The Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) will be holding an election tomorrow for the office of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate President for the upcoming academic year. All members of the student body are eligible to vote throughout the day on Thursday using their SIS accounts.
A Presidential Forum will be held for students to learn more about the candidates, TCU Senators Ryan Johnson and Gauri Seth, tonight from 9:30-11:00 p.m. in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room. The Daily sat down with the candidates, who announced their candidacies last Thursday, to discuss their campaigns and platforms.
TCU Senator Gauri Seth has previously served as a first-year Senator, Outreach Committee co-chair and Senate Parliamentarian, along with serving on TCU's Allocations Board and as TCU Vice President for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Seth, a junior, explained that her experience working with TCU has taught her about funding and lobbying the administration, which she said are the two main facets of Senate work.
She thinks that her experience qualifies her to meet the demands of the presidential position.
“I’ve had that varied experience, which is very important because that’s such a big part of what Senate does," Seth said. "I’ve also worked on a lot of different projects, so I’ve gotten to meet with a lot of different administrators and build relationships with them and be able to use those relationships to further what students want, which I think is really important.”
Seth said that she decided to run for the position for many reasons, noting that one of her greatest motives is to learn about and represent the many different voices and views on campus.
“I think a really big part of it is that over my three years on Senate, I’ve been able to have so many conversations with different people on this campus about what they want, and that’s what my platform is," she said. "It’s not just about what I want to do. Of course, it reflects what I want for the student body, but it also reflects so many of these different conversations I’ve had.”
While her presidential platform covers a variety of issues and ideas, Seth explained that one of her main priorities, if elected, would be to focus on student housing reform.
“I’ve very intimately seen a lot of the problems within ResLife [and] as someone who now lives off campus, I have very intimately seen the problems with landlords, rising rents, trying to find an apartment and it’s really difficult,” she said.
Seth noted difficulties for students living both on- and off-campus, which she hopes to address, if elected.
“I’ve been on the Residential Strategies Working Group this year, so I’ve had a lot of conversations and gotten insights into where the administration is and where students are and where students want to be so that’s definitely a really big topic for me,” she said.
Seth added that her platform preaches collaboration with as many different on-campus groups as possible.
“A huge emphasis for me throughout this campaign has been and will continue to be working together and just making sure that every voice in our community is heard within Senate," she said, "Because Senate, a lot of times, gets to have conversations with administrators that not every other student does, so it’s super important.”
Seth said she hopes students can learn more about the different platforms during tonight's Presidents Forum.
“I have one Tufts experience, I have one voice," she said. "I can’t know the answer to everything, but I very much have an idea that I will work with other people to explore these issues, and where I have an answer, that answer’s in my platform."
