Four new members approved for MU Student Court
Faddis, Chambers, Reeves and Hucker were inducted with no opposition.
Published Sept. 4, 2009
Four new justices were approved for the Student Court on Wednesday night at the Missouri Students Association Senate meeting.
"I thought it sounded like a good idea because I want to go to law school, but I only had a slight idea of what this would be when I first applied," Justice Elaine Faddis said. "I would like to increase awareness about MSA and what the Student Courts do during my time as a justice."
All justices were approved by MSA with no opposition.
"I have complete faith in Chief Justice Eric Woods' judgment," Senate Speaker Amanda Shelton said. "He is an excellent worker and judge of character, and the people he likes to work with show the same qualities. They all have excellent credentials, enthusiasm and work ethic."
Chief Justice Eric Woods said the nine-person court is well-balanced with the new appointees.
"We have a good balance of upper and lower classman. I started when I was a freshman, two of our new justices are starting as sophomores, one is a junior and the other is a senior," Woods said.
The Student Court works primarily with elections within MSA, such as the upcoming presidential election. If a student has a problem with an aspect of the election, they take it to the Board of Elections Commissioners. If their problem is not solved there, the student can appeal their case to the nine justices of the Student Courts who will make the final judgment call.
"Because of the number of people expected to run, we are already anticipating a busy year," Woods said.
Now that the Senate has officially approved the new justices, the group can meet to discuss their plans for this year and the upcoming MSA election. The group aims to become more involved within the senate through regular consultations on the by-laws. They hope to begin drafting these plans within the upcoming weeks.
"One of my goals is to change the low key nature of the courts," Woods said. "While we don't do a lot, the decisions we do make are very important. We want to raise awareness so when we nominate new justices people might actually care. The new appointees are fantastic and I think they share that vision."
Operations Committee Chairman Josh Travis questioned the justices for committee approval before they went to Senate for approval.
"I've never worked with the courts," Travis said. "We'd like to reform its role, which we have to do through the legislative body. I have been trying to curb what I felt was a very flawed political culture, and I want to work to improve this culture. I see myself working more with the Student Court when we are making those improvements."