The Union Senate held its first meeting of the year on Sunday over Zoom. Vice President Courtney Thrun ’22 ran the meeting, which started with every Union officer present introducing themselves and their position. The Senate then voted to fill positions on the Executive Board.

Thrun then explained to the new senators how to initiate a vote, as well as the differences between voting by acclamation and by roll call. The Senate votes by acclamation when a consensus between senators has already been reached. Usually, voting by acclamation proceeds quickly as all senators vote the same way and all at once. Voting by roll call requires  Executive Senator Joseph Coles ’22 to read each senator’s name individually so that each vote is recorded.

The first item on the agenda after introductions was confirmations to the E-Board. Student Union President Krupa Sourirajan ’23 invited 10 students to apply for the 10 open positions, and the Senate voted on whether or not to approve each candidate.

The 10 open spots on the E-Board were chief of staff, Union diversity and inclusion officer, director of community engagement, director of academic affairs, director of health and wellness, director of technology, director of media and outreach, director of residential life, director of sustainability and climate justice and director of communications. Director of communications is a new position for this year created by Sourirajan.

Each candidate made brief remarks on what made them qualified for their desired positions, after which Thrun removed them from the Zoom meeting so that the senators could express their thoughts on each candidate.

The Senate voted by acclamation to confirm Jasmyne Jean-Remy ’22 as chief of staff, Shelley Polanco ’24 as UDIO, Scarlett Ren ’24 as director of community engagement, Bonnie Chen ’ as director of academic affairs, Chris Tian ’24 as director of media and outreach, Francesca Marchese ’25 as director of media and outreach, Emily Zhu ’23 as director of residential life, Selah Bickel ’24 as director of sustainability and climate justice and Noah Risley ’24 as director of communications. 

Clay Napurano ’24 was the only candidate not to be confirmed by the Senate. During the discussion, Coles and Senator Ashna Kelkar ’24 expressed doubts that Napurano had sufficient experience for the position, which involves close work with the Brandeis Counseling Center and the Golding Health Center. “It’s important to work sensitively with the BCC and Health Center,” Coles said. “He’s going to be starting behind other people, and that’s not going to be great.” Senator Nicholas Kanan ’23 asked Coles if he had a more qualified candidate in mind, to which Coles said yes, but did not specify who.The Senate voted by roll call on Napurano’s appointment, with every senator except Kanan voting either against or abstaining. The candidates were then let back into the meeting and informed of the results.

At the end of the meeting, Thrun told the senators to encourage their friends to sign up for the Union’s outdoor festival talent show. “Bringing up school spirit is something we really want to focus on this year,” Thrun said.