In the latest twist of the ongoing discussion over the Alumni Governance Task Force's newly proposed alumni constitution, the executive committee of the Association of Alumni has announced that it will postpone its annual fall meetings as well as the accompanying elections.
According to a statement issued by Merle Adelman '80, first vice president of the Association, the meeting and elections have been postponed "because the results of the vote on the proposed constitution will not be available until after Oct. 31, 2006."
If the constitution passes, the two alumni governing bodies that currently exist would be combined into one, thus changing the format of the elections.
"To have the election and the annual meeting, you might two weeks later discover that body doesn't exist anymore," Adelman said. "We really debated this around and around, to say, 'What makes most sense for the alumni body in general?' to make it as easy a transition as possible."
The Association scheduled the original date for its annual meeting and elections before determining the voting period, but Adelman insists that the voting period was chosen in order to maximize voter turnout and allow time between the presentation of the constitution and the voting period to allow for technical changes and more review.
Some members of the Dartmouth community feel that moving the meeting and postponing the elections was an inappropriate move. David Gale '00 said that while he feels the AGTF has improved the newly proposed constitution with each draft, "there are still significant flaws in it."
On his weblog, Gale likens the Association's postponement of the elections after having scheduled the constitution's voting period to overlap with the annual meeting to "a student saying that he can't take his final exams because he's scheduled a trip to Hawaii for term's end ... Somehow, I don't think that would fly."
Gale, who said his biggest problems with the newly proposed constitution involve changes to the way petition trustee candidates can run for office, does not support the executive committee of the Association's decision to essentially extend their terms to more than one year.
A new date for the meetings and elections has not been set, causing some to worry that the current leadership will stay in power long enough to influence decisions, such as the awarding of honorary degrees, that they were not supposed to be involved with.
"They're changing their job description on us, or trying to, and that's not what we elected them for," Gale said.
In the Association's statement, Adelman points out that the Association's constitution stipulates that officers must be elected annually, and because the Association runs on the Dartmouth calendar, elections can be held any time during the 2006-07 academic year and still be considered annual. Further, she said that the elections will likely be held in the first half of 2007 and the current leadership will not use this opportunity to abuse its power.
According to Adelman, the Association consulted outside counsel on this issue.
Adelman said the Association leaders anticipated resistance from some alumni in its decision to move the meeting, but said that she and the other officers will not necessarily hold transition positions should the constitution pass.
"We don't become the de facto transition leadership," she said. "That isn't going to happen. We will be some part of the transition leadership, but there will be an election that will have a slate. I don't get to run things, honest."
The Association has not yet set a date for the meeting and elections to take place but according to the statement, the meeting will take place some time during the first half of the 2007 calendar year.
