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Colgate courts bad publicity
Dartmouth has been in the news for months for its anti-democratic methods of trying to pre-determine alumni elections. First the Dartmouth alumni association proposed a new constitution that would effectively make it impossible for dark horse petition candidates to run in trustee elections. Then the association unilaterally decided to change the election date so as to prolong the fixed terms of incumbent officers. Then Dartmouth administrators--despite public pledges to institutional neutrality--began promoting the new constitution in decidedly non-neutral ways. When Dartmouth president James Wright ignored ACTA's request that he address the irregularities in the College's alumni governance, this blog observed that perhaps Dartmouth has decided that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
Apparently, Colgate University has been watching Dartmouth with care. As ACTA's Charles Mitchell points out at Phi Beta Cons, Colgate's alumni association has recently taken steps to make it harder than ever for petition candidates--who may be popular with alums but who are by definition not the chosen, inside candidates of the alumni association--to run for administrative positions (at Colgate, alumni cannot run directly for spots on the board of trustees, but can run for spots on the Alumni Corporation Board of Directors, a member of which then sits ex officio on the board of trustees).
As at Dartmouth, the focus at Colgate seems not to be on ensuring fair elections, but rather on ensuring that those candidates who are hand-picked by the alumni association have a special advantage in elections. It's hard not to conclude that Colgate--like Dartmouth--is ultimately more interested in stocking its alumni board with people whose ideas and agendas mesh with the established, institutional norm than it is in allowing Colgate alumni to choose the candidate whose platform they believe will best serve the institution.
It goes without saying that reform-oriented candidates are not going to fare well at either Dartmouth or Colgate. It also goes without saying that Colgate, like Dartmouth, deserves a little bad publicity. When institutional ethics fail, exposure is often the best way to compel institutions to get themselves back on track.
Posted by acta online at October 3, 2006 08:46 AM
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