Leadership comes naturally to IU’s newest student trustee

Junior A.D. King has been a leader for most of his life. \nHe was the quarterback of his high school football team, CEO of the Global Sales Leadership Society in the Kelley School of Business, president of the Board of Aeons, and for the next two years, he will help lead the University as IU’s newest student trustee. \nKing was finishing up an internship with a chemical coating company in Shanghai, China, on Aug. 2 when Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels appointed him to represent students from the eight IU campuses.\n“I’m kind of representing almost 100,000 students,” King said. “It can be an arduous task, but I will do everything in my capacity to effectively do so.”\nKing is a fourth generation Hoosier and no stranger to IU traditions, specifically the Little 500. He raced on Fiji’s team last year, which finished eighth. With a father who won the bike race during his time at IU, King has a lot to live up to.\n“It was a little discouraging to not finish first or in the top three,” King said. “But we have all our riders returning, so I have a very auspicious outlook for this season.”\nKing’s history with the University is one of the reasons he cares so much about it and why he decided to pursue such an active role in its future, he said.\nKing said his first public board of trustees meeting, where the board approved all of IU President Michael McRobbie’s new appointments, was relatively simple. He said the other trustees’ attitude was very encouraging.\n“They want to hear the student input and student voice and student perspective on certain issues and will look to me to provide that,” he said.\nKing said he would like to voice the student opinion, even if it means going against the other board members. He said he doesn’t foresee many situations where he will have to do this because if students feel strongly about an issue the board will respect those feelings.\n“I definitely don’t want people to think it’s students versus adults,” King said. “We’re not adversaries, we’re all working toward the same common goal and that’s extremely important to realize.”\nOne of the challenges King will face as a new trustee is learning how complex the institution is, said IU Chancellor Ken Gros Louis.\n“My advice to new trustees is to try and identify several issues they want to become particularly knowledgeable about and focus on that,” Gros Louis said.\nGros Louis met King through the Board of Aeons, which was created in 1921 to help voice student opinion. Gros Louis helped King prepare for his position by filling him in on issues concerning other IU campuses and explaining the role of a trustee.\nGros Louis said King is a good choice for student trustee and he is pleased an undergraduate was chosen to fill the position. The majority of student trustees have been graduate students, but the majority of students across all IU campuses are undergraduates, Gros Louis said.\n“It’s good for an undergrad who intends to listen, as A.D. does, to make sure the board understands what undergrads are thinking because they do make up most of the student body,” he said.\nThis year King faces an honors I-Core course schedule, training to live up to his father’s Little 500 legacy and representing students all over the state, but he welcomes the challenge.\n“It definitely keeps me busy, but IU is a passion I have, and I really want to do the best job possible,” King said.