Public defender clarification

I want to expand upon a few things mentioned in Saja Hindi’s article on Wednesday, April 23 (“Debate surrounds new elected position”). The Student Body Public Defender is part of the Executive Branch of Student Government, not the Judicial Branch, and therefore does not fall under the jurisdiction of Student Conduct the way that the Student Judicial Board does. The goals that I will be working towards, along with my team of assistants, will not involve restructuring the judicial process or interfering with the judicial board and Student Conduct. In fact, most of our personal missions will involve student outreach on issues that are not directly connected with student conduct or the judicial branch. It is unfortunate that Paul Cousins, the Director of Student Conduct, does not see the benefits of having an extra set of student advocates who can go out and evaluate the thoughts and feelings of students toward multiple areas of campus life and can work to improve the state of our university, but hopefully over time he will begin to notice the positive effect that the Public Defender office offers our campus. Student Chief Justice Lock Whiteside and multiple members of the Student Judicial Board, along with several other members of Student Government and mass numbers of students have already begun showing support for the newly created office and hope to see it become a great success, and I don’t plan on letting them down.

Ben Mazursenior, religious studiesStudent Body Public Defender

Cut Walton off

Please stop publishing the student teaching columns by Matt Walton. The fact that he used to be a section editor for the paper does not justify continuing to give him space to ramble about his great new job. We have heard all about the early mornings, lack of social life and now the financial burdens. Guess what? We don’t care.

John Eliasjunior, communication