Candidates face off in debate

    The three candidates for Tufts Community Union (TCU) president took part in the second and final presidential debate last night, taking advantage of a less formal debate format to speak more frankly about issues that had been brought up two days before in the first debate.
    Before an audience in Barnum 104 largely made up of their campaign staff, the presidential nominees fielded pre-submitted questions from undergraduates.
    Many of the candidates acknowledged a perceived disconnect between the TCU Senate and the student body, a topic that many of the questions underscore.
    Senator Samia Zahran, one of the candidates, said it was important not to dismiss the questions regarding why certain senators decided not to run for reelection this year and instead work on projects outside student government.
    "The student body doesn't feel that the Senate is connected to them," said Zahran, a sophomore who did not serve on student government this year, which she says has given her a fresh perspective derived from being outside of an insular Senate. "One of the things that I want to get done is expand the [Senate's] Student Outreach Committee so that it includes students who are not on Senate and brings people to the Senate and brings the Senate to the people."
    Senator Chas Morrison, another candidate, said the Senate is an effective force for change on campus, just as students working outside student government could be. But the Senate is specifically charged with voicing student concerns, he explained.
    "We're basically a group of students that go out and lobby and get stuff done on behalf of the student body, to the administration," Morrison, a sophomore, said. "So in a sense, we're people with fancy titles, but otherwise, we're students just like you."
    Morrison and Senator Brandon Rattiner, also a candidate, addressed the idea of accessibility.
    "The best thing that I can do is actually manage people," Rattiner, a junior, said. "The most important thing a leader should be is … relatable and approachable. I'm not going to pretend that I'm some little administrator that has all of these dreams and all of these aspirations and is trying to change the world."
    But Morrison took time out of his next response to criticize Rattiner's self-decribed "chill" managing style.
    "Brandon keeps attacking me for being a ‘little administrator,'" Morrison said. "I'll take that as a badge of honor."
    "Don't you want a TCU president to go out and actually get something done? Do you want a president that is ‘chill' when it comes to advocating for student interests?" he continued, drawing laughs from the crowd.
    Meanwhile, the candidate's descriptions of their policies highlighted their different views on campus unity.
    Zahran said she hoped to better represent groups at Tufts whose concerns are not usually heard, while Morrison and Rattiner both outlined plans to be more receptive to minority groups. But the latter two saw most of campus disunity as coming from a disconnect between underclassmen and upperclassmen.
    Morrison reiterated his goals of bolstering on-campus activities and bringing back school traditions. Rattiner, emphasizing his perspective as a rising senior, said that students want better programming off campus, noting his vote in favor of allocating $230,000 of the recovered funds to build the Trips Cabin at the Tufts Loj and a proposal of his for the Senate to give grants to groups that want to hold off-campus programming.
    "It's not about bringing people into Hotung [Café,]" said Rattiner, in an implicit reference to Morrison's plans to better utilize the facility. "It's about bringing people into Boston."
    The candidates were also given an opportunity to ask the others one question each.
    Rattiner responded to a question from Morrison about not recusing himself from voting on the Trips Cabin by reiterating his previous arguments that he saw the building as benefiting a large portion of the student body, and not just Tufts Mountain Club members.
    Zahran used her chance to ask her opponents questions to emphasize her accessibility to underrepresented groups on campus, asking Rattiner how he would lead and represent minorities and women, and Morrison how he would lead and represent people who hold views different than his.
    "Truth be told, I don't think these problems can be solved on the Senate floor," Rattiner said. "I think that it's … the Senate's job to figure out ways to empower the communities and figure out ways to enfranchise the people and use our leverage with the administration to make sure the communities can directly help themselves with [my] help."
    Morrison asked Zahran if she would have voted for the Trips Cabin, had she been on Senate this year.
    "I think I would have voted ‘no' just because of the large amount of money that I feel shouldn't go into one project," she said. "Before I would've voted for anything, I would have asked people. I would have found some way to poll the general population."