JIO Steven Blum steps down after two years

Student Dispute Resolution Center Director Steven Blum stepped down from his position on Monday. But Blum is not leaving the University. He will be continuing to teach in the Legal Studies Department. While Blum would not specify why he was giving up his post, Provost Chodorow speculated that he was leaving because "he is tired of the job, which is a tough one, and because he wants to pursue other career options." Chodorow has named Law Professor Michele Goldfarb as acting Judicial Inquiry Officer. Her appointment will be effective August 1. He said Goldfarb was highly recommended by people in the University who knew her from her work at the Law School Clinic. "Both faculty and students who knew her gave her rave reviews for her judgement, good sense and organizational skills," Chodorow said. He added that the search for a permanent JIO will not begin until the fall. "I will start a search for a permanent replacement in the fall, when the students have returned to campus and we can set up a proper committee," he said. When Blum came to the University two years ago, the University was still recovering from the "water buffalo" case. His biggest goal was to restore confidence in the University's judicial system. And he said he thinks he has accomplished this during his short tenure. "We took a system that was deeply involved in controversy and we were able to bring it back to being a system of University discipline and get it out of the controversy," Blum said. Last September, the JIO changed its name to the SDRC in an attempt to better reflect its job on campus. At the time, Blum said students work with each other to solve their disputes and come to a resolution, and that the center's job is not to decide if students broke criminal statutes. Blum said he is proud of his department's introduction of mediation into the handling of discipline matters. Under Blum, the SDRC emphasized mediation over prosecution. With this system, students who go before the SDRC are provided with a trained mediator to serve as their advisor. Most cases were settled before actually going to the University Hearing Board. He said he was also pleased with the respect with which his office has attempted to treat every student. "We have worked hard to always treat students with respect, and I think we have succeeded with that," Blum said. And Chodorow agreed that the most important things Blum accomplished during his two years were "to put the JIO office on a stable basis and to put emphasis on mediation of those disputes that were suitable for such treatment. "His experience with mediation and with counseling helped to make the JIO office into an educational office," he said. One of the biggest projects of Blum's term was the creation of the Student Judicial Charter. The new system would involve a Student Judicial Council, which would include 17 students and a hearing board with four students. The Committee for Judicial Reform released its final recommendations for a new Judicial Charter in March, calling for "a new system with greater and direct student and faculty involvement." The draft charter has still has to be completed by the General Counsel's office. After it is completed, it will have to be reviewed by the administration, the student/faculty committee, and the University Council. And when that process is completed, the charter must be accepted by the deans of the schools. Chodorow said he expects putting the new charter in place to take most of the fall semester. But Chodorow said Blum's departure will not have an effect on the review and approval of a new judicial charter. And University Judicial Administrator Stephen Gale said this charter will be more important to the future of the SDRC than who is appointed as the next director. "The constitution of the office will certainly be driven by the nature of the charter change and not so much by the person selected," he said. "It's going to be, I assume, very close to business as usual except in so far as there are changes in the charter."

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