The empire strikes back

Last year we covered the Dartmouth trustee election that resulted in the election of outsider candidates Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki. We thought that their election might signal a shift away from the entrenched leftism that reigns in elite academic institutions, a point I tried to make in this Daily Standard column previewing the election. The powers-that-be at Dartmouth are now undertaking efforts to make the election of outsider candidates more difficult.
Amending the alumni constitution is the key to changing the trustee election procedures. This coming Sunday the Dartmouth Alumni Association meets to vote on reducing the majority required to amend the constitution from three-fourths to two-thirds. The most immediate consequence of the two-thirds amendment is that it will make the passage of a new constitution easier. To promote the passage of this proposal, the alumni association is bundling it with another proposal that would allow all-media voting by alumni. Yesterday student body president Noah Riner explained the ongoing shenanigans in his Dartmouth column “Looking for trust.” Today the newspaper follows up with the story “Alumni to decide on new voting measures.”
Alumnus John MacGovern adds that, in addition to lowering the threshold for the final approval of the flawed new constitution, the proposed amendment gives the executive committee major new powers to write the rules and procedures for approving any new amendments (or a new constitution). You can be sure these new procedures will restrict rank and file alumni attempts to make a better document or to defeat a flawed new proposal. Alumni who can attend the meeting in Hanover this coming Sunday should do so.
UPDATE: Joe’s Dartblog proudly presents the otherwise inaccessible Dartmouth newspaper column on the subject by Dartmouth trustees T.J. Rodgers, Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki:

This Sunday a special meeting of the Association of Alumni will consider an amendment to the alumni constitution. Whereas the procedures by which this meeting was called should have met the highest standards of fairness and openness, they have instead suggested a crude power play.
Consider three items.
In his email to alumni dated last month, to name the first, Allen Collins

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The empire strikes back

Last year we covered the Dartmouth trustee election that resulted in the election of outsider candidates Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki. We thought that their election might signal a shift away from the entrenched leftism that reigns in elite academic institutions, a point I tried to make in this Daily Standard column previewing the election. The powers-that-be at Dartmouth are now undertaking efforts to make the election of outsider candidates more difficult.
Amending the alumni constitution is the key to changing the trustee election procedures. This coming Sunday the Dartmouth Alumni Association meets to vote on reducing the majority required to amend the constitution from three-fourths to two-thirds. The most immediate consequence of the two-thirds amendment is that it will make the passage of a new constitution easier. To promote the passage of this proposal, the alumni association is bundling it with another proposal that would allow all-media voting by alumni. Yesterday student body president Noah Riner explained the ongoing shenanigans in his Dartmouth column “Looking for trust.” Today the newspaper follows up with the story “Alumni to decide on new voting measures.”
Alumnus John MacGovern adds that, in addition to lowering the threshold for the final approval of the flawed new constitution, the proposed amendment gives the executive committee major new powers to write the rules and procedures for approving any new amendments (or a new constitution). You can be sure these new procedures will restrict rank and file alumni attempts to make a better document or to defeat a flawed new proposal. Alumni who can attend the meeting in Hanover this coming Sunday should do so.
UPDATE: Joe’s Dartblog proudly presents the otherwise inaccessible Dartmouth newspaper column on the subject by Dartmouth trustees T.J. Rodgers, Peter Robinson and Todd Zywicki:

This Sunday a special meeting of the Association of Alumni will consider an amendment to the alumni constitution. Whereas the procedures by which this meeting was called should have met the highest standards of fairness and openness, they have instead suggested a crude power play.
Consider three items.
In his email to alumni dated last month, to name the first, Allen Collins

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses