A new group will lobby the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate to consider costs when it allocates funds and works with the administration.
A group of seniors and alumni in March founded "The Student Activity Fee is Too Damn High Party" (SAF2DamnHigh); the name is a reference to "The Rent is Too Damn High Party," a political party popularized by the party's founder Jimmy McMillan, a 2011 New York gubernatorial candidate.
According to SAF2DamnHigh co−founder and Alumni Coordinator Chris Snyder (LA '11), who graduated in February, the party aims to pressure the Senate to reconsider how it prioritizes its allocation of students' money.
Snyder said the party, through lobbying and the endorsement of TCU Senate presidential candidates, will focus on the ways in which the Senate uses funds from the Student Activities Fee. The fee this academic year is $288 per year per student.
"If you ask Senate, ‘What are your priorities?' they'll say, ‘I don't know; whatever it was last year,'" Snyder said. "Senate is not focusing on how much these things cost."
Snyder said SAF2DamnHigh also has plans to pressure the Senate to consider costs when it lobbies the administration to finance improvements to student life.
"Senate asked the administration to fund the campus center lobby renovations; they asked the administration to fund a new campus kitchen," Snyder said. "Senate never asked, ‘How much does this cost?'"
TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk praised SAF2DamnHigh for drawing attention to the need to examine the Senate's budget allocations.
"It is very important for Senate to question why they fund the things that they do … because it is very easy to get wrapped up in precedent and lose sight of the bigger picture," de Klerk said in an email to the Daily. "There is so little turnover on Senate from one year to the next and the reasoning behind certain decisions is forgotten."
Senior John Atsalis, co−founder and communications director of SAF2DamnHigh, said the Senate grants too much money to a number of TCU groups that do not impact a large number of students.
"The Senate does need to consider that you can't have every student group funded," Atsalis said, adding that the Student Activities Fee has risen by $30 over the last three years.
Atsalis called on the Senate to initiate long−term conversations about the future of the Student Activities Fee and TCU groups.
"Either the pie gets bigger and the Student Activities Fee gets bigger, or everybody's slice of the pie gets smaller," Atsalis said. "We're not even having those conversations because they're afraid of telling groups ‘no.'"
De Klerk, a junior, said that the Senate is hesitant to deviate from precedent when making budget cuts because each budget cut for a TCU group diminishes the quality of life for students on campus.
"These clubs start having events, and they have a membership, and they have a following," de Klerk said. "If you take that away, that's taking away an essential part of those students' Tufts experience."
Atsalis said SAF2DamnHigh also plans to call on the Senate to lobby the administration to reduce costs on campus.
"The Senate is our lobbying arm," Atsalis said. "They should try to get results, and even if they don't get results they should say, ‘This is the opinion of the students.'"
Snyder acknowledged that influencing the Senate would be challenging, but SAF2DamnHigh will seek to inform students that the Senate is their vehicle for reducing costs on campus. He said this was especially true given the lack of competition in the most recent Senate class elections.
"Now it is more important than ever to have this party, seeing that all these senators are walking on to [the] Senate," Snyder said. "We need to re−energize the student body to get more involved in costs and campus issues."
Although Elections Commission (ECOM) rules prohibit any group from putting forward its own candidates, SAF2DamnHigh can endorse candidates that are already running, Snyder said.
Snyder said SAF2DamnHigh plans to release a ranking of TCU presidential candidates based on their adherence to the group's platform and will also invite the candidates to a debate focusing specifically on campus costs and budget priorities.
