It's happened again. Some of the alumni of our beloved College on the Hill have astounded me. Just when I thought Dartmouth and its "fine" administration had finally finished attempting to usurp power from the alumni in governance issues, I found out about the upcoming Association of Alumni executive committee elections. Then I discovered Dartmouth Undying.
In what has been billed as "the most important election in Dartmouth's history," a clear dichotomy of candidates has emerged: those who are administration-backed versus those who support the current lawsuit against the College. The details are troubling. The executive committee has 11 members. Six voted to sue the College. Only three voted against. Four were on the election nomination committee. Zero members of the nomination committee voted to sue.
The nominations by this committee reveal a shoddy nomination process. Traditionally, incumbents are renominated for election -- if they desire to run -- by the committee, but this year there were two slates of candidates. The first has promised to withdraw the lawsuit if elected. The second is only offered because the nomination committee agreed to nominate any incumbents who wanted to run for re-election. The four candidates on the second-tier slate are all supporters of the lawsuit. These four were nominated, but face other nominated candidates for their positions. Meanwhile, two members of the nominating committee (Bascomb and Spalding) renominated themselves without opposition.
The administration clearly has a stake in this matter, but it has meddled where it shouldn't. Spalding, the executive committee secretary -- and also the College's vice-president for Alumni Relations -- stated in a committee meeting that the administration, which earlier dismissed the lawsuit as having "no legal basis," would spare no effort in ensuring the defeat of lawsuit supporters. Enter Dartmouth Undying.
Dartmouth Undying is an organization dedicated to electing the first slate of candidates to the executive committeee in the name of unity and countering the "destructive forces" that threaten Dartmouth. The group dances around the fact that it is essentially an arm of the administration. It claims no obligation to the administration or Board of Trustees except a desire to work constructively with them. The same administration that adamantly opposed money being brought into trustee elections is now tacitly approving it via Dartmouth Undying, which directly asks for donations for the "costly undertaking." More outrageous: they have filed for non-profit status. Sad, considering Dartmouth alumni may soon divert their tax-exempt dollars to Dartmouth Undying over charities.
The group's web site (dartmouthundying.org) has claims ranging from crazy conspiracy theories to flat-out lies. The lawsuit is now "substantially supported by outside interests." In a clearly non-partisan issue, the group has inserted itself as "the only way to defeat the right-wing." A quote on the testimonials page states "there is no provision for anonymous input." Immediately beneath this caveat appear statements attributed to "Alumna '95" and "Alumnus '79."
Dartmouth Undying claims a minority of alumni elected the executive committee members who raised the lawsuit "in your name and without asking for your approval to do so." Each member of the committee "received votes from between 7 and 15 percent of alumni eligible to vote," yet Dartmouth Undying derides the lawsuit supporters, saying "none received votes from more than 13% of the alumni body." I smell hypocrisy when Dartmouth Undying says that the majority of alumni wanted the "loyalist" candidates.
Visit the web site yourself to see statements like "As a recent and current parent, I am in a position to attest that Dartmouth is better than ever. Neither son has had one TA in each of their 4 years!!!" (Clearly they have never taken a science course.) The claims to unity are also ludicrous. The group says alumni need to be united -- behind its platform. If the electorate was always united there would be no change, no infusion of new ideas and no progress.
It is clear that Dartmouth Undying is a ridiculous attempt by the administration to swing the election for its candidates. After repeated embarrassments with the alumni constitution, petition trustees and now the lawsuit, the administration is clearly nearing the end of its rope.
