Regarding "Regaining the Right Role" (May 9) by Doug Keare '56, responses by Association of Alumni petition candidates warrant consideration. Keare needs to be corrected on several points. Petition slate members have been active participants in alumni governance discussions. Indeed some were offered "if you care so much, stand for election" encouragement by the current head of the alumni Executive Committee, yet these same most-outspoken opponents of the incumbents were NOT asked to be among the "diverse" official nominees.
It seems a bit arrogant for Keare to claim new petition candidates are no longer relevant now that he has been invited into the tent when they have not been. His claims for diversity are a stretch, considering the overwhelming majority of his committee's nominees is aligned with his personal desires for constitutional change; only one or two of those individuals aligned with the majority of alumni who rejected last fall's proposal. On the most important issue to come before alumni in the last 120 years, Keare and his committee's hand-picked slate were not "diverse" but simply "wrong."
Only the petition slate has presented a platform of clear action items, published openly in the Association's discussion forum, termed a "blog," which can be visited from the Association's web site. We are happy to see several of our issues agreed to by the head of the official slate, though his beliefs were presented in response to and not in advance of our list as claimed. When asked directly, that candidate states he is speaking for himself and not his entire slate.
The slate of independent petition candidates is committed to actions that will truly make the activities of Association leaders transparent to all alumni. For that reason we decided to run as a group. With our election, alumni can be assured we will deliver on our openly-made commitments and not get bogged down in internal debates that lead to poor compromises accomplishing nothing for our Association's members.
Undecided voters should take the time to understand the underlying "issues" and then make an informed vote. Start by scanning the Association's Internet discussion blog. We independent petition candidates believe those who do will agree with our plans.
