The Graduate and Professional Student Council general assembly elected Ali Saaem to serve as the graduate Young Trustee Tuesday night.
At the meeting, Saaem, a fifth-year biomedical engineering graduate student, said that his goals include improving aid for students, making life safer on and around campus and internationalizing Duke.
“Duke has been a place of transformation for me,” said Saaem, who is an international student from Bangladesh. “I love Duke and will want to see this institution grow and continue being a great place for students.”
During Saaem’s first term on the Board of Trustees—which will begin in the Fall and last for two years—he will be a non-voting member, though he will be able to vote in his second year. Two graduate Young Trustees serve on the Board at any time.
“I am elated and humbled at the same time that the general assembly put their faith in me, and it is still registering,” Saaem said after the meeting. “There were 30 plus [applicants], so it was pretty nerve-wracking.... [The other finalists] were very qualified. They would have been fantastic representatives.”
Saaem tallied more votes than the other two finalists, second-year MBA candidate Joshua Makaron and Jennifer Snook, third-year MBA and master of environmental management candidate. Before voting Tuesday night, the general assembly discussed the candidates in a 10-minute closed session—a routine process, GPSC Vice President Felicia Hawthorne said after the meeting. GPSC would not release the number of votes each candidate received.
For the past four years, Saaem has had some experience interacting with the Board, serving as a student representative on the Business and Finance Committee. The committee recommends fiscal policies, provides financial overviews of the University and administers funds to certain University programs.
In his speech, Saaem emphasized Duke’s need to globalize while maintaining its relations with the local community.
“I grew up in Bangladesh hearing names of schools in Boston and New York. I want to make Duke and Durham a global name,” Saaem said. “I see globalization as a highway that goes both ways—that as we look to develop programs and locations in China or extend what we have in Singapore... that we maintain academic standards at home and abroad.”
He also emphasized the fact that he will maintain contact with graduate and professional students—possibly by means of social media.
“I would like to be more than your Young Trustee, I would like to be a ‘Twitter-Trustee,’” he said, noting that he would like people to submit their concerns to him via Twitter.
He added that he hopes to foster interdisciplinary studies because “there are still roadblocks to people being able to go from one institution to another.”
GPSC members also briefly discussed the possibility of increasing the number of graduate and professional students that are elected to the Board. Although all three undergraduate Young Trustees serve for three years each, the two graduate Young Trustees each serve for two years.
“We are definitely pushing for equal representation, but as a lot of these things are, it is a work in progress,” Saaem said after his election. “Our hope is that graduates will come to parity with undergraduates. When that will be, I do not know.”
After Saaem graduates this Spring, he said he plans to be employed “in the area” over the next couple of years.
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