Alumnus Response to the AoA President

I am an alumnus, Class of 1959, and have read your e-mail.

You are wrong when you imply that the recent letter, signed by four alumni, purported to be from the Alumni Association. Nowhere does it state or imply such. In fact, it directly critical of the official position taken by the Association in connection with the alumni-Trustee issue and seeks to influence who is elected the Association’s officer in the upcoming election

The full letter is below the fold.

On the question of the Governance Committee’s not meeting with the officers of the Association, the letter says that the Governance Committee “rejected the request for mediation”. You e-mail says nothing about this. Did you seek mediation? If so, what reason did the Governance Committee give for refusing same?

Since you are President of the Alumni Association, why did you not support the retention of the existing system for parity of alumni to non-alumni on the College Board of Trustees, and thus preserve the historic roll of the alumni in the governance of the College? By your action in opposing the lawsuit, you have abrogated your duty to preserve the strength and influence of the alumni and their association.

A majority of the non-alumni elected members of the Board of Trustees obviously did not like having to accommodate as equals the members elected by the alumni directly. They and the officers of the Alumni Association failed to make their case to the alumni who voted to elect other people. When confronted with this fact, the Governance Committee solved their problem by increasing the number of non-elected Trustees. Doesn’t this sound similar to FDR’s attempt to pack the Supreme Court?

Clearly you and others on the Alumni Association’s Board who oppose the lawsuit represent the interests of the Trustees and not the alumni as a whole.

You sound the alarm that some of the support for the lawsuit might be coming from people who are not a part of “the Dartmouth family.” Pray tell when did this become a disqualification. After all, how many Presidents have the Trustees appointed who were not a part of “the Dartmouth family.” And, by the way, just who makes the determination of who is and who is not a member of “the Dartmouth family”?

To the best of my knowledge the Hanover Institute, which I support, does not support or oppose people running for public office, so why do you label it a political action group?

If you are uncomfortable with having the alumni be able to directly nominate persons to the Association’s Board of Directors and for the alumni to have parity on the College Trustee Board, then why not just say so-and let other alumni have their say too?