Trustee-Election Controversy Prompts Dartmouth to Poll Its Alumni

Tension over the election of alumni trustees at Dartmouth College continues to reverberate. Alumni are scheduled to vote by the end of October on a plan to overhaul alumni governance. The new alumni constitution has drawn complaints from alumni, bloggers, and groups such as the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, which argue that it is an attempt to freeze out non-establishment candidates. And a recent decision by the college’s Association of Alumni to postpone its annual vote has also been controversial.

The criticism has drawn attention from the national news media. And now Dartmouth officials are trying to gauge what alumni think of the dispute. According to a report in The Dartmouth, a student newspaper, the college recently sent thousands of alumni copies of a survey that asked several questions about the controversy.

In the poll, a copy of which was obtained by The Chronicle, David P. Spalding, Dartmouth’s vice president for alumni relations, asks alumni where they get information about the college and whether they have heard about the controversy. One question asks if alumni agree with the statement that “this administration will do anything to ensure that its point of view is the only one recognized” and is “changing the rules of trustee elections, restricting free speech, and rewriting the alumni association constitution … all in a blatant effort to maintain power.”