Fewer undergraduates than in years past wish to represent their peers on the Board of Trustees.
Seven students entered the race to become Young Trustee for the 2012 election cycle, a stark contrast to last year’s applicant pool of 20, said junior Gurdane Bhutani, executive vice president of Duke Student Government. In each of the four years prior the number of applicants ranged from 14 to 16, making this the smallest group in five years. Applications were due 12 a.m. Monday and were made available Jan. 6.
“It’s not outside the realm of possibility to say its just a matter of this class’ interest in applying to these types of positions,” said DSG President Pete Schork, a senior.
Schork, who chose not to apply to be Young Trustee, noted that only three students in the Class of 2012 applied for DSG president last year.
Junior Samantha Lachman, chair of the Young Trustee Nomination Committee, said the decrease in the number of applicants could be due to the relatively new selection process. Lachman, who is a columnist and contributing writer for The Chronicle’s monthly magazine Towerview, noted that the process includes both screening by the YTNC and a student-wide election.
“[It may cause] candidates to be more realistic about how involved the process is,” Lachman said, noting that this is the third year of the student-wide election for Young Trustee.
She said that although there are only a few applicants, they all seem very impressive.
According to the Young Trustee bylaw, there must be at least eight Young Trustee semifinalists, Lachman said. Given that there are fewer than eight applicants this year, Lachman said the YTNC will likely forgo preliminary interviews and go straight into semi-final interviews.
The number of applicants to be a Graduate Young Trustee semi-finalist also decreased. The Graduate YTNC received 22 applications this year, as opposed to 30 last year wrote Katherine Duch, chair of the Graduate YTNC and third-year candidate in public policy studies, in an email Monday.
“Many of the candidates had outstanding qualifications and ideas for the role,” Duch said.
The Young Trustee applicants, both graduate and undergraduate, are judged on several criteria including their commitment to improving Duke and their ability to consider the long and short-term effects of the Board’s actions.
After submitting applications, the candidates for the undergraduate Young Trustee position are reviewed by the YTNC, which consists of 18 at-large members chosen by a group of six DSG senators, who make up the Young Trustee Nomination Committee Selection Committee. The YTNC selects between three and five finalists, who will then be considered in a student-wide election process.
Bhutani said one of the most important qualities any Young Trustee needs is the ability to speak in a boardroom.
“The Young Trustee is going to need to speak in front of business heads and billionaires, and they are going to have to communicate well in that setting,” he said.
Schork added that a Young Trustee also needs to be able to build a strong rapport with Board members.
“These situations are very relationship-oriented,” he said. “The most effective conversations happen outside of the boardroom.”
Some of the issues the Young Trustee will address include Duke’s global ventures and Duke Kunshan University, the renovation of the West Union Building and the start of the house model. Lachman noted that one of the application essay prompts asked about working under Duke’s financial constraints.
Schork said the future undergraduate Young Trustee should have a deep understanding of Duke’s campus culture. To act as a representative of the student body, it is important the Young Trustee understand and speak about issues such as the new residential model but especially in the context of how that affects student life.
“The position is a wonderful way to serve the University, and I am excited to see the outcome,” Schork said.
The YTNC will meet this week to decide the time line for choosing Young Trustee finalists.
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