Generation Magazine

Be nice to this member of the UB administration—your future might depend on it. She gets to decide what happens to you when you get caught doing the stupid stuff you know you shouldn’t be doing, like when you brought that sixer into the Student Union last weekend. We sat down with Liz Lidano, director of Judicial Affairs & Student Advocacy, to get the lowdown on the judicial system at UB.

What’s the most common offense of UB rules and regulations that your office has had to assign community service for?

Most common is probably all of the alcohol offenses, everything from a DWI to drinking at one of the fests or something like that. Number two may be a tie between marijuana and drug related offenses and some type of disorderly conduct. It could be anything from breaking tables in the Student Union to being in a scuffle with another student.

What is the greatest amount of community service hours you have ever had to assign to a student?

I never like it to be over 100 hours; I don’t even like it to be 100. It gets meaningless and it just becomes hours upon hours. They have to be able to be students and do their schoolwork. Many students work in addition, so it just becomes meaningless beyond that. And we do give them a reasonable amount of time to finish hours if they have a lot of hours.

Have any good stories about the crazy antics of UB students?

*Laughs* So many crazy antics. One funny story involved a student who called the university police to say that his pot was stolen. That one always makes me laugh. Oh gosh, there’s so many.

What is the most fulfilling part of your job?

Believe it or not, when I’m talking to students that are temporarily suspended, and they might have had a fairly serious thing like a DWI or something that’s affecting someone in an outside court. It’s really a defining place for some people. They’re going to decide from that place on whether they’re going to continue down a more destructive path. Someone may also be struggling with addictions; this is why they’re violating. I get to talk to them at a time in their life when they get to make a change. I could really be effective, hopefully. I like them, you know, I like students. I like the violators too. They’re usually really nice people, or good people. They have parents too, they have brothers and sisters and grandpas and aunts so I try always to remember that. And I hope that when my son is in college people remember that if he’s naughty.

What’s the worst part of your job?

There’s probably some people that want to be really argumentative about the rules or the process or don’t want to participate in a discussion—they’re not interested in mending what they did—and I like to feel like me and staff are really open to figuring people out. We only get a snapshot of what happened on a piece of paper. It would help if they were willing. Probably also the most frustrating thing is working with unrecognized fraternities. There’s a lot of times I suspect, I know, people are in unrecognized fraternities and some very bad things are happening but they’re very tight lipped about it. Even if they want help they fear retaliation from other members. So it’s a vicious circle and I feel like I’d like to make some headway in that area. It’s frustrating for the recognized groups that follow the rules and frustrating for parents who know their child is in an unrecognized group and they know bad things are happening, but their child doesn’t want to come forth or tell anyone. That’s probably the most frustrating thing.

Regarding the Student Advocacy program, what would you say would be the No. one academic complaint and the No. one non-academic complaint your office has dealt with?

Probably the No. 1 academic complaint would be advising a student on whether they should go forward with grieving a grade. A lot of times they’re struggling with what to do, and do they have a shot? Do they not have a shot? Is it a good case? We’ll advise them on that. Non-academic… most recently we’ve had a lot of students who are struggling with financial aid standards. So sometimes we will advise them … they’re coming if they’re concerned about their federal aid because you have to meet a certain credit level, a certain GPA. So I’ve had to educate myself more about that; financial aid really isn’t my area.

Has anyone been tried under the Office of Judicial Affairs for violations on the UB Smoke-Free policy?

No. With the smoke-free policy we’re… it’s new, as you know, and we’re not looking to get a judicial file on people. Having a case in the office is not the most serious thing, but for some students it can impact them depending on what they want to do in their future. If you want to work for the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, they’re going to check on people. I wouldn’t want to have to report on a smoking violation. It’s not really the spirit of the rule. The spirit is really to try to get a healthy culture at UB, and a place of higher education would promote health. So I think that’s what we’re trying to do. The only way something would probably get referred to us is if it was coupled to another violation, like if someone asked you to stop smoking and you spit in their face.

How has the Alcohol Review Board made an impact on UB policies?

The Alcohol Review Board has been around for a long time. As you can imagine, we’d serve alcohol at an alumni gathering or a retirement, something like that. I would say it probably has not had a new impact really. Most recently we added a Good Samaritan policy because we don’t want students to be afraid to call for help if they have friends who are dangerously intoxicated. So even if they were drinking and they shouldn’t have been or they’re underage or it was in their apartment we don’t want them to worry about the judicial consequences, we just want them to get help for their friend.

Is it possible to prosecute my biochemistry professor for being unlawfully boring to listen to?

No, boredom is not a rule violation… unfortunately.

Would you say the Student-Wide Judiciary is comparable to an episode of “Law & Order?”

No! No! But I do think that there’s way too many law TV shows out there, which is why so many, including me, considered law school. I did not go but I watched those shows.

If Tiger Woods had to be tried under the Office of Judicial Affairs, what would his sentence be?

I think we’d probably send him to counseling.

Would you pick Meryl Streep or Sandra Bullock for Best Actress at the Oscars this year?

I have a 1-year-old, so I don’t get to the movies, but I did see “Julie & Julia” so I’d have to go with Meryl. I love Sandy though.

Do you have any advice for kids looking to stay out of trouble?

I think that there are a lot of smart kids who know how to stay out of trouble. I would tell the students who are in the office more than once; ‘you’re not good at this, you keep getting caught.’ *Laughs* ‘Maybe there are people that are better, but you’re not.’ I think that being respectful of university police always helps. That can exacerbate the problem, if someone’s just asking a couple questions, you might not get a referral.

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