Rules of University Conduct Committee

Zachary Becker is a J.D. candidate in the Law School. An alumnus of Columbia College, Zachary earned a B.A. in political science in 2022 before matriculating to the Law School. During his time at Columbia, Zachary has served on the editorial boards of two student-run publications and the executive boards of multiple student organizations.

Sen. William Hunnicutt joined Columbia in 2018 as Manager of the Carleton Laboratory in the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics after completing a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Will oversees research and teaching operations within the Carleton Lab, and conducts research in the area of cementitious materials, with a specific interest in construction materials used in nuclear power plants and their degradation due to radiation, as well as experimental measurement of nano- to millimeter scale mechanical properties.

Sen. Susan Bernofsky is Professor of Writing in the Faculty of the Arts, and Director of Literary Translation at Columbia in the School of the Arts Writing Program. On the University Senate, Sen. Bernofsky serves on the Rules of University Conduct Committee. 

A 2020 Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, 2019 fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and past Guggenheim fellow, Sen. Bernofsky has translated more than twenty books including three novels and four collections of short prose by the great Swiss-German modernist author Robert Walser, as well as Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. She is the author, most recently, of Clairvoyant of the Small: The Life of Robert Walser (Yale, 2021), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Past awards include the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize and the Hermann Hesse Translation Prize. Her translation of Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel The End of Days (2014) won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, The Schlegel-Tieck Translation Prize, the Ungar Award for Literary Translation, and the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Her translation of Yoko Tawada’s novel Memoirs of a Polar Bear (2016) won the inaugural Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. In 2019 she received the Modern Language Association’s Lois Roth Award and the Friedrich Ulfers Prize. Her translation of Yoko Tawada’s novel Paul Celan and the Transtibetan Angel is forthcoming in 2023 from New Directions. She is currently working on a new translation of Thomas Mann’s monumental novel The Magic Mountain for W.W. Norton.

Sen. Richard Smiley is Professor of Anesthesiology (in Obstetrics and Gynecology) at CUMC. Dr. Smiley's research interests include the effect of genetic variation on the response to anesthesia, analgesia, and pregnancy. His recent work includes studies of the beta2 adrenoceptor on preterm labor and delivery, and on the hemodynamic response to spinal anesthesia. The effect of genetic variation in the mu-opioid receptor on pain and analgesia is also under investigation. On the University Senate, Dr. Smiley serves on the Faculty Affairs, Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee.

Sen. Oscar Luckett (CC'25) is a senior in the American Studies department and representative of Columbia College on the University Senate. As a native Brooklynite, Oscar is enthralled by all things NYC history, culture, and politics. During his time at Columbia, Oscar has cultivated a passion for local advocacy, working as a tenant organizer in West Harlem, a city council policy aide, and a member of his local community board. During his tenure as a Senator, Oscar brings a focus to the expansion of critical student resources, the revision of campus demonstration norms and administrative transparency, and Columbia's reinvestment in the economic well-being of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Beyond his studies, Oscar is the Interviews Directing Editor for the Gadfly, Columbia's philosophy magazine, and a member of the Eric Holder Initiative's Student Advisory Board. He has also moonlighted as a programmer on WKCR, an editor for the Undergraduate Law Review, and a research assistant at the Law School.

Sen. Michael B. Gerrard is Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia Law School, where he teaches courses on environmental and energy law and founded and directs the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. He is a former Chair of the Faculty of Columbia’s Earth Institute and currently holds a joint appointment to the Columbia Climate School. Before joining the Columbia faculty in 2009, he practiced environmental law in New York City full time from 1979 to 2008, most recently as partner in charge of the New York office of a large law firm. He formerly chaired the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy and Resources. Gerrard is author or editor of fourteen books. The most recent are Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (with John Dernbach 2019) and Global Climate Change and U.S. Law (with Jody Freeman and Michael Burger, 3rd ed. 2023).

Sen. Joseph Slaughter specializes in literature, law, and socio-cultural history of the Global South (particularly Latin America and Africa). He’s especially interested in the social work of literature—the myriad ways in which literature intersects (formally, historically, ideologically, materially) with problems of social justice, human rights, intellectual property, and international law.

