Graduate and Professional Student Council
General Assembly Meeting
2-26-2008 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Convene: 7:03 pm
I. Approval of the Minutes from 2/5/08
Move to approve the Minutes from the 2/5/08 meeting (motion made and seconded)
Motion Passes Unanimously
II. Closed session regarding the past meeting
Gautham Pandiyan – Tonight we will elect the next GPSC Young Trustee Nominee. He would like to give some acknowledgement to the screening committee because they have put a lot of work into screening the candidates. He would also like to acknowledge the three candidates, Audrey Ellerbee, Xing Zong and Sara Becker. After each candidate speaks for 5 minutes, there will be an open forum for questions for 10 minutes, then after all three speak and answer questions there will be open discussion, and then closed discussion limited to Reps, Exec, the screening committee, or BoT committee members. You may motion for more time for any of these segments. We will begin with Audrey, then Xing, then Sara.
Audrey Ellerbee – The first thing she would like to say it is a pleasure to be here, and thank you to the screening committee for inviting her back. It is nice to see so many new faces here at these elections.
To introduce herself, she is an engineer by training, but not by disposition. She is currently serving as a legislative assistant, engaging law and public policy at a national level. When she is done she will be beginning a tenure track position at Stanford. In addition, she has a lot of hobbies such as dancing, as she did in Sabrosura here at Duke.
She would like to answer, why would she be a good Trustee? A good trustee cares about the job, cares about the institution, and brings expertise. She would never take on a job if she could not be committed to that job. Furthermore, she has a lot of experience that would aid her in that job [Secretary’s note – she displayed a list of organizations she had been involved in while at Duke]. Many of these organizations she had a leadership position in. Furthermore, many of them were organizations that were not simply focused on GnP students, emphasizing her commitment to Duke University at an institutional level. There are clearly many that are not centered in the engineering field, indicating that she is willing to get out of her own department. She has experiences of an academic nature as well, including University Scholars, the Society of Duke Fellows and GPSC. Finally, she has many friends across the spectrum of Duke students and so that helps her understand many aspects of many programs at Duke.
It is important that the Young Trustee is an effective Trustee. [Secretary’s note – she displayed a list of things she felt went into being an effective Trustee]. The Young Trustee is the only person who is the only one who knows anything about the GnP students and so it is important to know what is going on on campus and so the fact that she has relationships with people still on campus will help her in this aspect. In addition, the Trustee is a person who needs to appreciate all stakeholders in the position and University. In addition to her experiences as a Duke student, she has been a resident of Durham, North Carolina, and has been a member of other Duke constituencies as well.
Finally, she is vocal and active in all meetings. Some Trustees have said that it is very hard to speak up because they don’t know the Trustees, but she knows many of them as well as many Duke administrators, who work closely with the Trustees.
Bill LeFew – One of the special aspects that Justin brought to the table as Young Trustee is an intimate knowledge of the medical center. How might you fill that role if you were elected the Young Trustee?
Audrey Ellerbee – This is a good question. One of the things she knows is that she does not represent everything and she is not a medical student. She looks forward to learning more about this in order to bring this.
Josh Wilson – Can you elaborate on why you are savvy with regards to policy, politics and procedure?
Audrey Ellerbee – Politicians can get elected but unless they know policy, politics and procedure, they will not be able to get things done. In terms of politics, she knows the people involved, the committees, the items on the agendas which will help her in this aspect. In terms of policy there are many things that she is knowledgeable about in terms of the things that will be addressed in the near future. She understands the policy aspect of things and knows what would make good policy. She has been doing some investigation of her own as far as the composition of the Board in terms of how they are elected, etc and has been giving some thought as to how to make it so that after she leaves it will be more effective.
Wadia Haddaji – You had a slide where you listed the many things you had done while at Duke. There is always a tradeoff between quality and quantity. You have been involved in so many things, how are you able to focus on things?
Audrey Ellerbee – It comes naturally to her to balance many commitments. She graduated in 5 years, even with all of her other commitments and she doesn’t feel that she gave up any quality with regards to her primary responsibility of being a student. She definitely tends to be very engaged and every activity she gets involved in she commits to. Something she’s thinking about is scaling back a bit so that she can make more of an investment in people. That said, she does not commit to things without dedicating herself to them.
Richard Bouchard – Your position at Stanford will be tenure track. How much time do you think this will take out of this position as Young Trustee?
Audrey Ellerbee – As a graduate student she put in a lot of work as well, not to discount the amount of work required to be a professor. To be honest, the time commitment of the Trustees is minimal – there are 4 meetings a year and the prep materials for the meetings are distributed only 1 week beforehand. Because of these reasons, she feels she would be able to manage the time commitment effectively.
