The discussion of the role of the ASUO Constitution Court in campus politics is beginning to sound like a broken record. We keep repeating that as the body that interprets and enforces the ASUO Constitution, a body that has no oversight of its decisions, the court is the ultimate authority on the rules. Therefore, it seems reasonable to expect the justices to be held to the highest level of accountability.
Last spring, the Emerald reported that former Constitution Court Justice Jerome Roberts had worked for the court, collecting $375 of student fees while he was not a University student. At the time, Roberts told the Emerald he was working out a repayment plan with then ASUO President Jared Axelrod and Finance Coordinator Madeline Wigen, a plan he has since neglected to fulfill even partially.
Roberts’ excuse, that it didn’t occur to him that he could no longer keep a job students pay for once he left the University, was at best weak and at worst an example of a frighteningly inept justice sitting on the court.
The Green Tape Notebook – made up of the ASUO Constitution, rules and governing documents of all ASUO bodies – states that court justices must be current students. This is the very document justices are charged with upholding. If even one member serving on the court is unaware of such a basic rule, it is a sign that something is severely wrong.
It is difficult to believe the matter simply slipped Roberts’ mind for three months. While it is one thing to simply neglect to resign, it is another to collect three monthly checks. Although the first check might be forgivable, three is simply unfathomable. It is hard to believe he did not consider whether it was OK to cash those checks.
The matter never would have been at issue again if Roberts had made any attempt to repay the debt. But because this is not the case, we must ask why he has not, especially in light of the fact that Roberts has expressed plans to return to the University and a desire to serve on the court again.
While nothing in the rules prevents a student who has left the University from serving in an appointed position after returning, Roberts’ failure to repay the debt indicates a serious lack of respect for the rules he would be responsible for upholding. We can only hope that, should he be appointed again, the Student Senate will do the right thing and intensely scrutinize whether someone who either ignored or was ignorant of the rules once should be allowed to be responsible for upholding them again.
Sen. Nate Gulley, who is pictured with Roberts in several photos on Facebook and who posted disparaging comments about the senator who brought the lack of repayment to the attention of the ASUO on Roberts’ Facebook page, harshly criticized the Emerald for reporting on this story at all.
A common joke among reporters is that if your story makes a politician angry, you’ve done your job. It is not our job to be friends with elected officials; it is our job to tell the truth. And the truth is, it is unacceptable for this debt to go unpaid.