The Tufts Community Union Senate debated an appeal on supplementary funding and broader bylaws changes during their meeting on Sunday.
The first item on the agenda of the meeting was a reading of a resolution written by TCU President Joel Omolade requesting the university change graduation robes from black to a blue “reflecting Tufts and symbolic change.” The abstract of the resolution was read with the next steps in the process occurring next week.
In the treasury section of the meeting, the Caribbean Students Organization received $4,953 in funding for cookies, drinks and a food truck for their Caribbean Week programming. The request was approved because it was a bookmark, meaning the club notified the treasury last year of the anticipated cost but wasn’t able to provide a specific dollar amount until the trip date became closer.
Next, the Senate heard and voted on an appeal for more supplementary funding from Harlem Grooves, Tufts’ modern, contemporary and hip-hop dance group. They were asking for staging equipment for their end-of-year showcase.
The club representatives explained that the loss of their ability to perform in Cohen Auditorium meant additional costs for staging a performance in a new venue. They highlighted the seminal nature of the end-of-year show, and the importance of a well-presented show to honor the hard work of the club members.
Members of the TCU Allocations Board explained their original decision stemmed from the lack of money left for supplementary funding because a record amount was awarded this semester. There is also a precedent of specifically denying clubs’ supplementary funding requests.
Senators were sympathetic to the situation, as the loss of the Cohen space was out of the students’ control.
“Three or four weeks earlier, this would have been a request that I obviously would have been all for. I think it’s a very necessary part of what you guys do, and I applaud that, but it’s just the timing of this request was, at this point, we’re just in a bad spot,” sophomore Disability Senator Amelia Farrar said.
Senators asked a variety of questions about the costs and planning of the event. After the 10-minute Q&A period expired, the club representatives were excused from the room and their proposal was put to a vote.
Before the vote, TCU Treasurer and junior Dhruv Sampat updated the club on the status of the treasury’s supplementary funding budget for the semester.
“We’ve spent the amount we allocated towards supplementary funding,” Sampat told the group. “We are spending beyond that and I’m moving things internally from places we maybe haven’t spent that much money on, like the Student Support Fund.”
The Student Support Fund was revamped in fall 2023 by Sampat to ensure students on financial aid were able to fully participate in club activities.
Next, a motion moved to grant Harlem Groves $4,000 for lighting equipment, with senators representing both sides.
“As a body, we set this precedent that we are not doing supplementary funding anymore [for this year], and I don’t think there’s an exception to be made here, considering that they knew in December that they’re not going to have Cohen,” International Senator and first-year Naisha Luthra explained.
“This could not have been a bookmark,” Class of 2026 Senator Nathaniel Kennedy, countered. “They didn’t know about [the change] in April … when they could have put a bookmark in.”
The new $4,000 proposed amount, a decrease from the original $7,334, ended up passing by 10 votes to nine, with two abstentions.
Club Cheerleading’s request for $1,720 in transportation for their return trip from Cheerleading Nationals was granted.
Next, Diversity Officer, FIRST Senator and junior Alexander Vang expressed frustration with the Senate’s response to his proposal to change the role of Community senators. He told senators he had hoped for more interaction with and debate around his proposal before the group voted on it last week.
After discussing Vang’s bylaw amendment from the previous, the group then discussed broader changes to the TCU’s rules and bylaws.
Some topics of discussion included a broader reevaluation of bylaws, enforcement of TCU’s disciplinary procedure and senators giving themselves more responsibilities than they can handle.
During the community updates section, Class of 2028 Senator Shefali Bakre recapped Earth Fest, a collaborative event with Tufts University Social Collective and the CORE Fellows that took place on Sunday, which featured live performances, vendors and fresh produce.
“It was nice to just engage with the community,” Bakre said. “As a first event, it did go pretty well and now I’m prepared to know what to do for next semester.”
As the meeting closed, senators discussed their plans for the rest of the school year, which included approving next year’s budget and conducting internal elections.
After the meeting, Sampat updated the Daily on the supplementary funding situation for the rest of the semester.
“We don’t have supplementary funding for the rest of the year because our last Allocations Board meeting was on [April 9],” Sampat explained. “Supplementary funding requests in the last week were starting to get turned down just because we reached where we were supposed to be at with our supplementary funding [allocation].”
Sampat further elaborated that towards the end of the semester, bookmark requests were given priority over supplementary funding requests.
“It’s constantly shared with clubs that the supplementary funding … is discretionary and based on availability,” he said. “Because we ran out with that towards the end of the year, [for] some clubs [we] didn’t have the opportunity to make it available.”
