Maryam Asenuga 

she/her 
Class of 2020 
 
Q1: Why would you like to serve as Young Trustee? (400 words or less) 
 
The initiatives that I have collaboratively spearheaded were inspired by my desire to advance Duke and all of 
its short-term and long-term goals. I wish to continue the work of advocating for the entire university as Young 
Trustee.  
 
In 2017, I co-created the nation's first undergraduate Pride Invitational for prospective LGBTQIA+ 
students. After Duke's 2019 Invitational, an attendee said, "The connections that I made during this program 
have influenced my decision to attend Duke and illustrated that Duke will celebrate my identity."​ This is the 
type of impact that I have been committed to during my years here at Duke. In previously advocating for 
different communities, I desire to support the entire university and ensure Duke fulfills its mission. Motivated 
by this advocacy, I spent years listening to and learning from students. I collaborated with Duke's Admissions 
Office to create institutional support for LGBTQIA+ students. Partnering with Duke's indigenous and Native 
students, I successfully built collaboration between admin and students to create an on-campus center that 
celebrated and acknowledged Duke's indigenous and Native communities. Seeking out Duke's international 
students, I learned about the unique plights they face to devise strategies to build institutional support. I am 
driven to support Duke so it can develop into a school from which future generations will benefit, which is why 
I wish to serve as Young Trustee.  
 
Due to my unwavering gratitude and respect for Duke, I can express that Duke must do better for its 
minorities. This will improve Duke as a whole. The role of Young Trustee will allow me to extend my advocacy 
to all of Duke and its communities. It is through my past experiences of advocating for certain communities 
that taught me the role diversity can play in advancing Duke. Diversity of identity and thought will enable Duke 
to fulfill its mission of cultivating good citizens who can contribute to state, national, and global societies. 
Emphasis on diversity enables students to prosper in our increasingly multicultural society. In serving as Young 
Trustee, I can advocate for the entire university, emphasize diversity, and deepen the board's commitment to 
serving Duke. I want to serve the entire Duke community of students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, 
donors, Durham residents, health system patients, etc. 
 
Finally, I believe I have a unique perspective, as Duke has never had a Black woman elected to the 
undergraduate Young Trustee position.  
 
Q2: What attributes and qualities make for an effective member of the Board of Trustees? Additionally, what 
makes for an effective Young Trustee operating in a formal boardroom setting? (300 words or less) 
 
An effective Board of Trustee member is a collaborator, active supporter of the entire university, and a 
visionary. A successful member thrives in the board's collegial environment as she works with the President, 
administrators, and fellow board members. Secondly, an efficacious member must be a supportive cheerleader 
of Duke as a whole. By ensuring Duke fulfills its mission, an effective member should actively embrace Duke's 
short-term and long-term development plans and bolster Duke's reputation in society at large. Lastly, a 
productive member is a visionary. She is a steward of Duke's current reality and mission, while also envisioning 
the institution's future. Forward-looking in her conception of issues that will affect Duke's future, an effective 
member collaboratively works to create strategic plans to develop a school from which future generations will 
benefit.  
 
An effective Young Trustee must be an advocate, independent, and a representative of Duke's values in a 
formal boardroom. It is salient that the Young Trustee advocates for all of the broad interests that serve Duke's 
short-term and long-term goals and the interests of Duke's communities. This Young Trustee must also ensure 
that the whole university and its stakeholders are seriously considered by the board. A successful Young Trustee 
should also think independently in order to courageously and confidentially tackle tough issues. Lastly, a Young 
Trustee must possess the values that define Duke, such as integrity, dedication, and inclusion, in order to 
confidently and deftly represent Duke to its constituents.  
 
I wish to be Young Trustee as I hope to serve as an independent-thinking advocate who serves as a reflection 
of Duke's values. Through my on-campus experiences, I have shown my capacity to do this and I desire to 
continue this work on a broader level.  
 
Q3: To which communities do you belong, and what have you learned from your experiences? How have you 
expanded beyond these communities to gain a broad perspective on campus life? (500 words or less) 
 
As a Black female Muslim child of an immigrant, my identities have taught me the unique vulnerability to 
intersectional discrimination. I will never forget the time I was called a "girl ape." Or when in a grocery store a 
man told my mother to return to "your disgusting country." As a minority on Duke's campus, I continue to see 
this discrimination. Being a Muslim student has allowed me to witness the inequitable lack of funding for the 
Center for Muslim Life as compared to its counterparts. I feel unsafe as a woman on a campus that has reported 
that 48% of its undergraduate females have experienced on-campus sexual assault last year. The disheartening 
lack of African-American professors and blatant racism are diminishing as a Black student.  
 
