Failure to split JIO angers U. students

Student members of the committee reviewing the University's Judicial Charter said their opinions were "completely bypassed" in a recently-released plan that fails to split the role of the Judicial Inquiry Officer. "I thought our views were disenfranchised," Elizabeth Hunt, a graduate student and a member of the committee, said. "To get four student representatives with such varying opinions to agree shows how deeply the students felt." The committee, one of three commissioned by the provost to examine different aspects of the University's judicial system, issued a preliminary report last spring. In the initial report, student committee members issued a minority opinion, saying that the JIO could be "intimidating." They proposed splitting or "bifurcating" the role of the JIO into a "prosecutional" JIO and a "settlement" JIO. The three reports were re-released last week after revisions by an oversight committee. The oversight committee amended the reports to ensure that they were consistent with one another, said David Pope, chairperson of the oversight committee. But the new version of the Judicial Charter does not contain a split JIO. "I was really disappointed the report doesn't contain it," said College senior Ken Tercyak, a member of both the Judicial Charter and oversight committee. "Dr. Pope was open to discussing the proposal. It came down to a split in the decision between what the students wanted, and what the faculty wanted, and I think that document represents what the faculty wanted." Students also questioned whether the Judicial Charter review committee's decision was made fairly. "My recollection is that the first time we took a vote on whether we should include [the split JIO], the vote was not just the four students for, and everyone against," Hunt said. The graduate student leader said after initial vote, Judicial Charter review committee Chairperson Stephen Burbank took extra votes in an attempt to get more committee members to side against the split. "After the vote was taken [Burbank] didn't seem very happy, and he talked to us and then called the question again," she added. "This time, we lost one non-student advocate. He talked some more, and called the vote a third time, and that time just the students [voted for it], and then Dr. Burbank was satisfied." "He said, by way of pacifying us, the oversight committee would look into it," Hunt said. But Burbank said the decision had been made fairly. "My committee voted not to bifurcate that position," Burbank said. "That was intensely unpopular with the student members, and they lobbied heavily with the oversight committee to have that changed, and the committee made the decision not to." Susan Garfinkel, a member of the oversight committee and former chairperson of the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, said the oversight committee debated the proposal and decided to exclude it. "The version now proposed [came about through] a process of negotiation, and this is what the committee finally agreed on," Garfinkel said. "Some people still disagreed. It was a compromise rather than consensus." "As a student, I'm very concerned that people are not unduly intimidated by an all-powerful JIO and concerned that their rights are not infringed upon," Garfinkel said. However, she added that she also saw the faculty members' point of view. "I also came to see that many present problems have more to do with students taking advantage of the system," Garfinkel said. "People who were particularly upset where students had violated the system and because of technicalities they got away with it." Mitch Winston, chairperson of the Undergraduate Assembly, said yesterday that although the UA has not yet discussed the issue, he anticipates they will come down against the decision. "The UA is definitely planning on acting on this," Winston said. "We're in the process of drawing up a resolution for the next meeting. We definitely noticed it and we definitely plan on acting on it."

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