After five years at Duke, Gautham Pandiyan is still not ready to leave.
Pandiyan, a finalist for the graduate and professional student Young Trustee position on the Board of Trustees, is a fifth-year graduate student. He earned his masters degree in cancer biology last year and is now enrolled in the one-year masters program in engineering management, and he said he hopes to remain engaged with Duke after graduating.
"I'm really passionate about Duke," he added. "Everywhere I've gone abroad I've tried to get in touch with Duke people to foster a Duke community."
Pandiyan noted that he learned about the role and responsibilities of a Young Trustee as a member of the Young Trustee Screening Committee two years ago and as chair of the committee last year. One of the most important qualities a Graduate and Professional School Young Trustee can have is an understanding of the diverse graduate student body, he added.
Pandiyan said his varying experiences, like volunteering at the Medical Center, working at the Duke Office of Licensing Ventures and taking classes at different schools within Duke, have helped him to develop diverse social connections. He added that these connections allow him to view the needs of graduate students from a "universal perspective."
"The graduate student body ranges all the way from Divinity students to Nursing students," Pandiyan noted. "A Young Trustee should be someone who has a good network throughout the student body."
Audrey Ellerbee, former president of Graduate and Professional School Council, said she agrees that a Young Trustee needs an "overarching perspective."
"Gautham has made connections with students across campus," she said. "He has a knowledge of students from different professional and graduate schools, undergraduates and has a knowledge of international students as well."
Ellerbee added that she thinks Pandiyan, who was on the GPSC executive board while she was president, is comfortable reaching out to people at all different levels of authority.
Janet Hill, a member of the Board of Trustees, said she got to know Pandiyan because he introduced himself to her at a meeting. Pandiyan has served as a Faculty, Graduate and Professional School Affairs Committee representative for the Board of Trustees.
"He said, 'Look, I don't know what goes on in the Trustee meetings, but I hope you will take the needs of graduate students into account,' I appreciated the heads up," Hill said. "I needed the wake-up call from him. I have been much more attentive to the issues and needs of grad students."
She added that Pandiyan is an active student who has the interests of both graduate and undergraduate students in mind.
Pandiyan said he is particularly passionate about career services and internationalization issues. He noted that while serving on the Career and Professional Development Task Force Committee, he examined and reported on the state of career services at Duke.
"This is a time when Duke could really bolster its career services and help students get a foothold in the world," Pandiyan said.
Pandiyan said he would like to see Dukes career services use a more holistic approach. He added that some of the professional schools at Duke have good career services and it would be helpful to integrate them.
Originally from India, Pandiyan noted that he has a personal connection to internationalization. He is the Resident Manager of the International House and has always been involved in the undergraduate and graduate International Student Committees, he said.
He noted that he would like to both help spread Duke's brand throughout the world and help integrate international students into the Duke student body.
Pandiyan said involvement with the National Association for Graduate and Professional Students, which represents universities across the country and lobbies for graduate and professional student issues twice a year in Washington D.C., as well as first-hand experience working with Duke administration, make him confident that he can have a positive influence on Duke as a Young Trustee.
His main goal would be to make sure student interests are considered before any University decisions are made, Pandiyan noted.
"The reality of it is that you could have one or two things you would like to work on as a Young Trustee," he said. "But the majority of the job of a Young Trustee is how you can represent the student body in conversations the board is already having."
The graduate and professional student Young Trustee will be selected Feb. 17 at the GPSC General Assembly.
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