University Vice President and Secretary Bob Durkee '69 and trustee Raj Vinnakota '93 spoke about the role of trustees to a crowd of less than 20 people in McCosh 10 Wednesday evening.
The discussion, billed as a town-hall meeting, was the second in a series of events attempting to demystify the activities of the University's administration, USG President Matt Margolin '05 said.
The town-hall meeting was also the first time a trustee has had a question-and-answer session with undergraduates in a public setting in recent years, Durkee said.
"What we're trying to do is really just make things more transparent," said Margolin, who helped plan the event. "I think from the USG's point of view we think the administration feels very close to the students. But from the point of view of the students, the president and trustees seem very distant and far away."
Before turning to the floor for questions, Durkee and Vinnakota spoke briefly about how the Board of Trustees operates. It functions as a series of separate committees, said Vinnakota, who serves on the committees for public and academic affairs.
Each trustee serves on two of these committees, and the groups report at every full trustee meeting.
But in most cases, he said, the Board of Trustees does not actually effect change, adding that they primarily play an advising role in University affairs.
"Fundamentally, decisions reside with the president of the University," Vinnakota said.
The board has three levels of authority depending on the issue at hand: oversight, prior review and approval and direct action to influence policy, Vinnakota said.
The recent grade inflation proposal, passed Monday by the faculty, was an example of the board's oversight authority.
"[The 35 percent proposal] fell under oversight and review, which the Board has the least control over," said Vinnakota, who is eight months into his four-year term as trustee.
For the last half hour of the meeting, Vinnakota and Durkee fielded questions from the audience.
In response to a question from Nicole Esparza GS, chair of the Graduate Student Government, Durkee spoke about the design of the campus and future construction plans.
"We thought, very long term, that there would be a mirror campus on the other side of Lake Carnegie. We may take down some things on this side of the lake and move them over there," Durkee said.
He also discussed new transportation plans that would make areas across Lake Carnegie more accessible to students.
"The Dinky is very useful if you want to get from Princeton to Princeton Junction at a time when the Dinky wants to make the trip," he said. "One idea is simple: add another stop [to the line]. A further idea is to add a bus which could run continuously from the town to the University, stopping at Windsor."
No questions were asked about the recent Newman's Day t-shirt incident.
The low turnout for the event was surprising given the recent controversies on campus, Margolin said.
"The last few weeks have been some of the most volatile weeks ever. I get 100 emails a day asking me what's going on," he said. "If this room were filled tonight with people who were concerned with these issues, it might have made an impression. I am surprised that students did not want to be here."
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