Last Thursday, during the Student Senate meeting, several judicial appointees were confirmed. While almost all nominees were confirmed, one was not, and the Senate may reconsider the appointment at this week’s meeting.
First, the Senate voted to approve Andrew Siegmann, ’07 in a 17-0-0 unanimous vote to the position of Greek Judicial Board Chairman. After that, there was a lengthy round of judicial board appointments for a number of positions. The Judicial Board Chairman for next semester, Emilio Perez ’07, who was appointed earlier in the semester, helped during the proceedings by introducing the candidates and discussing what impression the candidates conveyed to the selection board during the application process.
Many candidates were appointed as regular members, alternate members, and student judicial advisors. Apart from those positions, Tom Boetig ’06 was appointed Vice Chair in a unanimous vote and Matthew Ezovski ’06, current chair of the Judicial Board, was appointed unanimously as a student judicial advisor. Boetig and Ezovski, however, along with two other members, were appointed for half terms because while they will be graduating in May, they will be helping in the turnover affecting the Judicial Board.
During the proceedings, there was some controversy over a freshman, Stanley Johnson, being appointed to a regular term membership. This caused a lengthy question and answer period to ensue between the candidate, Senate, and J-Board chairs. Several senators said they did not feel confident in how he presented himself and did not confirm his appointment to the Judicial Board.
After the appointments were done, there was a discussion between the Senate, Ezovski, and Perez. According to Ezovski, the Senators expressed what they specifically felt unconfident about in the candidate who was not confirmed, why they voted the way they did, and how the Judicial Board could better prepare its candidates. In turn, the Judicial Board chairs explained what they saw in their candidates and how they felt about the Senate’s questioning. In the end, Ezovski said part of the blame lay with him and Perez, and graduate Senator Matt Newman said part of the blame lay with the Senate.
Grand Marshal Max Yates ’06 said after the meeting, “I’m very pleased in the sincerity of the Senate’s questioning of the candidates.” He continued, “in my time on the Senate, I’ve never seen such a thorough review of the candidates.” He explained that while it is difficult to turn someone away from the board, there would be little point to the current vetting process if everyone was simply confirmed with a rubber stamp.
Yates said he was also pleased that many who voted no or abstained from the vote have chosen to meet with Johnson personally in an attempt to learn more about him. He said that while it’s possible his appointment could be reconsidered this week, it is not on the agenda as of yet.
Ezovski explained, “The selection committee tried to get a cohesive board of different members with different attributes and qualities.” After the discussions had concluded, Ezovski said he thought it likely that the Senate would reconsider Johnson’s appointment at this week’s Senate meeting, but that the final decision does not lie with him or the selection committee.
Since the judicial appointments took over two hours to go through the rest of the committee, reports were not discussed extensively and were left to being expressed via e-mail among the Senate. Some issues, however, were still briefly discussed.
Bob Fishel ’07, co-chair of the Finance, Facilities, and Advancement committee, reported that the Senate got over 150 responses in their poll of the student body on the new Rathskellar plans. The only concern they found that students had was the cost of food going up, but the cost of food will not be affected by the renovations. Therefore the Senate was for going ahead with plans for the Rathskellar.
In addition to that, Julia Leusner ’08, chair of the Academic Affairs committee, said the Dean of the School of Engineering, Alan Cramb, will be attending the next Senate meeting on November 17, 2005. Zack Freeman ’07, the Community Relations Committee chair, said he was pleased with the turnout of the Project Hope Thanksgiving Benefit Dinner last Friday that was held in the McNeil Room. It raised $2,090 for Project Hope, which has a cumulative total of money raised of over $26,700 as of November 14. His committee is also working on holding a “Pizza with the Mayor” event sometime in the future.
