When Michael Leahy e-mailed student judicial board nominees Nov. 26 to invite them to begin interviews for appointments three days later, the ASMSU Student Assembly chairperson was informed the undergraduate members were already hearing cases.
“The university broke their own rules,” Leahy said.
Judicial boards cannot meet unless undergraduate student members are appointed through a final vote at an ASMSU Student Assembly meeting, according to university policy. In addition, Leahy said Richard Shafer, assistant director of Student Life, lied by saying the boards had yet to begin meetings.
There are three judicial boards, each dealing with students’ fate in a different magnitude when disciplinary action must be taken by the university. The boards are comprised of administration, faculty members and students.
The five judicial board nominees, who came to the Nov. 29 Student Assembly to be interviewed, said they were already sitting in on students’ cases and that no adviser, including Shafer, ever told them they weren’t allowed to meet.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
At the ASMSU meeting, Jacqueline Sweet, a political theory and constitutional democracy senior and returning board member, said she personally asked Shafer if the judicial nominees had to worry about reappointment.
“We were told not to worry about it,” Sweet said.
Several phone calls and messages to Shafer made by The State News on Wednesday were not returned.
The day before the Student Assembly meeting, Leahy said he confronted Shafer in his office, where Shafer admitted to violating the rules of the university. Leahy said Shafer’s lies continued when Shafer told him that only members previously appointed to two-year terms were currently sitting on judicial boards.
Leahy said he was told by Shafer that people who were not appointed couldn’t sit on the Student-Faculty Judiciary or the Student Appeals Board, Leahy said. But at the meeting the next day, new judiciary nominees all said they had heard cases.
“These statements he keeps making aren’t true, and (the lies) are continually happening,” Leahy said. “This isn’t about Mr. Shafer lying to Mike Leahy — it’s the fact that he is keeping information from the entire university, purposely trying to circumvent the review process.”
Leahy said a defendant had a case in front of the All-University Student Judiciary with members who weren’t appointed. At first, Shafer said the defendant knew the board wasn’t completely sworn in, Leahy said.
“Then I got a voicemail from Mr. Shafer, who planned to shred the defendant’s records after admitting she didn’t know the board was unappointed,” Leahy said.
ASMSU officials said shredding the documents would destroy evidence of the defendant and also would violate university rules.
“As students, we need to be able to have confidence that people in positions of power, especially in the judicial board, will treat students in a fair and impartial matter,” ASMSU representative Mike Webber said.
ASMSU Attorney-at-Law Brian Jeffries said this issue calls into question the cases that have been heard for months.
“I’d also be looking if there were any (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) violations, which has to do with protecting rights of students and whether information was provided to people who shouldn’t have heard it,” Jeffries said.
Lee June, vice president of Student Affairs and Services, said he is taking concerns on this issue seriously.
“We agreed to have an investigation take place on what happened and how extensive it might have been,” June said. “There are guidelines … if (they) have been violated, we will make corrective action depending on the finding of that investigation. There, the appropriate actions would be taken.”
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June said concerns about additional cases arise from this — which is why investigating and a conclusion is necessary.
