At the beginning of the year, the Club Support Committee aided the renewal of the Brandeis Basketball Club, which had previously dissolved when its senior leadership graduated last spring. With the club now up for chartering, the Senate debated whether or not the club violated the University’s policy on inclusivity. 

The Basketball Club’s leadership wants to maintain a men’s only team in order to compete in a national tournament league that is male-exclusive. Most of the club’s funding requests would pertain to this league participation, the fee for which is approximately $1,800. To abide by the University’s policy on inclusivity, CSC Chair and Class of 2020 Senator Tal Richtman said the committee had the Basketball Club agree in a statement that if enough women come to the Basketball Club requesting participation, their leadership will work with the Senate to create a subgroup under their organization for a women’s team. 

Senators asked for clarification on whether or not women could participate in the club’s practices, and Richtman sent an inquiry to the Basketball Club leadership. During this time, Senators discussed the structure of the Brandeis Football (Soccer) Club — whose practices are open to all and specific rosters are put together for exclusive tournaments — and assumed a similar structure would be executed. 

Under the assumption that women would likely be able to attend meetings, but would ultimately not be able to play in the men’s league games, the Senate voted to charter the Basketball Club. 

However, later in the meeting, Richtman received a response from the Basketball Club that their practices will only be open to team members and closed to outsiders, regardless of gender. Being a team for a male-only tournament, this would by default exclude women from any participation. This response opened further Senator concerns that the club would be a gated community. 

The Senate approved a vote to reconsider the chartering and in a following vote, they decided not to charter the Basketball Club, on that grounds that their conduct violated the Union constitution. The CSC will conduct further discussions with the Basketball Club on whether they would like to open up practices to any interested community member, regardless of gender, and reapply for chartering. 

Sam Fishman ’19, president of the Young Americans for Liberty Club, came to the Senate to provide details on why his club requests a name change to “Philosophy Club.” Fishman said that the club had undergone a lot of internal changes, from a club with a political, specifically libertarian, focus to one that discusses philosophy more broadly. 

However, after further discussion with Fishman, the Senate was concerned that major club structure reform would be needed alongside Fishman’s change in vision and that “Philosophy Club” would be a misleading title, as Fishman wants to maintain its libertarian roots. The Senate voted against the name change but invited Fishman to create a new club under a new constitution. 

Richtman added that the majorette dance troupe, TOXIC and the coed Water Polo Club successfully passed their 14-week probationary period and were approved by CSC as recognized clubs. 

Student Union President Jacob Edelman ’18 spoke to the Senate, thanked them for their work and invited them to this week’s election meeting to campaign for upcoming officer positions. 

Student Union Vice President Hannah Brown ’19 announced that some of the Senate’s club decisions had been appealed to the Student Judiciary, but the specific clubs had not yet been named to her. Each Senator will be asked to discuss the reasoning behind their votes in a survey for the Judiciary’s review. 

 —Michelle Dang