His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Public Voices Fellowship, Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award. His book Human Rights, Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form, and International Law (Fordham UP, 2007), which explores the cooperative narrative logics of international human rights law and the Bildungsroman, was awarded the 2008 René Wellek prize for comparative literature and cultural theory. His essay, “Enabling Fictions and Novel Subjects: The Bildungsroman and International Human Rights Law,” was honored as one of the two best articles published in PMLA in 2006-7. He was elected to serve as President of the American Comparative Literature Association in 2016.

His essays and articles include : “World Literature as Property” in Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics; “However Incompletely, Human” in The Meanings of Human Rights: Philosophy, Critical Theory, Law; “‘It’s good to be primitive’: African Allusion and the Modernist Fetish of Authenticity” in Modernism and Copyright; “The Enchantment of Human Rights; or, What Difference Does Humanitarian Indifference Make?” in Critical Quarterly; “Vanishing Points: When Narrative Is Not Simply There” in The Journal of Human Rights; “‘A Mouth with Which to Tell the Story’: Silence, Violence, and Speech in the Narrative of Things Fall Apart” in Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe; “Master Plans: Designing (National) Allegories of Urban Space and Metropolitan Subjects for Postcolonial Kenya” in Research in African Literatures; “Introducing Human Rights and Literary Form; Or, the Vehicles and Vocabularies of Human Rights,” co-authored with Sophia A. McClennen, in Comparative Literature Studies; “A Question of Narration: The Voice in International Human Rights Law” in Human Rights Quarterly; “Humanitarian Reading” in Humanitarianism and Suffering: The Mobilization of Empathy through Narrative. Slaughter is a founding co-editor of Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development.

He is co-editing a volume of essays, The Global South Atlantic, that explores some of the many social, cultural, political, and material interactions across the oceanic space between Africa and Latin America that have made it historically (im)possible to imagine the South Atlantic as a coherent region. He is currently working on two monographs, “Pathetic Fallacies: Essays on Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and the Humanities” and "New Word Orders: Intellectual Property and World Literature," which considers the role of plagiarism, piracy, and intellectual property regimes in the globalization of the novel, as well the work the novel might do to interrupt globalization and to resist monopoly privatization of cultural and intellectual creations.

Jenny Mak is the Senior Associate Dean of Engineering Student Affairs and an Adjunct Professor of Professional Development and Leadership at Columbia Engineering. Dr. Mak provides leadership to the Engineering Student Affairs team, supporting Columbia Engineers and the school’s K-12 outreach efforts. She established Columbia Engineering's Graduate Career Placement (GCP) and Professional Development and Leadership (PDL) units.

Dr. Mak joined Columbia Engineering in 2003. Prior to joining the Dean's Office, she was the Executive Director of the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department at Columbia Engineering. Previously she was a Senior Consultant for Deloitte Consulting and a Technology Consultant for D. E. Shaw & Co.

Dr. Mak is a proud four-time graduate of Columbia University: Doctor of Education, Master of Arts, Master of International Affairs, and Bachelor of Science. She earned her B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia Engineering. Her research interests include the intellectual and ethical development of college students, adult learning, and leadership.

Sen. Jaxon Williams-Bellamy is a J.D. candidate in the Law School. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Jaxon graduated with a B.A. in economics, political science, and French from Columbia College in 2021. After a year spent teaching high school English in northern France and volunteering with the Columbia Global Center in Paris, Jaxon matriculated as a J.D. candidate at Columbia Law School. On the University Senate, Jaxon co-chairs the Student Affairs and Rules of University Conduct committees, and serves on the Executive Committee.

As an undergraduate, Jaxon served as a peer adviser at the Center for Undergraduate Global Engagement and, since graduating has maintained close ties with the Columbia College community as an alumni mentor with the Odyssey Mentoring Program. As a law student, Jaxon has continued to promote the many opportunities for collaboration and exchange available at the University and, as the Law School’s Student Senator, hopes to foster greater modes of connection between the Law School and the greater University community.

