Next year's Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate president will be the first to work with University President-elect Anthony Monaco. He will not only help shape the agendas of both Monaco and a new group of high-level administrators but will also set a crucial tone for the relationship between the Senate and an incoming university administration. This makes tomorrow's election a particularly important one; it is essential that the student body take advantage of the opportunity to make an impression on Tufts' new appointees. Tomas Garcia is the right choice for such a task.
The TCU presidential candidates, juniors Tomas Garcia and Ben Richards, each present compelling visions for making the Senate more inclusive of the student body and investing in better facilities on campus. While both are appealing candidates, we support Garcia because of the greater depth and specificity of his agenda, which includes a detailed plan of action for implementing the changes he advocates. Additionally, he has worked on the Senate for four semesters, compared with Richards' one, during which time he has made tangible progress on several important objectives.
Almost every TCU presidential candidate campaigns on the promise of improving the accessibility of the Senate. Few presidents, however, have succeeded in meaningfully addressing the issue. The Senate routinely falls back into a familiar pattern of failing to make itself relevant to the student body.
Richards and Garcia both outline plans to make the TCU Senate a more inclusive body, in part through an electronic newsletter. The two proposals would highlight athletic or cultural events each week, while also keeping students informed of the business of the Senate. Not only would this give the body a more visible presence on campus, but it would also bolster the presence of other on-campus groups.
While both proposals are equally strong, Garcia has the advantage of a proven record of success when it comes to increasing the visibility of the body. As the chair of the Student Outreach Committee, he writes weekly ads that appear in the Daily and has already begun work with members of the Senate on the creation of a newsletter. Richards outlines an impressive list of goals for including more students in the decisions made by the Senate, but he lacks the track record of successful student outreach that Garcia boasts from his four semesters as a TCU senator.
Likewise, both candidates place considerable emphasis on improving the quality of facilities on campus. On his website, Richards aptly mentions that Tufts lacks an appropriate venue spacious enough to support large gatherings and that many of dorms on campus are in need of refurbishment. But he does not present specifics for how these shortcomings could be addressed.
Garcia, however, presents a detailed plan for improving the state of on-campus facilities, which lays out steps to be taken in both the short- and long-term. In the short-term, Garcia proposes minor renovations to current social spaces to improve their atmosphere. Among his proposals, he told the Daily's managing board in an interview, is the display around campus of more photos from Tufts' archives; this would serve the dual purposes of beautification and instilling a sense of university history. Garcia also plans to meet with Monaco to discuss long-term investment in renovating and building new dormitories and other facilities.
One of Garcia's most significant achievements during his tenure as a TCU Senator has been his initiative to introduce community service as an alternative to monetary fines for residents who are cited for noise violations. The administration plans to implement this proposal starting next year.
Thanks to Garcia's role on the Senate, he has also put into motion plans to change Tufts' treatment of marijuana violations to be more in line with Massachusetts state law. Instead of taking probationary action against students caught with less than an ounce of marijuana, Garcia proposes assessing them with a $100 fine, as local authorities do. The administration, he said in his interview with the Daily, was amenable to such a transition, demonstrating his ability to effect constructive change in university policy.
For his part, Richards' shorter experience on the Senate gives him a unique perspective to make the body more inclusive. Having only served one semester as a senator, his "outsider" standpoint puts him in a good position to engage groups not usually involved in student politics. This is an important objective for any TCU president, as it would improve the transparency of an organization whose business is to serve the student body yet is often too opaque and too hidden from its constituents to be fully effective.
Both Richards and Garcia boast strong, and frankly very similar, platforms. Yet while Richards may have the framework of a solid agenda, we believe that Garcia has the tools to put it into action. His four semesters of experience on the Senate and his proven record of implementing change on campus make him the right choice to be the next TCU president.
