The Tufts Community Union Senate convened for its first session of the 2024–25 school year on Sept. 8, discussing plans for new projects, the effects of the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ban and treasury policy, among other topics.
TCU President Joel Omolade opened the meeting with some introductory remarks.
“This is going to be the best year ever,” Omolade said. “I feel it in my bones. I’m so excited … I missed Senate every single day this summer.”
Committee chairs then shared their plans for new Senate initiatives, including creating a database for student internships, hosting a Tufts Student Resources fair and revamping Senate town halls. Nessren Ourdyl, the TCU Senate vice president, asked committee chairs to set intentions and goals for projects in the weeks to come.
The discussion then moved to the impact of the recent decision by the Supreme Court to outlaw affirmative action in higher education admissions.
“A lot of us were very disheartened by seeing the 3% drop in Black students that were admitted to Tufts,” Africana Community Senator Rhoda Edwards said.
TCU Diversity Officer Donovan Sanders highlighted community senators’ efforts to mitigate the effects of the decision through community-building work, and Edwards shared that the Africana Center’s barbecue on the first day of class had a record turnout.
The Senate plans to help address the effects of the decision by focusing on projects involving Tufts’ community centers.
“We’re more focused on the community senators … especially on more intersections between the community centers, and more cross-collaboration between the Africana Center, the Asian American Center, the Latinx Center … so that even though the numbers are going down, the community is being strengthened,” Edwards said in an interview with the Daily after the session concluded.
The senators also discussed new ideas and proposals for on-campus projects. Tufts School of the Museum of Fine Arts Community Senator Kunal Botla proposed an effort to expand the route of the shuttle system which currently drives the students from locations like the SMFA Campus and Davis Square back to the Medford campus. Senator Jose Armando discussed potential reforms to the Student Accessibility and Academic Resources Center , such as making it easier for students to request and receive accommodations. Among other suggested ideas for Senate initiatives were a platform to help students find off-campus housing and the launch of a cultural cooking series.
In the Treasury section of the meeting, Treasurer Dhruv Sampat highlighted his efforts to fine-tune the Trust Procedures Manual — the “Constitution” of the Treasury” — and train 800 new students in the club signatory process, making it easier for clubs to attain resources. Sampat is planning a training session in club-funding procedures for club signatories — members of TCU-funded clubs with fiduciary powers.
“We have two signatories for every club, and we have 400 TCU-funded clubs, so that makes it 800 signatories,” Sampat told the Daily. “I anticipate that it will be the most-attended signatory training session so far — also just because we have so many new clubs.”
The training will be mandatory and is designed so that signatories can understand how the Treasury works and know the proper procedures to ask for money from the TCU, Sampat added.
Speaking from her role on the executive board, Edwards also presented new proposed reforms to streamline the Senate’s resolution process, making it more accessible by removing unnecessary “jargon.” While some senators raised concerns that resolutions would lose gravitas if language requirements were dropped, Edwards made the case that consistent use of formal language previously required in resolution submission was an unnecessary barrier to entry that could distract from the issues on the minds of the Tufts community.
Edwards also discussed her plans to take additional steps to ensure senators’ resolutions reach the ears of the Tufts administration. As the point person for resolutions, Edwards told the Daily that she plans to work with resolution authors to connect them with school administrators in the early stages of drafting and continuing to support authors even after their resolutions are passed.
“With the March resolutions last year… it seemed like [administrators] already had … a way that they wanted to respond anyways,” Edwards told the Daily, referring to four resolutions proposed last March by the Coalition for Liberation in Palestine regarding Tufts’ ties to Israel; three of the resolutions were approved by the Senate. “If we had known that early on, maybe we could have made some amendments to that resolution to get a better response [from the administration].”
Toward the end of the session, Omolade also discussed plans to host a Homecoming festival behind Bello Field, telling the assembled senators to spread the word.
