We have decided to endorse third-year College student Mason Brannon and third-year College student Mitch Wellman as UJC College representatives.
We were impressed by Brannon’s experience as a UJC senior educator. He emphasized the need for highlighting the educational focus of UJC. Additionally, he stressed the view that UJC is a redemptive rather than punitive organization. Brannon was appropriately aware of the need to reach out to members of communities who are disproportionately charged for committing UJC offenses. One solution that Brannon introduced was to assign outreach coordinators from UJC to different communities of the University to which they feel connected. He also stated he would focus on the investigation process and seek ways to minimize bias in the investigations to promote fairness.
Wellman’s extensive experience as a senior investigator and his seat on the executive board bolster his candidacy. In our interview with Wellman, he articulated both external and internal goals for UJC. Externally, Wellman expressed a desire to improve student perceptions of the distinction between UJC and the Honor Committee. To this end, Wellman has already implemented a news platform for UJC in his current capacity. We believe Wellman will continue to pursue this critical goal as a College representative. He has, furthermore, proposed concrete plans for improving reporting standards with groups that often report UJC offenses, such as Housing and Residence Life. We are confident he will be an excellent UJC representative.
We support third-year Batten student Jeremy Jones’s candidacy for the position of UJC Batten representative. Jones expressed a desire to prioritize training for support officers. He noted that UJC dorm talks, events through which the committee engages first year students, differ in their quality and can be improved through workshops for UJC educators. Jones also called for increased outreach efforts for smaller schools within the University, as well as greater retention of UJC’s support officer pool.
While there are more positions allotted to these schools, other candidates chose not to interview with us.
Editor’s note: Mitch Wellman is a former assistant managing editor for The Cavalier Daily.
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