Seniors enter race for Young Alumni Trustee

Twenty-four seniors have been approved as candidates in the annual election for Young Alumni Trustee (YAT), the University confirmed on Thursday afternoon. The winner of this year’s race will join the 40-member Board of Trustees for a four-year term beginning on July 1.

Candidates were required to submit petitions signed by at least 50 members of the Class of 2010 by Monday night, and the Alumni Association completed verification of submissions on Thursday. This year’s applicant pool is smaller than last year’s pool of 30 seniors, which was the largest since 2004.

The primary obligation of YAT’s, like all trustees, is “to best serve the long-term interests of the University as they understand them after weighing all the evidence available to them on various issues,” University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 said. “[They] provide the board with a perspective that is informed by their experience as students and their knowledge of the needs, concerns and interests of the current generation of Princeton undergraduates.”

Candidates are prohibited from campaigning, self-promotion or accepting any third-party endorsements. During the election process, they are also restricted from taking a stance on any issue that could come before the board. Candidates interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity because of these restrictions.

The YAT rules mirror campaigning restrictions for regular trustee elections, one candidate noted, explaining that “the thought is that the trustees are not representing constituencies — they are acting in the best interest of the University.”

The candidate also noted that many regular trustee positions are filled by powerful and prominent alumni, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ’76 and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will GS ’68.

“It’s not like it’s just a random collection of trustees,” the candidate said, adding that he thinks campaigning is not necessary to inform voters. “The class knows, more or less, who’s who and who they consider to be leaders, and those people more or less rise to the top.”

He added that the prohibition on campaigning allows seniors to run without forfeiting their academic commitments.

“I would probably not have run if I had to campaign,” he said.

Another candidate also said that the restriction against campaigning was a benefit for thesis-burdened seniors, but added that she thought the main reason for the restriction was to keep the election on track.

“I think their real fear is that it’ll get into issues-based campaigning and be about issues like grade deflation that the trustees have no power over,” she said. “It becomes something where people vote for names they recognize.”

But a third candidate said there are also serious drawbacks to preventing candidates from speaking out.

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“It can become a popularity contest based on greatest name recognition,” he said. “By not being able to do any sort of campaigning — however innocuous — it ensures the most popular, the most well-known candidate is elected.”

Each of these candidates said they were seeking the position for the same reason: to give back to the University community.

“I’m running because it seems like a great opportunity to stay involved with the University and to have the opportunity to give something back and work on issues that are important to me and ... that are important to the University,” the first hopeful said.

Cliatt noted that perspectives of YAT’s as recent graduates are “vitally important” to their contributions to the board. But, she emphasized, they represent the University as a whole rather than a “specific constituency” of younger community members.

The current YAT’s are Elizabeth Dilday ’09, Meaghan Petersack ’08, Jim Williamson ’07 and Brady Walkinshaw ’06. Walkinshaw will step down from the board this year.

Seniors will select three finalists in primary voting from Feb. 26 to March 4. The primary winners will be announced on March 9 and will compete in another election open to the classes of 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The final winner is usually announced during Reunions.

The Class of 2010 candidates for YAT are: Liz Consky, Connor Diemand-Yauman, Josh Grehan, Gregor Horstmeyer, Julia Jacobson, Reilly Kiernan, Jacob Kosior, Sims Lansing, Arthur Levy, Chris Lumry, Steve Marcus, Andres Moreno, Megan Murley, Brian No, Aditya Panda, Mark Paski, Eric Plummer, Mariam Rahmani, Zach Ruchman, Claire-Marine Sarner, Michael Smith, James Thorman, Andrew Usoro and Noelle Vinson.

Staff writers Christina Henricks, Tara Thean and Sean Wu contributed reporting.