Not all members of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate have the same rights, and some senators are trying to change that.
Community representatives are currently allowed to vote on all TCU Senate issues except financial matters. Some say this restriction lowers the status of community representatives on the body, inspiring them to push to expand the powers of the representatives to effectively make them full members of the Senate.
"I think it's causing a serious rift on the body," TCU Vice President Antonella Scarano said at the Sunday, Oct. 25 Senate meeting, referencing the voting gap for these students.
Community representatives are members of TCU-recognized student groups which stand for their respective constituencies on the Senate.
There are four student organizations that have community representatives on the body: the Asian-American Alliance, Queer Straight Alliance, Pan-African Alliance and Association of Latin American Students. Representatives are elected in internal elections run by the Elections Commission.
Those representatives do not have strictly defined roles, according to Scarano, a senior.
"Right now, people don't know that they exist and that they are sitting members of the body," she told the Daily on Saturday. "At times it's a bit unclear."
Opponents of the measure counter that the extension of full voting rights would lead to potential conflicts of interest and the problem of giving some students disproportionate representation — or, in effect, two representative votes in matters before the Senate.
At an informal meeting on Sunday, senators, community representatives and a member of the Committee on Student Life (CSL) evaluated the rights designated to community representatives. They considered five proposals centered on these students' role in the body, including one that allowed full voting rights and another that proposed completely eliminating community representatives from the Senate.
Other proposals dealt with the committees they are allowed to sit on. The TCU Constitution currently prohibits representatives from sitting on any Senate committees other than the Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs Committee (CECA), which is mandatory for all community representatives. One proposed idea is that they be provided full voting privileges and allowed to join committees in addition to CECA, not including the Senate's Executive Board or Allocations Board.
The discussion comes as Senate members reevaluate the role of these students on the body.
"The answer's not to definitely give [community representatives] the vote, but to change the definition of community representatives on Senate," said Nedghie Adrien, a junior and the chair of CECA. "As a community representative, people often are in an awkward place."
Marie Murphy, the community representative for the Pan-African Alliance, thinks that a lack of full voting rights exists as a major impediment to allowing her and the other representatives to serve effectively.
"It's really important to have voting privileges because we are just sort of sitting ducks," said Murphy, a sophomore. At the meeting and in interviews, those involved in the discussion acknowledged potential representational problems with expanding voting rights.
Students who elect community representatives would essentially have both their class senators and their community representative acting on their behalf in the Senate. This would give them disproportionately high representation compared to that of a student not electing a community representative.
"For the most part the ideology behind it is a conflict of interest, because they are essentially double-counting the vote," Scarano said. "I know that Senate is all about involving them more for sure, but a lot of people have concerns about the actual legality of it."
Junior Christopher Snyder, who has been intimately involved with the discussions, encouraged a wider debate.
"It's an issue that has to be approached with care," Snyder said. "That is because there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue and it would be counterproductive to force one opinion through. Any change to the status quo should be preceded by discussion, by looking carefully at the current system versus the effect of changing the current system."
The TCU Constitution allows any TCU-recognized group to acquire 250 student signatures and petition for a community representative seat. The petition is subject to a student-body-wide election and requires a simple majority to pass.
The seat must be confirmed by a campus-wide vote every four years.
Since the creation of the precursors to community representatives in 1981, no additional groups have been able to create a new spot.
Originally called culture representatives, three original seats represented the current groups or their forerunners. A representative of the queer community was added in 1996, and in 2003 the positions changed names and became open to any student organization.
Three student organizations — Environmental Consciousness Outreach, the International Club and Tufts Feminist Alliance — are considering petitioning for a position this year, according to Manuel Guzman, a former senator and a CSL member who organized Sunday's meeting.
Guzman expressed concern that an extension of voting rights would make the seats more attractive to groups and lead to a drastic increase in community representatives on Senate.
"If we don't deal with [the growth], in maybe 10 years there will be more community representatives than senators," said Guzman, a sophomore.
Meanwhile, Lisnerva Nuez, the community representative for the Association of Latin American Students, proposed a slightly different change.
Nuez, a sophomore, suggested calling community representatives "senators of diversity," in order to emphasize the students' role on the Senate
Senior Robert Siy, the community representative for the Asian-American Alliance, said that representatives of specific constituencies are key.
"I believe community representatives have a very special role on Senate," Siy said. "It's important to have them there. They represent communities whose interests may not be represented in the most eloquent manner."
If the Senate decides on a proposal, it can move to put it on a student-body-wide ballot, which could take place at the time of the TCU presidential elections in the spring. Any change to the community representative role must occur as a constitutional amendment.
