Dartblog

At Dartmouth, half of the Board of Trustees is elected by the alumni. The three most recent open seats were filled by petition candidates instead of the officially nominated candidates. A group of alumni called the Alumni Council appoints a Nominating Committee to select the official nominees. The Alumni Council has been often criticized for being out of touch with alumni, since it is a largely unelected body. (When a class graduates Dartmouth, Dartmouth College itself, rather than the graduating students, selects which member of that class will sit on the Council.)

The most recent example was the constitution vote. In that vote, a record 37% of all Dartmouth alumni voted. It was the largest participatory act on the part of alumni in the history of Dartmouth College. Although weeks earlier the Alumni Council voted 68-1 (98%) to endorse the constitution, the alumni of Dartmouth turned out and voted down the constitution by eighteen points, with a majority—51%—voting against it. This has only increased concerns that the Alumni Council is out of touch.

Today, the Council announced its nominees for the trustee seat to be voted upon this coming spring. The candidates are Richard Alderson ‘69, Sherri Carroll Oberg ‘82, and John Wolf ‘72. None of these folks is known to me, so I can’t write too much about them just yet. But do look for updates anon.