Dartmouth Board of Trustees Chairman Ed Haldeman '70 and College President James Wright declared that the College would "continue working" with the Association of Alumni despite its lawsuit against the College in an interview with The Dartmouth after the board's November meeting this past weekend. Following through on the recommendations of its September governance report, the Board of Trustees added three new standing committees to its structure and received updates on the College's $1.3 billion capital campaign and plans for new facilities.
"I think we continue to try to work with the Association and the Association leadership on their duties," Wright said, adding later, "There has certainly been no effort to change our relationship with the Association."
The Association filed suit against the College on Oct. 3 following the board's September governance report, which called for the addition of eight new trustees. On Oct. 22, the board decided it would not announce the new trustees in November as it had originally pledged to do.
"We the board, and the College, promised the court that we would not add charter trustees until the earlier of the decision of the court or Feb. 1, and so our expectation would be that our board would be announcing new trustees early in February," Haldeman said.
Haldeman said he believes that the majority of alumni do not support the Association's legal actions.
"I think that there are many, many people within the alumni body who are troubled by the lawsuit, even some of those people who may not agree with the action taken by the board," Haldeman said.
Despite a pledge not to move forward on trustee additions, the board did move forward with the governance report's stipulations on altering board structure.
"It is our expectation that the new committees of academic affairs, alumni relations and student affairs will allow the board to get closer and have more touch points with three of our most important constituencies," Haldeman said. "We felt these committees would allow more frequent and better interaction and communication between the board and those specific constituencies."
It is notable, however, that none of the three announced committees is chaired by a trustee who was elected to the board as a petition candidate.
In addition, none of the former petition candidates chair any committee or serve on the governance committee, the sub-group which was responsible for recommending the recent controversial changes to the board's structure.
"We have been assured that there is an open process of making committee assignments, and alumni have expressed the opinion to me that they find that hard to believe if none of us, even senior petition trustees, are put in positions of authority," Stephen Smith '88, who was nominated by petition, said. "I take Chairman Haldeman at his word: I am junior, I am just learning the ropes, but eventually, I would hope that if I work hard and earn the confidence of my colleagues, that as a trustee elected by petition I will have the opportunity to head up a committee or serve on the governance committee."
While Haldeman was not available to comment on the committee assignment process following The Dartmouth's interview with Smith, Roland Adams, a spokesperson for the College, said in an e-mail that "the Board's committee assignments are made at the September retreat and are generally based on expertise and seniority."
According to the board's website, two trustees elected to the board in the same year or after the former petition candidates have leadership positions on the board.
Haldeman pointed to the announcement of major gifts to the College in recent weeks, including $43 million from the Class of 1978, as proof that the lawsuit has not affected alumni giving. The capital campaign, which has now raised about $975 million, is on track to reach its goal of $1.3 billion by the end of 2009.
"I don't think we will have to change the timeline at all," Haldeman said.
The campaign will allow the College to achieve its high-priority goals of extending financial aid, constructing new facilities and expanding the faculty.
"I think for this board and many boards at Dartmouth, financial aid and need-blind admissions have been incredibly important priorities for us," Haldeman said. "There have just been so many alumni who have benefitted from that, and then as we grow up and get older and have some success that becomes so meaningful to many of us."
The board's deliberations on new facilities included a review of the plans for the Thayer Dining Hall renovation and the Class of 1978 Life Sciences Center. If permits are granted without delay, the College plans to break ground on the Life Sciences Center in December. The College hopes to begin the permitting process for the Class of 1953 Commons dining hall this spring. Any renovation of Thayer will begin after the Class of 1953 project, according to Mary Gorman, associate provost and executive officer.
