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Though I still plan to attend law school and pursue a career in law, my time at Rice has altered my future plans. Most changes have been influenced by two groups with which I have spent my entire four years at Rice: the University Court and Reformed University Fellowship.
My time on the University Court has given me valuable insight into people’s decision-making processes, how they react to being caught violating the rules, the different priorities that people hold, and organizing students behind a common cause. I’ve discovered that the process by which people make poorly thought-out decisions that result in a U-Court offense usually stem from a lapse of personal judgment rather than willing maliciousness.
I also have a greater appreciation for consistency in punishment. To formulate a beneficial, rehabilitative punishment for a specific offense, one must seek understanding of the person’s decision-making patterns and work to keep consistent sanctions to ensure fairness. Maintaining the fairness of a judicial system is required when people are approached with the charges and proposed sanctions against them so that they have a proper sense of what to expect. My experience with the court showed me that people generally are concerned about how sanctions will affect their plans and what punishment they will receive and that people weigh punishments differently based on their characters and priorities. These differences should be considered because people value the loss of privileges uniquely. However, those values should not sway a body from imposing sanctions, or the clarity and fairness of the judicial system is lost.
Also, from running the U-Court, I learned about organizing people to fulfill a purpose. As the administrator, my responsibilities involved presenting the facts of cases to the voting members of the court and encouraging the court to establish precedented and fair sanctions. Most of the time, this worked well, but sometimes, diplomacy was needed to develop consensus.
In my time with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), I considered matters of fellowship, world and life view, dedication to faith, and the role of personal faith in society. I have gained more appreciation for the community that the church provides, which, for me, is important to sustain after college. The continual support and community offered by the church congregation has become significantly more important in my life and has developed in my time at Rice.
RUF also has allowed me to establish my views in line with the Reformed tradition. I have a greater appreciation for church tradition and past Christian theology, which I find relevant to the circumstances of the world today. My belief in the hope of the Gospel of Christ and its message of ultimate salvation gives me a firm foundation from which to make decisions, both personally and in terms of a legal career.
Finally, I have pondered the interaction between a more personal faith and its connection to and appropriate position in society. I believe that my decisions generally must stem from my religious convictions. I support the religious freedoms enjoyed in the United States, and I have no interest in establishing a “state church” or in imposing Judeo-Christian laws on the nation. However, I hope that each member of society is free to express his or her beliefs and allowed to make decisions, within some bounds, based on those beliefs.
As I leave Rice, I hope to continue to define myself by my beliefs and experiences. I think that every learning experience after Rice, whether in or out of the classroom, will be notably enhanced and enriched by my participation on the Rice U-Court and with Reformed University Fellowship.
