Judicial Board members elected
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The election was the final step in a plan to create and implement a formal committee for solving disputes among SAC groups.
Monday's election represents the culmination of many months of work and planning by the SAC to form a Judicial Committee.
"The idea was brought to me from Dean Boswell's office," said SAC Executive Chairperson Noel de Santos. "In the past, disputes were handled directly by the administration. We felt that it was time for the SAC to be able to actualize all the rights and privileges we have as adults."
Before the Judicial Committee was formed, any disputes between groups would be solved in arbitration, with the SAC Executive Board Chairperson and the Director of Student Involvement serving as mediators.
If the dispute could not be solved in arbitration, it would have gone to the administration. "It might have gone to the Director of Student Involvement or been handled by Dean Boswell personally, depending on the severity," said de Santos.
The dispute would have previously been discussed by the administration as a whole, including members of the SAC, deans in the administration, and the Director of Student Involvement.
"There have of course been disputes in the past, but nothing so severe as to warrant immediate formation of the Judicial Committee," said de Santos.
"Hopefully it will never be used - conflicts will be able to be resolved between two parties. But in case it happens, it's better that we be able to handle it within the SAC. One, because we're mature enough; two, because we have special knowledge of the group dynamics that take place among SAC groups."
Members of the SAC hope that the Judicial Committee will serve as an intermediary step to solve disputes.
This new committee will put a greater responsibility of the SAC to govern and solve disputes among themselves.
"It's a real victory for the students that we have this, because we can handle this as students - the University and the SAC are saying that we're mature enough to handle all sorts of situations. We don't have to be told by the adults how to resolve conflicts," said de Santos.
The committee is student-run, consisting of five voting members and one non-voting member, the Assistant Treasurer of Student Council, who will serve as the secretary for the Judicial Committee.
The five acting members include Director of Student Involvement Dr. William Smedick, de Santos, two members of the SAC GA and one member of the SAC Executive board who will be chosen in an election this Thursday.
"The by-laws [for the Judicial Committee] are based in a large part off the laws of the Interfraternity Council," said de Santos. He said that since they are both subcategories of the Conduct Board, the two could mirror each others guidelines, yet still maintain the individual distinctions between them.
The newly-elected members from the GA will meet in a joint session with the Interfraternity Council Judicial Committee later this week to discuss the basic guidelines for the Judicial Committee, including procedures and ethics in the case that a member of the committee is ineligible to sit for a specific hearing. The proceedings and by-laws of the Judicial Committee are meant to simulate a real courtroom scene, said one nominee. Each group will be allowed two representatives at the hearing, and the ruling will be made by the five voting members of the Judicial Committee.
"We wanted to make sure that the General Assembly had the largest representation," said de Santos.
Nominees for the Judicial Committee stressed the importance of objective decision-making. Johnson, one of the two new members of the Judicial Committee, promised in her speech to "make an honest effort to interpret the rules fairly and equally."