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The Rice Thresher
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by Olivia Allison Thresher editorial staff Although the Student Association Senate agreed Jan. 22 that trials of Elections Code violations should be public, University Court Chair Alisa De Luna told the senate Monday that these trials can be public only if the defendant and the SA agree to make them public. De Luna, a Hanszen College senior, said Elections Code violations are violations of the Code of Student Conduct because the Elections Code is produced by the SA and is therefore included in university policy. Because trials for Code of Student Conduct violations are kept confidential, the trials would normally be private. However, she said U. Court officials agreed to allow Elections Code violation hearings to be public because they involve candidates who run for a public office. "If everyone so strongly agrees about the issue of having a public hearing, and these are people who have once run in the election, we will agree to hold the public hearings," De Luna said. De Luna said she thought someone accused of an Elections Code violation would be pressured by the student body to agree to a public trial. SA President Lindsay Botsford agreed. She said the accused will probably want a chance to state their case before other students. "I would think ... they would want people to know what happened," Botsford, a Wiess College junior, said. "If they feel that they were wronged, they would be able to have a case for it." Botsford said she thought the senate would always agree to a public trial in the case of an Elections Code violation. "I don't think the SA would ever not want a public hearing," she said. De Luna said members of U. Court would prefer to never have public trials. "We want to keep the environment safe, so confidentiality is key and we're very strict about that," she said. "We wouldn't like to see them as any different, and that's why we would love to keep it confidential." A person's decision to agree to a public trial is binding. If a candidate for an office violated any other part of the Code of Student Conduct, the trial would, as usual, not be public, De Luna said. De Luna said the U. Court trial process usually lasts two to three months, but U. Court will deal with high-profile cases more quickly. Within a day after an Elections Code violation trial ends, U. Court has agreed to publish a full abstract of the proceedings, whether the trial is open or closed.
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