Trustee hopefuls seek faculty, alum. support

By Greg Berger, The Dartmouth Staff

Published on Thursday, March 4, 2010

• Print
• Report an Error
• Share

With the voting period for the upcoming alumni-elected Board of Trustees election beginning next Wednesday, March 10, both Alumni Council-nominated candidates — Morton Kondracke ’60 and John Replogle ’88 — will continue to visit Dartmouth Alumni Clubs nationwide, while petition candidate Joe Asch ’79 has spent roughly $28,000 to send a mailing to thousands of College alumni. Several College faculty members have also released public statements on their opinions of Replogle and Asch, who are competing for one seat as candidates for the Board.

Replogle and Kondracke have spoken at several alumni clubs throughout the country and have met with thousands of alumni, they said in interviews with The Dartmouth. At “about half” of these meetings, Replogle and Kondracke’s speeches occurred on the same day as College President Jim Yong Kim’s visit to those alumni clubs, Replogle said.

President Kim will not endorse any of the candidates, the candidates said, explaining that they timed their speeches to coincide with Kim’s visits.

“We know that Kim is going to attract a crowd of alumni and we go there and campaign sort of in his trail,” Kondracke said.

In his mailing, Asch included a letter stating his campaign platforms, as well as excerpts of statements from students, faculty, alumni and other individuals associated with the College.

The mailing also included a letter from three petition candidates currently serving as alumni-elected trustees — T.J. Rodgers ’70, Peter Robinson ’79 and Stephen Smith ’88 — in which the trustees detail their support for Asch and describe him as “the best expert on Dartmouth we know.”

Asch declined to explain precisely how his mailing list was compiled, only explaining that it is a “compendium of individual class lists” that a group of alumni put together. Asch said he “would not be comfortable” sharing the names of those who helped to compile the list and declined to share the exact number of alumni contacted through his Tuesday mailing.

Alumni mailing lists are not typically made available to the public.

Asch announced his intention to run for the Board on Jan. 20 and sent a mailing soliciting the 500 signatures required for him to file as a petition candidate. On Feb. 2, Asch submitted over 800 signatures to College officials, making him an official candidate for the Board.

Of the 20 letters posted on Asch’s campaign web site, the dates on seven suggested they were written prior to the Jan. 20 announcement of Asch’s intention to run.

Several alumni have questioned Asch’s decision to pay $28,000 to distribute a mailing in support of his candidacy.

“[Asch] made this big point about how we all should limit our campaign expenditures so [Replogle and I] will,” Kondracke said. “I would call upon [Asch] to have one less mailing and give the money to the Dartmouth College Fund instead.”

Asch defended his decision to send a mailing by explaining that the Board’s oversight of former College President James Wright’s administration led to a deficit of between $50 million and $100 million in the College’s budget, while his mailings only cost thousands of dollars.

“If we’re talking about overspending of anywhere between $50 million and $100 million, I think it’s a drop in the ocean to spend $75,000 in an effort to have a Board of Trustees that’s going to do its job diligently,” Asch said. “In my mind this is the best use of this money for Dartmouth College.”

Asch said the comments included in his mailing were “endorsements” of his trustee candidacy.

Economics professor Meir Kohn is quoted in Asch’s mailing as saying that Asch’s attachment to, and criticism of, the College would “contribute to a Board that takes its responsibilities seriously.”

“I don’t think what I’m doing is endorsing [Asch] as opposed to other people,” Kohn said in an interview with The Dartmouth. “I think that [Asch] would be a good trustee, whether he would be a better trustee than the other [candidates], I will leave to the alumni to decide. [That is] not quite the same as endorsing.”

Kohn explained that although others have described Asch as “abrasive,” Kohn believes that “someone who takes a more questioning posture would be good” on the Board.

Rabbi Moshe Gray, quoted in Asch’s mailing, also said he is not endorsing Asch as a trustee candidate.

“[My letter] is more of a character reference than an endorsement,” Gray said.

Although he is listed on the page titled “Faculty Support for Joe,” Gray is not an employee of the College, but a recognized minister on campus through the Tucker Foundation.

Both Gray and Kohn said Asch asked them to write a letter for the mailing.

“I think [Asch] brings a unique perspective to the school and coupled with the fact that I know him — I’m a friend of his — when he approached me and asked me if I would write a letter on his behalf, I said yes,” Gray said.

Other faculty members have written letters endorsing Replogle’s campaign.

Susan Ackerman, chair of the religion department and a member of the Class of 1980, wrote a letter for the Dartmouth Undying web site expressing her support for Replogle. Dartmouth Undying is an alumni group that opposed a 2007 alumni lawsuit against the College supported by previous petition trustees.

Ackerman said she has never met Replogle, but worked with Asch through the Departmental Editing Program that he funded and ran at the College from 1998 to 2007. Asch and College administrators disagree about the reasoning behind the program’s dissolution, The Dartmouth previously reported.

Ackerman said that she supports Replogle because she supports the Council vetting process through which he was nominated.

“I respect that process much more than the petition process of gaining 500 names,” she said.

Ackerman said she is also “impressed” by Replogle’s business experience, his commitment to environmentalism and his openness to faculty, adding that the two Council-nominated candidates have “a longer and stronger record” of supporting the College.

English professor Donald Pease expressed support for Replogle in an e-mail to The Dartmouth, praising his “temperament and leadership skills,” as well as his ability to “listen to disparate views.”

Pease questioned what he perceived as Asch’s “aggressive rhetorical style.”

“The invective [Asch] directs against Dartmouth administrators, faculty and fellow alums undermines efforts to promote thoughtful discussion about matters of vital importance to the College,” Pease said.

Replogle, Asch and Kondracke all said faculty members should share their opinions on trustee candidates since the Board directly affects the administration of the College.

“[Faculty members] have a vested interest in the direction of the College,” Replogle said. “Many faculty voices are also alumni so they absolutely have a right and a voice in the election.”

Kohn said he does not believe faculty should be publicly endorsing trustee candidates.

“I don’t think it appropriate for faculty to be actively involved in trustee elections,” Kohn said. “They’re our bosses, I don’t think that we should be choosing them or endorsing one over the other.”