Rutgers student assembly to begin involvement in preliminary phase of RUPD hiring

The Rutgers University Student Assembly (RUSA) voted to approve a resolution that would allow RUSA to have input in the hiring process for Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD) officers, marking the first time RUSA will regularly have representation in the RUPD hiring process.

The resolution, which passed 47 to 7, will add three students onto the Community Oriented Review Board (CORB), the preliminary step in hiring members of the RUPD. Candidates who pass the CORB phase go on to the Police Review Board and then interview with the police chief. 

Students previously served on the CORB, although chosen randomly, along with RUPD individuals.

Representatives from minority groups, such as the Rutgers United Black Council and Rutgers Latino Student Council, will bring forth representatives independent of RUSA jurisdiction. 

“I don't know if many of you have seen RUPD, it’s not the most diverse bunch,” said Logan Adams, a School of Arts and Sciences senior and off-campus at-large representative. “I think we are taking a great opportunity to expand the diversity of the RUPD through this board and through this bill. I think this is a great opportunity to shed some light on some issues RUPD may be missing out on.”

RUSA members lamented that representation in RUPD would add to RUSA’s legitimacy as the student governing body, potentially leading to more representation in the future. Gavin Mayes, a School of Arts and Sciences sophomore and senator-at-large, said the inclusion of RUSA could be a potential game-changer in terms of RUSA involvement in administrative decisions.

“Why not have one of our members sit on presidential meetings and whoever the new president is going to be?” he said. “The sky's the limit in this case.”

The Daily Targum reported in September that the presidential search committee for University President Robert L. Barchi’s successor includes members of the Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees, administrators, faculty and one graduate and an undergraduate student.

One amendment of the resolution, which allowed the RUSA president to appoint representatives, was met with some scrutiny. Some argued that the president’s ability to appoint representatives was an overreach of power, and that prospective CORB representatives should run for the position and then be approved by the assembly.

"I’m very wary of executive power, especially on the federal level right now and last year in RUSA,” said Alexandra Anderson, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences senior and Douglass 2020 representative. “We have executives appointing people with not a lot of justification and being put through the motions of getting confirmed."

Directly naming former RUSA president Suzanne Link, Anderson said excessive executive privilege led to inefficiencies and problems within RUSA last year. Anderson claimed Link purposely did not do her job well and only appointed yes-men, although she said she was not concerned with the current president, Jhanvi Virani, abusing her power.

A majority of representatives disagreed with Anderson’s diagnosis of powerful executive privilege, as the amendment ultimately failed. Critics said the president has the right to appoint and it would save time.

“Having the assembly have to be caught up in electing people is dampering (us) when it comes to all the vast legislation we have to approve and vote upon anyway,” Mayes said. “I think this would move to make it more efficient.”

Anderson proposed another amendment to make applications and responses of prospective CORB representatives public via the internet, although it also failed. 

“You literally squashed my voice, you voted against my amendments, I tried many ways to tell you guys the dangers of executive power and what I experienced in RUSA several months ago,” Anderson told the assembly. “But you guys did not listen to me.”

Anderson said she had not been more disappointed with RUSA in her past four years at the University.

“All I can say is that the people of Rutgers selected you to do better,” she said.