Kat Mitchel – You said you were looking into how the board got made up. She knows that you can’t usually push an agenda in that position, but if you could do it, what would you do?
Audrey Ellerbee – The primary agenda that she would like to see is inclusiveness. She would like there to be a systematic assessment of how decisions will affect all constituencies, including GnP students. Now they don’t really think much how decisions affect other constituencies or how other constituencies might be able to help. If they were systematic about it, they could talk more about what constituencies would be effective in helping and in terms of who would be affected.
Crystal Brown – Not being in Durham next year, how do you plan to stay in touch with students if you are elected as the Young Trustee?
Audrey Ellerbee – Rob Saunders was in an unusual circumstance, as Young Trustees go, because most of the Trustees are actually not in Durham. Some of the programs that she was involved in here will help her stay in touch. She went through things as GPSC president and as part of the BoT committee that will help her. She knows that there are documents that GPSC produces such as University Committee reports and other documents that do have a lot of information about what is going on.
Oliver Gjoneski – What would you say is your greatest accomplishment as GPSC President?
Audrey Ellerbee – She saw it as her role that GPSC had a vision, she wanted to focus a lot on transition between leadership. She thinks that is her most significant accomplishment. This year there was only one member returning out of eleven and the fact that it is still going is impressive. With regards to the Strategic Plan, she was involved in the work that made this document address the GnP student population.
Motion made to extend discussion by 5 minutes (motion made and seconded)
Motion Passes, by majority
Unidentified Speaker – As Yong Trustee, how would you communicate the concerns of the Durham community to the Trustees?
Audrey Ellerbee – Additionally, going back to the idea of a systematic evaluation process would be helpful. One thing she thinks is very important is the relationship with the Durham community. If systematically there were something in place to monitor aspects of this relationship, it would help these concerns be voiced to the Trustees.
Ping Zhou – He has a general question. How would you take advantage of the position of Young Trustee for your future career?
Audrey Ellerbee – She did not run for Young Trustee so she could put it on her resume so that she could take advantage of it for her future career. A lot of people think that community service is volunteering in the community, and she’s done a bit of that. However, her primary service has been academic presence. She keeps coming back to it because she likes it. This position represents an opportunity to serve Duke to make a positive contribution.
Eric Vance – Your number one agenda item would be to have some sort of systematic assessment of how various things would affect your various constituencies. How would you do this? His second question is: what would be your agenda for the other Trustees, not just the Duke administrators?
Motion made to extend discussion by 1 minute (motion made and seconded)
Motion Passes, by majority
Audrey Ellerbee – She will say that if it is time for her to do that, she will be able to. As an example, last year an administrator told her something very revealing after she had given a speech. She saw him visibly rise in his seat as she was speaking during that meeting. Afterward, he came up to say that she has a way of saying things in a way that gets attention but does not offend. She has an ability to frame issues in a way that seems innocuous but makes people pay attention
One of the advantages she has is that there are a lot of people on the Board who know her as a GnP student so just her being there will make them think more about GnP students. The thing on her agenda to provide a systematic assessment will also aid in this.
Xing Zong – He just wants to tell a story to introduce himself so you will remember his name. When he first landed in this Gothic Wonderland, he found that his first name, Xing, was all over the place because it was written on the street everywhere. It was only later he found that it meant “crossing.”
In terms of his involvement with GPSC, he was co-leader of the GPSC lunch series and was on the GPSC as a Representative. He was on the Board of Trustees Institutional Advancement Committee. One time, one of the members of this committee asked: Xing, help me understand GnP students better. He responded that GnP students have several primary concerns, including: 1) a struggle to get As in challenging classes, 2) a struggle to survive a 36 hour basketball campout and, 3) a struggle to find a parking space.
In addition to the understanding of GnP student affairs, he brings the added understanding of having a global perspective. He has the goal to connect the Blue Devils with Red China. He initiated the website DukeChina.org, which has 1.6 million hits so far. The Young Trustee holds a unique vantage point and he feels he could contribute, which is why he is running.
As a Young Trustee, he will do many things. His first priority is to make sure the board takes an open approach to the challenges facing our community. He wants to make sure that Duke encourages three initiatives: 1) “open house,” by attracting the best GnP students from all over the world to Duke, 2) “open thoughts,” by making our current GnP students competitive in the job market, and 3) “open minds,” by making the interaction between the GnP community and the Board of Trustees increased. He would like to focus on the entrepreneurial involvement of GnP students.
