The alumni elect board members who object to the direction of a liberal administration. The solution -- stack the board with administration appointees.

Dartmouth College announced late Saturday night that its board of trustees would expand to 24 members, two-thirds chosen by the college and one-third elected by the alumni.

Since 1891, Dartmouth alumni have elected eight trustees and the administration has appointed an additional eight, giving the college an unusually small board and an unusual level of alumni power.

The changes come largely in reaction to divisive trustee campaigns over the past three years, in which alumni rejected the candidates officially nominated by the alumni association and instead elected four libertarian or conservative alumni who got onto the ballot through a petition process.

The most telling comment comes from the president of the board, Charles E. Haldeman Jr.

“Dartmouth’s trustee elections have become increasingly politicized, costly and divisive,” he said. “It’s not the results of these elections that are the problem, but the process itself.”

“I know some will ask why we didn’t simply expand the board through an equal number of charter and alumni trustee seats,” he said. “Given the divisiveness of recent elections we did not believe that having more elections would be good for Dartmouth.”

Yeah -- a self-perpetuating oligarchy does have advantages over a democracy.

The main one being that those who govern need not listen to the voice of the people.

So let's just call this what it is -- a coup.

Posted by: Greg at 09:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 254 words, total size 2 kb.