Disclaimer: Kunal Botla is the chair of the Daily’s editorial board, and Defne Olgun is a staff member at the Daily. Botla and Olgun were not involved in the writing of this article.
The Tufts Community Union Senate tackled club funding and discussed a resolution calling for the expansion of language offerings during their weekly meeting on Feb. 2.
Parliamentarian Kunal Botla introduced the first resolution of the semester: Class of 2028 Senator Jesse Kitumba’s call to expand language proficiency testing options beyond the languages included in the UPenn Language program.
The resolution calls for Tufts to “expand language proficiency testing options to include the [Language Testing International] and Global Seal of Biliteracy for students whose languages are not included at the Penn Language Testing Center.” This expansion would also include proficiency tests that adhere to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ standards to fulfill the language and cultural graduation requirements.
During discussion, multiple senators raised questions about the necessity of hiring new professors to facilitate this expansion — citing current struggles to staff the Department of Romance Studies — with some senators suggesting that the university could collaborate with other schools to fill the faculty gap.
This session was only the first reading — a time for senators to ask questions and discuss the ins and outs of the resolution. A vote on the resolution is expected in the coming weeks.
TCU President Joel Omolade, a senior, also announced plans to partner with Tufts University Social Collective for an NBA Takeover Night at the Pop-Up Hotung Café Pub, continuing this semester on Thursday nights. Education Committee Chair Arman Tendulkar, a junior, discussed an event on Feb. 18 connecting underclassmen with upperclassmen for academic advice.
The Senate also handled student organization funding requests.
The Singaporean, Indonesian, and Malaysian Student Association requested $5,582 for a ski trip retreat. “There isn’t much snow in the Tropic of Cancer, so they thought it would be a cute way to bond,” Allocations Board member Alexander Vang said. Senators approved $3,750 of student funds toward the retreat, keeping with Treasury policy of a $150 per student cap.
The Christian organization Daily Flame received $2,500 of funding for worship nights, its Fellowship Friday program, and a club retreat. Catholic Community at Tufts received $6,523 for its 30-person annual retreat to North Andover. The Senate decided to override the cap on per-person retreat funding due to the retreat’s mission-based connection, another clause in the extensive Treasury Policy Manual.
The Taiwanese Association of Students at Tufts received $4,340 in funding for a club bonding event. Tufts Bhangra received $8,500 for a competition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with plans to bring 15 members. Club Squash received $7,480 in supplementary funding for its national championship tournament in February.
Next, trustee representatives reported on their meetings with various committees of the University’s board of trustees. Each student trustee representative is assigned to be the student voice on one of the board’s committees.
Academic Affairs Committee representative Eraste Talla reported that his committee discussed government funding of FAFSA and university research, as well as Tufts' policy of institutional neutrality.
Representative Defne Olgun discussed her meeting with the Administration and Finance Committee, reporting that trustees discussed ways to deal with revenue shortfall without increasing the undergraduate population and highlighted unionization as a source of “downward pressure on revenue.”
During her meeting with trustees, Olgun shared the Senate’s recent statement in support of Full Time Lecturers, who staged a two day walkout earlier this week in pursuit of a better contract with the University.
Olgun said trustees also discussed potential changes to the federal endowment tax and any potential constraints on research funding.
According to Olgun, University President Sunil Kumar called federal policy towards university funding “as clear as mud.”
