At its weekly meeting Sunday, the Senate discussed a complaint against Union President Simran Tatuskar ’21 that will be heard by the Judiciary Committee, how Friday’s Pride Deis event went and updates to last year’s initiative to place free menstrual products in bathrooms across campus.

Club rechartering

Club Support Committee Chair Joseph Coles ’22 called for the Senate to vote to recharter three clubs: Brandeis Global Brigades, Trading Card Game Club and J Street U Brandeis. Coles said that these clubs had been dechartered the previous week for not turning in their anti-hazing forms on time. They have since completed and turned in the forms, he said, and the Senate voted by acclamation to recharter each of them. 

Executive officer reports

Union Vice President Guillermo Caballero ’20 took a moment to thank members of the Senate who had helped to organize Friday’s Pride Deis event. He said he was pleased that they had LGBTQ+ speakers of color, and had collaborated well with the Prevention, Advocacy & Resource Center and the Gender and Sexuality Center, with the event costing only about $300 while still having a wide impact. 

Caballero also reported that the Senate was hoping to solidify plans for the Turkey Shuttle route from Brandeis to New York City this Thanksgiving. At a previous Senate meeting, they noted that there was an ongoing dispute with Joseph’s Shuttle Company, which normally services the Turkey Shuttle to New York, that puts the route at risk of being canceled this year.

Committee chair reports

Chair of the Health and Safety Committee and Senator-at-Large Josh Hoffman ’21 said that the committee was working on collaborating with Student Sexuality Information Service to provide better sex education for first-years, getting more crosswalks at the main entrance to campus and providing more free condoms in bathrooms. Foster Mods Senator Trevor Filseth ’20 added that the committee submitted an East Quad beautification proposal, which North Quad Senator Krupa Sourirajan ’23 later said had been approved, along with three other new proposals, the topics of which were not specified. 

Senator reports

Hoffman, who had been part of the initiative to place menstrual products in bathrooms across campus last year, said that Facilities Services told him they would be restocking the bathrooms this year. He asked if people noticed if this was happening. Rosenthal Quad and Skyline Senator Leah Fernandez ’22 said that she had not seen any menstrual products in the bathroom since last year and Class of 2023 Senator Skye Liu said that she had not seen any either. 

Upcoming Judiciary case

Caballero ended the meeting by informing the Senate that he and the Senior Representative to the Board of Trustees Zosia Busé ’20 had brought a complaint to the Union Judiciary against Tatuskar. “President Tatuskar has broken the Code of Conduct and the Oath of Office by not including [the] Executive Senator in E-board meetings and actively pressuring me to bar the senator from those meetings,” he explained. He added that he did not take his decision lightly, and that he saw it as a “last resort.”

Caballero explained that the Judiciary had voted to take up the case, and that the hearing will be open to the public and will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 15, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. in the Student Union conference room. Caballero said they had submitted the complaint on Oct. 7. He brought up the complaint in the meeting “in the name of transparency,” he said. “I don’t want you guys to hear from the press or other sources about this,” Caballero emphasized. He took questions from senators and press before the Senate went into Executive Session for the rest of the meeting. 

—Editor’s Note: Senator-at-Large Nancy Zhai is a News Staff Writer. Foster Mods Senator Trevor Filseth is a Forum Staff Writer.