Office of the Judicial Administrator 120 Day Hall Ithaca, NY 14853 Phone: 607-255-4680 Fax: 607-254-4464 Email: [email protected] Office of the Judicial Administrator: Annual Report Academic Year 2019 Recognizing the past, realizing the future Prepared by Michelle R. Horvath, Judicial Administrator October 2019 Revised April 24, 2020, to correct a clerical error in Public Record #4 Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary Page 3 2. Personnel and Committee Membership Page 4 3. Accomplishments and Observations of Note Page 5 4. Projected Needs Page 11 5. Future Considerations and Projects Page 11 6. Appendix a. Analytics b. OJA’s Reflection Options Chart c. Public Records d. Campus Codes of Conduct, Code Changes, and Procedures of the University Hearing Board and the University Review Board OJA Annual Report AY 2019 2 Executive Summary As experienced across the campus, Academic Year 20191 (AY 2019), seemed to pass with expedited speed for the Office of the Judicial Administrator (OJA). While undoubtedly, the increased case load and number of university hearings contributed to the pace of the year2, so too did the fact that these cases were increasingly complex, often involved many parties, and crossed campus policies. Contributing also to the whirlwind pace of the year included: the fact that as the perception of the OJA continues to evolve, the office and its staff are more readily included as collaborative partners on campus matters; the continued challenges of working within the Campus Code of Conduct (Code), given its adversarial and procedurally complex structure; futile efforts to revise the Code; the implementation of additional educational interventions within the system; and, the professional and personal development which occurs over the course of a year. Despite the speed of the year and its subsequent challenges, AY 2019 started with optimism. The theme for the 2019 academic year was “Recognizing the past, realizing the future.” Encompassed within that theme was the notion that as the OJA continues to “recognize the past” by building upon positive changes, respecting the genesis of the Code, and adhering to how the campus community (through its University Hearing and Review Boards) interprets the values of the community as articulated in the Code. That reverence must be balanced with “realizing the future.” Specifically, the OJA must: continue to adapt to the needs of the campus community (especially as a new generation of students have started to matriculate); advocate more strongly to align the policies which govern behavioral expectations with best-practice in the fields of student conduct, student affairs, conflict resolution, and restorative justice particularly; and, to see beyond where the Code currently is to where it could be—all while preserving the parts of the policy which have served the Cornell community well. Finally, of note, 820 referrals were made to the OJA in AY 2019. Of those referrals, the University Hearing Board (UHB) convened ten times3 to hear cases which could not be resolved 1 July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019. 2 In AY 2019, the OJA experienced a 28.12% increase in its case load, a 40% increase in cases that went to hearing, and a 75% increase in cases that went to appeal. The exhibit packet for a case heard by a University Hearing Board is typically, at minimum 50 pages long, and encompasses a plethora of procedural and substantive information. The largest hearing packet prepared for AY 2019 hearing exceeded hundreds of pages. 3 Three of these hearings were joint hearings—two were joint-hearings with two respondents in each, and the third was a joint-hearing of eight respondents. OJA Annual Report AY 2019 3 by a Summary Decision Agreement (SDA); of those ten UHBs, four qualified for and were appealed to the University Review Board (URB), and zero of those four URB cases qualified for a Presidential appeal. Personnel and Committee Membership During AY 2019, the personnel of the OJA remained stable, but grew with the addition of a temporary employee in May 2019. Michelle R. Horvath continued to serve as the Judicial Administrator (JA). While Michelle’s initial two-year appointment was extended for one year by University Assembly in AY 2018, this extension was lengthened for another year in AY 2019. During the academic year, Michelle: presented at two conferences; served a partial term as the co-chair of the Fraternity and Sorority Life Community of Practice for the Association of Student Conduct Administrators (ASCA) before resigning for time commitment reasons; continued to serve as a hazing point of contact resource for COFHE/Ivy Plus conduct administrators; and, renewed her Mental Health First Aid certification. Christina Liang continued her service as an Associate Judicial Administrator (AJA), and during the academic year: served the second year of her term as ASCA Treasurer; presented at