Freshmen valuable for YT Nominating Committee

We are writing in response to a point made by Ubong Akpaninyie in his response to the Chronicle editorial “Disallow young trustee write-ins.” This letter has nothing to do with the election process, the legitimacy of Kingland’s write-in candidacy or legislative loopholes, but instead addresses his argument that freshmen shouldn’t serve on the Young Trustee Nominating Committee because they can’t run. All three of us served as freshmen, and found value in being there. The claim that the existence of freshmen on the YTNC is a valid reason to dismiss the legitimacy of the board doesn’t make sense to us for a number of reasons. First, though freshmen can’t run for YT, it is important to have them represented on the committee for their unique perspective. They are, obviously, a quarter of the undergraduate student body and one could argue that they are the most involved in campus life and the future of Duke. We think that freshmen are less likely to have potential biases, as we found we knew fewer of the candidates personally than the upperclassmen on the committee. Finally, we think a good analogy is found in the American presidency. Citizens have to be 35 to run for President but can still vote at the age of 18. All years should be included and exposed to the process, even those freshmen “not well versed in the YT process.”

Respectfully submitted,

Andrew Hanna, Trinity ’14

Ajeet Hansra, Pratt ’14

YTNC Members