TCU Senate elects new ALBO members, assistant treasurer

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met last night in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to elect new Allocations Board (ALBO) members and the new assistant treasurer, and to hear supplementary funding requests.

This meeting was also the first full meeting that newly elected senators and trustee representatives attended.

After TCU President Benya Kraus opened the meeting, the floor was opened for committees to report updates, but there were none.

Then Vice President Anna Del Castillo took the floor to announce Senate committees and their members. Class of 2018 Senator Jamie Neikrie, Class of 2019 Senators Malachy Donovan and Charlie Zhen and Class of 2020 Senator Phil Miller will chair the Administration & Policy, Services, Outreach and Education committees, respectively

Serving on the Administration & Policy Committee will be seniors Benya Kraus, Fatima Ajose, Nathan Foster and Seth Moreida, sophomores Michelle Delk and Leticia Rocha and first-year Grant Gebetsberger. Neikrie will chair the committee.

The Services Committee will be composed of junior Adam Rapfogel, sophomores Maureen Kalimba and Harry Kong and first-years Izzy Ma, Rebeca Becdach, Janey Litvin and Sharif Hamidi. Donovan will serve as chair.

The Outreach Committee for this year is made up of seniors Jordan Kemp and Anna Del Castillo, juniors Emma Phillips and Emily Sim, sophomores Malcolm Akinje and Kristen Moran and first-year Sarah Wiener. Zhen will chair the committee.

Serving on the Education Committee will be juniors Jacqueline Chen and Matthew Kennedy, sophomores Angela Sun, Issac Kim, Kevin Gleason, Shannon Lee and Finn McGarghan and first-year Mateo Gomez. Miller will serve as chair for the committee.

After the announcement, the Senate heard two funding appeals from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and Tufts Hillel.

AIChE came to appeal ALBO's denial of a $3,750 request for a research trip. Lee, the Diversity & Community Affairs officer and an ALBO member, explained that the ALBO recommended not to fund the event because the Treasury Procedures Manual prohibits Senate from funding academic research or activities related to academic pursuits. However, AIChE appealed that it is in fact a three-day-long networking event, not a research trip, and Senate voted to provide $2,064 in funding for the organization.

Next, two members of Tufts Hillel appealed ALBO's initial recommendation to provide $510 from Hillel's requested amount of $1,500 for future events geared towards non-first-year members. Senate tabled the appeal until Hillel provides a more specific and itemized funding request.

Next, ALBO voted to at least partially grant the funding requests of the Caribbean Students Organization, Tufts Ballroom Team, Tufts Republicans, Tufts Computer Science Exchange, Tufts Black Student Union, Tufts Consulting Collective and ALLIES.

The Senate took a break from hearing funding requests to elect four new ALBO members: Sharif Hamidi, Izzy Ma, Emma Phillips and Malcolm Akinje. 

After the body concluded its meeting, ALBO held a separate meeting to internally elect a new assistant treasurer for the board, and Hamidi was elected to fill in the position. The internal meeting was conducted by the Senate President, Vice President and the Treasurer.