Web site directed criticism against Asch
By Greg Berger, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Saturday, March 13, 2010
Web Update
JoeVsDartmouth.com -- which billed itself as a web site founded by Dartmouth alumni against the petition candidacy of Joe Asch '79 for the Board of Trustees -- was taken down Saturday evening. Christopher Allen '07, the chief technical officer for the shared campaign between Alumni Council-nominated candidates for the Board of Trustees -- John Replogle '88 and Morton Kondracke '60 -- created the site, according to his user profile on Blogger.com, which also cites him as the creator of the campaign web sites of Replogle and Kondracke.
Allen could not be reached for comment by press time.
"This website [sic] has been created by Dartmouth alumni who believe Joe Asch's actions and approach to Dartmouth issues make him unable to be a constructive member of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees," the web site said. "Read his words and those of his supporters and detractors, and decide for yourself."
The web site contained a series of unattributed posts, each referencing an article from The Dartmouth, The Dartmouth Review, the Valley News or a post on Dartblog, a web site to which Asch frequently contributes.
Both Replogle and Kondracke denied involvement with the web site's creation.
"I am not responsible for that web site nor do I have editorial control of it," Replogle said. "But it does look to me to be pretty factual as it mainly reports on public data and draws from recent publications in either Joe's web site or The D or [the Valley News]."
Replogle added that he thinks the web site "can be a valuable source of information for alumni to educate themselves."
When asked about Allen's connection to the "JoevsDartmouth" web site, Replogle and Kondracke both denied prior knowledge of the web site's creation.
"I don't know anything about the creation of that web site," Kondracke said. "I knew it was up, [but] I didn't even know [Allen] was doing it."
The domain JoevsDartmouth.com was registered to Domains By Proxy, Inc., an anonymous proxy service that registers domains on behalf of web site creators who wish to keep their identities anonymous. Both domains for Replogle's and Kondracke's respective campaign web sites are officially registered to Allen, according to information publicly available in the WHOIS database on GoDaddy.com, the domain registrar which processed the sale of all three domains.
Joevsdartmouth.com was created on Feb. 9, according to the database listing. Asch filed his petitions to be included on the Trustee ballot on Feb. 2.
One section of the web site titled "Joe vs Dartmouth: Asch's Own Words" included two references to Asch's previous postings on Dartblog.
The site also included a section titled "Others on Joe," offering several links to articles and letters to the Editor in The Dartmouth about Asch's previous involvement with the College.
A cached version of the "John Replogle for Dartmouth Trustee" web site included a section called "Joe vs. Dartmouth," which was recently taken down.
In a previous interview with The Dartmouth, Asch criticized that portion of Replogle's web site.
"You don't raise yourself up by lowering someone else down," Asch said. "We should try to keep the campaign civil and positive - on what we're going to do rather than why the other guy isn't adequate."
Offering links to a previous article in The Dartmouth ("State denies control over College's charter" Feb. 13, 2008), the web site suggested that Asch advocated for a lawsuit against the College.
In previous interviews with The Dartmouth, Asch has stated that he was never a supporter of the second lawsuit against the College, although he does support parity on the Board.
The lawsuit was the second legal challenge to the Board's decision on parity, and both suits argued that the Board's decision violated an 1891 agreement to maintain parity, which they saw as legally binding. The first lawsuit, filed by the Association of Alumni in October 2007, was withdrawn by the Association after the alumni body elected a new executive board to the Association in June 2008. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, but an independent group of alumni brought a second lawsuit in November 2008, which was dismissed in a motion for summary judgement by Judge Timothy Vaughan on Jan. 7.
The web site also included quotes from Asch in a Valley News article in which Asch expressed his doubt about President Jim Yong Kim's appointment to lead the College.
"When Jim Kim was named President of Dartmouth, Joe said to the Valley News that he 'would have preferred a president who was a world-class scholar,' and criticized his administrative experience, explaining 'I would not hire as a CEO of a major corporation someone who has never run a company before,'" the web site read.
Another link in the "Asch's Own Words" section cast doubt on the appropriateness of one of Asch's previous postings on the Dartblog web site.
"Joe blogged about the format of staff time sheets under the headline 'The Dark Satanic Mills of the Dartmouth Bureaucracy,'" the web site said. "Dartmouth's staff is overseen by the Trustees."
