23 ’23s run for Young Alumni Trustee

It’s election season on campus yet again — this time, seniors will be casting ballots in the primary election for Young Alumni Trustee (YAT). Out of the 23 members of the Class of 2023 running for the position, the three with the most votes will advance to the general election.

Members of the Classes of 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 will be eligible to vote in the general election, which will run from April 25 to May 17. The result will be announced on May 26.

The seniors running for this year’s election are: Fatinah Albeez, Sofia Alvarado, Beatrix Bondor, Thomas Bosancic, Kion Bruno, Hannah Faughnan, José Pablo Fernández García, Benjamin Tsengel Finch, Ben Gelman, Kanishkh Kanodia, Hannah Kapoor, Caroline Kirby, Jennifer Lee, Julio Cesar (JC) Martinez, Mutemwa Raphael Masheke, Gwyndolyn Camille Reeves, Douglas E. Robins, II, Claire Schmeller, Sophie Singletary, Mayu Takeuchi, Shruti Venkat, Richard Zhu, and Grace Zhuang.

The student elected to the position will serve a four-year term on the University’s Board of Trustees. According to the University website, YATs “have the same rights, powers and duties as all other trustees.” Of the other members of the Board of Trustees, the most recent graduate of the University received their diploma in 1999. YATs are expected to provide perspective to the Board given their more recent experiences as Princeton students, but are prohibited from “advocating for a particular constituency or point of view.”

According to the University website, “Trustees who arrive on the board having already staked out positions on issues without access to full information can undermine both the workings of the board and their own effectiveness if they are perceived as beholden to a position.”

Given this, students running for YAT are not allowed to campaign or take positions on University policy, something that has been criticized by members of the University community in the past and present.

Among the YAT candidates from 2018 to 2022, most have been in the School of Public and International Affairs, with the politics and computer science departments producing the second and third-most candidates.

Moreover, the most common eating club for candidates from 2018 to 2022 is Cap and Gown Club.

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According to a statement sent to The Daily Princetonian by University media relations assistant Ahmad Rizvi, an average of 25 candidates have run for the primary election each year since 1999, with the largest number being 41 in 2012.

Candidate profiles, with more information on their experiences at Princeton and motivations for running for YAT can be found here. The primary will run until 5 p.m. on March 30, with results to be announced on March 31.

Sandeep Mangat is a Head News Editor for the ‘Prince.’

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Correction: A previous version of the article misstated the data about the candidates’ eating clubs.