This year, The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board has chosen to endorse four candidates running for University Judiciary Committee representative. Of the eight total candidates seeking election, we chose to endorse three from the College of Arts & Sciences — Shannon Cason, Gabby Cox and Chirag Kulkarni — and one from the School of Engineering and Applied Science — Camille Cooper. All of the candidates we have chosen to endorse presented insightful and forward-thinking platforms that we believe will bring progressive change to the University community.
Regarding UJC representative candidates from the College, all of the candidates we chose to endorse demonstrated clear initiatives regarding what they wish to change about the Committee. As a current UJC executive member and a former chair of the First Year Judiciary Committee, Kulkani demonstrated clear experience and vast knowledge of UJC’s internal structure. If elected, he plans to seek the chair position so that he can better advocate for accused student support, mental health awareness during trial processes and improving the demographic breakdown of UJC.
Cason, a UJC Educator, presented several policy ideas in an effort to help develop healthy drinking habits within the University’s student body. In addition, she wants to focus on spreading awareness regarding UJC’s mission and hopes to improve UJC’s ability to treat all students with equal respect regardless of minority status. Also from the College, Cox plans to focus on implicit bias on the part of judges in UJC trials. She hopes to implement cheaper implicit bias training as well as increase diversity within UJC.
Seeking to represent her peers in the Engineering School for another year, Cooper plans to improve the structure of UJC by promoting transparency and communication between the executive board and other levels of the Committee. As a current representative and previous UJC educator and member of the FYJC, Cooper aims to focus on recruiting students from the University School of Nursing, the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering.
As a Board, we strongly believe that all of the candidates we have chosen to endorse exemplify the University’s dedication to leadership and student self-governance and would make positive contributions to the community if elected.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors and their Senior Associate. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board offers commentary on local and national issues as they relate to the University community. In line with its mission, the board conducted endorsement interviews for candidates seeking election to Student Council, the Honor Committee and the University Judiciary Committee. To qualify for an endorsement, candidates were required to be running in a contested election. The board has endorsed a total of 18 candidates for this spring’s student elections.
The board will be withholding its endorsement for Student Council President until after the Cavalier Daily and University Board of Elections' Student Council presidential debate on Monday, Feb. 25.
CORRECTION: This article previously misstated the current positions of Shannon Cason and Chirag Kulkarni, Cason is a current educator and Kulkarni is a current member of the executive team; the article has been corrected to reflect the correct positions. In addition, the article previously misstated the name of the University Judiciary Committee and its first-year counterpart, and has been corrected to reflect the correct name.
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