Neither the chief justice nor the associate chief has been chosen for the student supreme court even though applications have been ready since the summer.
The vacant positions mean that the Supreme Court could not rule in election appeal cases if a candidate has a discrepancy. Campaigning begins Wednesday.
According to the student government constitution, there should be seven justices; one shall serve as the chief and another as the associate chief.Without these officers, all appeals would go straight to the administration. As of Monday’s senate meeting, SGA has already accepted applications, but no interviews have been conducted.
SGA President Gallop Franklin is the only one with the constitutional power to appoint justices, however, two senators must approve the nominations. If justices are not appointed by 5 p.m. on Monday, the responsibility of finding the new justices rolls to the senate.
Senate President Asia McFarland, 21, a fourth-year MBA student from Raleigh, N.C., said the senate was already concerned about the justice appointment issue and its lack of progress.”There really hasn’t been any new developments,” McFarland said. “And I haven’t been provided with an explanation.”
If the need for an appeal arises in the upcoming elections, the administration would have to look over the request. Dean Kirby, the associate vice president for student life and dean of students, said the administration does not welcome this responsibility. “They needed to have the justices in place,” Kirby said. “We should not be put in this position when we don’t have to.”
At Monday’s senate meeting Kirby spoke advocating SGA to take actions in getting the justices.
“I am very disappointed in this whole process,” Kirby said.
Usually the outgoing chief justices would make recommendations when open judicial positions needed to be filled and the justices would be confirmed in time for the freshman elections, according to Kirby.
Former Chief Justice Magalie Yacinthe, 23, a fifth-year MBA student from Miami, did make the usual recommendations prior to the start of the fiscal year but no actions where taken.
“If my recommendations had been taken into consideration then this problem probably wouldn’t have happened,” Yacinthe said.
Franklin also made his own recommendation for other supreme court justice positions but they have not passed though the senator of elections or the senate.
Franklin said that all of the former chief’s recommendations were considered but they wanted to make sure more students could apply for the position.”There wasn’t anything else that we could do,” said Franklin.