The University Judiciary Committee’s representatives and judges passed a bylaw unanimously last night that further defines professionalism for UJC support officers.
Passed by the Issues subcommittee, the bylaw outlines violations of professionalism and their consequences.
“The proposal is to put into writing something that we’ve been talking about for a while,” Issues Chair Will Bane said. “It is important for all members of the UJC to maintain a high level of professionalism.”
The bylaw defines professionalism as — but not restricted to — breaking the attendance policy, incessant tardiness, failure to wear the proper attire to trials and meetings, and being found guilty of any violation of the Standards of Conduct.
“It’ll help keep us consistent in addressing violations of standards of professionalism,” UJC Chair Merriam Mikhail said. “I want to make sure that we do have a mechanism to address any situation where we find a support officer’s behavior unfitting of a UJC member.”
Mikhail said while she could not give any details, UJC has dealt with violations of professionalism in the past, citing one instance where an educator did not show up to a trial.
Mikhail said the new bylaw specifies which UJC officers will act when a violation of professionalism arises. If a support officer is accused of a professionalism violation, the senior support officer of the accused will investigate the offense. The senior support officer will assign punishment to the support officer if he is found to have committed a violation of professionalism. Support officers may receive an oral admonition, a written warning, suspension from UJC or removal from UJC. If suspended, the accused support officer may not take part in any trial proceedings or attend UJC meetings or events.
The sanctioned support officer, however, can appeal the senior support officer’s decision by submitting a written petition to the UJC Chair within seven days of receiving the senior support officer’s original decision. The voting members of UJC’s executive committee will review the violation and may vote to overturn the senior support officer’s decision. A majority vote is needed, and the executive committee’s decision will be final.
Previously, if a support officer was accused of violating a standard of professionalism, the senior support officer and the support officer would meet to discuss the violation. Typically, the meeting would result in the accused support officer resigning from his position, Mikhail said. She added that the new method is designed to relieve pressure on the support officer to resign from his position.
Both Bane and Mikhail noted that the bylaw not only benefits UJC, but the entire University community. Mikhail said the new method helps to increase the quality of UJC’s support officers because the bylaw helps to limit bias by creating one consistent process to handle professionalism violations.
“We’re trying to eliminate as much bias in the system,” Bane said. “A fair UJC benefits the University as a whole.”
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