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The Dartmouth
July 8, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Board has not yet met to discuss amendment

The Board of Trustees has not yet met to discuss how the amendment to the Association of Alumni constitution, passed on Saturday, will affect the replacement of alumni-elected trustees, according to a statement from Board Chairman Ed Haldeman '70. Haldeman declined to comment further "before the Board has had the opportunity to discuss the outcome of the vote on the amendment," according to the statement.

It is unclear whether the passage of the amendment will end the Board of Trustees' current "freeze" on the replacement of its alumni-elected members. The Board previously postponed the election to replace outgoing Trustee Michael Chu '68 in response to the Association's 2007 lawsuit against the College and had threatened to take over trustee elections if the reforms did not pass.

The amendment, which passed with nearly 82 percent of the alumni vote, 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 institutes a one-person, one-vote system for trustee elections, replacing an approval voting process in which alumni could vote for an unlimited number of candidates.

John Mathias '69, president of the Association's executive committee, said the Board was informed of the stipulations of the amendment, though the body took no formal action on the issue. He said that alumni leaders discussed the terms of the amendment with the Board's governing committee.

"We definitely socialized the text of this amendment with the right people on the Board," Mathias said. "The responsible people on the Board were aware of the text of the amendment when we floated it."

Mathias said that while he cannot speak for the Board, he expects the trustees to approve of the terms of the amendment and will be "shocked" if they do not.

Frank Gado '58, a former member of the Association of Alumni executive committee, said the Board will almost certainly support the new amendment. The Board expressed support for the terms of the amendment before the voting period, Gado said.

"You can be sure that this [amendment] was not proposed independently by the Association of Alumni," he said, adding that it would have been "foolhardy" for the current alumni leaders not to "clear it beforehand" with the Board.

Haldeman thanked Mathias and John Daukas '84, president of the Alumni Council, in his statement for their efforts to encourage voting in the election. He acknowledged their "strong leadership" and noted that "the Board looks forward to continuing to work with them."

The Board "will certainly take careful note of [the outcome of the election], which was rendered by a wide margin of votes," Haldeman said in his statement.