President of Active Minds Max Kipnes ’23 was successful in making Active Minds a chartered club on campus. Active Minds is the chapter of a national organization that aims to educate and communicate topics regarding mental health with students at Brandeis, according to the organization’s website. 

Kipnes claimed that he plans to host a few events that will be coordinated with the Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC), a counseling center on campus for students, according to their page. One of the events would be “an open forum with the BCC” which would help them communicate with students on how to improve as a department.

Kipnes mentioned that he plans to bring in Dr. Laura Braider, who works with the college workshop program at Northwell Health. He believes that Braider would be ideal because her focus is the suicidality and mental health of college students, according to Kipnes. Outside of that, Kipnes plans to host a few movie nights that are currently in the works.

President of the MAD band club Mattie Doherty ’23 was not able to win the majority vote for the MAD band to be approved as a Section 2 chartered club. The MAD band club is an instrumental ensemble that performs at Brandeis as well as with other schools, according to Doherty.

Doherty claims that the club seeks to be chartered so that they can request funding for new equipment or replacement of damaged instruments. 

Joseph Coles ’22, who was the club support chair for the last two years, claimed that Marimba should be the club that requests the funding. Charlotte Li ’24 added that MAD “rushed through the process” and did not meet the deadlines to submit the constitution and the paperwork they needed for the meeting. After a vote by roll call, the MAD band was not approved to become a Section 2 chartered club.

Multiple clubs requested a change in their constitution which were all approved by a majority vote. The Southeast Asia Club requested a change to their constitution to add a social justice chair that would be responsible for holding the political stance for the club as well as raise funds and awareness on issues related to the club. 

The Japanese Student Association requested a change that adds the positions of Co-president, Event Director and Director of Art. The Biochemistry Club requested the addition of four E-board roles: Event Coordinator, Social Media Coordinator, Director of Communications and Journal Club Coordinator. They also added a statement of anti-racism that revolves around dismantling systemic racism in the sciences.

Vice President Courtney Thrun ’22 mentioned plans to implement a textbook exchange system on campus. Students would be able to turn in an old textbook in exchange for a coin that they could exchange for a textbook that they would need. 

Thrun also spoke about plans for a Turkey Shuttle Service, where the university arranges a shuttle bus to get students to and from areas around New York/New Jersey for Thanksgiving break. 

Thrun plans to meet with Lauren Haynie, Director of Athletics, to speak on whether a game shuttle can be implemented.