Invest in JPMorgan Chase; buy the country of Iceland. Those are just two suggestions students have given the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on how to use the $714,291.72 it recovered last month from the embezzlement scandal.
Senators will consider students' more feasible ideas at a town hall-style meeting at 5 p.m. today in Hotung Café.
"This is supposed to be a campus brainstorming session," TCU President Duncan Pickard said. "What I'm really hoping to get … is just more ideas."
The Senate will not craft any definitive plans at the forum, which will be the first of two.
Still, some proposals have stuck out in the weeks following the Senate's announcement that it had received restitution for the money allegedly stolen by former Office of Student Life employees Jodie Neally and Ray Rodriguez. Achieving campus-wide wireless Internet access and contributing funds to the Tufts Mountain Club's planned Trips Cabin have been two such ideas.
"I'm sure [those] will come up [at the meeting]," Pickard said.
Since the Senate is now looking at an unprecedented surplus, it makes sense to put the money at the student body's disposal, according to Pickard.
"For me, $700,000 is a lot of money to have sitting around," he said.
As for purchasing Iceland: "That's a great idea," Pickard joked. "It would solve the housing problem."