How would he prepare for this position? He wants to open himself up by holding dialogues with a wide spectrum of GnP students. Listening to their opinions will complement his ideas. Furthermore, he intends to visit 5 other Universities in the US to learn from their experience. Only through thorough preparation will he do as good of a job as he wants to.
He has strengths and foci in physics and journalism. Journalism can provide him with a platform to integrate his concerns. He has a voracious curiosity for all things Duke. He believes curiosity is a quality that a Young Trustee should have.
There is a Chinese saying that a one minute unstaged performance requires years of work behind the scenes. Now, let the open dialogue begin.
Bill LeFew – One of the special aspects that Justin brought is an intimate knowledge of the medical center. How might you fill that role if you were elected the Young Trustee?
Xing Zong – He has interacted with many MD/PhD students, Nursing students, and other students involved in the medical field. He plans to thoroughly prepare so that he is able to fill this role.
Laura Barnard – Are you graduating next year?
Xing Zong – As a fifth year graduate student, he really wants to. Depending on funding issues, he will stay for at least part of the next academic year. If he is elected, he will address the GA at least once a semester (which would be 4 times total over the 2 year term). Each time he wants to focus on topics that are very important to the student population.
Cong Jin – You want Duke to attract the best students from a global perspective. How woul you do this?
Xing Zong – He does believe that this is one of the priorities. He has worked with Tomalei Vess and understands that last year there were a total of 7300 applicants, with it increasing to 7600 this year. He gave a lot of thought to this and feels that we should ask ourselves 4 questions: 1) do we understand the prospective GnP students (e.g. their motivations)?, 2) do we do a good job of presenting Duke?, 3) all of us find a way to Duke but how can we find our students a way out of Duke?, and 4) right now nationally the GnP student population gets younger, but how can we work to provide a life experience for all GnP students? He thinks his open approach could be valuable for providing an open door for students.
Elizabeth Rach – You want to compare Duke to other schools. What specifically are you looking for in this comparison?
Xing Zong – For example, Stanford is a university that is very similar to Duke. Both are young schools with an incredible recent trajectory. Stanford has risen even more rapidly because of HP, Yahoo and Google, because of its location near Silicon Valley. Duke needs a couple of “home runs” – but these are not produced overnight. Right now we can see that RTP is near Duke and Duke has not fully engaged RTP in a similar collaborative relationship. That is why he wants to understand Stanford in an effort to improve Duke’s entrepreneurial efforts.
Another University he wants to visit is University of Pennsylvania. They have a great graduate student center. . He wants Duke to have a similar one, perhaps a very integrated center to bring a wide variety of graduate students together.
Unidentified Speaker – Duke and Durham have had a contentious relationship in the past. As a Young Trustee, how would you advance the relationship between the two?
Xing Zong – This is another point where he can integrate his concerns for GnP with the larger Duke region. In his opinion, entrepreurialship encompasses high tech and social entrepreneurial endeavors. There is a strong need for the Duke-Durham community to work together. We can truly create a great amount of social entrepreneurialship if we do.
Ping Zhou – How would you take advantage of the position of Young Trustee for your future career?
Xing Zong – The Young Trustee holds a vantage point from which he can integrate his concerns for Duke and GnP students. The most rewarding for him would be to keep Duke’s name up front, on everybody’s radar.
When the Chronicle interviewed him, they asked him to use an analogy to describe the position of Young Trustee. He said that the Young Trustee position has many hats – it is a bridge that connects GnP students and the BoT, it should also be a library from which the Trustees can access important information about GnP students. His friend called him and said he did not like this analogy, so he has been thinking of a better one that fits his idea of entrepreneurialship. His final analogy is that he wants to be the iPhone trustee – to have many functions, a lot of memory, and connect people very well while keeping abreast of all the current issues. The iPhone is new. He has many new ideas for this position. New things also have many problems and he admits that. But please open your arms to your new iPhone Trustee.
Motion made to extend discussion by 5 minutes (motion made and seconded)
Motion Does Not Pass
Sara Becker – Good evening. She’d like to thank the screening committee for giving her the honor of speaking to this body. The Young Trustee position provides an exciting opportunity to give back to the Duke community. The Young Trustee should not be thought of solely as a Representative or a lobbiest for GnP concerns only. At the same time it is important to recognized that 2/3 of the Young Trustees are selected from the undergraduate population. The GPSC-nominated Young Trustee must be able to raise the GnP students to the attention of the Board of Trustees. The Young Trustee should have a deep understanding of Duke, an understanding of Durham, and should have analytical and communication skills. All three finalists have a very strong track record of experience with Duke. Any one of the three of them would be able to serve as a Young Trustee. Her continual involvement with GPSC as a Representative, Treasurer for two years, Chair and creator of the Finance committee, and 3 years as a Board of Trustees committee member on 2 different committees speaks to her experience. She has also held positions with GPWN, WISE and others and was awarded a University service award.
