The Alumni Council will consider a unanimous recommendation by the Nominating and Alumni Trustee Search Committee to nominate one individual for each open, alumni-elected trustee seat in the upcoming year's election, according to an email sent to Council members on Aug. 11. The approximately 120-member body will likely vote on the proposition "by the end of September," according to Nominating Committee Chair Pete Frederick '65.
Offering only one name per seat a strategy employed in the latest election will ensure a one-on-one election between the Council's nominee and a petition candidate, while enabling the Council to support one "thoroughly vetted" candidate per vacancy, according to the email.
Although Gail Koziara Boudreaux '82 and R. William Burgess '81 ran uncontested in 2011 due to a lack of petition candidates, Alumni Council President Danielle Dyer '81 Tu'89 said this election may not be indicative of future circumstances.
"We feel at this point, based on history, it's wise to assume that there may in fact be a petition candidate [in the future]," Dyer said. "Our goal is to ensure that we can facilitate head-to-head elections."
The procedure established for electing trustees allows for the nomination of petition candidates, according to Frederick. Alumni should take advantage of the provision despite the "outstanding" credentials of individuals nominated by the Council.
"You have to remember that since the process is in place, you need to assume that people are going to follow it," Frederick said. "The process that's in place calls for a member of the alumni body that would like to run. There's a way to nominate that person to do so. They don't have to be negative. They don't have to spend a lot of money."
The absence of petition candidates in this year's election may have resulted from alumni contentment with the College and the nominees suggested by the Council, according to Association of Alumni President John Daukas '84. Improved communication between the Council and alumni has also produced nominees who are more representative of the alumni body, he said.
Because the Nominating Committee's deadline for announcing nominees precedes the deadline for petition candidates to declare themselves, the Alumni Council cannot predict whether their candidates will run uncontested. Due to provisions put forth in the Association's constitution, elections must occur even if the candidates run uncontested.
"I have heard some people suggesting that it's maybe just a waste of money to have an election that's uncontested," Daukas said. "So far we've only had one trustee election that was uncontested, so we're feeling our way a little bit."
In an Aug. 16 post on Dartblog a Dartmouth-focused website that is often critical of College policies and decisions former petition candidate Joseph Asch '79 wrote that the Committee should offer two candidates for each seat, given the unlikelihood of petition candidates.
"In the unlikely event that a petitioner appeared, they could ask one of the candidates for the contested slot to defer his/her candidacy to the following year," he wrote.
In February, Asch told The Dartmouth that he expected the 2011 election cycle to set a precedent for future elections, in which the Alumni Council would "choose the trustees themselves."
Rather than reflecting the satisfaction of alumni with the College, the lack of petition candidates resulted from "the fact that anyone who runs as a petition candidate will be stepping in front of a bulldozer," Asch said.
Alumni have suggested amendments to the Association constitution that would give the Council more flexibility when faced with uncontested elections, former Association of Alumni President John Mathias '69 told The Dartmouth in February.
"In my view, it would be a good thing if the Alumni Council could in the event that there were no petition candidates nominate a second person," Mathias previously told The Dartmouth.
The Nominating Committee has already begun to sift through over 400 names of potential nominees submitted by the alumni body, according to Frederick. The Committee will meet Wednesday to continue the process, he said.
The Committee will continue to collect suggestions from the alumni body, both electronically and via mail, until Nov. 1. Voting will take place in Spring 2012.
"Dartmouth is unique among the various colleges, especially those in the Northeast, in allowing alumni to play a very significant role in electing trustees," Frederick said. "How the alumni select the trustee is up to the alumni body."
