Voting alumni elected all 11 members of the "Unity" slate to the Association of Alumni executive board with a margin of more than 70 percent, incumbent Association President John Mathias '69 announced at the Association's annual meeting on Saturday. The slate defeated the "Dartmouth United" petition slate, led by presidential candidate J. Michael Murphy '61.
Mathias, who led the "Unity" slate, said in an interview with The Dartmouth that he was "very pleased" with results of both the Association and the Board of Trustees elections. Murphy could not be reached for comment by press time.
Given the high voting margin by which the "Unity" slate was elected, the general alumni body seems to recognize that the winning slate is interested in working collaboratively with College President Jim Yong Kim, particularly on "great issues," according to Mathias.
"We want to turn the page on negative introspection towards making positive differences," he said.
Mathias added that under his leadership, the Association will continue to work "constructively" with the Board by discussing the prospect of increasing the number of alumni-elected trustees on the Board.
Despite his slate's loss, petition vice presidential candidate Alpha Bond '52 said that he will continue to work to restore parity on the Board.
"I think we'll have another slate coming up next go-around," Bond said in reference to next year's Association election.
Petition candidates for next year's election will decide whether to run based on the Association's work in the coming year, as well as the candidates the Association nominates for the next election, Bond said. Those petition candidates would either run as individual alumni or a full 11-person petition slate.
In addition to discussions about increasing alumni-elected trustees, Mathias said the Association will work this year to reform campaign finance regulations for Association and trustee elections.
The Association formed an Election Reform Study Committee last year, which ultimately found that campaign finance reform was "untenable" because a controlling consensus among College alumni about how to address campaign spending could not be reached, The Dartmouth previously reported.
Although the election results were a "disappointment," the "Unity" slate's victory was not a "surprise," Bond said.
"We didn't have access to the mailing lists and that sort of thing that the regular slate had access to," Bond said.
While Mathias said his slate does not have access to any College mailing lists in a previous interview with The Dartmouth, Bond contended that the "Unity" slate had access to "some sort of mailing list" that was unavailable to his slate.
Bond also stated that the "Dartmouth United" slate did have access to the Hanover Institute's mailing list.
"I don't know enough about the mailing lists to know which list is the more extensive one," Bond said.
Although several alumni who had publicly endorsed the "Dartmouth United" slate could not be reached for comment by press time, many alumni expressed their approval of the election's final outcome.
"I'm thrilled the results are what they are," Dartmouth Undying President Martha Beattie '76 said. "The alumni want to engage in positive things to help the College and want these contentious elections that take money out of the hands of the student scholarships to stop."
The most recent Association election was a face-off between Mathias and Murphy, who opposed each other in the race for Association president in 2008. Mathias was elected on a platform that included ending the Association's then-ongoing lawsuit against the College which argued for parity between alumni-elected and Board-selected trustees, while Murphy's slate intended to continue the lawsuit. Upon Mathias' election, the Association withdrew the lawsuit with prejudice in June 2008.
"At least 70 to 75 percent [of alumni] are in favor of a kind of constructive approach to dealing with trustees and alumni governance," former Alumni Council President J.B. Daukas '84, an active opponent of the lawsuit, said.
Daukas added that he believes a greater majority of College alumni are opposed to the lawsuit than the voting results indicated. Between 25 percent and 30 percent of voting alumni supported the "Dartmouth United" slate, although Daukas said he believes the percentage of supporters would be lower among non-voting alumni.
Mathias defeated Murphy for the Association presidency with 73.7 percent of the vote. Veree Brown '93, Doug Keare '56, Lynne Gaudet '81, Mark Alperin '80, Marian Baldauf '84, John Engelman '68, Ronald Harris '71, Kaitlin Jaxheimer '05, Otho Kerr '79 and Ronald Schram '64 were all elected to the Association executive committee.
Brown defeated Bond, winning 72.4 percent of votes for the first vice presidency. Keare won the second vice presidency with 73.7 percent of the vote, beating out Diane Ellis '08. Gaudet, director of alumni leadership in the College Office of Alumni Relations, received 74.5 percent of votes for the secretary-treasurer position, defeating opponent Emily Esfahani Smith '09. The other members of the defeated "Dartmouth United" slate included Stuart Richards '63, Bradford Borden '54, Alan Orschel '61, Richard Paris '71, James Guth '77, James Baehr '05 and Noah Riner '06.
Hanover Institute Founder John MacGovern '80 and former member of the Association executive committee Tim Dreisbach '71 could not be reached for comment by press time.
