As seniors leave the Hill this spring, new opportunities for transformation, growth and improvement of the ever-changing Tufts community are bestowed upon their successors. Nowhere on campus are these opportunities more present for students than within the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate.
This year, the TCU Senate made some commendable accomplishments in an effort to improve campus life and student welfare. Following suggestions from students, the Senate in November passed a resolution urging the university to create an Africana studies department. The university has since created a task force to address the issue and explore options for such a department. The Senate also worked this year to push for measures that would reduce students' costs, such as a textbook rental program and the option for students to replace the off-campus noise violation fine with community service.
As within any governing body, however, there is always room for further development and, in the case of the Senate, there is one area in which such an improvement would greatly benefit the student body: visibility.
This spring, 17 students walked on to the Senate in uncontested elections because students appeared uninterested and, in some cases, uninformed about the election process. Within the past two years, referenda have failed to pass not due to high levels of opposition but rather to lack of voter participation. It is clear from the popularity of politically oriented majors that students at Tufts are interested in politics and being proactive, yet most do not seize the opportunity to get involved in campus politics.
This disconnect between the Senate and the student body is something that needs to be changed if the Senate is going to function as a truly representative body. There are steps that senators and TCU Elections Commission (ECOM) can take to help this shift occur.
As it stands now, there is little reason for students to get excited about TCU elections; this mentality, however, should and could change. One of the ways to do this would be changing the elections process itself. Office for Campus Life Director Joe Golia recently suggested that the Senate and ECOM work together to create an election season. By consolidating several elections for referenda and senators into one election, ECOM could pool its budget to hold larger election rallies rather than spreading out funds to several smaller efforts. ECOM could host events leading up to candidate forums and offer free giveaways and food as an incentive for students to attend. Such rallies would hopefully one day draw as much participation as those preceding Homecoming and other campus-wide celebrations that draw widespread student interest.
In addition to the election process, an improvement in Senate awareness and information may increase student interest and involvement. Incoming TCU President Tomas Garcia included in his campaign platform a plan to increase student-Senate communication by creating a weekly newsletter to inform students about the body's activity. While this idea represents a step in the right direction, there are also other ways to integrate the Senate into students' lives and consciousness. Orientation programming could include an information session about how students can take advantage of the Senate, not simply by joining the body but by using its services to support their own interests. Students may not know how to go about starting a group or getting funding for their activities, and a brief overview of this process for incoming students could prevent this confusion. The Senate should be vigilant and consistent about putting resolutions online and using social media and TuftsLife to spread news about what they are doing.
Improvement to both election and general awareness will work hand in hand: As students became more interested in the election process, their interest in the Senate may also increase. Once the interest in Senate increases, there will be more reasons to care about elections. And if the Senate manages to garner more interest, it will become more influential. The university will feel the pressure of the entire student body when resolutions come to the table, rather than just a small, isolated group.
The campus climate when it comes to the Senate is, in many cases, apathetic. Garcia, a rising senior, ran for president on the platform of increasing Senate visibility, and with a fresh group of students moving into power, now is the perfect time to ensure that these changes actually occur and move beyond campaign rhetoric and ideology. Many Tufts students are interested in politics and activism. It is up to ECOM and the Senate to ensure that this untapped possibility for student interest is brought to its full potential.
