over the past year to increase voter participation," he said. "More people are aware of what goes on. We also work closely with the Office of Student Activities to use their resources to advertise."
Candidates in each category took the stage as a group and each candidate was allowed to give a one-minute opening statement, a one-minute closing statement and answer two short questions.
The questions, which were posed by ECOM, addressed topics such as diversity programming on campus, food accessibility and town-gown relations.
Weldai said that he hopes events like the candidates' forum will encourage voter participation, which was 40 percent in the last election.
"We really encourage people to vote," Weldai said, who said that he'd like to see 50 percent participation in this election.
Polls will open at 12:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 11 and will close at 12:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 12.
