In a mailing sent to thousands of alumni earlier this week, College Trustee Stephen Smith '88 endorsed petition trustee candidate Joe Asch '79 and criticized Asch's opponent, Alumni Council-nominated trustee candidate John Replogle '88, urging alumni to vote for Asch in the ongoing election for the Board seat. College President Jim Yong Kim and Replogle both raised concerns about the use of "Dartmouth College Board of Trustees" letterhead on Smith's letter, which Replogle described as potentially misleading to alumni.
The cost for the mailing in which Smith also endorsed the "Dartmouth United" petition slate for the Association of Alumni was split between Asch and the members of the petition slate, Smith said.
Although Replogle suggested possible ties between the Hanover Institute and the mailing, both Smith and Asch denied any connection and said that the Institute did not provide the list of names or funding.
The letter was only delivered to alumni who had signed Smith's petition to be included on the ballot for the Board in 2007, Smith said.
Smith said he decided to send out the mailing because he felt that his opponents' supporters had embarked on a significant campaign effort and he had no choice but to respond.
While there is currently no official College policy that prohibits trustees from publicly supporting specific candidates, Replogle said it is an issue that could be worth examining further in the future.
"I personally feel that it probably makes more sense for Board members not to pick sides in the election," he said. "If the candidate that a trustee did not endorse is voted on to the Board, it sets up an interesting tension, and that's the inherent risk when Board members start to pick sides."
Asch, on the other hand, said in his e-mail that members of the Board should be free to support candidates, particularly if the trustee knows the endorsed candidate.
Kim characterized the question as a "sensitive issue" that is "very much an internal Board matter."
"I wouldn't at all be surprised if we took it up at the next Board meeting," he said.
Kim added that he would not comment on the merits of establishing a policy of trustee neutrality until he listened to trustees discuss the matter.
This is not the first time Smith has publicly stated his support for Asch. Smith and current trustees T.J. Rodgers '70 and Peter Robinson '79 expressed support for Asch in a mailing Asch distributed before the election period began, as previously reported by The Dartmouth. Smith, Rodgers and Robinson are all former petition trustee candidates.
In the most recent mailing, Smith said the College's leading status as an undergraduate institution cannot be maintained "without more independent-minded trustees and alumni leaders."
"Asch believes that ours should not be an Enron board' on which trustees rubber-stamp decisions of administrators," Smith wrote. "His opponent, [Replogle], evidently does not, having accepted the misguided notion that oversight equals micromanagement."
Kim said he was "particularly troubled" by Smith's reference to an "Enron Board" and the suggestion that there might be any kind of resemblance between Enron executives and the College trustees.
"I think we have one of the finest Board of Trustees that I can imagine, and it's full of some of the most outstanding leaders and people I have ever met," he said. "I just think it's extremely unfortunate that anyone would think to compare our board with the Enron board."
The letter also addresses the issue of parity between alumni-elected and Board-appointed trustees.
"Asch unequivocally supports restoring parity between alumni-elected and appointed trustees," Smith wrote. "Replogle has triangulated instead, showing himself to be unwilling to take a stand for the alumni that his Alumni Council boosters oppose."
Asch said he appreciated the letter in an e-mail to The Dartmouth on Thursday.
"I am always grateful for anyone's support, especially someone like Stephen Smith, who I admire greatly," Asch wrote.
Replogle declined to comment on the content of the letter.
"If I'm elected to the Board I will need to find a way to work with Stephen Smith in a collaborative fashion, so I don't think it's appropriate to pick a fight with him," he said. "I would be happy, though, to speak with him personally about the issues."
Kim and Replogle took issue with Smith's use of the title "Dartmouth College Board of Trustees" in the letter's heading since the mailing is not from the entire Board, but one individual member.
"To be honest, I think [Smith] is overstepping his bounds a bit by the use of that in the title," Replogle said. "If he had signed the letter Stephen Smith, member of the Board of Trustees,' that would have been fine, but he's using the Board too broadly here."
Replogle expressed concern that alumni might misinterpret the letter.
"Hopefully it doesn't misguide or mislead members of the alumni body in terms of the true endorsement, and the fact that this is a personal endorsement and not one of the entire Board," he said.
Asch said he fails to see how Smith is overstepping his bounds or how the header would mislead readers.
"[Smith's] name appears clearly above the Board's name," he said. "If he had put the Board information at the top of the letterhead, that would have been another matter."
Although Kim said he would not necessarily characterize the letter as misleading, he did agree that the heading was "very noticeable" when he read the letter.
"I think that what's really important is that we have to really make a distinction between people who are speaking at a personal level and people who are speaking for the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees as a whole," Kim said.
Smith confirmed that his letter was an individual letter and that he did not intend the phrase "Dartmouth College Board of Trustees" to mislead readers.
"It was a letter from me as an individual, not the rest of the Board," he said. "It's clear that this is not a College mailing."
Smith argued that the mailing was necessary to balance unfair campaigning by the College administration.
"My normal approach is to stay independent and neutral in the races since they should be left to the alumni, but [the Office of] Alumni Relations never plays by these rules, so they've been significantly campaigning," he said. "I was very distressed to see that even President Kim has started campaigning, so I just didn't think I could remain silent given how partisan the other side had become."
Smith said Kim has appeared at several alumni clubs across the country in conjunction with Replogle. When asked about these appearances, Kim clarified that while it is possible that one of his appearances may have coincided with a visit by Replogle, the two events were entirely independent.
Replogle and uncontested Council-nominated candidate Morton Kondracke '60 planned their trips to alumni clubs to match Kim's already predetermined schedule, saying Kim would attract a large group of alumni to the events, the two candidates told The Dartmouth in previous reports.
Kim denied all allegations that he campaigned in any way for either side and called Smith's justification for the letter a "false proposition."
"I was really taken aback by this accusation that I was campaigning for individual candidates since I have never participated in any sort of campaign events for anybody," he said. "I have been asked on many occasions whether I support one candidate or the other and I have said explicitly every single time that I do not."
Kim added that it is not his role to take sides in the election and he has made this "explicitly clear" each time the topic has been brought up.
