The Senate convened last Sunday to discuss new club charters and swear in new senators. The senators pushed up their regular meeting time for the Super Bowl.

After a round of applause for the new senators joining the Senate after Thursday’s elections, the meeting began with a brief presentation from Brandeis Entrepreneurship, a club focused on letting students pursue their own business ventures. The club approached the Senate for chartering to fund and cater events and provide seed money for the club’s entrepreneurial ventures. Citing a lack of clear outreach and club structure in a lengthy discussion, the Senate declined to charter the club by a slim majority.

Each committee chair then took a moment to announce the meeting dates and times for their committees.

In executive officer reports, Student Union President David Herbstritt ’17 swore in three of the new senators, including Midyear Senator Dana Brown ’20, Senator-at-Large Matt Smetana ’17 and Ziv Quad Senator Brandon Stanaway ’19.

During committee chair reports, members of the Executive Board expressed an interest in working with the Club Support Committee to improve the recognition and chartering application process for new clubs.

E-Board members also expressed an interest in establishing Senate representation for international students and for working with the Graduate Student Association to better represent the entire student body.

The Sustainability Committee reported that they had begun planning initiatives and breaking off into groups to work on making Brandeis a more sustainable campus.

In senator reports, Executive Senator Hannah Brown ’19 reported meetings with constituents who expressed concerns about the University’s school spirit, especially when compared to Ivy League schools.

Brown discussed plans to increase Brandeis school spirit by encouraging people to wear Brandeis apparel on Fridays, possibly with the incentive of free food at the Stein.

Members of the Club Support Committee said that they wanted to commit to making the process of becoming and remaining a recognized club better in the future.

Smetana and the Sustainability Committee chair, East Quad Senator Elijah Sinclair ’19, discussed initiatives to work on reducing energy consumption by the Light of Reason installment outside the Rose Art Museum.

Other issues raised in individual senator reports included improving organization the mailroom, expanding club workshops and continued efforts to increase the availability of vacuum cleaners in residence halls.

With Thursday’s election, Smetana, Dana Brown and Stanaway are the first three new senators to join the Senate this semester.

The Ridgewood Quad Senate seat, the Charles River/567 Senate seat and the Foster Mods Senate seat remain vacant, to be filled in a later round of elections.

—Spencer Taft