Zach Davidson, newly elected University Judiciary Committee chair and third-year College student, began his term April 1. As UJC chair, Davidson plans to prioritize teaching the University community more about the UJC, establishing a more collaborative environment within the UJC and sustaining the Committee for its future. Elected internally by the UJC representatives from each of the 13 undergraduate and graduate schools at the University, Davidson will serve as chair until April 1, 2027.
Before becoming chair, Davidson began serving in the UJC as a member of the First Year Judiciary Committee. He later held roles including counselor, co-chair of the Endowment and Alumni Relations Subcommittee and vice chair of the FYJC. Davidson said he chose to run for UJC chair because he wanted to be more closely involved with the UJC.
“[Through these roles], I’ve gotten the ability to see different sides of the UJC and understand different aspects of our process,” Davidson said. “This past year, I decided that I really wanted to step up my commitment to the [UJC].”
Davidson also reflected on his initial motivation to join the UJC which stemmed from his experience as a first-year listening to Lisa Kopelnik, 2023-24 UJC chair and Class of 2025 alumna, speak at opening convocation.
“I was really drawn to the UJC’s philosophy of restorative justice,” Davidson said. “[I] just fell in love with the work, fell in love with the people and have stayed involved in a lot of different capacities.”
When running for chair during internal elections, Davidson campaigned with three key pillars and said he plans to work towards those through his term. Davidson said his first campaign pillar involved improving community education and student understanding of the UJC’s work.
“One of the biggest problems the UJC faces is that most of the student body doesn’t know what the UJC is,” Davidson said. “I want to help educate the student community before they ever have to interact with the UJC.”
To achieve this goal, Davidson plans to create a UJC-centered module that incoming and returning students would have to complete during the summer. According to Davidson, the module would detail the background of the UJC process and the University Standards of Conduct.
Davidson also said he plans to create a presentation for first-year and transfer students during their orientation sessions as a way to introduce new students to the UJC. Additionally, Davidson said other initiatives geared towards educating the greater University community include implementing weekly office hours for community members to speak with and ask questions to Davidson and updating the UJC website with clearer information on the UJC process.
The second pillar of Davidson’s campaign as chair is engaging the internal UJC community, so that members within the Committee are bonded, and according to Davidson, that will make the work they do more efficient.
“The UJC does its best work when its members feel invested, heard and involved,” Davidson said. “I want to do more to help create a more cohesive organization, so that includes more transparency between the [Executive Committee] and the UJC membership.”
Davidson said he plans to achieve this goal by reinstituting monthly “community comments,” which is an opportunity for UJC members to present ideas and ask questions to the Executive Committee. Davidson also plans to reinstitute the UJC anonymous feedback form for both the UJC and University community. According to Davidson, the anonymous feedback form was paused during the previous term.
The third pillar of his campaign is the overall sustainability of the UJC, Davidson said. Davidson was the first co-chair of the endowment and alumni relations subcommittee, and he said he hopes to now begin a “sustained” and “intensive” effort to fully fund UJC’s endowment.
“We’ve done a lot of the very important work in building the base, making our connections, reaching out to alumni [and] developing a strategy,” Davidson said. “Now it’s time to execute on that and really begin raising capital.”
Davidson said the UJC will be launching a capital campaign next semester and that the endowment and alumni relations subcommittee has begun to compile a list of potential major donors for outreach and engagement. Another fundraising effort Davidson has planned for his term will focus on smaller-scale initiatives, like reaching out to recent alumni.
To achieve sustainability, Davidson said he plans to follow the release of semesterly statistics reports to the student body with an internal audit. He said the audit would be conducted by the senior data manager, who would identify areas of organizational inefficiency after the report has been created.
Davidson said his last goal in achieving sustainability is creating standardized transition documents to strengthen institutional memory, update bylaws and procedures and assist incoming UJC members in adjusting to their new roles.
The creation of an alternative mediation process is a goal Davidson shares with his two immediate predecessors — Harper Jones, 2024-25 UJC chair and class of 2025 alumna, and Allison McVey, 2025-26 UJC chair and fourth-year College student. According to a previous interview with McVey, the alternative mediation process would provide an opportunity for students or organizations to informally resolve incidents that do not rise to the level of a standards violation, and Davidson said he looks to continue working on the initiative as its implementation has not yet been met.
“We have done a lot of work with [the alternative mediation process] over the past year.” Davidson said. “Similarly to the endowment, I think that we’re now in a place where we’ve laid the groundwork … and now we can go forward and really execute on all of that preparation.”
Davidson said the alternative mediation process is still being finalized, and he hopes the process will be implemented either during his term or the next.
Beyond the three pillars of his campaign, Davidson said he intends to utilize his past experience with the UJC as a member and part of the Executive Committee throughout his leadership.
“One thing that I’m very grateful for is the opportunity to serve in a lot of different roles,” Davidson said. “My hope is to build upon that experience [and] to implement reforms that I think will create a fairer and stronger organization.”
Davidson also thanked McVey and the other outgoing Executive Committee members.
“It has been such a privilege to work with [McVey and the Executive Committee] over the past year, and I think we’ve made such incredible progress,” Davidson said. “I’m really excited to work with the incoming [Executive Committee] to build on that progress.”
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