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February 20th, 2008

Young Trustees respected, not dismissed by Board

Everyone always says the Young Trustee is the most powerful position a recent graduate can occupy. The position is also commonly used to demonstrate the value Duke places in its undergraduate community and is held up as an example of Duke’s unique status among other elite universities, most of whom do not allow recent graduates on their prestigious Board of Trustees.

But how can a 20-something-year-old with just a bachelor’s degree and a few campus leadership positions present opinions and be respected in the same way that powerhouse figures like Melinda Gates, Richard Wagoner and Alan Schwartz are? I was skeptical of the position’s power from the outset and sought to justify or refute this perspective.

I found the position not only valued by other Trustees, but disproportionately so.

“I came in feeling I would be dismissed by a handful of Trustees and it was the opposite,” said former Young Trustee Brandon Busteed, Trinity ’99. “They gave tremendous credibility to what I say and sometimes too much credibility, because they were looking at me as the voice for young students and undergraduates.”

I tried to justify this position from the opposite viewpoint – the “old” Trustees. Unfortunately, I was told that the Board of Trustees keeps information within a select group of people and that Trustees rarely talk to the media.

This apparent lack of transparency seemed disconcerting, but I understand the reason for restricting information, especially when it pertains to issues involving University finances and large-scale projects.

“There’s got to be a degree of confidentiality to protect the decision making process,” Busteed said. “The design is not to be secretive, but it’s to protect…. There’s a huge difference between trying to be secretive and maintaining things that are confidential and private.”

Transparent or not, the Young Trustee position seems to present a valued and unique voice to the Board and acts as more than just an example of the emphasis Duke places on its undergraduates.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.