The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate announced Sunday night it will allocate funds to seven student groups through special surplus grants.
The grants distribute a $200,000 surplus from last year's Student Activities Fund. Seven student groups will receive surplus grants of up to $50,000 to undertake large-scale projects, while other competing proposals were turned away.
The Allocations Board (ALBO) discussed the feasibility of the proposals and made recommendations to the Senate before the vote, according to TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a junior.
Senate allocated the largest sum to Tufts Bikes, a new student-run organization that plans to implement a bike share program on campus.
The money — $50,000 in total — will fund the entirety of a project proposed by the group Tufts Bikes, according to senior Karen Andres, a co-founder of the group.
"Now that we have the money Senate gave us, we'll be able to do things more concretely," Andres said. "I'm really grateful to the Senate for recognizing that there is a huge interest in Tufts students for having bikes available."
The money will go toward purchasing 30 bikes and helmets as well as storage and maintenance tools, according to Andres.
The Senate voted 19-1 with 3 abstentions to grant $40,000 to the Media Advocacy Board (MAB) for improvements to its Curtis Hall media lab, including the installation of new furniture, computers, paint and carpeting, as well as a new card-swipe system, a film dolly and a remote broadcasting system.
Tufts Mountain Club (TMC) and the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) each received $25,000 for the purchase of new club vans. The Senate voted 21-0 to give funds to TMC, with 2 abstaining votes, while LCS received a vote of 22-0, with 1 abstention.
The Senate voted unanimously to allocate $30,000 to the Tufts University Football Club for a 12-person van. The van will be used by all Tier II club sports.
The Crafts Center received $15,000 to be applied toward new vents and sinks, wired Internet access, a concrete patio and a card-swipe system, while the Tufts Robotics Club received $15,000 to purchase a laser cutter for its lab. Senate voted 18-4 to pass the latter proposal, with one abstention.
Other projects were turned away in their funding requests. The Senate debated a proposal from Tufts VOX: Voices for Choice, a student reproductive health and rights group, to install condom machines in campus dorms. The proposal was ultimately rejected.
Senator Wyatt Cadley, a sophomore, said that the proposal received opposition because of uncertainty regarding the logistics of the proposed machines' upkeep and maintenance.
A Senate rule dictating that funded projects last for at least five years eliminated VOX's proposal from consideration, according to Senator John Peter Kaytrosh, a junior.
"Nothing other than empty machines, I believe, could have been funded with this, according to my reading of the rules," Kaytrosh said.
Cadley expressed disappointment that the condom-machines proposal was not approved. He said the proposal was an opportunity to communicate the importance of public health and safe sex to the Tufts community.
"We need to find a new way to demonstrate that this is an issue that we care about," Cadley said. "I think tonight was a missed opportunity to send a message that this is something that we really care about and think should happen."
TCU Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack, a senior, said the allocation process went smoothly, despite the fact that it involved a significant amount of money and controversial proposals.
"When you deal with large sums of money or contentious issues, it can devolve into either a debate about how the procedure goes or personal attacks," Pasternack said.
TCU President Sam Wallis, a senior, said most proposals did not require intense debate.
"They were so strong, so well -researched and so thoughtfully put together that I think the vote itself on a lot of them indicates student desire for some of the projects that were put forward," Wallis said. "The majority we didn't even debate because they were so strong."
Wallis said that the Senate demonstrated support for engineers in allocating funding for a laser cutter for the Tufts Robotics Club.
"I'm really happy with Robotics," he said. "I don't think that we, as Senate, do enough to show support for engineers, and I think that that was a really positive way that we showed support."
De Klerk consulted with the administration to help determine the feasibility of the proposals, she said. "I tried to get from them as much info as possible to determine feasibility and whether things would work out logistically," de Klerk said.
ALBO reached a consensus in its second meeting about the best proposals to recommend to Senate, according to de Klerk. "We tried to debate each proposal on its merit," de Klerk said.
De Klerk said she was pleased with the final decisions of the Senate. "I think right now we have seven really concrete proposals that will all go into effect by the end of the school year," she said. "I think we will see a measurable impact on campus."
