ACTA in the News
Double-Secret Probation
As conservative alumni win elections, a college administration moves to make elections disappear.
September 5, 2007
Michael O'Brien
National Review OnlineSome
say the fictional
Faber College of Animal
House was loosely
based on New Hampshire’s
own Dartmouth College.
Aficionados of the
movie will remember
Dean Wormer threatening
the boys of the Delta
Tau Chi house with
the ominous “double-secret
probation.”
Today, some real-life
Dartmouth renegades
again find themselves
the target of a zealous
administration — on
their own version
of double-secret probation.
Instead of fraternity
rapscallions, though,
Dartmouth’s administration
has struck out against
some of its own administration
and alumni, part of
an ongoing saga of
political turmoil
affecting the bucolic
Ivy League school.
Since 2004, petition
candidates to Dartmouth’s
Board of Trustees
— that is, candidates
not pre-selected by
the Alumni Council
of the college — have
won highly-contested
elections on platforms
of “conservative”
themes of retaking
control of the college
for the alumni, abating
speech codes on campus,
and improving administration
governance.
This past spring,
events came to a head
in the latest round
of alumni voting.
Dartmouth alumni elected
the fourth petition
trustee in nearly
as many years, after
rejecting last fall
a proposed constitutional
overhaul that would
have made the candidacies
of the petitioners
exceedingly difficult.
After the spring trustee
election, the political
drama recommenced.
Outgoing chairman
of the board Bill
Neukom announced at
a meeting of the Alumni
Council at the end
of May that a committee
within the Board of
Trustees had undertaken
an effort to “reform”
the governance process
— a euphemism the
administration-backed
trustees have often
used to mean precluding
petition candidates.
The findings of the
reform committee were
to be presented to
the Board at its June
9 meeting.
“These guys are losing
elections,” says Joseph
Asch, a 1979 graduate
of the College who
challenged Neukom
at the meeting. “Now
they want to change
the rules, when they
really should be changing
the way the school
is governed.”
Worrying that the
democracy in trustee
elections might be
in danger, Dartmouth’s
Association of Alumni
sent a letter to the
Board of Trustees,
warning the board
not to abrogate the
1891 agreement that
established alumni
elections to the board.
The signers of the
letter included all
the officers and members
of the executive committee
of the Association
of Alumni; the only
dissenting member
was secretary-treasurer
David Spalding, who
is also the Dartmouth
administration’s vice
president for alumni
relations.
The administration
waved off its scheduled
presentation in June,
but still intends
to present its findings
this fall, where it
could theoretically
force through any
reform it wishes.
This worries many
of the petition candidates,
both on the Board
of Trustees and in
the Association of
Alumni leadership.
“What is at stake
is the identity of
Dartmouth itself,”
says trustee Todd
Zywicki. “The reason
why Dartmouth has
remained committed
to undergraduate education
is because of this
long-standing tradition
of having the alumni
elect the board.”
Those supportive of
petition candidates
have faced reprisals.
When the Association
of Alumni sent out
its letter, the Dartmouth
administration began
to refuse the organization
access to college
databases of mailing
addresses.
Ultimately, Frank
Gado, the second vice
president of the association,
offered up his own
money and generated
his own mailing list
for the letter.
“They threatened litigation,
which is out-and-out
an attempt to intimidate
us,” Gado says. “If
they decide to sue
me, they sue me. I
don’t care if I have
to go to jail, I’m
not divulging where
I got the list.”
The president of Dartmouth
College, James Wright,
refused to comment
for this story. Chairman
of the Board of Trustees
Ed Haldeman also refused,
as did the three trustees
— Michael Chu, Christine
Buckland, and John
Donahoe — who are
members of the Governance
Committee that decides
any election “reforms.”
Joe Malchow, a rising
senior at Dartmouth,
authors the popular
news source Dartblog.
“What’s at stake is
who takes the helm
of Dartmouth College,”
says Malchow. “Is
it the stakeholders,
or various self-interested
administrators and
bureaucrats?” Malchow
has welcomed the impact
of the petition candidates,
saying their presence
— even as a minority
— has been to open
up debate and put
enough pressure on
the administration
to back off of more
controversial proposals.
Emily Ghods-Esfahani
is a rising junior
at Darmouth, where
she is the summer
editor in chief of
The Dartmouth
Review and has
covered the alumni
battles extensively.
“There are two visions
when people think
of the direction of
the college,” she
says. “Do we want
to keep it what it
was — a smaller liberal
arts college — or
make it be like a
larger research university,
such as Harvard, Princeton,
and Yale?”
Looking ahead to September’s
meeting, where the
new Governance Committee
proposal will be unveiled,
trustee T. J. Rodgers
is not sure what to
expect. “I wont find
out until days before
the meeting what they’ll
want to change, if
anything,” Rodgers
says. “The one thing
that I’m concerned
about is that they
will impair or eliminate
the alumni–trustee
democracy that exists
at Dartmouth,” he
adds. Rodgers worries
that the size of the
board might be expanded,
but with a new, smaller
“executive board”
within the group,
vested with all the
power. In Rodgers’
words, it would be
the equivalent of
a “politburo” running
Dartmouth.
“Clearly, the alumni
have spoken loudly
in the past five elections,”
says Anne Neal, the
president of the American
Council of Trustees
and Alumni. “Any efforts
to thwart or undermine
the thoughtful input
of alumni would be
at the institution’s
own peril.” The petition
trustees, Neal says,
have had a significant
impact in tackling
political correctness
and bureaucratic bloat
at Dartmouth.
Moving towards the
board’s meeting this
weekend, all eyes
are on Dartmouth,
to see whether those
efforts to curb the
excesses in higher
education will be
able to continue.