Penn State Judicial Affairs codes and procedure are a few steps closer to being examined by the Undergraduate Student Government following a series of actions last night.
USG senators unanimously agreed to create a commission to examine Judicial Affairs and elected East Halls Sen. James Meashey to preside over the commission.
Town Sen. Michael Byrne was elected the representative from the senate and will be the only voting senate member on the commission.
The action was approved a week after a similar proposal was put aside because some senators felt its purpose hadn't been made clear enough.
"This one closely resembles the last one," said South Halls Sen. Erik Ives. "I think the reading of it goes very well now."
The commission will be in charge of researching 10 areas of Judicial Affairs, including the university's jurisdiction over off-campus actions, judicial affairs policies that don't allow students counsel, the Penn State Code of Conduct, the disciplinary process, and any other area the commission finds relevant.
"This is a great format," Pollack Halls Sen. Katelyn Belyus said about the action.
The action creates a commission with voting members from seven departments and organizations on campus. Each organization will have one voting seat, with the exception of the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, which will have one for each of its two major branches.
Other interested participants of the seven invited organizations, as well as the Association of Residence Hall Students and the Faculty Senate, both of which don't have voting seats, are free to work as advising members on the commission.
"I plan on working as hard as I can to make this as good as it can possibly be," Ives said.
The commission will work to develop a report outlining its findings and any actions it thinks the university and Penn State governing bodies should take. It also may invite guests to answer questions and speak about the Judicial Affairs issues to the commission.
The report will be presented at the final USG senate meeting of the semester.
"We are hoping to get this started right after fall break," Ives said.
Meashey outlined how he wanted to deal with the commission meetings. He said he plans to delegate responsibility to members and to ask them to research a specific topic for the meetings.
He also said his experience with the USG Department of Legal Affairs, where he has advised a student going through the Judicial Affairs process, will help him in presiding over meetings.
"My expertise in Legal Affairs has been particularly helpful," he said.
