On Sunday, March 1, the Union Senate convened for their weekly meeting. Due to lower attendance, they first voted to adjust the quorum to 11 senators. The senators then discussed promoting two clubs — DeisHacks and Judeus & Judios — to probationary status and went over a few additional updates about upcoming elections for positions in the Union Senate and information regarding the ongoing construction in Sherman Dining Hall. 

The Union Senate first heard from DeisHacks’ junior project manager, Gianna Saludo ’28, who described DeisHacks’ annual hackathon. The event is hosted every January and works to pair groups of students with various nonprofits, collaborating to design solutions to real issues the nonprofits face. Project designs during previous hackathons ranged from software development to policy changes “so the possibilities are endless,” said Saludo. This year marked DeisHacks’ ninth hackathon and ran from Friday, Jan. 30 at 5:00 p.m. to Sunday, Feb. 1 at 11:00 a.m., and featured 143 “hackers,” eight non-profits, 21 submitted projects and 11 campus partners, including the Union Senate. Saludo emphasized that while the hackathon is only 48 hours, the club runs the whole year and spends months preparing for the event, going through four major phases of development including recruitment and outreach, marketing, preparation and post-event reviews and audits. 

Saludo also discussed the various challenges that DeisHacks has faced and the ways in which becoming a recognized club could help them in the future. She began by establishing how the scalability of external outreach, marketing and onboarding would be improved by gaining access to the financial resources provided by the Union Senate. Being able to participate in the involvement fair would ensure more long-term stability and sustainability for DeisHacks and would help the club reach beyond Brandeis. 

After the initial presentation, the floor was opened up to questions. One senator, Tyler Hupart ’26, asked Saludo why DeisHacks hadn’t previously attempted to become a secured club through the Union Senate. Saludo explained that previous DeisHacks board members wished they had tried to do so, and that she had led the initiative to gain status through the Union Senate this year in time for DeisHacks’ 10-year anniversary. “We want to grow DeisHacks into more than just a happy thought in our community,” said Saludo. After a brief discussion and vote, all senators voted in favor of promoting DeisHacks to probationary status. 

The Union next heard from a new club on Brandeis campus, Judeus & Judios. The club’s president and founder, Rogério Villaça Szuster ’28, and vice president, Camila Slatopolsky ’29, represented the club at the meeting. The club’s mission is to celebrate and recognize Latino Jewish culture and cited a quote from Dina Siegal Vann, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs (BILLA), that has informed their goals: “Jews from Latin America feel both connected to and distinct from the larger U.S. Jewish and Latino communities … They are looking for a space of their own to articulate their multiple identities, to forge a sense of belonging to the global Jewish community and to their Latin American native countries, while expressing their deep ties to Israel.”

Szuster elaborated, describing how Latino Jews at Brandeis and beyond have experienced a kind of “limbo” between their identities as Latinos and Jews and have often felt isolated from both spaces. “I grew up more connected to Argentina than I did to the little town in Ukraine that my family’s from,” said Slatopolsky, but she retains a strong connection to her Jewish identity. Szuster and Slatopolsky both identified common misconceptions about Latino Jews, such as ideas that they are half-Jew and half-Latino or that they “lost everything by being Latino.” Szuster also mentioned a particularly alienating incident where he was mocked in a Hebrew class for his accent.

The club has already received interest from members of the Brandeis community. Szuster cited that the club’s interest form sent out last semester collected 29 responses within a week. The club also hosted an initial meeting with 18 attendees, formed a WhatsApp group of almost 30 members and has 125 followers on Instagram. They already hosted an event in collaboration with the Jewish Feminist Association of Brandeis to celebrate iconic Jewish women of Latin America, and plan to host another event with the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee. The club is also planning a “Carnapurim” event, a joint celebration of Carnaval and Purim, which will feature body paint, Brazilian funk music and temporary tattoos as well as a “Portunhol” hangout, a term for a mix between Portuguese and Spanish, which will feature various Latin American dishes. 

As an affiliate group of Brandeis Hillel, the club is currently limited to only collaborating with Hillel organizations and is unable to book rooms or access the resources of Union-recognized clubs. They argued that receiving the support of the Union Senate would allow them to reach the greater Latino community and become more involved in campus culture and activities. In collaborating with more clubs on campus, Judeus & Judios could be recognized as more than just a Jewish group or a subset of Hillel. After another brief discussion and vote, the Union Senate voted to promote the club to probationary status. 

The Union Senate then moved to discuss a few short updates about upcoming elections for positions in the Union Senate including President, Vice President, Chief Judicial officers, Senate seats, Allocations Board seats, Treasury and more. More information will be released in the coming weeks about the date of the election. One senator, Davian Pagan ’29, asked about any updates on the status of Sherman Dining Hall. Daniel Shin ’27, the Union Senate’s Vice President, responded that he’s been in touch with University administrators who have confirmed that they are working to remove all of the damaged appliances and carpeting and will be replacing them. There are ongoing inspections that, once completed, will provide more information about the dining hall’s reopening. Finally, a senator brought up complaints about the lack of a late-night dining option with The Stein being closed and Shin agreed to discuss the issue further with administrators.