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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Senate meets with Dean of Student Affairs, hears supplementary funding requests

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The TCU Senate convenes in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose room on Sept. 30.

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate met Monday evening in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room to have a discussion with Dean of Student Affairs Mary Pat McMahon, hear supplementary funding appeals, announce upcoming resolutions and hear committee updates.

TCU President Jacqueline Chen, a senior, started the meeting by introducing McMahon for a discussion with the Senate.

Historian Rebeca Becdach, a sophomore, opened the discussion by noting that senators had been asked to come prepared with questions for McMahon, which would serve to drive the topics of the discussion. Much of the subsequent discussion centered around the overcrowding of campus spaces for students, including community spaces and housing.

Also discussed was the lack of accessibility on the Medford/Somerville campus, and how the university is planning to address that issue moving forward.

McMahon shared with senators that the tiered housing system has been structured to mitigate concerns that have been raised about the potential for socioeconomic disparities among students to lead to housing segregation.

“The … system we’ve developed is distinctive from that of most schools because financial aid travels with students and adjusts so that they don’t have to pay more in a higher tier," McMahon told the Daily in a follow-up email. "We did this to offset concerns about perception that higher cost housing was for students who could afford to live there.”

McMahon expressed her support for the tiered housing system at the meeting.

“[The financial aid system] and the fact that we’ve pegged our upper end tier quite closely to the off-campus market are the two reasons I’m supportive of our tiered housing decision,” McMahon wrote.

McMahon also highlighted how the renovations of Miller and Houston Halls are part of the university’s push to make the campus more accessible.

“Houston and Miller will both have new elevators and add a number of accessible bedrooms on all four floors of each building," McMahon wrote. "This expands our accessible housing significantly.”

“[CoHo] will also have at least one fully accessible house … and over the summer Campus Planning also enhanced accessibility for Stratton Hall and Ballou Hall, which is graded for greater accessibility now, too,” McMahon wrote.

Throughout the discussion, McMahon also referred several of the senators to a variety of appropriate contacts who could better address their individual questions. Becdach said that future meetings would be discussed in the coming weeks.

Senate then moved on to hear funding appeals and supplementary funding requests. TCU Parliamentarian and Associate Treasurer Sharif Hamidi, a sophomore, first introduced the Tufts Trading Fund (TTF) appeal for an additional $1,358 to their annual budget.

During a brief debate, the Senate discussed the merits of TTF's request and questioned the transportation costs and methods for the group's planned networking trip to New York. The body ultimately granted $748 in additional funding.

Senate also voted to match the Allocations Board (ALBO) funding recommendations for the following groups: $32 for Tufts Democrats, $120 for Tufts Buddhist Mindfulness Sangha, $1,777 for Tufts United for Immigrant Justice, $400 for Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, $2,644 for Computer Science Exchange, $622 for Tufts Quidditch, $612 for Tufts MAKE, $805 for Sino-U.S. Relations Group Engagement and $1,165 for Vietnamese Students Club.

Following the funding requests and allocations, Hamidi introduced two new resolutions — the first this year — that the body will debate and vote on in coming weeks.

According to Hamidi, the first resolution “will reaffirm the Tufts Community Union’s support for the Tufts dining workers’ union in their ongoing contract negotiations,” as well as “call on the university to fully respect workers’ rights to collectively bargain and be paid a living wage with benefits,” while the second resolution will “affirm the Tufts Community Union’s support for the passage [of] Massachusetts Ballot Question 3 on November 6th, 2018, in the interest of fostering an inclusive environment for all students, especially transgender/non-binary students, within our community.”

The Senate is likely to vote on these resolutions sometime later this month, according to Hamidi.

Chen led a brief discussion on improving senators' communication with faculty members for raising concerns, which was met with a good response. Following that, Chen introduced former TCU Trustee Representative Nathan Foster (LA '18), who is running to be an alumni trustee.

Foster briefly spoke with the body about his experience at Tufts and why he believes he can bridge the gap between students and trustees.

“I am running to address the tuition crisis, support workers, and ensure the Board of Trustees is connected to the community it serves,” Foster told the Daily in an email. “Tufts should put its people first.”

The Senate will vote in the coming weeks on a resolution to endorse Foster as alumni trustee, according to Hamidi.