Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and R. William Burgess '81, nominated by the Alumni Council for the two open seats on the Board of Trustees, will run uncontested in the alumni election that will begin next month, according to Diana Lawrence, director of communications for the Office of Alumni Relations. Individuals wishing to run as petition candidates were able to submit paperwork until 5 p.m. Thursday, but the Office of Alumni Relations did not receive any applications.
"I take it as a reflection of relatively broad alumni confidence in the current Board, and in the Alumni Council's nominating process," Burgess said about the lack of petition candidates in an interview with The Dartmouth.
The quality of the nominees selected by the Council affects the likelihood that petition candidates will partake in the election, Alumni Council President Thomas Peisch '70 and Association of Alumni President John Mathias '69 said.
"If you're going to run against [Boudreaux and Burgess] you would probably need a platform that would be equivalent or better," Mathias said. "My speculation is that no one felt they wanted to step up to challenge the nominated candidates."
Potential candidates may also be dissuaded by the time and resources required to run a campaign, Burgess said.
Joseph Asch '79, who was a petition candidate in the 2010 election, said alumni who consider running may be discouraged by the possibilities of negative campaigning and opposition from the College.
Prior to 2010 when Asch lost the trustee election to John Replogle '88 petition candidates were elected to the Board in three consecutive campaign cycles, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"It was pretty clear that the alumni were not happy with the direction of the College [at that time]," Asch said.
The announcement that there will be no petition candidates in the upcoming election does not necessarily reflect alumni satisfaction with the College, according to Asch. A lack of petition candidates suggests that the administration "doesn't want the alumni to have a voice," Asch said.
"You've got 68,000 people out there, there's always going to be someone with a certain level of dissatisfaction," he said. "It stems more from the fact that anyone who runs as a petition candidate will be stepping in front of a bulldozer."
Asch said his own petition campaign was complicated by the College's unwillingness to provide him with updated alumni mailing lists and by "disgraceful" campaigning on the part of his opponent.
Mathias said negative campaigning while an unfortunate part of elections is likely not a major factor in dissuading potential petition candidates.
"The door is open for petition candidates to run," he said. "If you've got the right platform and you strike the right chords, it's a fair election."
Asch said this year's election cycle will set a precedent for future elections in which the Alumni Council will "choose the trustees themselves."
"I think you're not going to see petition candidates for a good long time," Asch said. "In the last 10 years, Dartmouth College alumni tried to exercise a strong voice and that, in a certain sense, was revolutionary."
Waning alumni involvement has created a Board comprised mostly of businesspeople and several academics with little experience in an undergraduate setting, Asch said. This lack of diversity deprives the Board of "all sorts of innovative ideas" that could help address issues like oversubscription in classes, Asch said.
Although Burgess and Boudreaux will run uncontested, election procedures will commence in accordance with Article V of the Association's constitution, according to Mathias.
Previously, the Alumni Council could nominate several candidates for each alumni-elected seat, which made uncontested elections less common, Mathias said.
In 2008, the Council chose to remove that language from its constitution, "assum[ing] that there would be petition candidates," Peisch said.
The policy of nominating several individuals for each seat also provided an unfair advantage for petition candidates, according to Mathias.
"The voting procedure was such that when the Alumni Council would run their three candidates, they'd split the vote and they'd lose every time," he said. "There was no chance for a non-petition candidate."
As a result of the 2008 policy changes, the Council can nominate one or two candidates for each alumni-elected trustee seat. These candidates take part in a "one person, one vote" election rather than the previous procedure that allowed voters to cast multiple votes for each seat.
"A confounding part of this is that the Association constitution is written in such a way that the Alumni Council has to nominate its candidates before it knows if there are going to be petition candidates," Mathias said.
The Council lacks the power to nominate a second candidate for a given seat if no petition candidates choose to run, he said. When making its initial decision, the nominating committee must either nominate one candidate and risk the possibility of an uncontested election, or nominate two candidates and risk splitting the vote, he said.
"There was some thought that's been given to trying to amend the Association constitution to give the Council some flexibility," Mathias said. "But that requires a two-thirds vote, and it's not really easy to do that."
Despite the lack of petition candidates this election cycle, completing the election process remains an important way to involve the alumni body, Mathias said.
"The process of voting is something that people feel very strongly about," he said. "It's not for any one person to say, Let's just avoid the cost and not do it.'"
The total cost of conducting a trustee election is approximately $75, 000, which includes the cost of mailing materials and tabulation, according to Lawrence.
Future discussions regarding trustee election policies may include the possibility of electronic voting, which would cut costs dramatically, Mathias said.
Burgess said the announcement of his uncontested campaign will not influence his plans and that he will attend various College events including the Dartmouth Club and Affiliated Group Officers Weekend during Winter Carnival weekend to meet with alumni.
"I really believe it's important to make sure that alumni know me and know what I believe in," Burgess said. "There's a limited amount of time that we all have to do this kind of stuff, and I think we're doing pretty much what we'd do otherwise."
Boudreaux could not be reached for comment by press time.
Voting in the alumni election will occur from Mar. 9 to April 6.
