Duke Diya endorses Jamal Edwards for Young Trustee

The executive board of Duke Diya, the South Asian Students Association, had the opportunity to talk with the three Young Trustee candidates recently, and we are excited to formally endorse Jamal Edwards.

Jamal Edwards presented his position with a very realistic perspective, understanding that the Young Trustee role is not a position of advocacy. He plans to use his understanding of the student experience to bring to light the aspects of certain issues that the Board may not understand fully from their positions, such as the recent demands to administrators from various racial affinity groups. We also think that Duke will benefit from having a Young Trustee like Jamal with experiences dealing with racial injustices, especially considering the cyclical events of bias and hate that have been perpetuated at Duke.

Although we believe Wills Rooney has had a very unique Duke experience as part of the Chronicle’s Editorial Board, the Catholic Center and varsity athletics, we think his plans for Young Trustee were not concrete enough and would not effectively address some of the current issues students are facing on campus.

We were happy to hear Max Schreiber’s detailed plans, addressing important issues like the housing changes, accessibility and faculty diversity. However, we were concerned by his tendency to group minority organizations, their issues and their respective goals together.

We are confident that Jamal Edwards will bring a new perspective to the Board and help bring meaningful and effective changes to the Duke community as a Young Trustee.

Shalini Subbarao, Trinity ’17, and Jemi Galani, Trinity ‘17

Co-Presidents, Duke Diya