The Tufts Community Union Senate welcomed newly elected community and Class of 2028 senators, selected new members of the Allocations Board and handled supplementary funding requests during their meeting on Sept. 29.
After introductions, the group congratulated the newly elected Class of 2028 and community senators after what senior Senate President Joel Omolade said was “one of the most contested elections ever.”
Ashley Zhang, Logan Elie, Spencer Kluger, Gunnar Ivarsson, Jesse Kitumba, Shefali Bakre and Gracie Felsenthal now occupy the Class of 2028 senator positions. First-years Joaquin Tahta holds the Latinx Community senator seat, Naisha Luthra holds the International Community senator seat and Alexander Stone holds the Indigenous Community senator seat.
Senate Parliamentarian Rhoda Edwards read the semester’s first resolution abstract up for senate consideration. Senate resolutions are requests made by members or organizations within the Tufts community for systematic change to university policy. If approved by the senate at large, they are presented as non-binding appeals to university administration.
The resolution, from the Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts, calls on the senate to create an “Ethical Spending Committee” to oversee club spending and ensure TCU-funded clubs spend money “ethically and according to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,” according to the abstract of the resolution presented to senators. Senators will discuss the resolution during their retreat this weekend and vote on the resolution during a meeting open to the entire Tufts community on Oct. 13.
TCU Treasurer Dhruv Sampat, a junior, led the senate through an example request for supplementary funding from the Society of Latinx Engineers. The request to the senate was presented by members of the Allocations Board, who shared the club’s justification for the request before the request was voted on and approved by the broader senate.
Next, the senate heard speeches from the Allocations Board nominees, all of whom were first-year senators. The nominees spoke of their finance related majors, internships and past experience managing finances of other clubs and organizations. They answered questions about their time management strategies and how they would handle clubs requesting funds for purposes they may not agree with.
“One of the things that makes Tufts so amazing is that everyone comes from different places, and there is such a large diversity in the student body and I’m very open to new perspectives,” newly elected Class of 2028 Senator Ashley Zhang said. “For me, even if someone wanted something I didn’t personally agree with, I would see it from their perspective and see how it would benefit other members of different communities.”
As the votes for the new Allocations Board members were being counted just outside the Senate meeting room, committee chairs filled the newly elected senators in on their committees’ respective responsibilities.
During the committee work updates, Women’s Community Senator and Services Committee member Krystal Mutebi shared plans for a menstrual cup giveaway project. After the meeting, Services Committee Chair Caroline Spahr told the Daily the event will likely be a collaboration with the Women’s Center, tentatively set for November.
As the senators broke into groups to discuss committee work, it was announced that Zhang and Luthra would be the next two members of the Allocations Board.
“I accepted the nomination because I want to major in [quantitative economics], and I thought this would be a wonderful learning opportunity for me, and a way to meet new people, interact with the clubs on campus and really commit to my vision of diversity at Tufts,” Luthra told the Daily after the meeting. “Right now, everything has happened pretty fast, so I’m a bit scared and overwhelmed, but I am excited for what the next year has to give.”
Next, the senate processed supplementary funding requests.
TedxTufts will receive half of the $15,000 it requested to send some of its members to the TedNext Conference for training. After some debate, senators decided to give Students for the Exploration and Development of Space roughly $11,000 to send some of its members to the SpaceVision conference.
The senate approved $8,630 in funding for The Indigenous Students of Tufts to plan an event for Indigenous People’s Day independent of Tufts’ administration.
Finally, the senate approved $10,207 for WMFO to purchase new broadcasting equipment, and a total of $14,183 to TUSC to plan its upcoming Clash of Classes event and fund Homecoming t-shirts.
The meeting ended with Omolade recapping a meeting with DEIJ Vice Provost Monroe France and Education Committee Chair Arman Tendulkar debriefing a successful student resource fair.
