Last Wednesday, the Duke Student Government approved a new Young Trustee bylaw, ending a months-long reform effort of the YT selection process—or so we thought.

Days later, DSG President Awa Nur vetoed the bylaw, putting reform back at square one.

Regardless of her reasons for opposing it, in choosing to veto the Young Trustee bylaw approved by the Senate, Nur has undermined the independence of the reform process she set into place at the beginning of the semester.  

When former vice president for the Inter-Community Council Andrew Brown resigned over the summer, the Young Trustee selection process was placed in uncertainty. Instead of appointing a replacement VP for ICC who would chair YT selection for this year, Nur moved to eliminate the position through a general election referendum.

In that same election, students selected a Special Secretary for the Young Trustee process, a position created by Nur to examine the existing YT selection process and present suggested changes to the DSG Senate.

By refusing to name a VP for ICC and putting the Special Secretary position up for election, Nur sought to separate herself from YT reform in the interest of creating a selection process free from her direct influence.  

Over the course of the past two months, Nur’s framework for reform carried along. After her Sept. 14 election, Special Secretary Amanda Turner held her requisite four open forums, consulted with current and former Young Trustees and solicited input from a variety of students and administrators.

On Nov. 4, Turner presented to DSG her recommended YT selection by-law, and a week later, the Senate made amendments and passed the legislation.

Young Trustee reform was carried out exactly as Nur intended—independent from her influence, driven by an elected Special Secretary and with final approval from the Senate.

It is misguided and contradictory, then, for her to reject the product of a reform process she created simply because she does not agree with it or desires greater debate over the by-law within the Senate.

More importantly, a veto this late in the game directly inserts Nur into a process she wrote herself out of. This undermines the independence and objectivity of reform efforts and symbolically nullifies what both Turner and the Senate have been working toward since September.

That Nur deemed a veto necessary, however, does affirm what we have asserted all semester long—comprehensive YT reform cannot be rushed, nor can it be confined to a two-month period.

Now, after the open forums, deliberations, amendments and a Senate-approved bylaw newly rejected, we find ourselves at an all-too-familiar place when it comes to the Young Trustee selection process—back at the beginning, with no guarantee for true reform.

Cheslea Goldstein, a member of the DSG Cabinet, recused herself from this editorial.