Alumni will soon be asked to vote on a proposal to adopt a new constitution, as founding father George Mason was challenged with the United States Constitution before a Bill of Rights was added.
Some people feel it inappropriate for the College actually to be run by its alumni. A senior official in the Alumni Relations Office once told me "the alumni are not like shareholders of a company, with rights to govern." A member of the current Alumni Governance Task Force (AGTF) expressed to me his frustration with the outsider activists who keep arguing over, in his words, these "so-called rights." All who deny the right of alumni to participate in the governance of the College are wrong; such a right does exist. Thanks to Daniel Webster, Dartmouth College is a legal entity with contractual rights.
There has been much debate, at times productive and at times not so, on how the body of alumni can be better organized for improved "governance." As background, readers are encouraged to review the considerable discussions that have occurred on the Alumni Governance Task Force and the Association of Alumni web log sites. In striving to achieve better representation, the well-intended efforts of the AGTF may indeed increase and perpetuate the politicization of alumni clubs and organizations, thus undermining their primary missions to serve their alumni members and the College.