The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Nov. 16 rejected proposals to implement campus-wide wireless Internet and to build a new cabin at the Loj with the approximately $690,000 in recovered funds from the embezzlement scandal.
The Senate is working to whittle down its list of possible uses for the money it received in September in compensation for funds allegedly stolen by former administrators Ray Rodriguez and Jodie Nealley. Last week's votes constitute a final veto of two ideas that had received considerable attention in the campus dialogue over how to use the money.
The Senate perennially presses the administration to expand wireless Internet access to both help students and remain competitive with other universities.
TCU Treasurer Matt Shapanka argued that using the recovered funds to pay for wireless Internet would constitute spending the student body's money on a project for which the administration should be responsible.
"Campus-wide wireless is a basic amenity that most of our competitor colleges have," said Shapanka, a senior. "It's pretty much a standard feature of colleges and universities today, and there's no reason the undergraduates at any college, Tufts or anywhere else, should have to put their student activities money towards a basic feature of college life."
TCU President Duncan Pickard estimated that setting up the wireless network would come with an initial price tag of between $1 million and $1.5 million. This does not include the cost of maintaining the system.
Also, given the school's current financial straits and the national economic downturn, it does not seem appropriate to fund something that would require extensive upkeep, said Pickard, a junior.
"The university would have to incur about $250,000 yearly in maintenance costs for things associated with the expanding network," he said. "That $250,000 commitment isn't one the university is willing to make right now. The Senate felt that it would have been irresponsible to put the money to that if it's something that would just be out of date in four years anyway."
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said that the administration is committed to providing campus-wide wireless, but that the continuing costs involved would make it a large financial burden.
"Not only is the installation of wireless expensive, but the upkeep of it — maintaining the [relevance] and security of the system once you install it — is not that easy, so it requires an ongoing commitment and plan to fund that," Reitman said.
The Senate also decided against paying for the planned construction of the Trips Cabin at the Loj, a university-owned house in New Hampshire operated by the Tufts Mountain Club (TMC). This cabin would increase the capacity of the property, which houses students on brief retreats or vacations from campus.
Shapanka said he believes that the project is worthwhile, but suggested that groups which would be impacted by the construction work to secure funding through alternate channels.
"While I do think the Loj would be a potentially appropriate use for the funds, I would like to see us try to do that through our normal budgeting process and to work with the university to fund the Loj in other ways besides this money," he said.
Reitman said the cabin construction is "more feasible — one way or another," than installing campus-wide wireless. He suggested a partnership of student government, TMC alumni and Tufts' undergraduate schools similar to the one 10 years ago that led to the construction of the current Loj.
He noted that the TMC is the second largest student organization on campus and that the Loj sees considerable traffic from other student organizations that employ it "as a retreat or conference space."
"There's enough buy-in from the population here that [the Trips Cabin], which is financially a lot more doable than wireless because it doesn't have the same continuing costs, would be a benefit to the community," Reitman said.
Trustee Representative Neil DiBiase, who worked with the administration on wireless initiatives during his tenure last year as TCU president, said that the university's current priority is to uphold its commitment to giving financial aid to all needy students, despite the economic downturn.
"The issue is really keeping students at Tufts," said DiBiase, a senior. "You can't lobby for lights and furniture when you're talking about giving students the opportunity to come to Tufts. Right now, I think we're focused on keeping people here."
Pickard said that the administration cannot focus its resources on a new multimillion-dollar project given the more urgent task of weathering an economic storm that has translated into a budget shortfall of approximately $36 million.
"Their top priority is to be sure that students can stay here — through increasing financial aid awards, if necessary," Pickard said. "Their second priority is to keep the faculty and staff that [make] Tufts what it is."
