Diya Endorses Danesh for Young

Given the three excellent and supremely qualified Young Trustee finalists, Duke Diya had a hard time deciding which one to endorse. All of the candidates has given years of hard work and devotion to Duke and its students and each candidate had his own unique perspective.

We appreciated Olly Wilson’s dedication to working with minority groups on campus, his recognition of the importance of taking an interdisciplinary view on campus issues and his commitment to bringing different groups together through the Center for Collaborative Action. We also found Michael Mandl’s commitment to maintaining the Duke brand, prior Board experience and recognition of the need to build credibility on the Board as a Young Trustee particularly compelling. However, after interviewing all three candidates and considering each carefully, Duke Diya is happy to announce its support of Kaveh Danesh for Young Trustee.

Kaveh’s creativity and enthusiasm is what drew our members to him, and we were further impressed by his wide range of experiences on campus. In particular, as representatives of Duke’s undergraduate South Asian student body, Diya was attracted to Kaveh’s “Big I’s” stance. He is committed to improving Duke’s involvement with interdisciplinary and international initiatives. He understands the importance of taking Duke’s many global programs and integrating students’ wide range of experiences during the course of these programs. We found Kaveh’s experience on the Academic Affairs Committee for the Board of Trustees as well as his position as the Vice-President for Academic Affairs on DSG to be especially impressive. We believe that these experiences, as well as his time on the FAC Board and position as a line monitor, have given him a diverse perspective of Duke’s student body, which we believe will be invaluable to him as a Young Trustee.

Above all, we believe that Kaveh’s dedication to interdisciplinary and international solutions and deep knowledge of Duke’s academic affairs align best with those of Diya’s constituency. We wish all the candidates best of luck in this year’s election.

Tara Iyengar, Trinity ’13

Co-President of External Affairs, Duke Diya