Dartblog

Ex-Trustee Michael Chu ‘68 had a column in The D yesterday that, I must admit, leaves me more than a little mystified. Can anyone explain his concept of governance?

A trustee needs to arrive to all Dartmouth issues with a truly open mind, where the opinions of other trustees have equal weight in a sincere attempt by all to distinguish the enduring good of the College.

At its core lies the conviction that ultimately Dartmouth is better served by the Board’s collective wisdom rather than your own views. I now believe adhering to this is the highest expression of my love for Dartmouth.

At first, I thought that Mr. Chu was expressing the Leninist notion of democratic centralism, which Wikipedia accurately defines as follows:

Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party. The democratic aspect of this organizational method describes the freedom of members of the political party to discuss and debate matters of policy and direction, but once the decision of the party is made by majority vote, all members are expected to uphold that decision. This latter aspect represents the centralism. As Lenin described it, democratic centralism consisted of “freedom of discussion, unity of action.”

But Chu seems to eschew the notion that one should have views of one’s own. Perhaps Trustees should place their hands on one great Ouija Board, a kind of group-fed oracle, out of which wisdom will flow? Or should Trustees keep their thoughts to themselves, for fear of being deemed divisive — today’s pejorative of choice in Hanover?

Or maybe Chu is the product of the kind of 1960’s-style education that Ayn Rand described as “learning to smell the scent of the pack” — wherein one seeks to learn where the majority is going, and then follows happily along?

I mean, really, what can Chu mean by placing himself among those who, as he writes, “believe the future of a jewel born in 1769 is best assured by mobilizing the collective wisdom of the family”?

I hesitate to call the intellectual product of a Dartmouth Trustee incoherent, but I won’t hesitate for too long. I can’t for the life of me understand the mechanics of the executive decision-making process favored by Michael Chu.