Through these experiences, I have learned the power of advocacy. My experiences have taught me that to 
uplift communities, one must learn from and listen to various voices. As an appointed member of PCOBA 
(President Price's Council on Black Affairs) and the only Black undergraduate senior woman, I have seen the 
impact PCOBA has made in learning from Duke's Black community. In DSG, I witnessed students' successful 
advocacy in pressuring Duke to become a sanctuary university for undocumented students. My on-campus 
experiences have allowed me to understand both the similarities and differences between my experiences and 
those of other communities. These lessons strengthened my ability to expand my advocacy beyond my 
communities to broadly understand campus life.   
  
I co-created the nation's first Pride Invitational to invite prospective LGBTQIA+ students to visit Duke and be 
introduced to the Duke experience from LGBTQIA+ perspectives. I spent eight months securing $14,000 in 
funding, presenting to administrators, and conversing with Duke's LGBTQIA+ community. It was moving to 
witness this initiative's impact on Duke's community and on myself. I learned to listen and empathize with a 
community that is not my own, which is pertinent as Young Trustee must serve the entire university by 
considering all of Duke's communities. These conversations enabled me to gain broader perspectives on where 
campus life succeeds in supporting Duke's communities, and where it fails. I also learned how to navigate 
through the university's structure and gained deeper institutional knowledge. 
   
I continue to expand to other communities. Through years of listening to members of Duke's Indigenous 
community and meeting with Native students, I have been able to continue broadening my perspective on 
campus life. After one semester of meeting with administrators, Center for Multicultural Affairs 
representatives, and motivated by this community's perspective on campus life, I built collaboration between 
admin and students to create an on-campus center that celebrated and acknowledged Duke's Indigenous and 
Native communities.  
 
Motivated to serve Duke as a whole, I have become a broad thinker by understanding how the lessons that I 
have learned from my experiences and others' can apply to Duke's advancement. I have grasped a wider 
perspective on campus life, a perspective that applauds Duke for its progress and acknowledges its downfalls. 
 
Q4: Provide one decision made by the administration or the board that you felt was in the best interest of Duke 
University and one that was not. Explain why you feel this way for both responses. (750 words or less) 
 
As a Black woman in America, I understand the reality of having one's character demonized and 
underestimated due to race. Due to my ties to police brutality, I have seen the lethal treatment of minorities who 
lack criminal records. I have also seen the inequitable treatment of minorities with criminal records. These 
minorities are discarded without acknowledging the effects created by mass incarceration and the heightened 
police surveillance of Black and Brown communities. This is precisely why I believe the administration's "Ban 
the Box"​ policy is in Duke's best interest.   
 
Beginning in November of 2018, Duke's decision to no longer ask job applicants if they have been convicted 
of a crime during the initial stages of hiring is paramount. It shows Duke's move towards a more equitable 
environment. The administration recognized the prejudice against the formerly incarcerated. It recognized the 
question's power to nefariously deny financial stability. It reinforces Duke's march against unjust hiring 
practices.  
 
President Price recently stated that finding the best faculty will advance Duke's long-term goal of promoting 
economic development in this region. This policy helps to ensure Duke finds these quality faculty, without 
barring applicants due to discrimination. The policy prevents Latinx and African-American job applicants from 
being disproportionately rejected, applicants who could have been impeded from contributing their wealth of 
talent and diversity to the Duke community.  
 
Duke's commitment to inclusion extends beyond Duke's faculty, it extends to Durham residents because 
"banning the box" alleviates this major barrier for Durham residents seeking employment at Duke. Duke is 
acknowledging the biased circumstances that lead to African-Americans making up only 21% of North 
Carolina's population, but making up 50% of those formerly or currently incarcerated in this state. This 
decision reflects Duke's progressive values and is impactful for Duke's interests.  
  
 There is still more work to be done. Duke has yet to create safeguards that protect the formerly incarcerated 
at every application stage and Duke still maintains the box question in undergraduate applications. 
 
In contrast, the administration's decision to block graduate students' efforts to unionize is not in Duke's best 
interest. Our graduate students are major drivers of Duke's reputation as a world leader in research and quality 
education. But, with the dramatic and consistent increase in tuition for Duke's graduate schools (increased by 
7.1% in 2005), graduate students are seeking unionization to bargain for equitable working conditions and 
better pay. In response, Duke hired an anti-union law firm. 
 
