The Daily Gamecock

Carolina Judicial Council provides opportunity for professional advancement

Have you ever faced disciplinary action? Have you ever contested said disciplinary action? Then you might have met the students of the Carolina Judicial Council. This impartial committee is designed to be a mediator between the Office of Student Conduct and Academic Integrity and the student body. 

Any student who faces an accusation of violating the code of conduct goes to a hearing with the Office of Student Conduct, a faculty member or a graduate student in which the decider can agree or disagree with the finding. If they find the student responsible, the student can be sanctioned. From there, the student can disagree with the sanction, and that is when the CJC comes into play.

The committee contains a mix of students from different backgrounds. 

Dillon Linder, a fourth-year criminal justice student and the vice president of recruitment for CJC, said that there is no “cookie-cutter” CJC member. While many members are pre-law, the organization does not require members to be a certain major. 

Linder says that pre-law students may have very black and white opinions on what is right and wrong, so allowing students of all majors to join CJC is crucial to maintaining objectivity. 

Rachel Klink, the president of CJC and fourth-year English student, agrees with Linder.

"Our members are involved in a wide variety of student organizations, extra-curricular activities and fields of study. We really appreciate the diverse perspectives that new members bring to the table," she said.

The group tabled on Greene Street and reached out to University 101 classes in order to get reach students. 

Linder says that the main goal of their most recent recruitment was to "bring as many good members as possible." 

This year, CJC recruited around 100 students in its biggest class to date. Linder is hopeful that with a greater freshman class, the CJC will be able to prevent high turnover rates. 

Kennedy Ezekiel, a third-year philosophy student and vice president of administration for CJC, praised the growth.

 "Dillon, with the help of our amazing CJC members did an incredible job spreading the word about Judicial Council," Ezekiel said. "We are so blessed and excited about the new class."

As part of initiation, new members will go on a retreat over a weekend, which is preceded by a movie on Friday night on sexual assault that Linder says will show new members the importance of the organization. 

Throughout the rest of this semester, new members also attend information sessions in which older members describe the cases that they have taken, ways of staying impartial and how to sit in on a hearing. 

At the beginning of this spring semester, the group will have another attentive training which involves seminars on question phrasing and fact finding. 

Since the CJC is an honors organization, the group also participates in service activities. 

"I have learned so much about decision making, hearing decorum, statement analysis, asking sensitive and appropriate questions, and remaining unbiased and objective in order to offer students a fair hearing in which they feel genuinely heard," Klink said.

Linder says that in his time at the CJC he has grown professionally himself, and he has seen an evolution in other members whether it is from their evolution of "what's the difference between business casual and business professional clothing” or "how to have a really deep conversation with somebody that you don’t know."


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