The Student Union senators convened on Sunday to charter a club and discuss forming a new Senate committee.

Club Cantonese approached the Senate seeking Student Union chartering to fund cultural events and Cantonese lessons. Club members showed the senators a PowerPoint presentation that touched on their culture, purpose and yearlong plan, which involves coordinating events with East and South Asian cultural clubs. In the discussion that followed, many senators argued that chartering the club would help diversify the community. Newly-elected Ridgewood Quad Senator José Castellanos ’18 noted that the fact that the Senate did not know much about Cantonese culture was good reason to charter the club. The Senate voted to charter the club.

Next, the Senate was slated to vote on the updated Global Brigades constitution. In last week’s meeting, the Senators postponed the vote until a club member could be present for discussion. No representative was present on Sunday, and the Senate voted to postpone the vote again indefinitely.

Student Union Vice President Paul Sindberg ’18 then gave the senators an update on fall elections, during which 18 were elected to Senate and Allocations Board seats. He explained that the “Abstain” option won for the Charles River/567 Senate seat, and, in accordance with the Student Union constitution, a runoff election will be held in the coming weeks.

Sindberg then announced his nominations for the Senate committee chairmanships. He nominated Class of 2019 Senator Kate Kesselman to the Dining Committee chairmanship; Executive Senator Hannah Brown ’19 to the Services and Outreach Committee chairmanship; Class of 2017 Senator Ryan Tracy to the Club Support Committee chairmanship; Class of 2018 Senator Shaquan McDowell to the Campus Operations Work Group chairmanship; Ziv Quad Senator Michelle Jimenez ’18 to the Social Justice and Diversity Committee chairmanship; and East Quad Senator Elijah Sinclair ’19 to the Sustainability Committee chairmanship.

Later in the meeting, after the new senators were sworn in, the Senate confirmed Sindberg’s nominations.

Sindberg also reminded senators that they are required to join at least two committees, with quad senators required to also join COWG. He asked senators to take a couple of minutes during the meeting and go online to sign up for committees.

Next, Sindberg gave the Senate a brief breakdown of the Student Union budget, again reminding senators that the Union has been allocated $22,000 in funding for the academic year. The Senate, he added, is funded out of the Senate discretionary fund, which can be accessed using Senate Money Requests, itemized lists of expenses proposed by senators.

The senators then discussed individual and overall goals for the academic year. Many senators noted that they wished the Student Union could be more transparent, with a few senators calling for more communication via social media and emails to the student body.

In executive officer reports, Sindberg noted that the Executive Board has met with Dean of Students Jamele Adams and other administrators to discuss how best to serve the student body. Brown added that the Senate is working to follow Student Union bylaws more stringently this year. Both expressed a desire to stay on top of the Senate budget and fully utilize all the Senate’s funding.

Additionally, the Senate confirmed Niranjana Warrier ’17 as a representative to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and Brown as Executive Senator.

The senators then discussed the possibility of forming a new Senate Health and Safety Committee. The senators also discussed the possibility of polling the student body on what makes them feel unsafe. The majority of the senators were open to the idea of the new committee, and Sindberg and Brown agreed to draft a bylaw for its formation.

—Abby Patkin