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A sad day for Dartmouth
That's what Saturday was, according to ACTA's press release:
WASHINGTON, DC (September 10, 2007)--On Saturday, September 8, the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees voted to dilute the role of elected alumni trustees in a decision which drastically changes Dartmouth's historic governance process. In a divided vote, board members voted to add eight unelected members and change the way future alumni elections are held. The college has refused to reveal the actual vote count.These changes come after the alumni in 2006 roundly rejected similar changes to the election process in a vote on the alumni Constitution; four straight trustee election victories by petition-nominated, reform-minded alumni; and the 2007 election of a majority of reform petition candidates to the Executive Committee of the Dartmouth Association of Alumni. The board chairman claimed the changes would end "destructive politicization of trustee campaigns that have hurt Dartmouth."
Anne D. Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said the board's decision means "the Dartmouth administration and its supporters on the board have now done by fiat what they could not do by alumni consent."
Neal continued, "Having suffered six recent electoral defeats--as alumni in record numbers demanded independent voices on the board and Alumni Association--the Dartmouth establishment now found a different way to end the College's unique tradition of vibrant alumni involvement and participation."
"Since when did differing views and vigorous campaigns become 'destructive' and 'divisive?'" she asked. "That is the essence of democracy--but that, regrettably, is exactly what the administration and its supporters on the board appear to fear."
"The loyal and engaged alumni at Dartmouth have traditionally been a source of great strength," Neal concluded. "The board majority's refusal to respect that tradition marks a sad day in Dartmouth's history."
Posted by cmitchell at September 11, 2007 06:11 PM
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Comments
Anne Neal's facetious and ignorant statements are extremely frustrating to anyone who has even a basic familiarity with either Dartmouth or nonprofit corporations in general.
What are "elected alumni trustees"? Does she or ACTA or Mitchell think Dartmouth alumni have ever elected a trustee? Is Neal aware that the 1891 Agreement gives alumni the right to "nominate" trustees in place of the board's own nominating committee, and that is all?
What makes this board's act done "by fiat"? How is any decision by any nonprofit board not by fiat? Where did Neal or ACTA come up with this unfounded, disingenuous, and frankly crass double standard for Dartmouth? Why are other corporations not expected to act as national governments?
How did the board's decision "end the College's unique tradition of vibrant alumni involvement" when it preserved every single alumni-nominated seat as it existed before the decision? That means the five seats purchased in 1891 and the three given gratuitously since then.
Neal asks facetiously "Since when did differing views and vigorous campaigns become 'destructive' and 'divisive?'"
The answer is "since 2003." That's when T.J. Rodgers strove to run an unabashedly political campaign in his quest to obtain a nomination. His and others' injection of electoral politics do not somehow make the board of trustees into a "democratic," "governmental," or even "political" body -- it is a corporate board of trustees. ACTA should know as much.
Posted by: Reader at September 12, 2007 10:17 AM
A sad day indeed. A group of six people among the leaders of Dartmouth's alumni association has decided to use the Association's name to file a lawsuit against Dartmouth College.
Posted by: Reader at October 8, 2007 04:16 PM
Dartmouth Trustee Todd Zywicki, whom ACTA has supported, has been formally reprimanded by the Board of Trustees (including other ACTA faves Smith, Robinson, and Rodgers) for his behavior at a recent Pope Center conference.
Finally, a trustee is held accountable, eh?
Posted by: Sad Day at December 19, 2007 01:54 PM
Why no post on the Dartmouth Board's successful reform this month, the result of the decision ACTA pretended to lament a year ago?
Posted by: Reader at September 10, 2008 11:18 AM