She would like to focus on two areas that differentiate her from the other candidates. She has conducted over 1000 therapy and assessment sessions for students and members of Duke and the community. She has also made it a personal initiative to analyze the health of international students. She led a training session with regards to international students and wrote a paper regarding this.
She had 3 years of professional experience from her consulting job before graduate school. She often had to quickly develop a coherent plan of action to present to high level executives who were often highly resistant to change.
She has two overarching goals – to elevate the board’s appreciation of GnP student issues and to enhance the coordination between the Young Trustees and the GPSC GA.
She would like to talk about some concrete plans regarding these and other specific initiatives during the Q&A session.
It’s been a pleasure to address you and she would be honored to serve as Young Trustee if selected.
Bill LeFew – One of the special aspects that Justin Jaworski brought is an intimate knowledge of the medical center. How might you fill that role if you were elected the Young Trustee?
Sara Becker – This is a timely question because she just got accepted to her internship at Harvard Medical School next year. In part, she will be kept abreast of some medical center-related issues simply by being there. In addition, she has 5 years of experience working here in the medical center.
Ali Saaem – Could you expand on the topics of financial aid and the other issues that you see as important topics that are upcoming.
Sara Becker – Under President Brodhead’s tenure, there have been major plans for financial aid for undergraduates. To date there has been no approach of how to make this applicable to GnP students and this is a major gap. Ali and she are in the process on the BoT Buildings and Finance committee for advocating for this strongly.
Eric Vance – What should be the Board’s role in promoting safety and security on campus?
Sara Becker – You have to be sensitive that major current events in the community are going to be important to the Trustee. She thinks that the Board needs to address the safety issues. At the same time, given the historic tension between Duke and the Durham community, she thinks that the Board needs to communicate that in doing this, it is not an effort to protect Duke from Durham.
Josh Wilson – Could you give a specific anecdote about an experience on a Board of Trustees committee?
Sara Becker – One is salient to the fact that we are currently sitting in the LSRC. They were going to build a parking deck right on the Circuit lot, but we happen to know that there are a lot of GnP students that park there that would be dislocated if they were to initiate this project. While supporting the long term goal of providing more parking, we still need to consider the fact that this would have a major effect on the lives of GnP students.
Eric Vance – You want to elevate the appreciation of GnP students at the Board level. How will you do this?
Sara Becker – Having been a GnP student Rep to the BoT committees, she has some experience with this. She needs to ask key questions about how things will affect all of the constituencies. The Young Trustee needs to pick his/her battles and be consistent in thinking holistically about the University. To further address that, consider that in the strategic plan it is very clear that the chapter regarding GnP students had each page written by a different Dean. What we really want to ask is, what is the comprehensive strategic plan for GnP students?
She would also like to say one thing that she didn’t say in her original speech. She had two years on the Business and Finance Board of Trustees committee. There are many things that center on this Business and Finance area that are difficult to understand right at the beginning. She feels like she could contribute in this area, were she to be elected.
Elizabeth Rach – One of the interests of GnP students has been the ability to achieve minors or other degrees across boundaries of schools or program. How might this be incorporated if you were Young Trustee?
Sara Becker – Absolutely, strengthening interdisciplinary studies in the GnP student system is critical. This gets back to the fact that each Dean is thinking about their own strategic plan and we need to get everyone thinking about how each plan interacts with those of different schools and programs. At the Board level, it is important to constantly raise concerns about thinking strategically about crossing programs, etc.
Unidentified Speaker – How do you intend to stay connected to GPSC and Duke?
Sara Becker – She’ll say all the obvious things, including the Chronicle, reading local papers, talking to Exec members. Something that she is passionate about is formalizing relationships between GPSC Exec and the Young Trustees. She wants there to be formal roles and allocation of responsibilities between these people, even having one person designated to be responsible to interact with the YT on a regular basis. She spoke to three of the recent Young Trustees. They weren’t asked to advocate for things that GPSC held important. This is why she feels that forming formal relationships would help elevate GnP concerns to the Board of Trustees.
Motion made to extend discussion by 5 minutes (motion made without second)
[The assembly went into open and closed discussion]
[Votes collected from each voting Representative, Xing Zong was elected to receive GPSC’s nomination for Young Trustee]