Sen. Janie Weiss is IT Manager of the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, a role she has held for over 30 years. She assists faculty, staff, and students with their IT needs, helping to advance the research enterprise. On the University Senate, Janie serves on the Rules Committee, and on the Structure and Operations Committee.

Sen. Jalaj Mehta is the School of Engineering and Applied Science Undergraduate Student Senator. Jalaj is a junior majoring in materials science and engineering and minoring in computer science. He has an interest in the intertwining of science and politics and hopes to have an impact on the school through the University Senate. He is also a part of the Men's Ultimate Frisbee club team and does research with the Gang Group. He hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in materials science after graduating.

Sen. Gabriella Ramirez is a second-year Master of International Affairs candidate at Columbia University SIPA, with a concentration in International Security Policy. Her academic focus lies at the intersection of human rights and security issues, where she is committed to advancing mechanisms that minimize harm in conflict-affected communities while ensuring accountability for violations of international law.

Gabriella earned a Bachelor of Arts with Specialized Honors in Political Science from Drew University. Following her undergraduate studies, she gained valuable experience as a legal assistant. Her diverse background also includes roles in the non-profit, philanthropic, policy, and research sectors, including internships with Senator Cory Booker and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

At Columbia, Gabriella serves on the University Senate on the Committee on the Rules of University Conduct and the Student Affairs Committee.

As a proud first-generation college graduate from Newark, New Jersey, Gabriella is passionate about mentoring students, helping them navigate their academic and professional journeys.

David Pozen teaches and writes about constitutional law, information law, and nonprofit law, among other topics. 

In 2019, the American Law Institute named Pozen the recipient of its Early Career Scholars Medal, which is awarded every other year to “one or two outstanding early-career law professors whose work is relevant to public policy and has the potential to influence improvements in the law.” Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of the California Supreme Court, the selection committee chair, described Pozen’s writings on government secrecy and constitutional theory as “remarkable” and “widely influential,” “as timely as they are learned and as creative and thought-provoking as they are nuanced and precise.”

Pozen’s body of work includes dozens of articles, essays, and book chapters. He has also edited two volumes for Columbia University Press, on transparency (2018) and free speech (2020), and been a semi-regular contributor to the Balkinization and Lawfare blogs. He has been the keynote speaker at numerous academic conferences, in the United States and abroad, and his scholarship has been discussed in outlets including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Harper’s, Politico, American Scholar, and NPR.

In 2017, Pozen became the inaugural visiting scholar at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. In 2013, the student-run Columbia Society of International Law recognized Pozen with its Faculty Honors Award.

From 2010 to 2012, Pozen served as special adviser to Harold Hongju Koh, legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State. Previously, Pozen was a law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court and for Judge Merrick B. Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was a special assistant to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Carlos Alonso is Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures. Prior to serving as dean, he was Chair of the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. On the University Senate, Dean Alonso serves on the Committee on the Rules of University Conduct, and has served on the Commission on Diversity and the Honors and Prizes Committee. 

Dean Alonso received his B.A. from Cornell in Spanish and Latin American Literature and completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in Latin American literature at Yale. He is the author of Modernity and Autochthony: The Spanish American Regional Novel, and The Burden of Modernity: The Rhetoric of Cultural Discourse in Spanish America, and editor of Julio Cortázar: New Readings. He was the editor of PMLA and edited the Hispanic Review. While at Penn, Dean Alonso received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the university's highest award for pedagogical excellence.

Dean Alonso specializes in 19th and 20th-century Latin American intellectual history and cultural production and in contemporary literary and cultural theory. He has taught the graduate seminar on Literary and Cultural Theory and the course Theories of Culture in Latin America. Under his editorship, the department's Revista Hispánica Moderna received the 2009 Council of Editors of Learned Journals Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement.

Sen. Adam Cannon is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science. On the University Senate, Dr. Cannon serves on the Education and IT committees.

Dr. Cannon joined Columbia in July, 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he was also a visiting scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Cannon came to Columbia after earning a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Cannon’s current research interests are in computer science education, machine learning, and statistical pattern recognition. He is a winner of the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching, The Society of Columbia Graduates Great Teacher Award, and the School of Engineering and Applied Science Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.