The president of the Brandeis Conservatives Club, Brandon Musto ’20, appeared before the Senate to propose changing the club’s name to the Young Americans for Liberty Club. Brandeis had hosted a club also called the Young Americans for Liberty Club until last year, when the club disintegrated due to leadership problems. Musto said the current club name “pigeonholes” its members as exclusively conservative, when many of them are more interested in personal liberties, like free speech. The BCC currently has Republican, Democratic and Libertarian members, he said. Musto said changing the name would “expand membership” and that associating with the YALC would provide them resources and connections with Young Americans for Liberty clubs at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Class of 2021 Senator Noah Nguyen ’21 questioned whether the name change was deceptive, designed to decouple the BCC from its reputation in the student body. She explained that students occasionally remove BCC posters from around campus. Class of 2020 Senator Aaron Finkel ’20 reminded the Senate that it is never right for a club to have its posters removed and indicated that he was supportive of the change, because it would only affect the club’s name, not its purpose.

The Senate passed the name change by a vote of acclamation, with Nguyen the only dissenting vote.

Chairs of Senate committees then reported on the progress their committees had made toward achieving their goals and whether they were experiencing any problems achieving those goals.

Senator for Rosenthal and Skyline Quads and Chair of the Health and Safety Committee Joshua Hoffman ’21 proposed converting the second, smaller common room in Skyline into a weight room and added that there was interest in adding scales to the gyms. He also proposed working with the Student Sexuality Information Service to put free condoms in the dorm bathrooms.

Senators Alex Chang ’22 and Linfei Yang ’20 proposed a Senate Money Resolution that would allocate $765.96 to purchase two upright pianos and benches for the two first-year residence hall quads. The pianos would have auxiliary ports for plugging in headphones to eliminate noise disturbances. The Senate voted to discuss the proposal at the next meeting.

Senator for Village and 567 Jake Rong ’21 proposed a motion allowing non-Senators to serve on the Bylaws Committee that passed by acclamation. Rong reminded Senators to complete the Senate agenda at least 24 hours before Senate meetings. Rong also reminded Chang and Yang that Senate Money Resolutions must be submitted to the Bylaws Committee at least 24 hours prior to the meetings. 

Finkel said he was able to reduce the ticket prices for the Thanksgiving break New York- and New Jersey-bound Turkey Shuttles from $35 to $25. 

Director of Programming appointee Adrian Ashley ’20 is working with Director of Student Life Dennis Hicks to reintroduce DeisBikes, an on-campus bike share initiative. Class of 2019 Senator Kent Dinlenc proposed changing the name of the program to “Deicycles,” rousing the otherwise quiet meeting into laughter. The Services and Outreach Committee is also working to provide shuttles to polling centers for the November election.

A Senate Money Resolution to allocate $200 for Brandeis Toxic dance group was passed by acclamation.