For my practicum, I served as a Resident Board member of the University Student Judiciary (USJ). The Resident Board of USJ is responsible for hearing resident hall violations and disputes on campus. There is a resident hall code of conduct and rules that we must uphold as board members.
If a student is found to be in violation of code of conduct, they can choose to have a hearing to plead their case. This is where the Resident Board comes in. It is our job to hear both sides of the case – the student charged with the violations, “the respondent” – and the community advocate who is making the case for the residence community.
I was lucky enough to have served on two hearings this semester. One of the core tenets of USJ is confidentiality, meaning I can’t go into the specifics on either case I served on. But I can describe my role as a board member, and the kinds of things I had to do in a hearing. As I already stated, first and foremost, board members hear both parties in the case. It’s also imperative that we ask questions throughout the hearing and this is something that I think I got better at throughout the process. Once both sides present their case and there is some back and forth questioning, the Board then goes into deliberation. Here, we go on a “fact-finding mission” to determine whether the respondent is responsible or not responsible for all the charges they’re facing. This is a very thorough process because we go through the charges one by one, and there are often a lot of charges to consider. Once we’ve determined responsibility, we then move into the sanctioning process of the hearing. Based on the circumstances of the case, we must decide a proper punishment or sanction. This also entails more questioning of the respondent (taking into consideration possible aggravating or mitigating factors that could affect the sanction we give out). Then we go into more deliberation to reach a final sanction.
Throughout the semester, I also fulfilled other roles and duties within the organization. I completed required training (diversity and bias) as well as sanctioning and questioning training. I also looked at the entirety of our conduct process with USJ advisers.
I found out about my practicum through UMD’s pre-law website. USJ was one of the extracurricular activities listed as being beneficial to pre-law students. I then went through the application and interview process and was admitted into the organization. I then got into contact with my Board Advisers about turning my experience into a practicum. The advice I would give to future media scholars is to try to find a practicum that they’re passionate about and be persistent about reaching out.
I learned a lot from my practicum. First and foremost, I think I learned more about legal thinking. Even though USJ is not a perfect representation of any kind of legal system, there are certainly parallels. Participating in cases gave me an idea of what it’s like to be in a courtroom-like setting. Additionally, I learned a lot about working with other people. As a board, we had to come to unanimous decisions on everything, which meant we had to communicate our opinions effectively and at times use persuasion to reach a consensus. I also learned a lot about UMD’s code of conduct, something I was not fully aware of before joining USJ. Like most students, I was broadly aware that there were residence hall rules but lacked knowledge on specific details. Having to enforce these codes made me more familiar with them and it’s made me a more informed student overall.
Since I’m planning on going to law school, and then going into the legal field, I can certainly apply this to my career moving forward. My experience at USJ has given me insight into how lawyers and judges think. Considering that I think I may want to be a judge someday, my experience with USJ as a board member is invaluable.
I’m currently a History and Economics double major, and I plan to continue on with that through the rest of my time at UMD. I also plan to continue on with USJ for my remaining two years. Along the way, I hope to pick up some internships in the legal field. Post-graduation, I’m hoping to attend law school right away. I’m not exactly sure what kind of law I want to practice, so I plan on doing more research in the meantime. But I do think it would be a great profession for me and I’m so excited to pursue it! I’m so thankful that Scholars gave me the chance to fulfill my practicum with something I’m passionate about!
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