In the minds of many students at Connecticut College, the Board of Trustees (BoT) is something of an enigma. They’re known as a group of distinguished alumni who meet on campus three times a year and who occasionally set up lunches with different groups of students (i.e. students who work in admissions, international students etc.). This is a sentiment that is most likely shared by many undergraduate students at colleges around the country, but Conn actually has something that many other higher education institutions, including all of the other colleges in the NESCAC, do not: Young Alumni Trustees.
Young Alumni Trustees are recent Conn grads who have been elected by other students to serve on the BoT. There are always three YATs serving on the BoT at a time, and the YATs hold the exact same power and weight in decision-making for the College. The recent grads currently serving on the board are Eleanor Hardy ’15, Chakena Sims ’16, and Maurice Tiner ’17. Now, with the end of AY 2017-2018, Hardy’s position on the board will be filled by a new YAT—a yet-to-be-determined member of the class of 2018.
Every year YAT elections are run concurrently with class council elections for non-graduating class years, and only the graduating senior class is able to vote for who they wish to fill the position. Because there were six people who nominated themselves this year and the results of the initial vote were very close, a runoff election has begun. Patrick Farrell ’18, Catherine Rockett ’18, and Adam Goldberg ’18 have been eliminated from the race, and now seniors will choose between April Anderson ’18, Yoldas Yildiz ’18, and Paolo Sanchez ’18. The Voice communicated with all three of the finalists in order to get a clearer idea of their platforms and why they think they’ll make a good trustee.
Anderson, Yildiz, and Sanchez have all been heavily involved students throughout their four years at Conn. Sanchez has served on the Student Government Association (SGA) executive board for almost a year and a half (first as Chair of Residential Affairs in Spring 2017 and all of AY 17-18 as Chair of Equity and Inclusion), a position from which he has developed a lot of experience, “I’ve served on a bunch of committees and I kind of understand the structure and the bureaucracy behind it.” In addition to the experience Sanchez brings to the table thanks to his SGA position and long history working for Residential Life (he is currently serving as the Independent Living Coordinator for the River Ridge Apartments), he believes he has the right interpersonal skills for the job. “I want to be YAT because I have grown and really developed the ability to empathize with people,” Sanchez said. Sanchez considers himself to be a very honest person, adding: “I always say I’m an open book, you just need to ask the right questions and I’ll turn to the right page.”
Yildiz also has experience with SGA, having served as a house senator for AY 16-17 and as Vice President on SGA’s exec board for AY 17-18. In a written statement, Yildiz talked about his other involvements on campus, “I think my involvement within Unity House since my freshman year and more recently my involvement with the LGBTQIA centre has highlighted to me the importance of representation on the Board of Trustees. I want to represent communities I am part of and communities that have made the most impact for me—ensuring that these communities are supported in years to come so they can continue to support students like me.”
Anderson, for her part, has served on honor council every year she’s spent at Conn since her first, and, according to her, this has helped her to become more qualified for a leadership role. “Working on honor council you kind of have to be able to defend your beliefs because it is for the betterment of the school, but you also need to know when to be less rigid and accepting and understanding of other people’s viewpoints… My decision-making process is a lot stronger because of [working on honor council]” said Anderson. In addition, she feels that her role as a member of the Women’s Varsity Water Polo Team has taught her valuable lessons about networking and advocating for communication and support. Anderson also said that her passion for Conn and her ability to reach out to people for feedback contribute to her ability to do the job well, adding, “another value of mine is tenacity. To get things done you need to be able to advocate for them year, after year, after year.”
Both Sanchez and Anderson were eager to discuss advocacy regarding student athletes. Sanchez explained, “very little attention, if any, is given to athletics as a whole, and already being removed from campus on the other side of the road, I can see how that can be a very isolating factor.” Sanchez also criticized the lack of a Chair of Athletics on Conn’s SGA. Anderson used Women’s Water Polo and the Women’s Ice Hockey team as examples of an important part of the Conn that is not advertised enough. “I spoke with the Board of Trustees earlier [this year] and we discussed issues we’re facing as student athletes and they were incredibly sympathetic. They were like, alright, how can we support aquatics? How can we support women’s ice hockey? So supporting the student athletes on campus [will be important to me],” Anderson said in her interview.
Another issue important to both Sanchez and Anderson is physical accessibility on Conn’s campus, or rather, a lack thereof. Sanchez explained that he and other members of SGA have tried to install an accessibility ramp at the LGBTQIA Center, but that the effort was stifled in favor of more expensive, longer-term projects. “I think that the mentality of, “well we’re not going to do it because we would have to change it later” is just disregarding the students that are experiencing that right now,” said Sanchez. “I have a cousin with cerebral palsy who can’t come to my graduation because there is no accessibility for him on the level that he needs,” said Anderson. She added, “the decision to renovate Bill Hall is obviously huge, but I think there are small parts of campus that go into everyday life that also need to be addressed.”
Both Sanchez and Yildiz talked about their interest in examining equity at Conn. “DIEI is just a division that’s seen a lot of new faces because of other loved faces [leaving]. So I think that making sure that the school pinpoints that division as a major priority [is important], because their work is actually very impactful here,” said Sanchez. Yildiz, on the other hand, wishes to focus on improving financial aid for students. He wrote, “financial aid is a huge focus point for me. Without Financial Aid I would not be at this institution and I would not have become the person I am today without Connecticut College and the people at this institution and I know this narrative is similar for many folks,” adding that he wishes to allow access to financial aid for international students like himself.
Sanchez and Anderson also both expressed their desire to facilitate more transparency and better communication at Conn, and Yildiz wrote that he wants to provide support in the school’s plan to double financial assets for student clubs and organizations. All three candidates for the position have strengths that could make each of them a great addition to the Board of Trustees, but it’s ultimately up to the class of 2018 to determine the winner.
It will matter not one bit which of these three are chosen. Energy should be spent better to get rid of President Bergeron. She is glib and ineffective, because she does not care. (Who chose her anyway?)