Judicial Board holds hours to increase accessibility
By Samantha Masunaga
Oct. 8, 2009 11:15 p.m.
The Student Judicial Board has begun hosting office hours three days a week in order to answer any procedural questions about the board’s purpose and function.
Meeting times are Mondays and Wednesdasy from 11-11:50 p.m. and Thursdays from 1-2:30 p.m in Kerckhoff 324.
The seven-member board serves as the judicial arm of the Undergraduate Students Association Council and arbitrates disputes with the USAC constitution, bylaws or committee regulations, said Michael Kelso, associate chief justice for the board and fourth-year history and international development studies student.
“It’s partially a transparency issue,” he said. “We want to make the board as accessible as possible.”
Petitions for the board go through a review process in which three justices must vote to accept the claim before further action.
Then, the petition is placed into one of three categories: a hearing, an appeal or election review, Kelso said.
He added that hearings are the most common since it is the type of case that allows witnesses to be called in the case of a legal dispute.
These cases usually involve the court’s interpretation of a possible bylaw violation.
The board typically takes on one case per year, and case length varies on an individual basis, he said.
Justices are appointed by the USAC president and are approved by the council. Once appointed, justices serve for the rest of their time at UCLA, unless they are removed by a two-thirds vote.
Kelso was appointed to his term in 2007 and was interested in the position based on his law school aspirations as well as his experience with the UCLA Mock Trial team.
Based on the new concept of holding office hours for the board, Kelso said that few students have come, although he spoke about it at the USAC meeting.
He said that although he will not be able to give out advice, he encouraged any students, especially ones interested in joining the Judicial Board, to attend.
