ASUW President Ben Wetzel, along with Chief of Staff Courtney Thomson-Lichty and the chief justice, are working to review applications and will hopefully be able to make an appointment for ASUW’s seventh judicial seat that has remained vacant since mid-September.
“We are looking at a couple last candidates to potentially make an appointment as we close in on the end of the year here for next year, the remaining year, in the term,” Wetzel said. “But, at this point, the seat is the only one of the seven that is sitting vacant.”
At the start of Wetzel’s term, there were four vacancies within the judicial council, which is typical for this year.
“We have a cycle of, one year we have four, the next year we have three,” Wetzel said. “They’re two-year terms so that we always have continuity of people who carry over some of the history that we take forward with us.”
At the time of the four judicial vacancies, Wetzel received between 13-15 total applications for the four seats.
In reviewing applications, areas such as a student’s status, age, background, ethnicity and area of study are factored in. Wetzel said they look at a lot of different factors to try and make sure they have a judicial council that will fairly represent the students. Despite having received a number of applications from the law school, Wetzel didn’t feel comfortable putting a fourth graduate student on the council when there are only, roughly, 1,800 graduate students at UW versus the almost 9,000 undergraduate students.
“To have a majority of graduate students on the council seems a little off-kilter to me,” Wetzel said.
Chief Justice JD Richardson stated in an email, “I have faith that if the seat is not filled that the Judicial Council will still be able to operate without a hitch anyway. The group of justices that we have are truly incredible.”
Richardson, who ultimately holds the deciding vote for the empty seat, believes the reason the position has yet to be filled can be attributed to the incredibly busy year that ASUW has experienced.
“We have seven people to represent a student body of 10,000,” Wetzel said. “Trying to get a good cross-pollination in there of diversity is rather difficult.”
Though Wetzel’s worked through a couple of different rounds of applications, he doesn’t feel they have a proper candidate who fits what they’re looking for as far as balancing out some areas of diversity that are needed on the judicial council.
“We also need students who don’t have a background in student government, who are not looking to go to law school, who are not used to reading the relatively archaic language of ASUW by-laws,” Jason McConnell, faculty adviser for the judicial council, said. “We need a variety of justices, we need all of those voices.”
Currently, the council has a mix of students with a lot of background in the judicial council and Senate and a few newer justices, each offering their invaluable insight and opinion.
“There are students at UW who would like to be a part of something but being a politician is just not how they see themselves,” McConnell said. “Apply. Come serve on the J.C. It’s an opportunity to give back to the school. It’s an opportunity to hold the student body’s elected representatives accountable.”
