The Union Senate met Friday, April 4 to make up for two consecutive weeks of break for the holidays. At the meeting, senators chartered five clubs and discussed facemasks and the upcoming election.

Sen. James Feng ’22 of the Health and Safety Committee proposed buying limited amounts of face masks to distribute to the student population. Vice President Krupa Sourirajan ’23 countered this proposal with the suggestion that the committee should instead hand out the over 1,000 masks that remain from when the Student Union ordered masks earlier this semester.

At the end of the meeting, President Kendal Chapman ’22 came to discuss the upcoming Student Union elections with the senators. Chapman said that the senators could endorse anyone they want but recommended that senators not endorse a candidate running for the senator’s current position.

At next week’s Senate meeting, University administrators, including President Ron Liebowitz, will be answering questions from students relayed by Sourirajan.

A number of clubs presented at the meeting with requests to be chartered. The first club that presented was the Crafts and Conversations club. President Emily McKerrow ’24 spoke about the club, its purpose and funding requirements. The club would be a place where students could learn various forms of needlework with no prior experience required, McKerrow said.

The club’s treasurer, Jessie Friedman ’22, continued the presentation to explain that a minimal amount of funding would be required to operate this club, since the supplies needed for their crafts — mostly yarn — are relatively inexpensive. After the brief presentation, the Senate voted by acclamation to charter the club.

The next club to present was the Intercultural Hip Hop and Open Mic club. Co-presidents Joel Stern ’24 and Jay Gonzales ’24 explained their visions for their club. Gonzales said that the club would explore diverse musical interests within the realm of hip hop, including spoken word poetry, creative writing and music production. The club was originally going to be two clubs, one for discussion and the other for music, Stern said, but they decided to mix the two concepts into one club. The Senate then voted by acclamation to charter the club.

The next club to present was the German club. Founders Stern, Kevin Brazile ’24 and Julia Braeunig ’23 explained how their club meetings would cover different aspects of German culture, language and cooking. The founders intend the club to be a casual place, they said, open to anyone regardless of their German-speaking ability.Once the club finished their presentation, the Senate voted by acclamation to charter it.

The fourth club to appear before the Senate was B’yachad, the Israeli dance club. President Raquel Feldman ’24 said that B’yachad had previously been a club at Brandeis but fell apart around 2017 due to “poor leadership.”

Though the club sought to be chartered, Feldman specified that they were not looking for funding this semester. “We just want to hold classes and see where it goes,” Feldman said. Feldman also said that the club plans on asking alumni for donations to help support the club. The Senate chartered the club by acclamation.

The last club to present at the meeting was the Sports Analytics club. President Jakob Newman ’23, a baseball player for the Judges, told the Senate about his club’s purpose. The Sports Analytics club, as its name suggests, would give interested students an opportunity to research a sports-related question and collect data as part of a research project with other club members. Newman also said that he hopes that the club will be able to have guest speakers from the sports analytics industry.The Senate charted the club by acclamation.