Members of the Binghamton University Student Association Assembly and Judicial Board have suggested making a number of modifications to the J-Board this semester.

Harris Peskin, the chair of the J-Board (full disclosure: Peskin is also a Pipe Dream staff writer), said he wants to make past J-Board decisions available online to the public starting next semester to increase transparency and make sure precedents are upheld.

In addition, Peskin said he believes the rights of plaintiffs in the grievance cases the J-Board hears need to be better codified in the SA Constitution.

“The [SA] Bylaws talks about the rights of defendants — to bring in witness, evidence and so forth,” Peskin said. “But ‘plaintiff’ is never mentioned once in the Bylaws or the [SA] Constitution. The J-Board has just been operating under the premise that plaintiffs enjoy equal rights, but it’s not actually codified anywhere.”

Peskin said he would work with Lindsay Frankel, executive assistant to SA President Katie Howard and an Assembly representative from Susquehanna Community, to rework the passage.

Section 3.03(d) of the SA Bylaws lays out the rights of defendants in J-Board grievance proceedings, which, in addition to bringing witnesses and evidence, include rights to ask a J-Board member to recuse him or herself, to ask for a time extension and to ask other SA members to speak in their defense. They do not name any rights of plaintiffs.

Peskin also suggested at last week’s Assembly meeting that the J-Board be given its own PAWS page to post its decisions online.

“The Assembly has its own PAWS pages where they keep their records, but the J-Board does not,” Peskin said. “Before I brought it up this semester, the J-Board did not even have a tab on the SA website.”

Frankel, however, said she did not see the need for a PAWS page for the J-Board.

“I personally feel that [a PAWS account] is unnecessary,” Frankel said. “It’s mostly used by student groups for advertising purposes, and the J-Board website is already linked to the SA website.”

Finally, Peskin said he also wants to increase the public visibility of the J-Board by using Facebook and B-Line.

“We don’t have a public place to store our cases, so we think an online presence would be good,” he said. “In my opinion, if people don’t know we exist as a remedy for wrongs, people won’t be able to use this remedy, and the SA will just be able to run around unchecked.”