The judicial branch of Student Government received its first new leader in three years with Chief Justice Morgan Faulk, who seeks innovative change within the branch.
Faulk, nutritional science senior, was elected chief justice over the judicial branch of SG last fall, a position Danielle Rushing held since 2009.
Faulk said she begins her term as chief justice optimistic about the future of the court.
“Other than myself and my Deputy Chief Justice Dustin Landgrave, all of the other members of the court are new,” Faulk said.
This gives the judicial branch a unique opportunity to implement new changes to the court and “start from scratch,” said Faulk.
“I don’t think there was anything wrong with the way the court was run,” Faulk said. “There are just things that I would like to do differently.”
One thing the court can work on, according to Faulk, is what it does with its time during the judicial meetings.
Faulk said in past years, a majority of judicial meeting time was spent reading documents.
“That’s just a waste of all of our time,” Faulk said.
Faulk added that she would much rather spend the court’s time doing something productive rather than waste time reading documents the justices could read on their own before the meetings.
In addition to implementing new changes to the way the court is run, Faulk said the court will be busy with court cases related to the upcoming SG election.
“Our decisions have absolutely had an impact on previous elections,” Faulk said. “During last year’s election, we had to sanction a campaign ticket for violations.”
Another thing Faulk said she hopes to do during this semester is increase communication and cooperation between the three different branches of SG: executive, legislative and judicial.
Faulk said she and other SG branch heads will plan a weekly meeting where all of the heads have the opportunity to communicate what is taking place within their own branches to emphasize cooperation among the different SG branches.
“I don’t think that there was anything wrong with the way the court was ran. There are just things that I would like to do differently.”
