On Oct. 27, 2007, Dartmouth Trustee Todd Zywicki '88 gave a speech at a conference sponsored by the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy. The audience was composed of educators and donors to the sponsor of the forum. Zywicki was introduced as a trustee of Dartmouth College. Videos and transcripts of his speech are circulating widely and excerpts of some of his remarks have appeared on YouTube and elsewhere. The full text of Trustee Zywicki's remarks can also be found on IvyGate.
The assigned topic for Zywicki's speech was "Trustees in the 21st Century." However, Zywicki used much of his time to criticize Dartmouth in a variety of ways. His most egregious statement came during his opening remarks, when he said, "Then they brought in this fellow, truly evil man, James Freedman..." about the distinguished late president of Dartmouth. He also attributed programs to Freedman that were wrong, distorted or stated out of context. Then, among other things, he misrepresented the Dartmouth alumni trustee voting history; he implied the College acted unethically during his trustee election vote count; he falsely claimed credit for changes at Dartmouth that either didn't exist or happened totally independent of his role; and he falsely said, regarding trustee elections, "And basically they couldn't win at the ballot box, so they got rid of the ballot box." During the question and answer period, Zywicki continued his criticism of Dartmouth with examples involving free speech issues. At no time did Zywicki offer any disclaimer regarding his remarks.
This performance raises two questions. First, what would motivate Zywicki to speak in such a derisive manner about his alma mater, especially as a sitting trustee? Second, did he, as a sitting trustee, violate his responsibilities during this public speaking engagement?
The answer to the first question is easy. Many of the some dozen speakers at the conference were candidly critical about problems they had with the current status of higher education. Most, but not all, were very outspoken about the perceived left-leaning bias of university administrators and educators. One speaker, for example, devoted most of his time trashing, in excruciating detail, the leadership of Yale University. However, he was not affiliated with Yale. Thus, the critical and negative focus of Zywicki's remarks fit very comfortably with the program in general and his panel in particular. Many in the audience had no problem with his criticism of Dartmouth and his other statements, as one attendee told me.
The second question raises the issues of freedom of speech, responsibility to your position and loyalty to your college. Zywicki seems to feel that any speech is okay and, as he said, if it "hurts the feelings of others" or "is offensive," so be it. It is clear from his remarks that he suffered no inhibitions in this regard, and, if he was speaking only for himself, he could speak as he pleased.
However, and this is the most serious part, when he became a member of the Dartmouth board, Zywicki accepted the obligation to follow board guidelines for conduct as clearly spelled out in the Statement on Governance and Trustee Responsibilities. The full text of the statement is available on the Dartmouth website, but here are the sections relevant to Zywicki's speech:
"Each Trustee assigns a high priority to a stewardship role with a commitment to the strengths, traditions and values of the institution and pledges to fulfill the following responsibilities: Act in the best overall interest of Dartmouth; represent Dartmouth positively in words and deeds, particularly and proactively to Dartmouth constituents; serve Dartmouth as a whole, rather than the interests of any constituency; speak for the Board only when authorized to do so by the Board Chair or President; adhere to the highest standards of personal and professional behavior so as to reflect favorably on Dartmouth."
This is not the complete text, but these references are unabridged and are offered in context with the entire statement.
Thus, it is very clear that Trustee Zywicki, by speaking in a derogatory manner with specific examples, is in violation of his Dartmouth trustee responsibility and the board must hold him accountable or abandon their mission statement. At a very minimum, he owes an apology to the Freedman family and the Dartmouth community, or he should resign his position as a trustee. This is not about free speech; this is about responsible behavior.
