About 30 graduate and professional students have applied to serve as the next graduate Young Trustee.
The Graduate and Professional Student Council’s Young Trustee Screening Committee will narrow the field to three applicants in January, one of whom will be elected at GPSC’s general assembly meeting Feb. 15, said William Hunt, chair of the YTSC and an English graduate student.
The graduate Young Trustee is elected for a two-year term, serving first as a non-voting observer of the Board of Trustees and then as a full-voting member. Applications were due yesterday at midnight.
“The trustee committee is looking for people who have a good grasp of what goes on at Duke and who come from across the different schools within Duke,” said GPSC President Daniel Griffin, a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in classical studies. “We are looking for someone who has a good reputation for leadership around the community.”
In recent years, between 20 and 30 graduate students applied for the graduate Young Trustee position, Griffin said. The selection process will likely have two rounds, though this may change depending on the quality of the applicant pool, he added.
“The [Young Trustee] selection process was extremely thorough,” said Young Trustee James McDonald, Law ’09.
The current Young Trustee Screening Committee has seven members whose educational backgrounds range from Fuqua School of Business to the Divinity School.
“They are looking for a person who is interested in representing the entire graduate and professional community at Duke,” Hunt said.
The election of the graduate Young Trustee differs from the process for the undergraduate Young Trustee in that the student government—not the general student population—selects a candidate. Griffin said the diverse group of representatives in the current general assembly will adequately represent their constituents, however.
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