The Student Government Association (SGA) voted on Tuesday to instate a Judiciary Committee to oversee executive and class council elections.
The Committee, comprised of senior Jessica Buicko, sophomore Matt Garland, sophomore Patrick Mascia, senior Austin Nelson and senior Matt Pines, will be responsible for ensuring that the SGA abides by its constitution.
The Committee will take on the responsibilities of last year's Appeals Board, which includes overseeing elections and handling infractions, and it will also have the power to settle matters of inter-SGA disputes.
The SGA felt the need to instate an impartial committee after conflicts of interests skewed executive election results last fall, according to senior member of SGA Kate Jacob.
"The election debacle last year really solidified why we need an objective, unbiased group of non-SGA members to make sure that the elections run fairly," Jacob said.
While reviewing applications for the Judiciary Committee, members of the SGA said they wanted to make sure they selected students without strong ties to any member of the Association, as well as students who seemed to show a particularly strong enthusiasm for constitutionality.
Buicko and Nelson have each had experience on the SGA. Nelson served as Executive Treasurer last year, and Buicko was Vice President for her Class Council two years ago.
However, these individuals are no longer so invested in SGA affairs that their judgments will be skewed in any way, according to SGA President Prasanna Chandrasekhar.
"Since these students are chosen especially for being unbiased and impartial, we know they're going to make the best decisions," he said.
Jacob said she agreed that it was important to create a balanced mix of those with experience and those previously unaffiliated with the SGA.
"We wanted to choose a couple people who are familiar with how we run things, but it's also exciting to have new people who we can count on to be totally unbiased if it comes down to it," she said.
Not all of those affiliated with the SGA, however, are satisfied with the new selections.
Junior Evan Lazerowitz applied for a spot on the Judiciary Committee this year after losing the Vice Presidential election in the spring.
As he was one of the original writers of the Constitution, he said he felt that he would have been a qualified judge.
"I understand that [the SGA] wanted to choose an impartial board, but anyone can look at a decision and say 'This is right' or 'This is wrong.' Every judge is a lawyer first for a reason, and I had first hand experience dealing with the SGA, while a lot of these [new members] have had little to no experience," Lazerowitz said.
According to Chandrasekhar, this Committee will be a very distinct and separate body from the SGA, which was why experience wasn't a prerequisite for application to the Committee.
Pines said that the main reason he applied for the Committee was because he wanted to work on the behind-the-scenes operations that make a Government function.
"We want the SGA to function efficiently but also fairly, and that can be a difficult balance. In this case, the SGA felt the need to draw a line of separation between the groups; The SGA will work on being efficient, and we [the Judiciary Committee] will make sure that things are still fair and just," Pines said.
Several SGA members, included Jacob, expressed the opinion that last year's elections would have turned out differently had there been a Judiciary Committee in existence at the time.
"If we had had a Judiciary Committee [last spring], the election wouldn't have been so controversial," Jacob said.
Pines said that he hopes to keep the Judiciary Committee a constitution-based group.
"As the SGA went through this whole restructure, the separation of powers became so important. Now, they can focus on getting things done, and we can focus on resolving disputes, and making sure they're sticking to their own laws."
