When Christine Burnley Bucklin '84 was named the newest member of Dartmouth's Board of Trustees last week, the College cited her "breadth of business and leadership experience" as reasons for her selection.
The Chief Operating Officer of an on-line company and the first woman to be valedictorian at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Bucklin certainly had a strong resume to boast of.
But a solid academic and career background was not enough to qualify her for the role: the occupant of the prestigious position is required to be a graduate of the College.
Though Dartmouth's requirement is sometimes taken for granted, Dartmouth is unusual among academic institutions -- the only one in the Ivy League -- in that it requires its Board members to be alumni of the College.
The rationale behind the rule is a combination of tradition and a belief that alumni know best. Only people who have spent precious years of their life and have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the College, it is reasoned, will work hard for its improvement.
But as with most practices in higher education, this one is not without its opponents. Critics of the policy say that it limits the breath of undergraduate experiences that Trustees bring to the Board, and that it prevents the realization of meaningful change at Dartmouth.
Explaining the origins of Dartmouth's policy, Chairman of the Board William King '63 said: "Dartmouth has a broad and very diverse alumni body. It was felt that they understood the issues of the College in a way that others perhaps could not. And they had an interest in how the College moved forward.
"The tradition has in some way remained the same way, although the alumni is now much more diverse," he continued. "That has given rise to the understanding that the College has not only been well served by the Trustees who come out of the College as undergraduates and at the same time have different callings in life outside the College."
But not everyone agrees that Dartmouth's is the best model for overseeing an academic institution.
Jerry Martin, the president of the National Association of Trustees and Alumni, an organization that represents trustees and alumni from about 200 universities, said he strongly disagrees with Dartmouth's trustee policy.
"For the purpose of government, it's better if they didn't all go to Dartmouth so they have something to compare it to," he said. "It's hard to change the status quo if people only know one thing. They shouldn't be making decisions based on nostalgia, they should be making decisions based on what's best for the institution."
At Harvard University, whose trusteeships are among the most coveted in the world, policy doesn't require members of the corporation to have Harvard degrees. But, as a matter of practice, many do.
Of Harvard's seven Corporation members, three went to Harvard as undergraduates and four didn't. The four members who spent their undergraduate years elsewhere went to Princeton, Wesleyan, Bryn Mawr College and Howard University, but they also received graduate degrees from Harvard.
"It's to get a broad cross section of expertise that's needed to run an educational institute," Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn said. "The vast majority of people have Harvard degrees, but it's not a requirement. But sometimes the expertise is found outside of Harvard, believe it or not."
At public university systems, few trustees have degrees from the schools they govern. Instead, most tend to be political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the governor, and some are even students.
"At public universities, there tends to be more constituency pressure," Martin said. "From students, from parents, from taxpayers."
King said Dartmouth's alumni-only Trustee policy has, in recent years, been examined.
"It's been looked at at least three times since the time I've been on the Board," he said. "The general consensus is that if the time comes that we want to have Trustees join us that aren't alumni, we'll want them to join us."
Some national academic organizations agree that alumni should have strong representation on governing boards.
"The fact is that the best trustees are very often those that have graduated from the institution and therefore have a very strong affection for the health and welfare of their school," said Tom Ingram, president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. "They generally make the best trustees in their commitment and their philanthropy."
Reflecting on the argument that strong Boards include a diversity of collegiate experience in their ranks, Ingram said: "There are no rights or wrongs here. There are good arguments on both sides."
"I, personally, would probably want a Board that would at least have some room for non-alums. But that's a personal, not an association, point of view."
