Following criticisms that the Young Trustee selection process had been riddled with cronyism, significant changes were made this year to rebalance the distribution of power between the InterCommunity Council and Duke Student Government.
But some members of ICC-who argue that ICC better represents the entire Duke student body-remain dissatisfied with the weight given to DSG's vote.
Members of the Young Trustee Selection Committee said the recent changes to the selection process-which granted equal selection powers to 10 members of ICC and 10 members of DSG-were an improvement from the previous system, in which ICC narrowed the applicant pool, but DSG made the final decision.
Several members of the ICC, however, said changes can still be made to improve the process. "I think that the process overall went a lot smoother, but there is still some sense of advantage given to DSG," said senior Malik Burnett, president of the Black Student Alliance and a member of ICC. "I think ICC should have equal, if not increased, representation on the committee, because DSG doesn't necessarily represent 50 percent of campus."
DSG and ICC now each select 10 electors to sit on the 20-person nominating committee, and votes for the final three candidates are weighted in order to give both groups equal representation.
"Before, the burden of reading applications was on ICC in the first step, but all the power was in the second step and given to DSG," said sophomore Jordan Giordano, DSG vice president for community interaction and ICC chair. "Now that burden is shared."
But Burnett said that because the DSG president-who is also on ICC-could sit on the nominating committee as one of the 10 ICC members, DSG could have more leverage in the selection process and potentially lobby for a candidate drawn from DSG.
Other members of ICC said, however, that the current allegations of cronyism were not necessarily accurate.
"DSG is really the only truly representative body on campus-the only elected body," said senior Jay Ganatra, Campus Council president and a member of ICC. "Give it another one or two years to see what changes are necessary. What I think people need to be aware of is oftentimes candidates from DSG are just going to win because they're great candidates."
Some ICC members also said they believe the perceived inequity was actually balanced in other ways.
"I think everyone will say ICC had more power this year," Ganatra said. "ICC lost some power when it came to selecting the final four candidates from the 16 [semifinalists], but [made] huge gains when it came to selecting the final candidate, where it was really getting to the cream of the crop. We couldn't even just select three-we had to choose four."
Before the changes were drafted Jan. 17 and implemented in February, ICC chose three finalists from the applicant pool, and DSG members voted in the final selection.
Voting ICC members who ran for Young Trustee-and thus could not be present in the selection process-could select a proxy who could potentially vote for them.
"They could pick their best friend, their roommate-it didn't matter," Giordano said.
After this was cited as a conflict of interest, the policy was also revamped so that ICC members running for Young Trustee may only select the president, vice president or second-in-line of their organizations as voting replacements.
Although members of the nominating committee said the changes were successful in this year's process, some said the response may have been different if another Young Trustee candidate had been chosen.
They noted that senior Ben Abram, who was selected, was not affiliated with either DSG or ICC.
"People feel a certain way based on the results, so perhaps people would have felt differently about the process if one of the DSG nominees had won," Burnett said.
ICC met to discuss the process and its changes following Abram's appointment.
Giordano said that although the committee was generally pleased with the process, there were individuals who had very strong opinions about the distribution of power. There was dissatisfaction on both sides, making it difficult to determine the best appropriation of power, he added.
"Really the only way to get it to be completely equal is if the same ICC and DSG committee votes, and then let the entire student body vote for the final selection," Ganatra said, adding that the feasibility of such a proposal is also debatable.
Giordano said the committee has no immediate plans for further change, in order to avoid a constant redrafting of the procedure.
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