Student Union President Alison Schwartzbaum '08 outlined her administration's accomplishments and its future goals in a State of the Union speech, prior to the midnight buffet in the Levin Ballroom Tuesday evening. Addressing a crowded ballroom, Schwartzbaum was blunt in her criticism of the administration's restrictions concerning serving alcohol at student social events:

"The administration created an alcohol policy without consulting the Student Union . This policy is completely inflexible and cost prohibitive. It does not take into account the nature of different events or the fact that student organizations' budgets are limited," she said.

Purple Rain, the Union-sponsored party organized after the administration last spring cancelled Modfest, the semesterly party held in the Foster Mods, was planned not just as an event for the campus community, but to demonstrate "glaring problems present in the administration's alcohol policy," said Schwartzbaum, referring to the 31 security officers hired for Purple Rain.

Schwarzbaum said the Union would continue advocating next semester for reform to the policy to make it "more flexible . and [ensure] that there is no blanket standard for public safety presence."

Not every event where alcohol is served needs the same number of security officers, Schwartzbaum said of one restriction in the administration's alcohol policy.

She harshly criticized the administration's requirement that events serving alcohol have a "beer garden," a closed-off area that separates students who are drinking from those who are not, in order to prevent underage students from drinking alcohol.

"The beer garden unnecessarily segregates the community, imprisoning the students who are of age and excluding those who are not," Schwartzbaum said. "Brandeis was founded on the basis of nonexclusivity, and it is unthinkable that a policy that mandates segregating an event exists here."

Schwartzbaum said the Union intends to encourage students to host more parties by providing incentives for students to register their parties early, including covering some party costs.

Schwartzbaum discussed the Union's recent accomplishments, including its continued negotiations over changes to club sports funding and its advocacy against proposed changes to the pass/fail grading system, an initiative rejected by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee last week.

"I am proud to represent this Student Union, because of the hard work and advocacy we have done on your behalf, and most of all, because of the results our efforts have produced," she said.

Schwartzbaum, who was elected in an uncontested race, discussed the differences between her predecessor's administration and her own. While Jenny Feinberg's '07 administration led a major campaign to reform the distribution of the Student Activities Fee, nearly $1 million, to clubs, Schwartzbaum said she has focused on successfully implementing those reforms.

"When I was elected in April many people painted the Student Union with one color: the SAF, the Student Activities Fee. This year's Union is a rich painting with lots of colors as diverse as the elected officials who constitute it," she said.

Schwartzbaum announced that the F-Board will start allocating money to clubs for their lodging and transportation, a move that club leaders have long requested.

"It is a perfect example of how our Union is working diligently to identify lapses in the system and rectify them with smart, focused solutions," Schwartzbaum said.

Schwartzbaum emphasized the recent progress in negotiations between the Union and the athletics department on changes to the club sports funding system-something Union officials and administrators have worked on for about a year.

Under the agreement, the Union and the Athletics Department will split club sports costs, and members of club sports teams will constitute a council that will work on the budget with a club sports coordinator, a position Athletics will fill.

The agreement is a framework and questions still remain, including the makeup of the council and the specific role of the coordinator, Schwartzbaum said and that "the remaining details of the program will be finalized in the coming semester."

Schwartzbaum also attributed the rejection of changes to the pass/fail grading system to successful advocacy by Union officials.

The UCC, a body of Union officials, faculty and administrators that reviews academic changes, rejected a plan last week to raise the minimum passing grade in a pass/fail class from a D to a C-.

"We believed that change would directly contradict with the very philosophy behind the pass/fail option," Schwartzbaum said. "Unsurprisingly, students felt the same way. As a result, we fought against this change and no policy reform was implemented."

The Union's Social Justice Committee, she said, plans to engage the campus in dialogue next semester about "what happened and why" last May when the administration removed a student's exhibit of artwork by Palestinian teenagers in Goldfarb Library. The decision sparked harsh criticism from students and faculty.

"We want to foster a community that respects all of its members and acknowledges that everyone contributes to the campus at large," Schwartzbaum said.

The ballroom was filled with standing students, most of who appeared anxious for the Midnight Buffet to begin, and talked throughout Schwartzbaum's speech.

"It was really hard to hear," Sam Reid '09 said. "I was in the back, and everyone was talking, nobody was really paying attention.