a conference; and, served as the co-chair of Cornell’s Women of Color Colleague Networking Group. Vincent J. Ciampolillo continued his service as an AJA, and during the academic year, continued to volunteer with ASCA as co-chair for the state of New York and presented at a conference. Janey Bosch continued her service as Case Manager, celebrating 15 years of service to Cornell. Janey also continued to serve as a “Let’s Meditate” facilitator. Steve Morey continued his service as Administrative Assistant, celebrating 20 years of service to Cornell. Steve remains the first point of contact for those calling or coming into the OJA. Francheska Alers-Rojas joined the OJA as a temporary employee in May 2019 as an Assistant Judicial Administrator. Since her hire, Francheska, has contributed profoundly to the work of the OJA. Finally, members of the OJA staff served on multiple University committees and working groups in AY 2019, including: OJA Annual Report AY 2019 4 x Alcohol and Other Drugs Incident Review Team; x ALERT Team; x Behavioral Health Committee; x Bias Assessment and Review Team; x Coalition on Mental Health and Wellness; x Codes and Judicial Committee (ex-officio member); x COFHE/Ivy Plus; x Council on Sexual Violence Prevention (Renamed SHARE Committee); x Hazing (HARP) Committee; x Human Resources Excellence Awards Committee; x Public Safety Advisory Committee; x Senior Business Group; x Senior Finance Group; x Sorority and Fraternity Judicial Review Committee; and, x Various search committees. Accomplishments and Observations of Note As noted, and as experienced across the campus, Academic Year 2019 (July 1, 2018-June 30, 2019), seemed to pass with expedited speed for the Office of the Judicial Administrator (OJA). While undoubtedly, the increased case load and number of cases going to university hearings contributed to pace of the year4, so too did the fact that these cases were increasingly complex, often involved many parties, and crossed campus policies. The increased case load resulted in a lag between the time in which the educational interventions following an incident were administered. For the first time in three years, the time between the referral and the completion of the adjudication increased instead of decreasing from the prior year. AY 2019 was also the first time since AY 2017 in which there was an increase in the recidivism rate in the same academic year. While this may be a coincidence, anecdotally, there does some to be some 4 In AY 2019, the OJA experienced a 28.12% increase in its case load, and 40% increase in cases that went to hearing, and a 75% increase in cases that went to an appeal. OJA Annual Report AY 2019 5 correlation with the amount of time that case-handlers in the OJA can spend with a respondent with an increased case load, which reasonably was reduced in AY 2019 given that a single case can involve meeting with multiple witnesses. An unexpected cause of the increased case load was related to the uptick in obstruction cases. There are three types of obstruction cases, all of which were supported by University Hearing Board (UHB) decisions in AY 2019. First, under the Code, every member of the community has a duty to cooperate with the enforcement of the Code.5 But, during AY 2019, this duty was not as recognized as in prior years. For example, there were multiple instance in AY 2019 in which a student identified as witness that a respondent would like to the OJA to speak with to provide exculpatory information, ignored the OJA’s request to meet as a witness, with all of the rights afforded to them as a witness under the Code. When that needed witness would not meet with the OJA as part of an investigation, following multiple attempts at contact, that person would be referred to the OJA for obstructing the operation and enforcement of the Code. Such situations delayed the underlying adjudication of the respondent’s case until the obstruction of the witness’s case was adjudicated. While ultimately the obstructing witness may not have had any information to provide, as a member of the Cornell community, they are expected to share that they have no information with the OJA so that the investigation is complete and all of the witnesses identified as being relevant to a case are met with. The second set of obstruction cases, supported by the UHB, involve cases in which a respondent’s case is adjudicated to finality, but the respondent has failed to complete their sanctions. While the OJA works with respondents who request extensions to complete their sanctions, and an automatic one-week extension is granted before an obstruction charge is filed, some sanctions remain overdue. While the Code provides for an immediate temporary suspension6 when a sanction is overdue, the OJA has decided to first file a new charge of 5 “The Campus Code of Conduct is the University’s community’s code, a hence is the responsibility of all community members.