Correction appended
Dartmouth Board of Trustees Chairman Ed Haldeman '70 released a statement on Friday outlining and defending the Board's reelection process for second-term trustees following recent controversy surrounding the Board's decision not to reelect Trustee Todd Zywicki '88. Haldeman said in the statement that the Board's "overriding goal always remains doing what is in the best interests of the College."
The statement, posted on the College's web site, comes three days after Zywicki's April 14 open letter to the Dartmouth community, in which Zywicki questioned the Board's dedication to freedom of speech, as well as Board procedures for the reelection of trustees.
An amendment to the constitution of the College's Association of Alumni changed the alumni-selected trustee reelection process from an alumni vote to a vote of the Board itself in 1990, the same year that the first petition trustee, John Steel '54, completed his second term on the Board. The amendment led to a lawsuit from alumni who claimed that the Association had not notified enough alumni that it was going to vote on the changes. That lawsuit was later dismissed.
Reelection for a second term since that change had generally been routine.
In his statement, Haldeman maintained that the Board's reelection procedures are fair.
"The evaluation process itself is thorough and consultative," the statement says. "Input is solicited from every member of the Board."
Zywicki said in an interview with The Dartmouth on Sunday that the current system of reelection has "a problem of fundamental fairness." Zywicki asserted that he was not given the opportunity to respond to criticism raised during the "secret deliberation" prior to the vote.
"That this decision was made behind closed doors in a secretive process where allegations and charges can be raised without a trustee having any opportunity to respond is quite appalling and really raises a concern about the governance of the College," Zywicki said.
In his letter, Haldeman addressed the Board's January 2008 decision to reprimand Zywicki after he called former College President James Freedman "truly evil" in an Oct. 27, 2007 address at the John William Pope Center, a higher education think tank. Haldeman said in the Friday statement that Zywicki's actions were "inconsistent with his duties as a member of the Dartmouth Board."
"They either voted me off because of what I said at the Pope Center or new issues arose that they considered serious, and they gave me no opportunity to respond," Zywicki said in the interview.
Trustee T.J. Rodgers '70, who like Zywicki was nominated to be a candidate for the Board via petition and was successfully reelected at the April meeting, compared the reelection process to a "witch-hunt trial" and said it was "an affront to due process" in an e-mail to The Dartmouth.
"[Zywicki] was ejected by a secret vote -- he was not allowed to know the vote count or even the reasons behind his ejection," Rodgers said in the e-mail.
Rodgers added that he believes the decision not to reelect Zywicki was "an embarrassment for the Board."
"The effect of Todd's ejection has been to warn me and any other trustee likely to speak his or her own mind to watch our step," he said in the e-mail.
Haldeman sought to downplay speculation about any perceived politicization of the decision in his statement, noting that the two other former petition candidates up for reelection at the Board's April meeting, Rodgers and Peter Robinson '79, were both reelected.
"While I cannot speak for my fellow Board members on how they cast their votes or made their individual decisions, all Board members are held to the same standards irrespective of whether they are 'alumni' trustees, 'petition' trustees or 'charter' trustees," Haldeman said.
He added that the Board supports each trustee's right to free speech, but that they also "have fundamental responsibilities and obligations -- including fiduciary duties."
Zywicki said his term will end with the Board's June meeting. Although he is considering another run for a position on the Board, Zywicki said that it will be "some time before that issue will become relevant again."
Haldeman and Trustee Al Mulley '70 declined to comment for this article. Stephen Smith '88, who is the fourth former petition candidate on the Board, and Robinson could not be reached by press time.
The original version of this article incorrectly stated that the College's Board of Trustees ruled in 1990 to change the alumni-selected trustee reelection process from an alumni vote to a vote of the Board. In fact, that change came as a result of a vote of the College's Association of Alumni, which amended its constitution in 1990. The amendment led to a lawsuit from alumni who claimed that the Association had not notified enough of its alumni that it was going to vote on the changes. That lawsuit was later dismissed. In addition, the article stated that 1990 was the same year that the first petition trustee, John Steel '54, was reelected. In fact, Steel's second term on the Board ended in 1990.
