The new University Judiciary Committee voting members appointed senior support officers April 2 including two senior counselors, a senior investigator, a senior educator and a senior data manager.
Third-year College students Jack Vallar and Porter Nenon were appointed senior counselors, second-year College student Mitchell Wellman was appointed senior investigator, second-year College student Mason Brannon was appointed senior educator and second-year Engineering student Jacqueline Kouri was appointed senior data manager.
Each senior support officer — with the exception of senior data manager — oversees and trains a pool of support officers, who work with the accused and complainant parties involved in a trial. The senior data manager oversees the UJC database and internal operations.
Third-year College student Mackenzie Austin was elected chair by UJC representatives from each school March 29. The four senior support officers were appointed after interviewing with the four voting members of the UJC executive committee.
The term for all positions is one year, and Austin said she has specific goals for the upcoming 2015-16 term.
“For the new term, I hope to make the UJC more relevant to all students, not just those that undergo the trial process,” Austin said. “I hope to engage the UJC with organizations with like-minded missions and expand outreach beyond first-year education. I hope to forge better relationships with the graduate schools, the Greek community, minority advocacy groups and more.”
Vallar said one policy he hopes to enforce for the new term is going over training tips at every counselor pool meeting in order to refresh the counselors on how to best support the students and deans involved in a trial.
“I would also love to see the UJC get more involved in the U.Va. community and move beyond simply enforcing the Standards of Conduct to encouraging the development of good U.Va. citizens,” he said.
Wellman said he hopes to to see the University Judicial Committee become more integrated into the University community.
“I feel the investigator plays a critical role in serving as a communicator between the other support officers — counselors and educators — and the UJC representatives who serve as trial panel judges,” he said. “Taking a leadership role within the investigators will give me the opportunity to fortify this communication by enhancing investigator training and practices, dialogue between UJC members and outreach to undergraduate and graduate groups.”
Kouri also said she wants to see the University Judiciary Committee more involved on Grounds.
“I feel that a lot of times the UJC is overlooked and students don't exactly know the role of the UJC,” she said. “I would like to change that and make incoming new students more knowledgeable about what UJC is and what we do.”
Kouri said she hopes her position will allow her to uphold the University’s policy of student self-governance.
“I wanted to be a support officer for UJC because I really think self-governance is what makes U.Va. so special and unique,” she said. “The community wouldn't be the same without the system in place.”
Editor’s note: Mitchell Wellman is an Assistant Managing Editor at The Cavalier Daily.
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