The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday approved a project to explore the possibility of sending periodic newsletters to students.
TCU Vice President Wyatt Cadley, who is in charge of the project, explained that it is still very much in the developing stages, with questions about opting in or out, distribution methods, frequency of distribution and authors still unanswered.
The body is currently considering sending the newsletter as part of a biweekly or monthly email to all students.
"We're really just in the developing stages, we just want to get confirmation from Senate that this is something we wanted to pursue," Cadley, a junior, said.
Senate Executive Board members will meet today with university administrators to discuss plans for the newsletter, he explained.
The idea for a Senate newsletter has been floating around for at least two years, and was part of TCU President Tomas Garcia's platform during campaigning, according to Cadley.
The newsletter will not focus exclusively on updates from the Senate, Cadley explained. It could be used to promote a sports event of the week, notify the student body of any major policy changes, or solicit feedback from students on policy decisions.
"It's a TCU newsletter, it's not a TCU Senate newsletter, and it's meant to serve the entirety of the school," he said.
He does hope, however, that the newsletter will help shed light on Senate activities for the student body.
"One of the things we want to do is show exactly what Senate does, and I think it might help get people interested in the body; so many of our members are walk?ons," Cadley said. "This is what I think to be a new and creative way to address a lot of different campus issues simultaneously."
He hopes that students will respond to what they read in the newsletter and share their views with their representatives.
"When Senate was first deciding how to spend the surplus from the embezzled funds in 2009, there was a lot of controversy and outrage when the Senate decided to fund the Trips Cabin in New Hampshire," Cadley said. "If this newsletter had existed, the TCU could have solicited feedback from students."
TCU Senator Yulia Korovikov, a junior, thinks the newsletter will successfully help bridge the gap between senators and their constituents.
"I think Senate has a hard time reaching out to students about what we're doing," she said. "Usually ... I get opinions about things after we've decided to do them, by which point it's too late. If we have a newsletter, we can bring up things that will come up in next week's meeting, making it so that people will be able to tell us what they want."
The Senate is still considering whether to allow students to subscribe to the newsletter themselves, or automatically subscribe the whole student body while allowing students to opt out by pressing an "unsubscribe" button.
"I've spoken to many of my fellow non?Senate students, and not a single one has supported being automatically enrolled in an email that they'd have to unsubscribe for," TCU Senator Jonathan Danzig, a senior, said.
TCU Senator Ard Ardalan, a junior, expects students to react negatively to being automatically enrolled in the distribution list.
"One of the arguments they put forward is that this new system would be a means for them to solicit feedback," Ardalan said. "The feedback they're going to get is 'don't send me emails.'"
While the project is still in basic planning stages, the proposal has already sparked some negative backlash from students.
Senior Jimmy Zuniga feels that the newsletter will serve as an unbalanced self?promotional tool for the Senate.
"I think it's pointless, and just another way that Senate tries to reinforce its self?importance on this campus for themselves and for the rest of the student body," Zuniga said.
Senior Eric Sinski suspects that students are unlikely to read another Tufts?related email.
"To be honest, Tufts students have so much email in their inboxes already, I can only see it taking up more space. It's kind of imposing," he said.
Senior Katie Riker, however, supports the idea, and believes the newsletter will provide students an effective means of staying up to date on campus happenings.
"Since I live off?campus, I don't manage to pick up the Daily every day to find out what Senate's been doing," Riker said. "I think having a monthly email would allow people like me to keep informed about TCU policies efficiently and allow for more public discourse."
