Senior Ben Getson hopes to maximize academic life on campus as Young Trustee.
A member of the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees and a former academic affairs senator for Duke Student Government, Getson believes in integrating non-academic resources into the classroom experience.
“At a research university, our academics are at the heart of what we provide,” Getson said. “Duke can be special with our focus in [interdisciplinary initiatives] and civic engagement.”
The senior will graduate with a degree in computer science as well as a certificate in information science and information studies. He has not yet finalized his post-graduation plans, but he intends to work with new technologies.
Getson said he enrolled in the ISIS certificate program—which combines computer science, English, visual studies and engineering—to fully capitalize on Duke’s interdisciplinary resources. If elected, he hopes to increase the visibility and enrollment of similar programs.
“We should [assess] our interdisciplinary offerings and see how they could be incorporated more strongly into the course curriculum,” he said. “At that point, when a Duke student graduates with their diploma, they’re not just really accomplished in their field, but they’re also collaborative students.”
Getson also has experience integrating community involvement into student life as a founder of the service-oriented selective living group Ubuntu. Senior Alex Reese, a fellow founder of the group, has known Getson since their freshman year and attests to his dedication to the University.
“Ben talks about ideas for Duke all the time with anyone that he can,” Reese said. “He dedicates a lot of time to give back as much as he can and I think he sees Young Trustee as an opportunity to keep at it.”
Getson served as a senator on DSG in his first two years at Duke, and during his junior year he worked to bring the course syllabus archive and CourseRank to the Duke student body. Currently, Getson is collaborating on a new end-of-course evaluation system intended to provide more comprehensive information to students and serves as senior policy advisor to DSG President Mike Lefevre.
Getson said the long-range thinking he exercised in DSG and the Board of Trustees’ Academic Affairs Committee qualifies him for the position of Young Trustee.
“I had to learn how to share my unique perspective in that faculty discussion. I had to make hard decisions about something I wouldn’t be able to see,” Getson said of working with the Trustees. “As Young Trustee, I’ll have to make decisions to make and direct Duke even though as an alumnus I really wouldn’t see the fruits.”
Suzanne Shanahan, associate director for the Kenan Institute for Ethics, helped to select Getson as the undergraduate representative on the committee to select the new dean for the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.
“Simply put, Ben is wise—wise in a way that I think every member of the committee, comprised of faculty and deans from across the University, came to truly admire,” Shanahan wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.
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