The College's alumni voted overwhelmingly to approve an amendment to the Association of Alumni constitution that substantially reforms procedures for the election of alumni to the Board of Trustees, according to results released on Saturday. The amendment came in response to the trustees' September 2007 governance report, which called for significant reform after a series of highly politicized campaigns by alumni seeking election to the Board.
The amendment passed with almost 82 percent of the vote, with 12,668 votes cast.
The amendment institutes a one-person, one-vote system for trustee elections, ending the use of an approval voting process in which alumni could vote for an unlimited number of candidates. The amendment also allows the Alumni Council, the College's second alumni representative body, to nominate only one or two candidates for the Board, as opposed to the three required in the past.
Before the results were announced, Association President John Mathias '69 said Association would continue to work to reform alumni elections so that "outcomes are not determined by money spent."
Mathias, in a previous interview with The Dartmouth, had said that campaign finance reform would be the "highest item" on the Association's agenda after the voting period.
Mathias and the rest of the current Association executive committee were also reelected to their positions. Each candidate had run unopposed.
This article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Article first posted May 9, 2009, at 3:00 p.m.
