The University Judiciary Committee met Saturday morning for its internal election of new voting members, where representatives elected third-year College student Shannon Cason as committee chair. Representatives also voted on the four vice chair positions for trials, sanctions, first years and graduate students.
Cason served on First Year Judiciary Council during her first year and as an educator her second year. Most recently, Shannon was on the UJC executive committee as senior educator. Educators in UJC comprise one of three support staff pools — along with investigators and counselors — and are appointed to the role through an application process, unlike representatives, who are elected by the student body. Educators are responsible for educating both the broader University community and individual students who are found guilty and sanctioned by UJC, in order to collect feedback about the committee’s process.
Cason said being senior educator was the position that best prepared for the role of chair. As an educator, Cason was involved in promoting UJC’s mission in various contexts, such as advertising for recruitment and presenting to other student organizations on Grounds. These responsibilities aim to keep students who interact with UJC informed about the committee’s responsibilities and functions.
“I think one of the main things as chair is being the person that communicates our organization to all these other organizations and talking to administration and things like that,” Cason said. “And that’s sort of something I’ve already had to do, being an educator right now, and so I don’t think that’s going to be a very difficult transition for me.”
Cason ran against second-year College student Chirag Kulkarni, who was elected to the vice chair of trials position. Kulkarni noted his executive committee experience, having served as FYJC chair his first-year and as senior data manager in the past year. Third-year Commerce representative Mahathi Kambham was elected to vice chair for sanctions, second-year College representative Gabby Cox to vice chair for first-years and graduate Arts & Sciences representative Luke Chattleton to vice chair for graduate students.
During the process, candidates for each position were given 10 minutes to speak, with 7 minutes allocated for speeches and the remaining time for a question and answer period. Representatives not running for the position then held a private deliberation and determined the winning candidate using a rank choice system of voting, in which voters rank each candidate and consider the lower rankings in the event the leading candidate does not receive over 50 percent of the vote.
The chair and vice chair positions comprise the five voting members of the UJC executive committee. The two senior counselors, senior educator, senior investigator and senior data manager are non-voting positions and appointed by voting members.
Candidates addressed matters of both cohesion within UJC — discussing ideas such as creating a sense of community within the committee and continuing implicit association tests and training — as well as the broader University population’s perception of the committee. As senior educator, Cason directed outreach to the student body and aims to further engage minority groups and smaller academic schools that are underrepresented within UJC.
“I’ve restructured the educator pool to work directly with student organizations to foster a better long-term relationship,” Cason said in her campaign speech. “With this restructuring, I believe UJC is making strides to foster a better external community, so that we don’t just enter student spaces when it’s convenient for us.”
Cason said preparing outreach for next semester’s recruitment season will be her first priority as chair. UJC recruits its counselor, educator and investigator pools in the fall, and FYJC representatives will be elected by the incoming first-year class. Cason is succeeding fourth-year Engineering student Kevin Warshaw.
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