Stephanie Welsch-Lewin '88, the joint campaign manager for Repogle and Kondracke, could not be reached for comment by press time.
Senior Staff writer Kate Farley contributed to the reporting of this article.
View a cached version of the Joevsdartmouth.com web site saved by The Dartmouth.
Joe Asch stated a preference for a world-class scholar as president, but in coming to know Kim personally, Joe has become a supporter. The same might occur as President Kim, expressing a desire for trustees from world-class companies, comes to know trustees from less-prestegious but just-as-valuable backgrounds.
By Timothy A. Dreisbach 71 on Mar 14 | 8:11 am
Tim, either way, how was Kim not a “world-class scholar” prior to his Dartmouth career? He was a well-respected, leading scholar at one of the foremost medical programs in America (Harvard/Brigham & Women’s) with two graduate degrees (M.D./Ph.D.). Furthermore, Kim was a founding trustee and executive director of Partners in Health (PIH), an organization seen as a pioneer in developing community-based healthcare models in developing countries to fight AIDS and TB. Is that enough to qualify as executive leadership? That comment to the Valley News was entirely unfounded and wildly insulting and thus should be repudiated.
By Kenan W. Yount 06 on Mar 14 | 10:15 am
Lying and spinning from the chief technical officer of the KOndracke/Replogle campaign. A site supposedly of a grassroots nature turns out to be “astroturfing.” Who is this guy Christopher Allen ‘07 and what else has he been involved in? KOndracke and Replogle deny knowledge of the site but Replogle says it can be a good source of information on Asch. Was this before or after he knew or supposedly found out it that the story of the genesis of the site was a lie?
By Brandon Lachner on Mar 14 | 12:40 pm
I think the conventional wisdom definition of world class scholar is someone with a career within the ivory tower of academia… teaching, researching, and writing. The reason President Kim can be successful is because he also has experience doing and executing. He was not just founder and visionary for Partners in Health… he was also responsible for its “execution” as executive director.
By Timothy A. Dreisbach 71 on Mar 14 | 3:57 pm
These men have complete knowledge of what is going on at Dartmouth.
But their campaigns – who can be expected to keep track of a system that complex?
By Undergrad - No vote in the election on Mar 14 | 11:27 pm
Talking about lying and spinning. Thanks to the D, I’ve now read all of the material on the no-longer-operating site. What exactly is the issue? It’s all public press sources, most of them detailing instances where Joe Asch and his attack dogs went after individuals without factual basis. It is a service to make that available for voters to make up their own minds. But maybe the kind of venom that Lachner spews here and on other pages is enough to show what really motivates the petition crowd. Class of ’79 – and I do vote
By Anonymous on Mar 15 | 11:23 am
Greg Berger has done two well-written investigative articles related to opposing candidates, in a balanced fashion.
The same cannot be said of the editorial headline writers. How about balancing the “Asch Withheld… ” headline with “Kondrake/Replogle Web Manager Behind Anti-Asch Website”?
By Timothy A. Dreisbach 71 on Mar 15 | 11:34 am
It’s good to see Replogle is not micromanaging his campaign. We need more trustees like that.
Is Christopher Allen ‘07 related to Rick Allen '75, a member of the alumni council nominating committee?
By DartBored on Mar 15 | 3:59 pm
given that Replogle didn’t actually know about the website and likely asked for it to be taken down (just my guess) when he did find out about it, I would say he isn’t micromanaging his campaign.
If it had been an website done by Asch he likely would have been involved with choosing the font, script size, background color, etc. Although we could have also been sure that he would have looked up irrelevant facts from other blogs about how effective these sites are and how private sites are better than “govenrment” sites or something like that. And he would have ended each post with something like, “I’m not saying Replogle is blah blah blah, but isn’t it blah blah blah, that blah?”
Let’s not talk about micromanaging when we have the mircomanager extraordinaire amongst us. Once again DartBored, are you sure you’re not Asch?
By Anonymous on Mar 16 | 1:25 pm
DartBored: Interesting question. Many Allens have attended Dartmouth. I do observe that the Council info on trustee nominating committee member Rick Allen ’77 shows he is also a parent P’07, and that Chris Allen ’07 is the force behind the entirely negative Anti-Asch website. What do you think?
I guess Greg B. missed this.
By Timothy A. Dreisbach 71 on Mar 17 | 10:53 am