The Tufts Community Union Senate discussed new bylaws concerning community senators, discussed changes to the resolution process and handled supplementary funding requests in their March 30 meeting.
Services Committee Chair Shefali Bakre discussed plans for a farmers market during the university’s EarthFest celebration on April 13. The event would be a collaboration with Tufts University Social Collective and the Sustainable CORE Fellows. Historian Brendan French secured $10,000 to improve access to water fountains on campus dormitories.
Education Committee Chair Arman Tendulkar announced plans for a coffee vending machine in Tisch Library, which is pending approval.
Diversity Officer Alexander Vang outlined his proposal to change the role community senators would play in the Senate.
Vang proposed removing community senators’ ability to be considered a candidate for executive board positions within the Senate. He proposed maintaining community senators’ ability to pursue roles on the Treasury or the Allocations Board. Another proposal made was to remove the Assistant and Diversity Officers’ ability to serve in any Treasury roles and remove community senators’ ability to serve as chairs of Senate committees.
“I feel like being a FIRST Senator for me … has been a big ask,” Vang told senators. “I think the asks of committee chairs would substantially distract away from your role as a community senator.”
TCU President Joel Omolade announced plans to approve the Senate’s budget for next year on April 21. He also announced the student leadership gala on Sunday, April 6 at 6 p.m. in Eaton Hall.
Omolade and TCU Vice President Rhoda Edwards recapped a meeting with the deans of the School of Arts and Sciences and of the School of Engineering. Edwards said that while senators’ projects received support from the deans, more faculty buy-in would be required for projects like the open syllabus project — an effort by senators to get faculty to publish their syllabi in advance of class registration — and the language resolutions to be truly implemented.
Senators held a closed session at the end of the meeting. According to Omolade, senators discussed resources available to support students after the detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk.
“I really feel like the Tufts University administration is doing everything in their power just to continue to protect and support students at this time, and the role of the Senate is just to be as big of a resource to help them go about their mission,” Omolade told the Daily. “That might mean putting out resources that we can provide to the student body, providing mental health support that we can as a whole. But in all honesty, I really do have full faith in the administration to do whatever they can to protect our students.”
A senator asked Treasurer Dhruv Sampat about the current balance of the supplementary funding budget, after senators allocated a record amount of funds this semester.
While Sampat did not provide a specific number, he told senators the Treasury has “enough” money to cover the rest of this year’s requests, with only two more weeks of Allocations Board meetings remaining in the semester. Sampat told senators of an unanticipated $70,000 request from TUSC for Spring Fling that will be heard next week. He added that he planned to partially fund the request with unspent money already given to other clubs.
“In no shape or form are we in a bad space monetarily,” Sampat said. “Whoever next year’s Treasurer is will [have] a surplus, and hopefully for the next two or three years after that.”
Sampat told senators that changes to the bookmarking process — where clubs can mark an undefined cost in the next year’s budget — and the number of supplementary funding requests clubs received per semester, are in the works.
Sampat said that he noticed sharper questions and cost-cutting efforts during Allocations Board meetings as well.
“ALBO tabled a whole bunch of [requests], asked them to reallocate a whole bunch of things when they came in, ask them for more costs, move things around,” he said. “I think this is a much more positive thing.”
Club Running received $4,470 in supplementary funding to take their track and half marathon teams to a tournament in Richmond, Va. South Korean dance group KoDA received $3,620 for their spring showcase, which had been reduced by $2,000 from its original request after the club worked with the Allocations Board to cut costs.
