As of Sunday's Union Senate meeting, more than 30 clubs are in danger of being de-chartered because they have not turned in the necessary forms, including anti-hazing, signature verification and leadership transfer forms."A good portion of these clubs had leadership that graduated, and it seems that no one has stepped up to take any leadership role," said Union Secretary Ana Yoselin Bugallo '03 in response to why some of these clubs have outstanding forms.

According to Bugallo, club leaders had the opportunity to complete these forms for the first week and a half this semester, in addition to the last three weeks of fall semester.

"We're locating the (officers) of these clubs," Executive Senator Kate Vogel '03 said. "We have no interest in de-chartering clubs that are active."

Club Resources Coordinator Nate Westheimer '05 said Massachusetts state law requires active clubs to complete an anti-hazing form. "The last deadline (last Wednesday) signified when we give the Senate a list of clubs as to who's not complying to state law," Westheimer said.

According to Vogel, turning in these forms also provides a way of showing if a club is active or not. "We don't want to bog down the campus with clubs that don't exist," Vogel said. "This mostly is routine housekeeping."

"It seems that the clubs that are left to de-charter are those that have either graduated their leadership, or gone defunct," Bugallo said. "This is exactly what this process was designed to do."

Vogel said she also credits the outstanding club forms to new leadership unaware of Senate policy and state law. "(Not turning in club forms) is something of a yearly phenomenon," Vogel said. "Often club leaders are new and do not know about Massachusetts law."

Outdated contact information, including posting past club leaders who have already graduated on the Club Central Web site, also contributes to the confusion, Vogel said. "Part of (the outstanding club forms) is due to a lack of updating the my.brandeis.edu Web site because the contact information is incorrect."

Vogel added that clubs with outdated information risk being de-chartered. "If (the club information) is not alive and accurate, it doesn't make sense to have (the club)," Vogel said. "So, we're sending out the message to keep club info updated."

Some clubs attribute outstanding club forms due to a lack of communication. "The reason for this 'de-chartering' danger is because we didn't know that any forms were due; we had not been notified," said Miranda Moody '03, of the a cappella group In Sync. "We are in the process of taking care of the situation."

Other clubs, like False Advertising, insist that they are exempt from turning in the forms because they are recognized and not chartered, and do not request money from the Allocations Board or Senate.

"We're not openly defying the school's requests," said Jake Kamins '04, a member of False Advertising. "We're just not chartered and Brandeis doesn't have jurisdiction over us."

However, according to Vogel, it is a misconception that recognized clubs that do not request funding are exempt from turning in the forms, since completing a hazing form is required by Massachusetts state law. "It doesn't matter if a club is chartered or not, they still need to turn in those forms," Vogel said. "We're going to great lengths to make clubs know that."

Vogel said the Senate's aim is not to de-charter clubs, but simply to get a clearer idea of which clubs are active while also abiding by state law requiring clubs to complete a hazing form. "We're just trying to get things in order and things are a bit scrambled, but it's all just a part of the Brandeis club process," Vogel said.

Bugallo said both the Senate and club leaders benefit by completing the forms. "This entire club form process has helped us update the club leaders listserv, the my.brandeis.edu site and the official list of clubs that are active at Brandeis," she said. "In addition, this process will help those clubs who come for chartering in the future by identifying those already existing clubs.