The Boston University Student Government Senate confirmed two judicial commissioners Monday to fill vacancies caused by the resignation of two judicial commissioners who are involved in the ongoing BU SG Executive Board election.
Desmond Molloy, a freshman in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, was confirmed as the new commissioner with 32 votes for the confirmation and one abstention. Brian Butler, a freshman in the College of Engineering, was confirmed with 30 votes, two against and one abstention.
During his confirmation speech, Molloy said his ample experience with debating would allow him to stay unbiased, and he said he hopes to uphold the SG Constitution to its original intentions.
“The [Constitution’s] authors’ intentions are very clear,” Molloy said. “I will always strive to make sure that the intent of the Constitution in the clearest, simplest and the most important meaning is carried across.”
In a phone interview after the meeting, Butler echoed Molloy and said he is qualified to hold this position due to his “years of debating and teaching debate.”
SG President Andrew Cho, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said after the meeting that Molloy was nominated due to his active involvement in the Constitution Reform Committee and that “[Molloy] is really engaged with different sides, so obviously he’s really familiar with [the constitution].”
Cho said Butler had expressed interest in becoming a judicial commissioner months prior to his appointment.
“I had been looking around for people who were interested, and someone recommended Brian a few months ago,” Cho said.
Senate Chair Courtney Bold said that having underclassmen as commissioners will give them the opportunity to get involved with SG for the
next three years.
“We’re also getting a fresh look at the Constitution and a really unbiased opinion from people who haven’t been involved with SG as much,” said Bold, a senior in the Questrom School of Business.
Robbie Brussell, chair of the Expect More campaign and a senior in Questrom, gave a presentation about the results from their first survey. When asked which issue areas BU can better address, 57 percent of students surveyed chose grade deflation, while 31 percent chose sexual assault prevention and 12 percent voted for career services.
Pablo Das, founder of the 16,000 Strong campaign and a CAS senior, presented an update about the initiative. He said the campaign has been working with the city on a blue light system, working toward a greater presence during orientation and adding student representation onto BU’s sexual assault task force.
Members from the Student Pilot Stipend Program presented their plan to compensate student leaders who sacrifice their time to pursue on-campus involvement. Members of the program asked for SG’s endorsement for a letter that would be sent to the Dean of Students.
Seventy-six percent of the present senators approved the letter.
After the meeting, several senators said they had mixed opinions regarding the confirmation of the two judicial commissioners.
Nehemiah Dureus, a freshman and ENG senator, said he is confident in Butler’s and Molloy’s abilities on interpreting the Constitution.
“I’m pretty proud that Senate approved them today,” Dureus said. “Both of their speeches outlined how they feel about being judicial commissioners, what they plan to do and how they feel like they’re going to go about doing it.”
Nikita Varman, a freshman and Sargent senator, said she has seen the new appointees attend meetings and believes that they will do a good job.
“I’ve seen what they’ve done,” Varman said. “They’ve been involved with SG and sat in on several meetings, so they’re really strong candidates.”
Jeremy Singer, a junior in the Questrom and a senator for 10 Buick St., said he is nervous because he is not familiar with the two new judicial commissioners, and he said SG should not have rushed the process.
“It is alarming to me that people [are getting] appointed to these positions, which hold until December, and I know very little about them,” Singer said. “One of them was unable to make it tonight. That [decision] should have been tabled and reappointed later.”
