The Student Judiciary will be implementing the mediation resolution process, which was approved as an amendment to the Student Union Constitution last Thursday, for the recent judicial complaint regarding a statement about the SunDeis Film Festival on the IndieLouie Film Festival Web site, according to an e-mail from Chief Justice of the Student Judiciary Judah Marans '11. According to an e-mail Marans sent to the Justice, Avner Swerdlow '10 submitted a complaint to the Judiciary on behalf of the SunDeis Film Fesitval. The complaint was filed against Ilona Yuhaev '11, who is part of the committee for the IndieLouie Film Festival, for making an allegedly libelous statement about the SunDeis Film Festival on the IndieLouie Film Festival Web site.

The statement on the IndieLouie Web site explains, "Brandeis used to have a film festival called SunDeis run by students. This year, SunDeis was taken over by the film department for fundraising purposes. IndieLouie is the new student film festival at Brandeis; it is run by students, for students." Swerdlow claimed in his complaint that there was no takeover of the festival by the Film, Television and Interactive Media program.

In an interview with the Justice, Swerdlow said that he filed the complaint because he believed Yuhaev was the head of the IndieLouie Committee but that the status of the defendants has since been extended to include all members of the IndieLouie Committee.

Nathan Robinson '11, who is serving as the counsel for the IndieLouie committee, wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that Yuhaev is not the head of the committee and that the committee has "no management hierarchy whatsoever."

Swerdlow explained that he filed the complaint because he was worried about the misrepresentation of information about SunDeis. He explained that in prior years, SunDeis had been administered by Student Activities, but that Student Activities had not been allocated the same amount of funding because of the economy. Thus, the Film, Television and Interactive Media program increased the funding it provides to the festival, he said. However, Swerdlow stressed that the festival was still completely student-run.

"The festival is more student-run this year then ever. The Film department had very little involvement and is just a source of funding," Swerdlow said.

Robinson said in an interview with the Justice that the complaint came as a complete surprise.

"The statement on the Web site is innocuous and doesn't comply with the definition of libel," he said. He added that he did not understand why Yuhaev had been singled out for the complaint rather than the committee as a whole, and he was seeking clarification on that point from the Student Judiciary.

Marans explained in an e-mail that the Judiciary had decided to engage in a mediation resolution process rather than hold a trial, a decision to which both parties agreed. According to the constitutional amendment, a mediation resolution process entails a discussion between the accuser and the accused regarding the allegation with the Judiciary acting as a mediator.

"We are following this process for a rather straightforward reason: it is the required one spelled out in the constitution," Marans wrote.

When asked about the length of the mediation resolution process, Marans responded that he did not now how long the process would take, as the Judiciary is still preparing for the meetings. Robinson said that he was unsure about the details of the mediation resolution process and that the details of the process would determine his ultimate willingness to comply with it.

"We have agreed that we are open to it [the mediation resolution process] but will only go through with it depending on what the process will look like," he said, further explaining that he hopes the administration and faculty are not involved in the process.

Marans also wrote that it would be "speculation" to assess what the outcome of this situation would have been had the amendment for a mediation resolution process not been implemented.

"We were not necessarily expecting an issue to arise, but are certainly not surprised that it has. Our role is, after all, at least inter alia, to address issues of the student body in order to help achieve a just result," Marans wrote.