What started as a straight-forward confirmation was met with conflict at Wednesday night’s ASUO Senate meeting.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Cedar Cosner@@correct@@ was appointed to Constitution Court by the ASUO Executive, then appeared before the Senate to be confirmed for the position. ASUO president Ben Eckstein@@correct@@ introduced him.
“He has a strong background in conflict resolution and critical thinking and his role as elections coordinator gave him judicial experience,” Eckstein said.
Cosner then introduced himself saying his position as elections coordinator gave him skills that aren’t easy to come by.
“I want to make sure the Court becomes an entity of its own,” he said.
After his short speech, ASUO Sen. Lindy Mabuya@@correct@@ brought up concerns with the process by which Cosner was appointed. She was concerned with the fact that Cosner was the only one who applied for the position of Con Court justice.
“I would have liked to be able to compare you to someone,” Mabuya said. “We’re in the position where the only person who applied was hired.”
She moved to postpone the conversation until the Executive received more applicants, however the rest of the body voted to move on with the initial confirmation.
ASUO Senate President Harlan Mechling expressed a great deal of support for Cosner saying he has spent hours studying the Green Tape Notebook, and that he is qualified for the position. However, ASUO Sen. Kaitlyn Lange asked Mechling to abstain from the vote because he is Cosner’s roommate.
Senators expressed concerns with lack of accessibility to the Court and Cosner stated that one of his goals was to try to remedy this.
“I think it is very reasonable to approach a justice and speak with him,” he said. “I have a drive for utter transparencies and would deliver piece-by-piece explanation of why decisions are made. I think that there should be an establishment of the Court presence in the ASUO office.”
Finally, after a lengthy conversation, Cosner was confirmed and will join Con Court as an associate justice.