Wednesday, January 8, 1997USAC:
African Student Union officer heard case despite anti-Prop. 209
ties
By Ryan Ozimek
Daily Bruin Staff
The overturned Ellis vs. The Undergraduate Students Association
Council case took a problematic turn at Tuesday night’s meeting,
where Academic Affairs Commissioner Max Espinoza presented council
members with a potential conflict of interest with one of the
Judicial Board’s justices.
Jihad Saleh was a Judicial Board (J-Board) justice appointed
during the 1995-96 undergraduate council administration. Since that
time, Saleh has also become the programming director for the
African Students Association (ASU).
The situation has created a possible conflict of interest in
Saleh’s hearing of last quarter’s Ellis vs. USAC case.
During the case, a flyer promoting an anti-Proposition 209 rally
listed the Affirmative Action Coalition as a sponsor, of which ASU
is a member. Undergraduate council (USAC) members claimed that this
flyer should have caused Saleh to question his involvement in
hearing the case.
But Saleh denied any possibility of bias because of his
connections with ASU.
"Any decision I made on J-board, I stand by it and there has
been no partiality because of me being part of ASU," Saleh said.
"All decisions I have made have been without prejudices."
J-Board Chief Justice Eric Mah also disagreed with Espinoza’s
accusations.
"Whether or not this is a conflict of interest is a stretch,"
Mah said.
Although neither the J-Board codes nor the USAC bylaws state
that a justice cannot also be an officer in a USAC-sponsored group,
the situation has nonetheless upset some USAC members.
"An officer is an officer any way you cut it, and if he admits
that he knowingly decided on a case involving an organization that
he represents, that is very questionable conduct," Espinoza
said.
"It’s necessary to make sure that conflict of interest cases
don’t hamper the J-Board from fairly rendering decisions," he
added.
Even though Saleh is an officer of ASU, Mah will not ask him to
step down from his J-Board position.
"Just because you’re an officer doesn’t keep you from being on
the J-Board," Mah said. "But you can see the potential for conflict
of interest."
Espinoza, however, believed that such a situation calls for the
justice to decide between the two positions.
"I believe that (Saleh) will need to make a decision on where he
wants to serve," Espinoza said. "You can’t have it both ways."
The situation came to a head during Tuesday night’s USAC
meeting, where the Council decided to allow the J-Board to deal
with the situation internally.
"If they come up with a decision that Council believes is
against the bylaws, (USAC) will move from there," said USAC
President John Du.