Disclaimer: Gunnar Ivarsson is a member of the Daily's Institutionality & Inclusivity Committee. Ivarsson was not involved in the writing of this article.
The TCU Senate is composed of student representatives across all years of Tufts’ student body. The most recent election introduced seven first-years to the Senate. Newly-elected senators Ashley Zhang, Logan Elie, Spencer Kluger, Gunnar Ivarsson, Jesse Kitumba, Shefali Bakre, Gracie Felsenthal, Naisha Luthra and Alexander Stone hosted a town hall on Monday, Nov. 10 as a welcoming space for students to air out their concerns and frustrations.
Bakre has focused her campaign on promoting connectivity between School of the Museum of Fine Arts, School of Arts and Sciences and School of Engineering students and improving access to and quality of vending machines. Bakre mentioned potential plans to have a Winter Ball at the SMFA campus to bring students from the Medford/Somerville and Fenway campuses together.
“When I was running my campaign, one of my closest friends [who] is an SMFA student on [the Medford/Somerville] campus [would] tell me all the time about how her friends at the SMFA campus kind of felt like they were not involved in the student body at Tufts,” Bakre said. “One of my main goals will be to help break away that divider and bridge both of our campuses together and just make sure it’s an inclusive environment for everybody.”
Class of 2028 senators pose at the Town Hall on Nov. 7.
International Community Senator Naisha Luthra has been focusing her campaign on providing admissions resources to students in multiple languages and making the transition easier for international students.
“An issue I faced, and a lot of people I know faced, was that it was really difficult to keep track of visa documents and things you had to do to get your F1 visa. So, I contacted admissions to potentially get an additional checklist [on the admissions portal] that would help you keep track of your immigration documents,” Luthra said.
Kitumba also mentioned his desire to expand Tufts’ language inclusivity and accessibility. Kitumba hopes to expand the array of languages for which matriculating students can receive a language requirement exemption.
“Oftentimes [less widely-known languages] don't have any mechanisms of being tested. And yes, Tufts has this idea of, … as long as you went to an institution where that language was the mode of instruction, you are exempted, but most of us are here at Tufts because we went to English-speaking schools,” Kitumba explained.
Zhang dedicated much of her campaign to addressing issues with Tufts Dining. She has discussed expanded hours and meal swipe access with Patti Klos, senior director of Tufts Dining.
“We’ve been talking about a fruit bar in Dewick, because we have a sundae bar. So, I brought up [the idea of] a berry bar — strawberries, raspberries, blueberries — or just more fruit that’s not apples, oranges and bananas. [It would be available] a couple times a week. [I would also like to] revamp the boba flavors in Hotung cafe,” Zhang said.
Unfortunately, students’ concerns about closed retail locations on weekends require a multi-year plan. Despite this, Zhang still hopes to expand retail location hours in small steps.
“It is very difficult to open on weekends because of the budgeting, and it would take four to five years to get that on the road because we have to get that in the school budget, which takes a long time. So, I want to start small and extend Friday [hours] and see the benefits of that,” said Zhang.
Luthra also spoke to the need for international students to have better access to resources at Tufts.
“I think when we’re speaking to people, … I [realize] … that Tufts has a lot of resources to share, but not everyone knows about them. And I’ve been working specifically with the [International Center] for that. I’ve been working on making a handbook with all the I-Center resources, because they’ve been struggling with outreach and getting those resources out to international students.”
