CSUN considers job shifts as executive elections approach

February 16, 2012 by Haley Etchison 

Justice appointed to senate seat, reps question candidates

Some within CSUN are concerned about a trend of students resigning from their appointed student government positions to run for other positions.

The issue is of special concern as Robert Maxey, who sued CSUN in 2010, is making a bid for the executive board.

The senate appointed three students to CSUN positions on Monday. One had until then served on the CSUN Judicial Council and another will graduate before her term ends.

Former justice Jessica Lujan was appointed to fill the liberal arts senate seat vacated at the beginning of the spring semester by Jason Thoreson.

Several senators expressed concern at the prospect of Lujan, who many saw as a fair justice, leave the council as the elections draw nearer.

Senate president pro tempore Justin Grewal pointed out what he called a “trend” of CSUN personnel departing one post to run for another.

“When I see justices resign from their position … it makes me wonder why [you signed] this two-year agreement in the first place,” he said.

“I am not abandoning the judicial council,” Lujan said.

Many believe that it may soon become especially important that CSUN have a strong judiciary.

Robert Maxey, who won the popular vote for student body president in April 2010, has filed to run for senate president in this year’s elections.

Former Elections director Vincent Lipari’s board determined, after the votes were counted, that Maxey had broken several CSUN rules and therefore was ineligible to become president.

Maxey then sued UNLV, CSUN, the Nevada System of Higher Education and David Rapoport, who was elected vice president, but succeeded to the chief position when Maxey was deemed ineligible.

CSUN settled the case in July and paid Maxey $20,000.

Maxey has repeatedly alleged that he pursued legal action because the CSUN judicial council would not hear his case.

More recently, CSUN has struggled with shifts in power and an onslaught of technical appeals in two consecutive election cycles.

In April 2011, CSUN was forced to call in a former Elections director to administer executive board elections because Sarah Saenz resigned from the position to run for student body president.

Then, dozens of complaints and appeals following the fall senate elections put pressure on the young judicial council.

Lujan said that she “will not seek a directorship or an executive position” and that she only seeks to be more effective, not to increase her salary or prestige, by moving to the senate.

The senate held three separate votes on the appointment of the liberal arts position. Two votes resulted in a separation of only one vote between Lujan and her closest competitor and so failed to produce the majority necessary to appoint a candidate.

Grewal abstained from the final vote, leaving an 11-11 tie, which senate president Matt Fennell broke in favor of Lujan.

Before the decision, liberal arts senator Mark Ciavola asked Lujan whether she believed that CSUN judiciary would be worse off for her moving to the legislative side.

“I am fair [but] I trust these people,” Lujan said of her colleagues on the judicial council. “They don’t lose me as a friend or as someone to talk to.”

Still, Grewal said he was worried about the move.

“Every time we have a justice that does not fulfill a commitment, it hurts us,” he said, “… because we have an inexperienced judicial council.”

The senate agreed on Monday to appoint two new justices, but some were dissatisfied that some of the candidates lacked familiarity with the Nevada Revised Statutes and Robert’s Rules of Order, which the judicial council uses to make rulings and to advise senate proceedings.

Hotel college senator Michael Rubin asked each of the candidates whether they were prepared to deal with what he said may be a contentious executive board election.

“I’m excited to get my hands dirty,” said Hayley Miller.

Tiffany Wong says that based on her experience in high school student government, she “knows the type of problems that arise during elections.”

Miller was appointed despite some representatives’ disappointment that she will graduate before she can complete a typical two-year term.

Health sciences senator Rachel Stephens expressed this concern to chief justice Kendrick De La Pena, who was appointed to lead the council last month.

“Was there absolutely no way we could find three candidates who could serve for two years and … knew what they needed to know to serve in this position?” she asked De La Pena.

Stephens was one of three senators who opposed the motion to appoint Miller.

The senate unanimously appointed Wong to the judicial council but failed to appoint a third candidate, Ali Hernandez.

Hernandez asked to speak during the portion of the senate meeting devoted to discussion among senators. She countered Stephens’ question and asserted that she and the other candidates’ inexperience with the law should not be taken as underqualification.

Several senators expressed doubt as to Hernandez’s ability to make decisions unemotionally though Hernandez asserted that she would separate work from her feelings.

“How [one reacts] to a question [and] how you carry yourself is a foreshadowing of … how well they’ll adjust to the position and how well they’ll adjust to the pressure,” said sciences senator Memona Khan.

Health sciences senator Andrew Elkins said that Hernandez’s “perception and … awareness of the position [was] just not there.”

Contact Haley Etchison at news@unlvrebelyell.com.