The Director of Student Conduct, Paul Cousins, said he has no intentions of working with the newly elected public defender. But Ben Mazur, the student body public defender, said he is planning to advocate for students’ rights and work with the third term Student Chief Justice Lock Whiteside regardless.

The student body public defender is a position Student Government added for next year.

According to Mazur, though the public defender will not be allowed in judicial board meetings due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and though a specific job description for the office of public defender has yet to be drafted, he said he is adamant that the position is one that is of benefit to the student body.

“I ran for it because my interest [in the position] started back in October,” Mazur said. “[Student Senate President] Greg [Doucette] wanted to put me in Student Government, but I wasn’t necessarily interested in Senate. He mentioned the public defender position to me.”

But Cousins disagreed with the establishment of the position, noting that he was not approached about it and that it doesn’t fit in with the current judicial process for students.

“Apparently Lock believes, and there are some others who agree, that there are problems with the judicial process,” Cousins said. “I haven’t seen any evidence of problems. It would appear that the students concerned have looked outside the judicial office.”

According to Cousins, having a public defender is not a viable solution.

“If there’s a problem, it is in fact, our responsibility to fix that … It doesn’t make sense to me that if a problem exists that the solution is outside,” he said. “There is no provision for defense. This is an educational process, not a legalistic one.”

Although Cousins said the students who are charged can sign waivers allowing certain individuals into the hearings, those individuals can only serve as witnesses and cannot speak during the hearings, and students may choose to sign waivers for the public defenders.

Despite these reservations from Cousins, Mazur is continuing to push his agenda and is in the process of hiring three to five assistant public defenders.

“We’re looking at it as a chance to improve student life,” Mazur said.

His image for public defender, Mazur said, is to make sure students are aware of their rights and what to expect from judicial board hearings, as well as to be available to the student body as needed.

Mazur said the public defenders are not trying to compete with the judicial board.

“The big picture is that each of the assistants will be involved in specific areas of campus life — Housing, Greek Life and Academic Affairs,” he said.

Whiteside said some students choose to meet with him before hearings to understand how the whole process works, and with the new public defender, Whiteside said Mazur will take on that role.

“At this point, it doesn’t matter if the Office of Student Conduct recognizes the position or not,” Whiteside said. “It’s the students’ choice [whether or not to meet with the defender]. I hope that Student Conduct will continue to remain unbiased. Students should have that option.”

According to Whiteside, the “bulk of the work” will be between himself and the public defender, not as much with the assistants and the judicial board.

Cousins, on the other hand, said the position is not something that will fit in the judicial board process.

“It’s collaborative effort between the University and the students in charge … It is not an attempt to recreate the courts in some miniature format,” he said.