Dhruv Sampat is a junior majoring in political science and economics with a minor in finance. Many may know Sampat through his role in the Tufts Community Union Senate Treasury, which he has served on for the past three years. Now he would like to transition out of the treasury office.
Sampat started out as an assistant treasurer during his first year, but due to an unexpected resignation by the treasurer at the time, Sampat moved into an associate treasurer role that same year. For the past two years, Sampat has served as the treasurer and the chief executive of the Student Activities Fund. Sampat’s role has required him to work across the Treasury, the Allocations Board and the Senate.
“It was obviously a little bit stressful just because at that point in time, it was definitely a younger treasury,” Sampat said. “I was a [first-year] and I was serving as the associate treasurer. … I didn’t have the luxury of exploring campus on my own time. I had to understand what student needs are, what is going on, on campus — the kind of programming, the kind of events, the kind of clubs, and that was very accelerated.”
When Sampat moved into the treasurer role his sophomore year, he first took the time to try to understand the greater campus landscape and needs.
“I think what tends to happen is, generally, when a senior becomes a treasurer, they’ve been around for so long that they just tend to go with the flow of things, and you just continue the practices that you’ve been taught,” Sampat said. “What I had the opportunity to do, as someone that came in a little younger and someone a little earlier on, is break out of that box and bring a new perspective.”
As treasurer, Sampat focused on accessibility. He found that many clubs were charging membership dues so he gutted those rules by redistributing funds. Sampat also doubled the size of the Treasury team which effectively doubled the number of office hours to increase operational efficiency. Among other things, Sampat expanded the Student Support Fund which provides aid for students to participate in events, and rewrote the Treasury Procedural Manual.
“I codified rules after I came in that put limitations on my own power [so] if I want to do anything with the surplus [funding], I have to ask the Senate, and I have to get a majority vote. Before, some of the safeguards weren’t there … and that always struck me as putting too much confidence in too few students. I always believe in spreading the share of power and getting as much representation as possible,” Sampat said.
During his time as treasurer, Sampat noticed an increase in student participation. Thus, Sampat has advocated for a match in increased administrative resources and infrastructure to support more students and clubs.
In the future, he also hopes for the digitization of the entire process of the Treasury.
“I think another beautiful thing about this position is that whoever comes into it always has to take stock of what’s going on and change things according to what’s going on,” Sampat said.
Now, as Sampat steps down to pass over his title to a new treasurer, he has set his sights on the TCU presidency.
As advertised on the @Dhruv_for_prez Instagram account, Sampat campaigned for reelection as a Class of 2026 senator on four major points: tuition transparency, strengthening pre-professional guidance, renovating and upgrading the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center and growing the student activity fund.
For transparency, Sampat cites the rising cost of tuition as a major area of concern.
“My plan is to have town halls every semester with the upper level provost, the Office of the President, deans, so [students] can hear from their perspective … what is going on with the money and where every dollar is going,” Sampat said. “And from there, we can then have a say, and we can express our comfort or discomfort … on where the administration is spending money, and that is really how you steer an institution forward.”
The second part of his candidacy includes communicating with the Career Center on how they can improve networking with alumni and create a more inclusive career fair.
Thirdly, Sampat also acknowledges a lack of infrastructure, specifically in regards to the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center.
“Very simply, a big part of our well-being is having access to the infrastructure,” Samapt said. “We need to have equipment, and we need to have sanitary conditions that reflect the number of students we have. And that just doesn’t add up right now, and it really comes down to meeting with athletics and facilities.”
Sampat also mentioned other ideas including reconfiguring the gym for the best traffic flow and partnering with athletics to offer more free fitness classes for students.
Lastly, Sampat’s platform focuses on redefining fun on campus.
“We need to figure out how to get peers to show up for other peers and support them in their ventures, whether that be through athletics, whether that be academic, whether that be social — and we need new traditions,” Sampat said.
Sampat calls for the renegotiation with administration on removing barriers that make Greek life inaccessible to students.
A few other initiatives Sampat plans to work on include working more with administrative departments like Tufts Dining to establish a constant feedback loop for student input, creating a centralized and shared wardrobe system for student performance groups, offering laundry stipends for low income students and waiving dorm lockout fees.
“We’re [trying] to push for affinity and identity-based groups to take part in and to be a part of the hiring of faculty, administrators and professors,” Sampat said. “Sometimes as students, we don’t really get a say in who is to be hired and who the university is bringing on as professors or as educators, and what we’re trying to do is formalize a system where a particular group, or a particular sort of identity based group, can interview and can get to know faculty better before Tufts offers them positions.”
Sampat describes the platform as reflecting the entirety of TCU. These proposed initiatives are a combination of action items others have brought forth within prior campaigns or within the Senate and identified as areas that they would like to work on.
“Joel [Omolade] is the current president. He’s done a fantastic job and brought to life several new projects and continued several old projects. Every president has a different vision. Every president has different priorities. … And everyone has a different style of executing it as well,” Sampat said. “The beauty is bringing that style, but also aligning senators, who may have different visions and goals and ideas, and bringing them under one common mission.”
In response to how he would navigate the unpredictable global political landscape as president, Sampat emphasized the importance of administrative resources. He plans to inform students on how they can best use the administration, whether through educational events or bringing students and administrators together through town halls.
“Whatever happens with this campaign, I’m honestly just looking forward to serving Tufts in any way that I can. I think the last three years have been truly so humbling and such an honor for me to serve our community in such a great way,” Sampat said.
The TCU Senate Presidential Election will open Thursday at 12 p.m. and close on Saturday at 12 p.m. Students can vote online using the ballot link on the TCU website.
