TCU Senate approves funding for an ice rink, amends Treasury Procedures Manual

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met on Sunday to discuss Allocation Board (ALBO) funding, hear announcements from officers and discuss an amendment to the Treasury Procedures Manual (TPM), which concerns supplementary funding for student groups, in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room.

The proposed amendment to TPM excepted off-campus performances from a rule which states that ALBO can only fund up to six club members to attend an off-campus event. ALBO approved the rule change by two-thirds majority, which then passed in the full Senate.

The Senate approved a $25,000 budget for Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) to boost its ongoing late-night programming, like arcade and trivia nights, fund an SMFA shuttle for Winter Ball and supplement the cost of Celtics and Bruins student tickets.

“[TUSC] is by far the biggest budget that Senate provides to any student organization, but they are also one of the largest. TUSC’s annual budget is in the neighborhood of about $850,000, so within the context of supplementary funding requests, this is about 3% of their annual budget,” Sharif Hamidi, treasurer of the TCU Senate, said.

Iyra Chandra, a member of ALBO, suggested that TUSC funding is important because of its impact

“A random data survey to evaluate the impact of TUSC found that the days that had TUSC-related events had less incidents of binge drinking and student reports. This is especially important when considering that the first night coming back from winter break was a big night for drinking and TEMS incidents,” Chandra said.

Additionally, TUSC requested funding for new initiatives, like $1,700 to host an ice rink event that will most likely be placed on the residential quad, and $3,100 for a roller rink event in Tisch Library.

Senators raised concerns about liability and accessibility issues for students on the ice rink.

“They said it was fine, and they said that the company didn’t mention anything,” ALBO member Alexa Weinstein said. She added that students wouldn’t be expected to bring their own skates and wouldn’t be charged to borrow them.

Other supplementary funding initiatives included requests from Tufts Financial Group (TFG) and the men’s club soccer team. TFG received $188 to gift their two upcoming alumni speakers with tote bags, mugs, pens and Godiva chocolate. The men’s club soccer team received $9,350 to attend its regional tournament next weekend.

“The B team got recognized this year as being incorporated into their club team. The roster for a soccer team is 25 players per team, so they have to bring 50 players because both the A team and the B team qualified,” Weinstein, a senior, said.

The meeting began with the committee chairs sharing updates on their ongoing projects. Class of 2020 Senator Harry Kong and Trustee Representative Kevin Gleason convinced Tisch Library to open at 7:45 a.m. all days of the week, not just on weekdays. They are also working on installing printers on the upper and lower campuses to make printing more accessible to students.

“It was originally planned to have one printer in Carmichael [Hall] and one printer in Harleston [Hall]. From what we know, Tufts Technology Services has approved it, and they said hopefully the printers can be installed before the end of the semester,” Gleason said.

The project has stalled because of questions about security with people entering the buildings who didn’t live in them and normally wouldn’t have card access.

“We had given them Carmichael and Harleston as prime locations, but they weren’t sure about finalizing where exactly the printers would be,” Kong said.

Correction: A previous version of the article "TCU Senate approves funding for an ice rink, amends Treasury Procedures Manual" incorrectly stated that the Tufts University Social Collective (TUSC) would build a roller rink in the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center. The roller rink will not be in the Sports and Fitness Center; it will be in the Tisch Library. The article has been updated to reflect this change. The article also stated that TUSC had requested funding for Winter Ball, when in fact TUSC only requested funding for an SMFA shuttle to the event. The Daily regrets these errors.