Substantial changes to the governance of the Association of Alumni were approved Sunday by a gathering of several hundred alumni in Spaulding Auditorium. By a vote of 198-32, alumni approved a constitutional amendment that permits all-media voting and lowers the threshold from three-quarters to two-thirds for changes to the Association's constitution. While an overwhelming majority voted for the amendment, a vocal minority spoke strongly against the amendment and Sunday's proceedings.
The opposition criticized the Association's executive committee for bundling two significant reforms in a single amendment. The critics also bemoaned the apparent absence of defined procedural rules at Sunday's meeting, which prevented several attempts to modify or table the motion.
John MacGovern '80 stressed that a lowered voting threshold eases the process of constitutional change.
"I believe a constitution should be hard to change," he said.
Alumni Association President Al Collins '53 disagreed with naysayers, emphasizing that the new amendment allows "for a more democratic process," by permitting a greater number of alumni to vote on constitutional changes, even if the approval percentage is lower.
Currently, changes to the Association's constitution can only be approved by a quorum of alumni assembled in Hanover.
Collins called the new threshold a "much more appropriate number" but offset criticism by saying "we haven't lowered the threshold, we've changed the opportunity."
Stan Colla '66 Tu'86, secretary-treasurer of the Association and vice president emeritus for alumni relations said the two-thirds requirement helped make the process more democratic. He also stated that this fraction was decided upon by a specific task force, the Alumni Governance Task Force, because a majority of peer constituencies and state governments use the two-thirds requirement.
In addition, Colla also said that the two-thirds change was necessary with the enactment of all-media voting.
"Once you moved from voting in person, where a voter can be part of the debate and hear the rationale, to alumni at large, the three-fourths requirement seemed to be a gridlock because it was such a high majority to overcome," Colla said.
Very little of Sunday's debate focused on the all-media voting clause of the amendment, which many speakers praised as overdue.
"We've been fighting for 5 years [for all-media voting]," Frank Gado '58, an ardent opponent of the amendment, said.
Gado said he remained frustrated that his support for all-media voting could not be separated from the two-thirds addendum -- a sentiment shared by many of the amendment's vocal opponents.
Many of those opposed to the amendment also criticized the way in which Collins ran the meeting due to the lack of defined rules of order. Motions made during the discussion period were routinely denied further acknowledgement.
MacGovern, relying on Robert's Rules of Order, moved to amend the amendment during the meeting. This would have effectively allowed the discussion of the amendment to be divided between the issue of all-media voting and the issue of changing the approval percentage.
MacGovern said that his proposal to divide the amendment was quickly put down by those running the meeting, specifically Collins.
Collins disagreed that Robert's Rules applied, saying "we're not committed" to those rules.
"The purpose of the meeting was to vote on a one-issue vote as it stood up or down, not to be amended, but to be accepted or rejected by those who were there and that's what we did -- we didn't need any rules of order," Collins said.
At one point in the meeting, a request that the rules be defined was made, but the executives overlooked the request.
Gado said he was appalled by the disregard of rules and said that there was no order at the meeting.
"It was reminiscent of the National Congress of the people's Republic of China," Gado said. "It is hard to imagine any deliberative body in the world so brazenly indifferent to orderly procedure -- and that includes the more regressive republics of the Soviet Union. It was an absolute disgrace."
Colla countered that the committee "operated the election under the prevailing rules as in the past."
The meeting began after nearly being stalled by a restraining order that was discounted late Friday evening.
MacGovern filed the restraining order after a lawsuit was filed against the Association for discounting proxy votes at the Oct. 23 meeting, which failed to go to trial in time for Sunday's meeting.
MacGovern noted that the restraining order was unsuccessful because he was unable to provide evidence of "irreparable damage."
Sunday's constitutional change paves the way for a second attempt for the proposed merger of the Association and the Alumni Council, which was originally defeated by a slim margin in 2003. The issue is expected to arise once again now that the Association has successfully modified its voting procedure.
The future of the Association has been a contentious matter for some time, even among Dartmouth undergraduates. More notably, Student Body President Noah Riner '06 has taken a strong stance on the issue and was seen offering flyers to alumni as they arrived to the presentation Sunday.
Collins and the Executive Committee plan to move forward on a new constitution for the Association now that the amendment has been passed.
"It's our goal, our commitment. ... We're going to move this thing along as soon as possible," Collins said.
