Countless students have recently been passing judgment on a freshman who posted a racially controversial flyer.
But now that freshman will be handing down judgments of other students' actions — as a member of the Committee on Student Life (CSL).
In-Goo Kwak won yesterday's special election for a vacant seat on the CSL, which is tasked with ensuring that Tufts maintains "the ideals, principles, and ethical values characteristic of academic institutions," according to its bylaws.
Last month, Kwak became a household name in the Tufts community when he put up a flyer that parodied another student's run for the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate by poking fun at his own Korean background and playing on racial stereotypes. His posting drew a quick condemnation from Tufts' Asian American Alliance and other campus cultural organizations.
Kwak said early this morning that he believed his notoriety played some role in his election, but he maintained that he will not bring any particular ideological agenda to the CSL.
"Obviously, that had kind of a polarizing effect," he said of the flyer incident. "Some people I know voted just to vote against me. The people who did vote for me knew where I stood on certain issues, and they knew what my principles kind of were."
In another election held yesterday, Senior Amani Smathers won the TCU Senate seat that opened up after junior Samia Zahran resigned from the body last month.
Smathers, who is also a layout editor for the Daily, beat out lone opponent senior Xander Zebrose in an election open only to the Class of 2010.
"I'm glad that I won, because I have things that I'd like to address in Senate this year," Smathers said. She said that she would prioritize efforts to increase Tufts' name recognition, an issue that she said impacts many seniors looking for jobs.
Kwak beat out senior Alex Daniele and sophomore Chris Walczyszyn in the CSL election, which was open to all undergraduates. The committee had an open seat that had gone unfilled during spring elections.
The CSL came to the forefront of campus conversation during the 2006-07 academic year when students brought complaints against The Primary Source for a Christmas carol it published parodying affirmative action and an article highlighting elements of Islamic extremism. The CSL found the Source, Tufts' journal of conservative thought, guilty of harassment, and prohibited the magazine from publishing anonymous articles. Dean of Undergraduate Education Jamses Glaser eventually overturned the latter decision, saying it infringed upon freedom of speech.
The discussions on how to handle Kwak's poster that have played out in recent weeks revisit many of the arguments and points of view that surfaced years ago in the campus debate over how to handle the Source's conduct.
Yesterday's votes were marked by low turnout, with 16 percent of eligible voters in each election casting ballots. Eight hundred and fifty-nine students voted in the CSL election, while 204 seniors cast ballots in the TCU vote.
Elections Commission Chair Kevin Terhorst attributed low turnout to voter apathy, especially on the part of seniors, and to the fact that the CSL's profile is relatively low nowadays. The unusual timing of the special election and poor media coverage also hurt numbers, said Terhorst, a senior.
Zahran vacated her Senate seat on Sept. 20, just hours before this academic year's first Senate meeting. She had taken the seat in the spring, filling a spot meant for the Class of 2010 but that no rising senior had stepped in to fill.
From a technical standpoint, the election went off without a hitch, according to Terhorst. He noted that ECOM did not encounter any issues with voting software and received no complaints. "The election went very smoothly," he said.
