Robert Joseph, a junior, is running for Tufts Community Union president on a platform of reform and inclusiveness, seeking to refine the campus sexual misconduct policy and increase student access to public transportation.
Joseph, who has been a senator since the fall of his freshman year, served as TCU Parliamentarian as a sophomore, handling issues pertaining to the TCU Constitution and bylaws. If elected president, he said he hopes to change the student body's perception of the Senate.
"Many people see the TCU Senate as people that give money to all the other groups, or the group [of students] that talks to the administration," Joseph said. "I want to make sure that every student on this campus feels like TCU Senate is the group that you can come to with your issues. We are here to help you achieve your goals as just one student, or [as] a student group."
Ben Kaplan, Joseph's campaign manager, said Joseph has an uncanny ability to remember peoples' names, faces and birthdays immediately after meeting them. This skill, combined with his outgoing personality, has made Joseph a person who is always listening to members of the campus community, Kaplan said.
"It seems like a party trick, but I really just think it's indicative of how much he cares about other people and how much he cares about just being a listener and just being someone who can absorb information about to the people, internalize it and really use it to be helpful," Kaplan, a freshman, said.
One of Joseph's top priorities involves making additional reforms to Tufts' sexual misconduct policy, which he has learned more about by attending many Action for Sexual Assault Prevention meetings.
"The sexual assault taskforce has already secured a hire for prevention and education, and we need another special coordinator for resources and to increase knowledge of resources on campus," Joseph said. "I want to see that every on-campus living space has someone trained in issues of sexual violence and that they can help run education programs."
The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) is also in need of reform, according to Joseph, who hopes to address what he calls the increasing housing shortage for upperclassmen.
"I'm afraid that students won't be able to afford housing off campus and won't have housing on campus," he said. "And I am afraid we are only a few years away from that happening. We need to push Tufts to expedite the process of building a new dorm. And we need to push Tufts to hire someone to work in the Office of Residential Life and [Learning], to help students with off-campus housing, and not get taken advantage of by landlords."
In addition to working with ResLife on housing issues, Joseph hopes to make more gender-neutral housing available and reform the role of Residential Assistants (RAs).
"I have spoken with many RAs and a number of them agree with me that the RA should be more of a mentor figure and less of a police figure," he said. "It creates a difficult relationship between students and RAs when RAs are the people who get them in trouble, but also foster community and create a safe space in dorms."
In addition to helping students in on-campus housing, Kaplan said Joseph is focused on building a community for off-campus students through the creation of a pub.
"Right now, first and second-year students have the dorms as a place to kind of socialize, be together [and] become an inclusive community, but many upperclassmen live off campus. They don't have that area," Kaplan said. "Robert believes that an on-campus pub will give upperclassmen an opportunity to build their own on-campus communities."
Joseph explained that he has also been heavily involved with the Tufts Transit Coalition, seeking to give students easier access to public transportation.
"Essentially, this would allow students to have more jobs and internships in Boston when it currently costs them a lot to get back and forth," Joseph said. "The University Pass program creates equity and will help students get the most out of their experience at Tufts. I think that the proximity to Boston is so important."
In addition to implementing this program, Joseph feels that financial aid could be improved.
"The university's Strategic Plan is interesting in that the most telling part of the plan isn't what is included, but what is left out," he said. "The university has no mention of becoming need-blind in the next 10 years, which is problematic for a university that prides itself on having a diverse array of students from all backgrounds. The plan misses the mark in a few places."
He was also critical of the university's sustainability efforts and said the university is committed more to the appearance of acting sustainably than to actually implementing authentic sustainability.
"There are so many things that they could be doing to invest in sustainability, and I haven't seen them doing that," he said. "A blanket statement that we aren't going to divest at this time is a big mistake."
Joseph explained that, while it is important to maintain a respectful relationship with university administrators, he will still actively push the student body's opinion on important issues.
During his time on Senate, Joseph spearheaded the effort to amend the constitution, helped create the position of a Women's Center Representative and made the Diversity and Community Affairs Officer position a part of the Executive Board. 12
