Alumni have allegedly been subjected to "push polls" favoring the pro-lawsuit candidates in the Association of Alumni election over the last week, according to active alumni. The Dartmouth has been unable to confirm who commissioned the data collection, as leaders of both sides of the debate denied involvement.
The controversial poll is the most recent of at least two alumni telephone polling efforts. The first poll, which alumni have not openly criticized, was commissioned by Dartmouth Undying, a group that opposes the Association's lawsuit against the College.
The recent, contested polls usually begin with the caller asking if the alumnus has voted in the Association elections, several alumni said. The caller then asks if the alumnus supports "parity and a voice for the alumni or the candidates who oppose parity," according to an e-mail from Jeff Eagan '70. "Parity" refers to the Association's lawsuit against the College, in which the Association demands that the Board of Trustees maintain a balance between the number of alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees.
The polling questions appeared to be engineered to promote the "pro-parity" slate of candidates who support the lawsuit, alumni said, which would make them "push polls."
A poll can be classified as a "push poll" when it is "designed to shape, rather than measure, public opinion," according to SourceWatch.
"Push polling is totally inappropriate," Sam Ostrow '67, the spokesman for Dartmouth Undying, said. "It is in violation of everything polling organizations stand for. It is disingenuous for a research company to identify itself as such if it is doing push polling."
Push polling in many localities is illegal in government elections. Most of these laws do not apply to the Association elections, because the Association is a private entity,.
The poll callers have never identified the company they work for, saying it is "an independent research group." Several alumni said the pollsters also would not indicate who commissioned the polling effort, although in some circumstances the callers identified supporters as "Dartmouth alumni."
This anonymity is disingenuous, some alumni said.
"It really raises question about what people's sense of values are," Eagan said. "The issue is not that they are calling someone up, but they are doing so under false pretenses."
Representatives from Dartmouth Undying and Dartmouth Parity, the organizations that support the two slates of candidates in the election, said their groups were not responsible for the calls. The Association's executive committee also was not responsible, Tim Dreisbach '71 and Frank Gado '58, members of the committee, said.
Ostrow said Dartmouth Undying had commissioned a separate poll that ran from late March to early April, but did not engage in push polling.
"We made every effort to have a very honest portrayal of both sides' arguments just to see what the alumni response would be," Ostrow said.
In an unrelated development on Thursday, the pro-lawsuit Association executive committee majority voted to censure Dartmouth's Office of Alumni Relations for "providing its listserve and postal addresses to some members of alumni groups while denying those same means of access to other duly elected officers."
The censure comes after Association President Bill Hutchinson '76 sent an e-mail to alumni on April 21 responding to a separate letter mailed by the Association executive committee majority. Hutchinson, who does not support the lawsuit, was given access to the College's contact list, while the Association majority had to procure their own list.
"Why would the College hand their mailing list over to the people who are suing them?" Hutchinson said. "It is an absurdity."
The Association executive committee majority disagreed, saying in a statement that it was a question of fairness.
"The majority of the EC has had to pay the costs of reporting to the membership and has been denied up-to-date lists; those favoring the College position have been given the privilege gratis," a press release from the committee said.
