Dean Kaplan’s ’15 case against the Student Union after being defeated by the abstain option and consequently turned out of his position as off-campus senator ended in mediation earlier this month. Originally, Senator Carlton Shakes ’14 announced Kaplan as off-campus senator, and when Sunny Aidasani ’14 was named winner in a re-do election, “Dean originally said he was going to bring 57 cases against the union … the first two were thrown out and we agreed to hear the third,” Student Union President Todd Kirkland ’13 said. The other 54 charges were not articulated.

According to Chief Justice of the Judiciary Seth Brody ’13, “We were responsible for responding to Dean about the case after he filed it with Paige, the court clerk. The first case was for the impeachment of the judiciary, the second against Carlton and we threw those out, since Dean didn’t meet the requirements for impeachment. The third was against Todd and we agreed to see it.”

Kaplan later agreed to mediation rather than a trial. “We put the option out there of starting a committee for off-campus issues, which Dean took,” Kirkland said. “Jesse Manning [Student Union Chief of Staff, ’13] explained the process and helped to start the paperwork, but we haven’t heard from Dean about whether he is going to follow through. It still might not happen.”

The off-campus senator position functions as a liaison between students living in the surrounding Waltham area and the Brandeis administration. While every on-campus quad has multiple CAs and a CDC, and on-campus services like BEMCo, Kirkland says students off campus have far less representation and offered services.

“While students are still subject to university regulations, there are significantly less services offered to those off campus.” The importance of the off-campus senator position, says Kirkland, is only going to increase as the larger undergraduate classes move off campus. “Brandeis hasn’t acquired new housing, so the number of students going off campus is only going to grow.”

According to Kirkland, Kaplan had been acting as Off-Campus Senator since the beginning of the year. “Sunny was elected off-campus senator. He didn’t come to the first meeting since he hadn’t been sworn in and Dean acted in the position,” Kirkland said.

“We’re happy that things worked out, had the case gone to trial it would have been a lot to deal with. I don’t think Dean handled it well, but I’m happy we reached a solution,” Brody said.

Dean Kaplan was contacted but was unavailable for comment.