Last month, students voted to eliminate Duke Student Government’s vice president for the Inter-Community Council. In lieu of the DSG-specific position, senior Amanda Turner was selected to serve as special secretary to the Young Trustee process—a position independent of DSG and ICC to reform the Young Trustee selection process. Ryan Todd, Trinity ’08, was selected to serve as Young Trustee in 2008. Last weekend he participated in his second meeting as a voting member of the Board of Trustees.
The Chronicle’s Joanna Lichter sat down with Todd to discuss ICC’s role in the process and the newly created special secretary position.
The Chronicle: Do you think the Young Trustee selection process needs reform?
Ryan Todd: The process is not perfect. When I was a sophomore, the president of DSG [Jesse Longoria, Pratt ’06] brought a great deal of reform to the Young Trustee selection process, and the changes he brought were for the better. The process, however, still greatly favors people who have been involved in DSG for a long time because they have experience. Equally, if they’ve done a below-average job it would also hurt their chances of getting the Young Trustee position.
TC: Do you need prior experience to become a Young Trustee?
RT: One of the major misconceptions is that you have to be on one of the big spots on campus—either the vice president, president, editor of The Chronicle, etc. While any undergraduate position might help prepare you for your job on the board, it is by no means a prerequisite. The only skills you need are a working knowledge of the University and an ability to be a critical thinker.
TC: What is the role of the Young Trustee?
RT: The Young Trustee’s role and duty are the same as those of a senior trustee—to serve Duke and vote in its best interest. We also take part in managing the budget and managing finances. Some people think that the Young Trustee should be a student advocate on the Board, but I don’t think that’s the case. The Young Trustee should be an expert on the undergraduate experience and all the issues that pertain to student life and the student body. It is the Young Trustee’s role to lay down the red flag if we think the Board is overlooking something that affects the undergraduate body.
TC: Do you think the ICC’s independence from DSG is a positive change?
RT: The ICC presents problems. It was initially created to deal with the Palestine-Israeli conflict a few years ago, when a speech was to be given on campus and several protests and counter protests erupted. It was initiated as a sounding board so groups could come together. It presents interesting problems because the student organizations have a bit of a zero-sum game. They are all trying to exert influence over information and it seems the only way the ICC can get power is if an organization carved out some of its own power and gave it to the ICC. This is exactly what DSG [has done]. But even so, the ICC never obtained much leveraging power.
TC: Do you think the members of ICC present an appropriate representation of the interests of the student body?
RT: The ICC is not a democratically elected body—the only members that are democratically elected are DSG representatives. The more passive thought is that giving more power to the ICC is a solution to its problems, however it might not be because it is not democratically elected. Although it may be the most [physically] diverse body on campus, it does not adequately represent the interests of the student body.
TC: Do you think that the forums next week are a positive way to engage the student body in the Young Trustee selection process?
RT: I think that having an open house discussion is a good idea so that we can contact the student body and see what they’re thinking. It will be interesting to see what the student body thinks can be done differently in the process. I suspect any qualms the student body has with the student government procedures will be with the Senate and ICC selecting the Young Trustee. I don’t know if people are familiar with the application and the selection process, so I am not sure if an excellent critique or selection is really possible.
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