By GEOFFREY GREEN

A new process for selecting an undergraduate to serve on the Board of Trustees has been implemented.

The Duke Student Government created a new group of campus leaders last fall to interview and recommend candidates for the young trustee position. Other minor adjustments were also made to the process.

Each year, an undergraduate is selected to serve a three-year term on the Board of Trustees. The trustee observes during the first year and serves as a voting member during the next two.

In the past the Council of Presidents, composed of student leaders, interviewed and selected candidates for the position. The council has been replaced by the Inter-Community Council, which was established by the DSG legislature last semester.

The executive committee of the new council, which includes 14 student leaders, is responsible for narrowing the candidates for young trustee to three finalists. The finalists are forwarded to the DSG legislature for a vote.

Last weekend, the council's executive committee narrowed the list of 13 applicants down to eight. The committee will meet Saturday to select the three finalists.

The DSG legislature will hold the young trustee election on Jan. 27. Candidates will present four minutes speeches and have a five minute question and answer session. Each legislator and each member of the council's executive committee will have one vote.

Student leaders on the executive committee of the Inter-Community Council include the student director of the Community Service Center, an elected representative from among campus cultural groups and the chair of the Undergraduate Publications Board.

The DSG president chairs the council. But Trinity senior Paul Hudson, DSG president, is not chairing the committee because he is applying for young trustee. Trinity junior Scott Keane, executive vice president of DSG, has replaced Hudson as chair.

Trinity senior Becca Lewis, former executive vice president of the undergraduate student government, noted several flaws in the process when she chaired the Council of Presidents last year. Lewis submitted her recommendations for change, along with other suggestions from council members, in a report last spring.

DSG passed a new bylaw to revise the process last semester.

Four leadership positions are no longer part of the young trustee selection process. The president of the Black Student Alliance, the chair of the honor council, the president of the Engineering Student Government and the president of the Undergraduate Housing Association are not involved in the process this year.

Some of the members of last year's Council of Presidents said they should have had more input into the changes DSG instituted.

"The Council of Presidents should have at least been solicited instead of finding out [the changes] after the fact," said Engineering senior Chris Dries, president of the Engineering Student Government. "I think it's inappropriate for DSG to make decisions concerning young trustee without [consulting us]."

The student leaders no longer involved in the selection process did not have intimate knowledge of the University, even though they represented a large group of students, Lewis said.

DSG did not address criticisms of the student government legislature's role in the selection process. Because the legislature selects the young trustee from among the students nominated by the council, some have argued that student government leaders have an unfair advantage.

"We kept looking at it, but we can't come up with another plan because the students [in the legislature] are the most representative body," Keane said.

About half of the young trustees elected since 1983 have been affiliated with the undergraduate student government. Only one, Marty November, selected in 1986, was president of the government.

"[Being affiliated with DSG] is going to be both an advantage and a disadvantage," Hudson said.

In the past, the Council of Presidents could send three to five candidates to the student legislature. The new limit of three candidates will help the legislature make its selection, Lewis said.

The Board of Trustees must ultimately approve the new young trustee, but the board has never rejected the student government candidate.

Trinity senior Kevin Maillard, senior class president, removed himself from the executive committee of the council because he was considering running for young trustee, Keane said. Trinity senior Peggy Krendl, editor of The Chronicle, also withdrew, citing a conflict of interest.

Graduate students are represented by one young trustee who is chosen every three years.