Photo courtesy of Sydney Lamb.
Sydney Lamb ’21 made the most of her time at Connecticut College. Lamb was a thrower on the track and field team; a member of multiple clubs, including the acapella group ConnArtists and N2O improv; and chair of Honor Council her senior year, but her time with Conn did not end with receiving her diploma last spring. Her senior year, Lamb was among three students to be elected a Young Alumni Trustee (or YAT). I spoke with Lamb on Nov 12, 2021 about what that position entailed.
This interview has been condensed for clarity.
At what point did this position come on the radar for you?
As a first-year I knew people through Honor Council who were running for the position. One of my friends Nicki was a YAT for 2019 so I knew it was a position I could hold. Obviously, things don’t really become real until senior year. You start thinking about graduating, and getting a job, and how you want to stay connected to Conn. So that was the point where I realized that when it was time to nominate yourself for this position, I was going to do it.
How does the nomination process work?
So, senior spring you nominate yourself with the classic, “Who are you? Why do you want to do this? What are you going to do in this role?”, and then the entirety of the senior class votes. You serve a three year term as a full member of the board. Most board terms are four years but it’s three years for YATs. After this year, the YATs from 2019 will rotate off, and the new 2022 members will rotate on. I’m on committees. You’re a full voting member. It’s a unique position to have I think.
After you rotate off, is there a path to getting back on the board?
Honestly, I’m not sure. I think being on the board as something other than a YAT has a lot to do with the decision you’ve made after graduation and what you’ve done in your professional life along with how you’ve maintained your relationship with Conn.
Do you go to meetings where every trustee is there?
I’ve only gone through my first set of meetings but the way it works is each trustee is on two committees and they all have committee chairs. I’m on the Student Experience committee and the Student Trustee Liaison committee. Then there’s executive meetings where all the committee chairs will get together and talk. Then we have full board meetings to do the votes that we need to do but also recap what we learned, what we want to do moving forward, what our concerns are, how things are going.
I don’t really know what a normal, non-pandemic-affected four years of college looks like, but it does feel like outwardly spoken student dissatisfaction has been pretty prevalent these past couple of years. How much of that gets back to these meetings?
I think one of the things that’s really good about having YATs is that it bridges a gap; I am a member of the board, but I’m also 22 and I still have friends at Conn, so I’m not just hearing about what’s happening from an official capacity. We’ve tried to do a good job with reaching out to current students. A lot of our touch points are with student government. Anyone who’s ever met with the board for any reason knows that there’s always too much to talk about and never enough time. One thing that we’re doing as YATs is getting together with the student government before the meetings just to ask them what they want us to bring back to the board. I definitely think that YATs serve as a line of communication from students to the board. I have noticed that a lot of the issues that I could see and hear about as a student are the same issues that are being looked at and discussed about by the board. It’s just coming from a different perspective.
So you started the summer after graduation?
I was elected in the spring. One thing that’s great is that we met over the summer and they match all new trustees with an older trustee who serves as a mentor. Then we had our meetings in October and our next meetings are in February. Until then I have some meetings with deans and other board members I’ve made contact with about various matters.
What was the biggest adjustment that came with taking on this position?
Honestly, it was very overwhelming, especially since it was when the campaign was launched so everything was at an 11. But getting more perspective was a bit difficult, like trying to see things as an alumni. I worked with administration very closely when I was at Conn so I was comfortable doing that but it was a transition to go into the dynamic of being a board member and not getting intimidated because, like I said, I am 22 and there are people on this board who are so well-established in their given fields, but everyone was very nice.
I remember last year with “The Big Announcement,” there was some student disappointment with how there wasn’t really a whole lot of specificity as far as where that money was going. I’m wondering if there are more clear-cut goals with this campaign considering how much is being raised.
There definitely is but that’s a question for someone higher up. I don’t know what you’re talking about with the big announcement, Jimmy, because I was ecstatic. That was so exciting. I think what happened last year is that we were living under COVID conditions so any announcement that the college made that was looking towards the future, I think any other year students would have been like “Wow! Amazing!”, but when you’re going through a year where you can’t see your friends or play your sport or be with your club, the perspective’s a bit different. I think if you talk to a lot of people who graduated last year, we wanted to set our friends and our clubs up to have a good year this year. We were already in that mindset that this may not affect me but this’ll affect the next class or the class after that.
Has the voyeurism issue been discussed amongst the trustees recently?
I don’t know if I can speak to that.
Any final thoughts to the seniors reading this who might be considering running for this position?
Do it one hundred percent. I wanted this role because after last year I felt that I wanted to continue to be involved with Conn. Even though I’ve only just started I can already say that, hands down, it’s been a phenomenal experience, in terms of staying connected with Conn, getting to help on issues that I think are important and then also getting to meet so many amazing people. It’s nice to be able to be in a room where everyone is so passionate about the college. It’s very affirming for me because I had such a great time being a student here. If anyone has any questions, please reach out to me.
