The newly appointed Student Court judges are aiming to increase the court’s transparency and efficiency in its upcoming term, according to a court release Tuesday.
The SA Senate unanimously appointed five judges to the court last week, succeeding four graduating seniors who held positions during the 2019-20 academic year. The court’s justices outlined the body’s main initiatives for the upcoming academic year, like clarifying its procedures for the public and increasing its online presence, at an April 30 meeting, the release states.
“While the Student Court has more often than not been a battleground for parties within the Student Association, all of us hope to see more student organizations use the Student Court to resolve disputes that may arise,” the release states.
The court released its first general order Tuesday, announcing third-year law student Maggie O’Brien’s election as the court’s chief justice, according to the release.
The release states the judges intend to increase the court’s accessibility through an organized and updated online presence, update the court’s operating procedures for clarity, appoint a registrar position to handle the court’s “administrative tasks” and upload past court decisions to the court website.
The judges for the past academic year said late last month that they hoped the next court would increase the body’s presence on campus because many students are not aware that the court can review all student organization cases outside of the SA.
Isabella Sorial, an SA associate court justice and a Hatchet culture and opinions writer, said in an interview the members plan to update the court’s website through various measures, like adding a “clear” link for organizations to file a complaint and “consistently” including court activities in the SA newsletter. She said the website updates will make the process for student organizations to request the court’s opinion more straightforward.
She said the court plans to update the procedure documents – the outline the court uses to oversee and decide cases – because the current guidelines include “vague” wording that does not allow members outside of the court to understand its operations.
“People aren’t going to take us seriously and they aren’t going to give us their respect that we deserve if we aren’t taking the job seriously and if we don’t make it really clear that we are here for the people for whatever needs they might have,” she said. “We are a really important branch of the government that people don’t really know about at all.”
SA Chief Court Justice Maggie O’Brien did not return multiple requests for comment. SA associate court justices Corrie Chase, Francheska Salazar and Yun-Da Tsai declined to comment.
A general order linked in the release states the court will delay reviewing two complaints filed last week because the judges are making “substantial” amendments to the body’s governing documents and there are no class days remaining for the semester. Former SA Sen. AJ Link, Law-G, and first-year law student Robbie Witte filed the complaints against the SA, the release states.
One complaint challenges that the three First-Year seats within the senate should be eliminated, and the second complaint requests the senate create a “firm” timeline for the body to split into separate ones for undergraduates and graduate students after a referendum passed in favor of the split in the 2020 SA elections.
Senators debated eliminating first-year senate positions at a senate meeting earlier this academic year when creating a referendum to split the senate into a separate undergraduate and graduate body. Freshman students are currently the only class that has senate seats allocated specifically for a single class.
Some senators argued at the meeting that the allocation of freshman-specific seats allows the class to have a larger vote in the SA than other students, but students who served in the first-year seats said having voting rights and watching older senators work in the SA is useful experience.
Link said he filed the complaints to the court because first-year senate seats give “extra and unnecessary” representation to one class over the others. He added that the lack of a deadline for the senate to split into two sections “ignores” the referendum passed by 69 percent of students to split the body.
“Graduate students have been marginalized for the SA for years while they use graduate student money to fund undergrad events and projects,” Link said.
