Student Judiciary to serve as check to Senate

After nearly six months of rigorous structuring and planning, the Student Judiciary is on its final leg of becoming a secondary judicial body that will serve as a check to the Student Senate and the academic appeals process.

“It’s been a very long process to get this going, so we’re relieved to finally get it rolling,” said Student Body President Justin Puckett. “It’ll be good for the students for the organization to have more transparency and a better system of checks and balances on the Student Senate.”

Puckett said the final plans for the Student Judiciary are still being refined, but said the independent judiciary body would alleviate some of the duties delegated to the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Facilitator, who is the only person who currently handles grievances filed by students or faculty members. In addition to grievances, Puckett said the Student Judiciary would also act as an added option to the academic appeals process already in place.

David Wright, the Rules and Bylaws Team chairman, said the committee has assisted in creating the Student Judiciary by writing and refining its bylaws to correctly spell out its function. Wright said the Student Judiciary would be comprised of the five Student Senate representatives from several colleges across campus and the Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Facilitator, who would listen to arguments, evaluate the circumstances of the case and deliver their judgment.

“Right now, the way a current grievance appeal is filed, this council can arbitrarily deny what the grievance board has decided, and the student may have no other recourse or may feel like they don’t,” Wright said. “What this will do is bring a separate body out of the Student Senate.”

If approval is granted, Wright said the Student Judiciary will be fully functioning by the fall semester of this year.