On Sunday, the Senate convened for its last meeting of the semester to hear from a club seeking charter and from students seeking to share a referendum with the student body, as well as to discuss end-of-year business.

The Be Bold, Be Bald group—represented by James Machado ’16—presented to the Senate, seeking recognition. The club does an annual fundraiser for cancer charities during which participants wear bald caps and raise money for charity. Next, the Quiz Club members Jacob Edelman ’18, Zach Schwartz ’18, and Marc Siegel ’18 presented, seeking charter. The club wants to host tournaments at and sees tournaments as an opportunity to talk about social justice, they said. The club, which participates in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments, sought charter in order to get funding for transportation, which would allow them to attend competitions out of state.

The senate asked about the benefits of chartering and whether it would allow the club to host tournaments. The students said that it would and clarified that money gained from tournament entry fees would go to the Quiz Club, not to the University. The students were asked to step out, and the senate discussed the charter briefly, mentioning that the students had researched the history of their club at Brandeis and that they had been meeting with Senator David Herbstritt ’17 this semester as part of the Club Support Committee. The senate voted unanimously to charter the Quiz Club.

Secretary Charlotte Franco ’15 motioned to add the Brandeis Labor Coalition’s referendum to the agenda, and the Senate proceeded into conversation with two students representing the BLC about the referendum. Andrew Nguyen ’15 and Marisa Budlong ’15, both members of the BLC, presented to the Senate a referendum that the club worked up regarding labor practices among University employees. The two sought the signatures of 10 senators on the referendum, which is required to send the referendum to the student body for a vote. Both spoke about campaigns that the BLC has initiated over the past year to investigate whether employees at Brandeis are paid a living wage. This semester, they said, they found that Sodexo workers were not being treated fairly, inspiring them to begin the referendum, which they called a “just employment policy.”

The policy features seven points, mandating the following: that all employees be paid a living wage; a harassment-free work environment; the insurance of safe and effective grievance procedures; respect to workers’ right to organize and vote on unions; the upholding of union agreements; the prioritization of secure, full-time employees; and the creation of oversight infrastructure.

A senator pointed out that the definition of “staff” at the University, in the Rights and Responsibilities handbook, includes faculty and student employees and asked if the just employment policy would extend to students. Nguyen replied that “the workers we want to protect the most are full time staff,” but said that BLC’s official position is that the policy would have to extend to students.

The requisite 10 signatures were obtained on the just employment policy, and Franco told Nguyen and Budlong that the next steps before sending it to the student body as a referendum for a vote would involve communicating with her, Student Union President Sneha Walia ’15 and Chief of Staff Flora Wang ’15, as well as compiling statements for and against the referendum.

The senate skipped executive officer reports. The executive senator, Herbstritt, reported that committees are wrapping up for the semester. Franco then announced that this had been the senate’s last formal meeting for the semester and thanked the senate. On April 28, she said, the new Executive Senate will be elected in an executive session, at which the senate will also appoint new Course Evaluation Guide editors. Franco reminded the senate that the State of the Union will be delivered tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in Rapaporte Treasure Hall. The committee chairs gave brief reports on their activity wrap-ups, followed by reports and farewell messages from each senator.

—Rachel Hughes