My disagreement with this decision does not simply boil down to dollars. It is about the livelihood and 
stability of Duke's graduate students. These factors directly determine the learning conditions of students and 
the quality of Duke's research. How can we expect graduate students to efficiently fulfill their roles when they 
are struggling with rising graduate tuition costs, limited compensation, and working in various capacities at 
Duke? They lecture classes, grade papers, and research. How can we expect Duke to reach its potential when 
these students are forced to participate in this juggling act? Duke is renowned for its research and quality 
education, it is evident that graduate students play an influential role in Duke's reputation, operations, and 
innovation. This is why blocking efforts that will protect them directly goes against Duke's best interest. A 
union is helpful for Duke's graduate students because it protects them and allows them to bargain for better 
pay, equitable working conditions, and transparent employment policies. This is beneficial for Duke's interest 
as these protected students can more effectively produce high-quality graduate teaching contributions that have 
bolstered Duke's reputation.  
 
An institution's reputation stems partly from its treatment of its students and employees. Graduate students, 
in my opinion, happen to be both. Duke has made strides in its commitment to Ph.D. students by granting 
them with 12-month stipends and fully paid health insurance. But this may not be enough to reverse the effects 
of blocking unionization. These graduate students are struggling under food insecurity, signaled by the need to 
create a food pantry to service Duke's graduate students who cannot afford basic needs.  
 
By reversing decisions to block unionization, Duke will increase graduate teachers' protection, their 
productivity, attract more students, and serve as a leading example amongst our peer institutions. 
 
Young Trustee is a representative of graduate students, as well as the entire Duke community, who make up 
59% of our student population. It is important to represent graduate students' views as well. 
 
Q5: Over the next five years, what do you envision will be significant issues discussed by the Board of Trustees 
and why? (500 words or less) 
 
Two major issues that the Board of Trustees will discuss over the next five years are cybersecurity and DACA 
and its impact on the university's government relations. 
 
In recent years, cybersecurity threats have targeted places of higher education due to great vulnerabilities. 
Duke has endured some of these attacks due to the vulnerability caused by its wide variety of sensitive and 
lucrative data, such as cutting-edge research and intellectual property. In 2016, a Duke professor's computer 
containing his research was hacked by a spear-phishing malware. According to a Chronicle article by a Duke 
senior thoroughly versed in cybersecurity, Duke is also vulnerable due to its limited access to information on 
cybersecurity. Duke's vulnerability to cyber-attacks is a significant issue to be discussed by the board.  

Cybersecurity affects two integral aspects of Duke. As a leader in research, cybersecurity attacks can 
manipulate Duke's valuable data. As mentioned in recent Chronicle articles, cybersecurity creates the risk that 
intellectual property developed at Duke may fall into the wrong hands, at the expense of the university and its 
reputation. Over the next five years, it will be important for the board to discuss protocols to protect this 
intellectual property. According to the Pew Research Center, these types of cyberattacks have recently occurred 
at alarming rates in universities. Over 300 universities endured giant cyber attacks on valuable data and 
intellectual property in March 2018. In August 2019 alone, two American universities suffered devastating 
cyber attacks. Secondly, the board may discuss cybersecurity because of the egregious danger it poses for the 
entirety of Duke's community. This includes danger to students, faculty, staff, and Duke hospital's patients. 
The board oversees Duke's hospital and possesses full medical information for thousands to millions of patients 
that could be compromised by attacks. Duke's networks also contain students' social security numbers, financial 
information, medical records, and citizenship status. 

Another issue the Board of Trustees may discuss is the future of Duke's undocumented community. As a 
child of an immigrant in this current climate who directly understands the debilitating fear of people who lack 
citizenship, I believe the board will see the importance of discussing how immigration affects all of Duke's 
interests. Delineated in recent Chronicle articles, the U.S. president's actions to eliminate DACA will affect 
Duke's current and future communities. Regardless of the next president, these actions will have long-lasting 
effects. It stands to affect Duke's sizeable community of DACA recipients who are undergraduates (at least 40 
DACA undergraduates), graduates, and employees. North Carolina has 25,000 DACA recipients. DACA is 
also significant as it stands to influence Duke's academia-industry relationships that are subject to government 
relations. Duke must juggle protecting its Dreamers, while simultaneously abiding by government entities, like 
NIH and NSF, that fund the research that has helped give Duke its reputation. In the coming years, these issues 
will be discussed because the board is centered on protecting all of Duke's interests by balancing the entire 
university's various needs and academia-industry relationships.