The Brandeis Student Union is holding an election to fill 14 vacant positions in the Senate, Judiciary and Allocations Board on Jan. 29.
According to a handout distributed by the Student Union, the election voting will be conducted digitally throughout the entire course of the day. The same handout lists the following Senate positions as being on the ballot: the Midyear Class Senator, the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program Senator, the Ziv and Ridgewood Quad Senator, the Racial Minority Senator, a Senator at Large seat and one seat representing each of the Classes of 2021, 2022 and 2023. Additionally, five Allocations Board seats will be available: a single Racial Minority Student Allocations Board Member seat with a one-year term, two Allocations Board Member seats with a one-year term and two Allocations Board Member seats with three-semester terms. Finally, there is a single Associate Justice seat on the Judiciary Board.
The handout stipulated that all candidates must announce their intent to run by midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the campaign would run from “Wednesday 1/22th [sic] 12:01 a.m. to Wednesday 1/29th 11:59 p.m.,” and results would be announced Thursday, Jan. 30. This was also stated by Student Union Secretary Taylor Fu ’21 at the Jan. 21 informational meeting; however, in an email sent on Jan. 22, Student Union President Simran Tatuskar announced that the deadline to register would be extended to midnight of that day.
In an interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Tatuskar said that the deadline was extended because many people were unable to attend the election information session and because several prospective candidates did not reply until a few hours past the initial deadline, and the Student Union wanted to give them the opportunity to run.
At the informational meeting, members of the Student Union explained the duties of the various offices to prospective candidates and laid out the rules for the coming campaign for those present. Fu announced that this campaign would be paperless, in the interest of being “environmentally sustainable.” Candidates were also told that no money could be spent on any of their campaigns, and any candidates for the Judicial Board were not allowed to receive endorsements from clubs.
Several of these positions opened up due to their previous occupants resigning or being dismissed. Tatuskar said that Erik Lambrecht ’23, who had previously been the Myra Kraft Transitional Year Program Senator, was dismissed by the Senate because he was absent from too many meetings and did not provide satisfactory reasons for his absences. The former Ziv and Ridgewood Quad Senator, Sagar Punjabi ’21, said he resigned because he is studying abroad this semester. Tatuskar also said that Rebecca Shaar ’21 resigned from the Allocations Board because of the administration’s rollout of Slate and Marathon. According to Tatuskar, the rollout was “glitchy,” and members of the Allocations Board felt that the administration was not listening to them. This was also, according to Tatuskar, the reason that Alan Huang ’21 elected not to run for another term.
