Students drive agenda at UC

Students played a key role in the drama that unfolded at Wednesday's University Council meeting, steering the debate toward the judicial charter, instead of the other items scheduled on the agenda. Midway through the meeting, the Council voted to postpone discussion of the United Minority Council's bid for a seat on the advisory body. After the vote, several UMC members left the room angrily. College senior and Undergraduate Assembly Chairperson Lance Rogers, who has said he does not favor giving the UMC a seat on University Council, requested the postponement. UMC Vice President Susie Lee, a College junior, said the experience was frustrating, but actually helps the UMC's position. "It shows why students of color desperately need a seat on University Council," she said. "We should have been sitting at the table with everybody else." UMC officers met with the UA members who sit on Council Sunday. Lee said she was unhappy that the UA did not indicate they would try to focus the Council meeting on the judicial charter. "We were given no warning whatsoever," Lee said. "I think they knew it was going to be a very big issue." Students filled McClelland Hall to watch the meeting, overflowing into the lobby. The UA publicized the meeting with flyers in the Quadrangle and by sending electronic mail messages asking students to attend the meeting to protest the charter draft. Rogers said he contacted dozens of student leaders personally, including the presidents of the Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council. Dozens of Sigma Delta Tau sorority and Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity pledges watched the meeting from the lobby of McClelland Hall. In response to reports that students were planning a demonstration, Assistant Vice Provost for University Life Barbara Cassel asked monitors to attend the meeting to ensure that the spectators followed the University's open expression guidelines. Cassel said the three open expression monitors and two Open Expression Committee members in attendance at the meeting normally attend Council anyway. She added that when the monitors met with student leaders before the meeting, they learned that no demonstration was planned. As observers filed into McClelland, students handed out flyers criticizing specific parts of the judicial charter. UA members distributed half-page sheets that asked, "Is this justice, Mr. Provost?" The form listed parts of the charter the UA finds objectionable. They also gave onlookers a copy of a resolution the UA passed on Sunday condemning the charter. The resolution recommends four specific changes to the charter. College sophomore Larry Kamin, a member of the UA and the First Amendment Task Force -- which also voted to oppose the charter -- handed out an "overview" of the draft on behalf of both groups. "Under the provost's proposed charter, the deck is stacked against the accused student," the document said. The letter supported a wider role for the respondent's advisor, less power over the process for the provost and open hearings. Wharton sophomore David Derman also handed out a letter raising questions about the charter. "The documents are nebulous and ignore considerations critical to issues of fairness and justice," he argued.