About 80 Dartmouth alumni met last night in Boston while others listened in by webcast in a "town hall-style meeting" to discuss the newly proposed alumni constitution, which among other changes, would bring the elite Alumni Council and the much larger, but less active, Association of Alumni under one umbrella as the Alumni Association.
Currently, the Association of Alumni "could do many things but it's not set up to and in fact it hasn't," JB Daukas '84 said at the beginning of last night's meeting. Daukas, along with other members of the alumni governance task force, fielded questions and responses from members of the Dartmouth community regarding the new constitution.
Several questions and comments were regarding the new constitution's rules about petition candidates. Under the new constitution a petition candidate would only have to accrue 250 votes -- half of what the current constitution mandates -- to run in the trustee election. However, it also requires those candidates to hand in their petitions before the nominating committee presents its candidates.
During the meeting, Phil Mone '02 likened this rule to a batter asking a pitcher what pitch he will throw so he'll know how to swing.
"The nominating committee can see which petition candidates are coming in, and then choose accordingly their trustee nominations," Mone said.
According to Bill Hutchinson '76, another member of the task force, the group's intention was to ensure head-to-head trustee races. The group saw the petition deadline as "not a huge sacrifice" to accomplish that goal, Hutchinson said.
Doug Keare '56, who attended the meeting, believes the new rules concerning petition candidates are flawed.
"I'm entirely in favor of petition candidates, but I don't think that we should be designing a system that assumes that we're going to have petition candidates all of the time," Keare said. "I think we want to design a system where the nominating committee, under the new structure, has every chance to succeed rather than operating under a presumption of failure."
Supporters of the new constitution say that it will more easily facilitate communication among alumni, administrators and trustees through a 16-member alumni liaison board for which any member of the Association will be able to run.
"That's really a radical and different idea that we're really excited about," Daukas said, adding that the current trustees seemed enthusiastic about interacting with the proposed board.
The second branch of the new Association of Alumni, called the Alumni Assembly, would essentially overtake the duties of the current Alumni Council.
While certainly not subdued, the tone of the meeting was overwhelmingly civil, in contrast to some of the heated debate that has occurred in other forums.
"I find it quite interested tonight that the conversation is quite civil," Gary Love '76 said. "I love the civility tonight, but I know for a fact that many of our alumni volunteers have been attacked in a very personal fashion."
Still, Love supported the new constitution, speaking against those who referred to an elite group that they believe controls most alumni activities.
"I don't see inside group, I don't see outside group. I see Dartmouth as a whole. The new structure, while not perfect, certainly invites a myriad of voices to participate," Love said in his conclusion and met the evening's first round of applause.
"I think the meeting met or perhaps exceeded objectives," said Merle Adelman '80, first vice president of the association of alumni. "It really provided a forum for people to respond and ask questions."
Rick Routhier '73, president of the Alumni Council, facilitated the discussion and said he also believes it was a success.
"It's always been my aim...to focus on the principles of what we're trying to do and to try to be open and honest and clear about where we are," Routhier said. "We're all working hard and we're all human, so there's always room for new ideas."
