TCU Senate shares election updates, hears funding appeals

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met in Remis Sculpture Court on Sunday at 3 p.m. to hear funding requests and share committee updates.

The meeting was rescheduled to 3 p.m. from its regular meeting time of 7 p.m. due to the Super Bowl, according to Parliamentarian Adam Rapfogel, a junior.

TCU President Benya Kraus opened the meeting, announcing that the special election, which had been scheduled to take place on Feb. 3, would be postponed until further notice from the Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM). According to Kraus, ECOM will amend its internal bylaw to allow the candidates running unopposed to be appointed to their respective roles immediately without an election.

Kraus added that change in ECOM bylaw would become effective after an approval vote by the Senate Executive Board and the TCU Judiciary.

TCU Vice PresidentAnna Del Castillo then opened the floor for committee updates.

TCU's Student Services Committee shared with the body that it has been working with the Tisch Library for possible changes in printing and its hours of operation. Administration & Policy (A&P) Committee shared that Trustee Representative Nathan Foster, a senior, will open a discussion with the Board of Trustees to ensure that they factor in economic diversity among students in its decision-making process. A&P Committee member and Class of 2021 senator Grant Gebetsberger shared that he is looking to hold a town hall meeting about campus mental health. There were no other significant updates from other committees.

Next, TCU Treasurer Emily Sim, a junior, took the floor to introduce supplementary funding requests.

The body voted to match initial recommendations of the Allocations Board (ALBO) for the following groups: $50 to Tufts Teach-in-CORES for its new whiteboard for classes; $575 in funding to Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts (SWAT) for its registration for College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI); $390 in funding to Tufts Anime Brigade for six of its members’ admission to Boston Anime Convention; $1,138 in funding toSino-US Relations Group Engagement (SURGE) for its future speaker events; $2,450 in funding to TURBO for Turbomania, the organization’s annual event; $4,954 in funding to Computer Science Exchange (CSE) for its future events; and $1,451 in funding to Vietnamese Students Club (VSC) to send six people to the 4th Annual Vietnamese Empowerment Summit.

The body tabled Tufts University Social Collective’s (TUSC) additional funding request for Tuftstonia’s Day 2018. ALBO initially recommended providing $12,000 in funding out of TUSC’s original request of $16,000. After a brief debate phase, senators motioned to table the request as several senators mentioned the lack of details in some items, especially regarding the $6,300 in funding requested for T-shirt giveaways. The body will vote on a new number in the next meeting, according to Rapfogel.

Before the meeting adjourned, Kraus shared with the body that the university has plans to install a gender-neutral bathroom in the Mayer Campus Center within the next three weeks.