The University Judiciary Committee discussed making significant improvements to support officer training, increasing awareness and ways to move forward in their first meeting of the semester yesterday.
"I'm excited about moving the committee forward ... so we can continue to do what we do on a daily basis more efficiently," Vice Chair for Sanctions Dean de la Peña said.
There are still a large number of cases pending from last spring that UJC plans to work on in the first few weeks of the semester.
UJC will be launching a new initiative to release statistics about its cases for the first time this semester.
"I think that we have the opportunity this year to start doing our jobs in ways that we've never explored before," Chair Connor Sullivan said.
Sullivan added he would like to increase awareness of UJC among the University community and the Charlottesville community as well. He said UJC hopes to increase transparency and expand contact between first-year students and support officers.
"I'm going to try to reach out more to increase awareness among students ... of what the committee does and how they can call on us when they need help," Sullivan said.
Both de la Peña and Sullivan said they would like to work on professionalism initiatives in order to elevate standards. According to the minutes from last night's meeting, UJC is "renewing a strong commitment to meeting attendance and trial-punctuality policy." Repeated failure to attend meetings or appearing late for trial may result in censure or dismissal.
UJC will also be holding a mandatory "Trial Advocacy" workshop later this month. The committee will hold workshops to educate support officers on witness questioning, statement structure and the use of evidence before trial panels. The workshop will aim to advance the skills of support officers and to better represent the interests of complainants and students, according to the minutes, to improve the current system.
"I think that the Judiciary Committee does its job very well," Sullivan said. "It's one of the most important structures we have in order to keep ourselves safe.
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