The University Judiciary Committee kicked off its annual UJC Awareness Week Monday with the aim of providing the University community a look at how the committee works.
The week consists of a series of events, ranging from a Sustained Dialogue discussion to an open invitation to join UJC during Trick-or-Treating on the Lawn.
Jordan Arnold, a first-year College student and chair of the First-Year Judiciary Committee, said the week is primarily educative.
“For example, tomorrow we’re having a mock trial where students can come and just observe how a UJC trial would take place,” Arnold said.
Mason Brannon, a third-year College student and UJC senior educator, said the committee wants to highlight that they are diverse, educational and relevant.
One of the primary organizers of the week, Brannon said there have been concerns about inter-committee diversity and the disproportionate number of charges against minority students, also known as spotlighting.
The committee is co-hosting an event with the Black Student Alliance in part to address these issues, he said.
In addition to working with BSA, UJC also collaborated with mental health group Active Minds to plan a discussion about how psychological factors affect UJC offenses.
“The biggest misconception is that we’re punitive,” Brannon said. “I think a lot of people are frustrated and are not likely to bring up UJC charges because they’re worried about kicking someone out or just having someone punished, when in fact, the vast majority of the time they’ll be writing an essay or doing community service.”
Brannon also discussed a new UJC initiative in which support officers will be assigned to different CIOs and attend meetings once a month in an effort to gather feedback from the community.
The Sustained Dialogue event held Tuesday was the first step in this process.
“I thought the sustained dialogue was sort of just to figure out people’s opinions about UJC and what they think the role of UJC should be in the U.Va. community,” Arnold said.
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