At a Wednesday night debate in the Joyce Cummings Center, Krystal Mutebi, Joel Omolade and Mikayla Paquette each presented their vision for the Tufts Community Union presidency. All three are juniors and current TCU senators.
The TCU president’s responsibilities fall into two broad categories: leading the TCU Senate and representing the student body to the Tufts administration. The president (along with the vice president) meets frequently with university leaders, giving them a unique platform to advocate for students’ needs and perspectives.
During Wednesday’s forum, all three candidates said they would use that platform to amplify diverse voices and counteract what they called a culture of “complacency” among administrators regarding student concerns.
After delivering short opening statements, the candidates each got a chance to explain what they want to accomplish as president that they couldn’t achieve as a senator.
Paquette, a Class of 2025 senator and Tisch Scholar who plays on the women’s basketball team, said she is excited for the chance to be a “leader of leaders.”
Mutebi, who has served as the TCU women’s senator, diversity officer and most recently vice president, noted that the senate president gets to “set the tone” for student government. She wants to use that power to ensure the Senate grows more connected and accessible to the students it serves.
“I do think that there [are] some communities that are untapped by the Senate body,” Mutebi said. “I’ve spoken to some students and they’re like, ‘I don’t really even know what senators do,’ … There [are] some students who still don’t have access to this resource.”
Omolade is a Class of 2025 senator, the TCU diversity officer and also the president of the undergraduate resident assistants union. He stressed the importance of including more diverse student voices in Senate projects and conversations — because “if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
Omolade’s candidacy was briefly derailed earlier this week when the Elections Commission disqualified him for alleged campaign misconduct. But the TCU Judiciary swiftly overturned that decision and reinstated Omolade’s campaign, after finding that although Omolade did appear to have solicited a club’s endorsement in exchange for personal favors, ECOM’s investigation was unsatisfactory and its punishment was overly severe. Omolade reentered the presidential race on Tuesday, posting a statement on Instagram that he was denied due process by ECOM and never received a quid-pro-quo endorsement.
During the debate, all three candidates emphasized the need to support diverse and marginalized Tufts students. In response to a question about how to address instances of racism and bias on campus, Paquette said she’d experienced those things firsthand.
“Students should never have to question their value, their institution’s commitment to them or if they are safe on this campus,” Paquette said.
Mutebi said that as president, she would support mandating annual racial bias training for all students, faculty and staff. She also connected instances of discrimination to a need for more accountability from Tufts administrators, who she feels are disconnected from the student body.
“I don’t like that we [the students] only talk to the administration when it’s a time of crisis. I don’t like that we only talk to administration over email correspondence,” Mutebi said. "There’s power in direct communication. And I think that we need to create a platform for ongoing conversations [and] ongoing dialogue between students and administration to foster a sense of accountability and responsiveness.”
Mutebi and Omolade both said they want more transparency about how the university investigates and responds to incidents of hate.
“I do think it’s important to work with [the Office of Equal Opportunity] to balance accountability and confidentiality,” Mutebi said. “When there’s a racist incident, I want to know that it was handled. I don’t want to have a vague email sent to me saying that it’s being dealt with.”
The candidates also agreed that Tufts needs to do a better job connecting students with resources and reducing the cost of participating in clubs and activities — especially for first-generation and low income students and students of color. They discussed how Tufts’ sticker price has surpassed $90,000, yet basics like laundry and printing still cost money.
Omolade said he would push to make laundry and storage free for first-generation and low income students, to alleviate some of that burden. Mutebi said she would restart an ongoing Senate program to make laundry free for students who need it.
Beyond the cost of laundry, the candidates seemed to agree that there’s a deeper problem of inequity at Tufts. All three talked about their experiences as Black students, bringing up microaggressions in the classroom, feeling ostracized from campus life because of income inequality and a need for more support from university leaders.
Omolade got the biggest round of applause of the night when he responded to an audience question about how, as TCU president, he would counteract students’ perceptions that student government has no real power to influence university administrators or affect institutional change.
“I think the first thing is that we need to stop playing nice,” Omolade said. “I understand that Senate is built to be a bridge between administration and students. … But sometimes being a bridge means also being neutral. It also means being complacent. It also means being passive. And I think that as Senate, we need to change that connotation of what it means to be a senator. Being a senator means to get mad. … It means to demand equity.”
He connected this sentiment with his role as president of the RA union, specifically referencing the newly negotiated contract. “It didn't happen with a statement. It didn’t happen with an email. It didn’t happen with a project. It happened when we got mad.”
Later, Omolade said he recognizes “the beauty and the power of civic disobedience,” including “sitting inside of a tent … here on campus and all over the world, too” — a nod to Tufts students who have pitched tents on the academic quad to pressure Tufts to condemn Israel’s killing of over 30,000 Gazans as genocide.
Mutebi agreed that TCU Senate should take a more active role in supporting student activism.
“Tufts University is a university with a history of protests, of demonstrations — the Africana Center was founded because of protest, students protesting at Lewis Hall to get the Africana center here,” she said. “It’s our job as senators to get that message across to administration. And that starts with working with those students who are demonstrating.”
Asked what they’ll do if they lose the election, Mutebi, Omolade and Paquette all said that regardless of the outcome, they plan to continue advocating on behalf of their peers to achieve their goals of a more inclusive, connected Tufts.
Voting starts Thursday at noon and ends Sunday at noon. Visit www.tcu.tufts.edu/vote to read the candidates’ statements and vote.
