For the past three weeks, 20,000 Dartmouth alumni have had the opportunity to respond to a 36-screen online survey about various aspects of the College.
The survey, which appeared in alumni inboxes with the subject line "Dartmouth wants your opinion," focused largely on Dartmouth news, asking participants what they had "read, seen or heard" about Dartmouth lately, and where they get their Dartmouth information.
One screen toward the end of the survey listed statements that, the poll said, "people have made -- or could make -- regarding Dartmouth," and asked respondents to indicate the extent to which they agreed with each statement.
One of these statements reads, "Dartmouth has been slowly becoming more liberal in the last two decades. It began with former President James Freedman, continued with Student Life Initiative and became evident most recently with the publication of the letter from Karl Furstenberg (Dartmouth's Dean of Admissions) in which he stated that 'football... is antithetical to the academic mission of colleges such as ours.'"
Another reads, "This administration will do anything to ensure that its point-of-view is the only one recognized. It is changing the rules of trustee elections, restricting free speech and re-writing the alumni constitution... all in a blatant effort to maintain power."
Vice President for Alumni Relations David Spalding '76, whose BlitzMail account sent out the poll, said that the survey had nothing to do with the constitution. He also maintained that the administration is remaining neutral on the alumni constitution, which would change the way trustees are elected.
The administration also maintains that it is not involved in crafting the new constitution, which has been written by the Alumni Governance Task Force, a body commissioned by the Association of Alumni.
"There is a perception out there that the administration is doing those things," Spalding said. "That isn't the case."
"If that's a question that actually resonated with people then sure, we would take more time to explain it to alums," he said.
Spalding said he was not worried that statements like the one above would sway alumni who had not already considered such issues.
"I doubt anyone really learned anything they didn't already know," he said. "There have been plenty of places where people could read that."
But Leah Skypeck '05 said that she has given certain subjects more consideration after taking the poll.
"Truthfully, the poll insinuated that the issues with the current administration are more pointed [than] I had realized," Skypeck said. "If anything, the quotes and excerpts used in the survey highlighted some concerns that I had not previously been aware of."
Still, Skypeck said the poll has not really come up among her friends who are alumni.
Another section of the survey presented "statements that members of the current college administration have made -- or could make" and asked alumni to evaluate them in terms of "how persuasive [they are] in convincing you that the administration is making a sincere effort to address alumni concerns."
When asked whether administrators might begin to use the statements that tested best, Spalding said, "It's certainly something that we want to think about in terms of things that seem to be resonating with alums."
A member of the Class of 1989 who took the survey was skeptical about its purposes.
"It seemed to be much more about how the administration should position itself -- i.e. spin -- than about substance," the graduate said. "I found it to be rather bland and obscure -- written for people who are immersed in College news but not for outsiders."
Peter Ventimiglia '94, who works for the Lombardo Group, the company that created the survey, said it is similar to many other surveys he has created and is based on College communications with alumni, newspaper articles, blogs and other pieces of media.
"We always try and use real stuff," Ventimiglia said.
"This project was really no different than any other of our corporate clients," he said. "The College said to us pretty broadly, we'd like to learn, we'd like to listen to what the alumni are saying and kind of get a general sense of what alumni are reading, seeing and hearing about the College."
Although Spalding told The Dartmouth last week that the poll had concluded due to a sufficient number of responses, he later said in an interview on Wednesday that the survey still remained activated.
However, he said that the publication of an article about the survey would likely prompt him to remove it from the internet.
"Once you have the press coverage of it, it becomes less meaningful in terms of what the results are," Spalding said.
"We're trying to find out what the alums think, not what the alums think about an article in The D about a survey that they could take."
As of Wednesday, about 2,500 alumni had responded to the survey, according to Ventimiglia.
