The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate released the results earlier this month of its latest survey of the student body. Open for a 21-day period from mid-October to early November, the 37-question survey elicited responses from 1,327 students.
One question asked students to consider whether having fob access to every residential hall on campus would outweigh security concerns presented. Of the respondents, 57.9 percent said having the fob access would be worth it.
TCU Historian Alex Pryor supports universal fob access and was pleased with the survey results.
"It's powerful that all these students want it," she said.
TCU President Neil DiBiase feels that there could also be ways to prevent people from outside the Tufts community from gaining access to every dorm on campus even if the university adopts a universal fob system.
"I think that under our current system, there is an incentive for students to piggyback off other students or to let people they don't know into their dorms, because we don't have universal fob access," DiBiase said. He feels that with universal access, this incentive would be eliminated.
Another survey question concerned the possibility of instituting an honor code at Tufts: 43.4 percent of students said they would be in favor of such a code, while 28.8 percent said they wouldn't and 27.8 percent said they did not know what an honor code is.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said that the possibility of establishing a university-wide honor code became a major topic of debate here several years ago.
At that time, according to Reitman, students "balked" at the idea of a full honor code -- one that would allow students to take papers and exams on their own time and in their own homes, with the agreement that they would not cheat.
Such a code would also make it mandatory for students to turn in their peers if they witness them cheating.
On the other hand, Reitman noted that there exist more moderate codes that do not include all of these components. But he said that honor codes are hard to institute in a place that doesn't have a tradition of them, so any codes that are to be considered at Tufts will have to be specifically tailored to the university.
Pryor said that the possibility of implementing an honor code is a "controversial issue," and that, given the number of students who responded to the survey expressing a lack of knowledge about the concept, there is a need to educate the student body before any further action is taken.
A third question on the survey asked students whether they were satisfied with their freshman orientations, to which 76.8 percent said they were.
This information comes at a time when the Senate is poised to evaluate the orientation process through the recently established Committee on the First-Year Experience.
The results surprised Pryor because the Senate has received a number of complaints this semester from freshmen. "The results [are] better than expected," she said.
Freshman Senator Katie Simon, who has been working on this issue, said she was also surprised by the results, but still feels that the current system should be evaluated.
"It's better than a lower number, but it points to the fact that it can use improvement," she said.
Simon has organized forums to be held today and tomorrow at which freshmen senators will converse with other first-years about the issues that seem most important to them.
Another survey topic was students' feelings about safety around campus.
Overall, 73.4 percent of respondents said they feel safe walking around campus at night.
Pryor feels that these numbers may be misleading because most incidents of crime in the area occur off campus, but 77 percent of the students who responded to the survey live on campus.
The survey also asked students whether they would choose to live on campus for their entire time at Tufts if the university builds new housing or renovates existing buildings, and if housing were guaranteed for all four years.
Given these conditions, 69.9 percent of students said they would choose to stay on campus.
DiBiase feels this is information that the university needs to take seriously.
"I think this clearly shows that students want to live on campus and that we're not doing a good enough job of providing viable housing," he said.
