Four students were appointed to the USGD Judicial Board at Friday’s Senate meeting, filling the board’s vacancies and giving the Downtown campus a working third branch of government.
The new members are criminal justice and criminology major Jesica Norman; public service and policy major Marc Valenzuela; journalism junior and former Barrett, the Honors College Sen. Pedro Silva; and journalism junior Cortney Bennett.
Director of Parliamentary Procedures Andres Cano nominated these students and said he wanted the board to have a wide variety of members.
“I wanted a diverse judicial board and we definitely have that,” Cano said.
The judicial board members submitted their applications and resumes to Cano, who later interviewed them about their motives for joining the board.
The interviews were recorded and emailed to the senators along with their resumes before Friday’s meeting.
According to the constitution, the USGD president is supposed to nominate students to the judicial board.
President Joseph Grossman removed himself from the process to avoid any conflicts of interest because he has already stated that he is going to run for re-election.
He did, however, nominate criminal justice junior Kevin Torge to the board. Torge was never individually interviewed for the position, but was approved at the Feb. 10 Senate meeting.
The new members bring diverse backgrounds to the judicial board.
Silva was a senator for Barrett, the Honors College and was also on the election committee last year. He saw some of the problems last year’s election committee and judicial board had firsthand.
“Last year, I was thinking ‘Oh my god, I need to be on this thing, because it’s a mess,’” Silva said. “I’m doing this to prevent a disaster. I want this election season to be better.”
Valenzuela is in his second semester at ASU and was formerly a member of the student government at a college in San Diego.
He held various positions during his two-year stint in student government and was at times responsible for interpreting governing documents.
With the passage of the universal constitution last semester, Valenzuela said there is a unique opportunity this semester to have a long-lasting impact.
“This is going to be the first time these documents are going to be looked at,” Valenzuela said at the Senate meeting. “I think that’s something really cool to be a part of, because we’re going to be setting precedents.”
Norman has worked with the Arizona Students’ Association, participating in issue-based campaigns, on-campus promotion and voter registration.
Her interest in this stems from her experiences with the ASA and also her desire to help Downtown students.
“I’m very, very passionate about the Downtown campus … I’m very passionate about the students and really progressing their interests,” she said at the meeting.
Bennett, the fourth student appointed to the judicial board, was not at the meeting because she had a previously scheduled “school-related event” and didn’t learn of the meeting time early enough.
That bothered Walter Cronkite School Sen. Torunn Sinclair, who said she wasn’t comfortable confirming Bennett without the Senate talking to her.
But, the emailed interview and resume were enough for the other senators, and she was voted in as well.
Bennett said later she understood if senators were a little hesitant to appoint her, but she is committed to the position.
She has held leadership positions in the past and has some experience in student government.
Joining the judicial board seemed like a good way to get involved with the government and Downtown campus, especially considering the election-season problems that have existed in the past, Bennett said.
“I want to be fair and objective and not let any personal conflicts interfere with my job,” Bennett said.
Also at Friday’s meeting, senators took up the funding requests that were delayed at the Feb. 3 Senate meeting, doling out $5,110.
Of that, $1,950 went to USGD to expand distribution of the New York Times on campus to include the two Nursing and Health Innovation buildings.
Innovative Breaks, an ASU service organization, received the most money at the meeting, getting $2,185 to take 55 students on a community service trip to the Grand Canyon.
Devils’ Advocates received $75 for the entry fee to a mattress race and donation at Tempe Marketplace.
Finally, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists had its request reduced the most on Friday, from $5,000 to $900. Their request was to take members to the Unity Convention the first week of August.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
