The Association of Alumni will work to reform campaign rules for Board of Trustee and Association elections if the currently proposed amendment to the Association constitution -- which calls for structural changes to the trustee election process -- is passed this spring, according to Association President John Mathias '69. Elections in recent years have become increasingly politicized and expensive, with some top-tier trustee candidates allegedly spending over $100,000 on their campaigns.
Reforming campaign procedures will be the "highest item" on the Association's agenda after the current voting period ends, Mathias said, explaining that his organization will focus on the use of direct mail, advertising, and items in local and national publications.
"The entire executive committee is on board for this," Mathias said. "Campaign finance reform must be considered."
In recent years, alumni candidates for the Board have spent "staggering" amounts of money on their campaigns, he said.
The current system allows wealthier candidates and those who run more successful fundraising campaigns to reach a wider audience and gain an edge in alumni-elected trustee campaigns, Mathias said.
"The outcome of our alumni elections ought not to turn on the amount of money invested in a campaign," Mathias said.
Campaign finance reform has been debated before, according to Jim Adler '60, who served on the Association's balloting committee, which oversees the elections, in the early 2000s. Electioneering is not mentioned in the Association's constitution, Adler said, and the balloting committee creates election guidelines annually to ensure fairness.
Until recently, candidates would generally release statements explaining their platform. These statements were distributed by the College and limited to a certain number of words, and any other electioneering was discouraged, he said.
In more recent years, however, campaign spending has spiraled out of control, Adler said.
"We wanted people to have information [about candidates]," Adler said. "But do we really want people going out and spending a bunch of money to win an election?"
While past balloting committees have tried to implement campaign finance reform, freedom of speech issues make regulating elections difficult, Adler said.
"How can you say to somebody, 'You can't spend your own money'?" Adler said. "That is really flying in the face of the First Amendment. How do you enforce that?"
Past committees also encountered problems regulating how candidates solicit support on the Internet, he said.
"Balloting committees have concluded that [campaign spending] is not something that can be reasonably controlled," he said. "It's sad, but it's life. Dartmouth has become more like a regular national or state election. Money counts."
Mathias, however, said he believes the current balloting committee will be more successful than its predecessors because committee members are more familiar with online campaigning. Mathias said he hopes the executive committee can speak to "everybody who's interested" in campaign reform, including former balloting committee members like Adler.
"We want to initiate the process to see what can be done," Mathias said, stressing that no decisions will be made without consulting the alumni body. "It will be a deliberative process."
The campaign finance reforms are necessary to prevent more divisive campaigns, Mathias said.
"If the amount of money being spent on trustee elections escalates, it will almost certainly lead to more polarization," Mathias said.
Voting for the proposed amendment and the Associastion executive committee will continue through May 6.
