Bring on the trustee campaign
By Joe Malchow
Published on Thursday, January 11, 2007
To the Editor:
Yesterday's letter by Rick Routhier '73 Tu'76 ("In defense of the trustee nomination process," Jan. 9) asserting the necessity of his Nominating Committee, which chooses the candidates whom Dartmouth alumni may consider as possible trustees, brings to mind something that a Philadelphia man called William Smith said on the eve of America's founding. "That the great body of people," he said, "can have any interest separate from their country, or ... pursue any other, is not to be imagined." "Unless," he added, "we suppose them idiots or self-murderers."
Let us not imagine that the aggregated desires of the Dartmouth community do not equate to what is good and hale for Dartmouth. I, for one, look eagerly forward to political contests here. Bring on the platforms, bring on the debates and, yes, bring on the politicians. At the very least, those things are better than pretending that the slate of candidates anointed by Routhier's Nominating Committee, a committee not elected by the alumni body, are so thoroughly neutral on every issue -- so neutral as to be faceless.