Wherever green is worn

If you think Hillary Clinton has been slow to accept the results at the ballot box, meet the folks who run Dartmouth College, writes William McGurn in today’s Wall Street Journal. McGurn continues:

Like Sen. Clinton, the powers that be at Dartmouth have been getting trounced at the voting booth by an opposition campaigning for change. Like Sen. Clinton, Dartmouth’s establishment has responded with increasingly desperate attacks. And like Sen. Clinton, its hopes of victory now depend on increasing the power and influence of unelected officials.

If you think Hillary Clinton invokes phony sexism to smear her opponents, you should meet the folks who run Dartmouth College. If you love dirty politics, you should meet the folks who run Dartmouth College:

Only in academe could an institution respond the way Dartmouth has. Instead of embracing reform, the Dartmouth establishment and its allies have launched personal attacks on the four popularly elected petition trustees.

In a recent letter from 12 establishment trustees sent to all alumni (a mailing list Dartmouth refuses to share with the elected trustees), the four were accused of pursuing “Washington-style politics” as part of a “political agenda” (read: vast right-wing conspiracy).

If you think the Clintons play games with chanigng the rules to produce their desired result, you should meet the folks who run Dartmouth College. They have devised a scheme inspired by Roosevelt’s wildly unpopular 1937 Court-packing plan to deal with the elected trustees:

To end their influence on the board, the college approved a plan that would transfer real oversight to an unelected executive committee – and give unelected trustees a 2-1 numerical advantage on the board, down from the 50/50 split today.

McGurn concludes:

Which brings us back to the current [Association of Alumni] election. Right now, the Association of Alumni is supporting a lawsuit that is the only thing stopping Dartmouth from implementing its board-packing plan. In other words, the election for the association’s leadership is in fact a referendum on the board-packing plan.

Daniel King, ’02, sums it up well. Mr. King describes himself as “an openly gay man, a teacher, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, the ACLU, and the Human Rights Campaign.” In an essay posted online, he puts it this way: “The real battle going on is one between an overly paternalistic College administration, supported by a rubber-stamp Board of Trustees that has totally abdicated its oversight responsibilities – and, on the other side, loyal alumni from all sides of the political spectrum who wish to not see the value of their Dartmouth degree plummet and to preserve the historic and unique ties that alumni have to our alma mater.”

Precisely. Next week marks the end of elections for both the Democrats and Dartmouth. Only the latter results will really mean anything. And that’s why, when the rest of America is zeroing in on Hillary, some of us will be looking at Hanover.

For a guide to the Association of Alumni pro-parity slate including our own Paul Mirengoff, click here. For a sample Association of Alumni ballot click here.

Via NRO’s Web briefing.

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