With the April 2007 alumni trustee election underway, trustee candidates will be able to actively campaign for the first time as the Alumni Council lifted the ban on campaigning last fall.
As never before, the campaign over the next several months will force candidates to elaborate on their competing visions for the future of the College. Voters will be empowered with more information about the candidates. Additionally, the time and effort required to mount a successful trustee campaign will distinguish the most passionate and dedicated candidates interested in serving on the Board.
On the other hand, public campaigns -- as seen in recent alumni battles -- can give the misleading public appearance of widespread infighting at the College. It is certainly not flattering for Dartmouth when the national media covers alumni bickering. Further, the potentially cutthroat nature of the campaign could deter prominent alumni from becoming candidates out of the fear that the brutal process could tarnish their established reputations.
Campaigns for alumni seats on the Board have become reality. The heart of the issue lies in implementing the new feature to serve Dartmouth's best interests. Any candidate claiming to love Dartmouth has the responsibility to help the College realize the benefits and minimize the shortcomings of the new system. Candidates must not prioritize their own personal election to the Board over the interests of the College by stooping to over-generalizations and half-truths. Once one candidate resorts to such tactics, one of two things will happen: Either the other candidates will follow, decreasing the quality of the discussion about the College's future, or the others will refuse to partake in political manipulation of the debate and possibly lose as a result. If the debate devolves into mudslinging, Dartmouth will be worse off even if the best candidate wins.
Voters have a part in this too. They must demand substantive discourse by voting for those who provide it, not necessarily those who clog inboxes and leave messages on home answering machines.
As the upcoming election will be the first since the campaigning ban was lifted, the candidates have the unique responsibility of setting the standard for trustee campaigns. The candidates will render the Dartmouth community an immeasurable benefit if they set the precedent of approaching these campaigns with reasoned debate and civil argument, skills they hopefully learned at Dartmouth.
