This article is featured in the 2024 Homecoming Special Issue.
Since the College’s founding in 1769, the New Hampshire governor has served as an ex officio member on the Board of Trustees. The governor’s role was set forth in the College’s charter, which initially appointed colonial governor John Wentworth to the founding Board of Trustees as a representative of the British monarchy.
Over the years, the position has evolved from that of an active trustee role to one of “ceremonial” importance — playing “no role in decision-making,” College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth. Nonetheless, the governor continues to participate in campus events such as presidential inaugurations. And soon, with the 2024 gubernatorial election looming, a new governor will be taking on the responsibility.
Future of the Role
In July 2023, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced that he will not run for a fifth term this November. The race has since narrowed to Democratic nominee Joyce Craig and Republican nominee Kelly Ayotte.
While the governor’s trustee role will remain “largely ceremonial” regardless of who wins, the Board will also “welcome engagement from the governor,” Barnello wrote.
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, Craig wrote that she “look[s] forward” to potentially serving as a trustee and working with students and faculty to “support the College.” She added that she wants to “ensure that young people have a future in our state” by lowering costs to “help retain students in New Hampshire after graduation.”
“I believe we can partner with the College on solutions, and I look forward to starting that dialogue,” Craig wrote.
Ayotte’s campaign team did not respond to multiple requests for comment by time of publication.
History of the Ex Officio Trustee
The gubernatorial victor will join a long history of ex officio trustees — though the position has evolved substantially over the years. Early governors were more involved with the College through Board meetings and direct participation in College affairs. For example, Wentworth played a pivotal role in establishing the College by offering land and helping founder Eleazar Wheelock obtain a charter from King George II, according to past reporting by The Dartmouth.
Wentworth later pushed the New Hampshire Assembly — the colony’s elected legislature — and the colony’s prominent men to provide financial support for the College, though without success.
In 1815, former Gov. John Gilman — who was simultaneously an elected member and an ex officio member of the Board — dissented in a Board vote that removed former College President John Wheelock from office, according to Dartmouth Alumni Magazine archives. John Wheelock was removed for having published accusations that the Board wanted to gain more power than the state government in 1815.
The next year, Gilman’s successor, Gov. William Plumer, echoed John Wheelock’s accusations in an address to the state legislature and claimed that the state government had the right to remedy the College, according to Dartmouth Alumni Magazine archives. The legislature amended the College’s charter to place the College under the state’s control, rename the College to “Dartmouth University” and give the governor the power to appoint trustees and officers, according to Constituting America.
Plumer subsequently assembled and chaired a University Board of Trustees, which was not recognized by the old trustees of the College, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine reported. The two Boards operated simultaneously for a period of time, and in 1817, the University Board reinstated John Wheelock as College President.
The Supreme Court overruled the legislature’s amended charter in the 1819 case Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward, thus restoring the name “Dartmouth College.”
A “Ceremonial” Position
Today, the governor’s position on the Board of Trustees is a largely ceremonial one.
Recent governors have spoken at the inaugurations of College Presidents. Sununu spoke during College President Sian Leah Beilock’s inauguration last September, while Sen. Maggie Hassan, who served as governor from 2013 to 2017, spoke at former College President Phil Hanlon’s inauguration in 2013. Then Democratic Gov. John Lynch also spoke at former President Jim Yong Kim’s inauguration in 2009.
Alumni and former trustees recall that recent governors have not participated in Board affairs, including Board meetings. Former Student Body President David Millman ’23, who met with the Board twice a year as an “undergraduate student liaison,” wrote in an email statement to The Dartmouth that he never interacted with Sununu during those meetings.
“I never really had any interaction with the [New Hampshire] governor through my work with the Board, formal or informal,” Millman wrote. “It was my understanding his role is ceremonial.”
Sununu’s office redirected questions about the governor’s trustee role to the Board. The Board declined to comment for this article.
Board chair emeritus William Neukom ’64, who served from 1996 to 2007, said he does not remember any governors attending Board meetings or having “direct involvement” with the College during his tenure. Neukom was on the Board at the same time as four former governors: Craig Benson, Lynch, Steve Merrill and Jeanne Shaheen.
However, Neukom said he believes it was important for former College Presidents James Freedman and James Wright to “have access” to the governors in the event that “matters of common interest” would arise.
“I think that’s one of the potential benefits of having the governor on the Board,” Neukom said.
A former trustee — who requested anonymity to speak candidly — also wrote that she does not remember the governors attending Board meetings.
However, the anonymous trustee added that she believes it is a “mistake” to measure the governors’ “significance” by their meeting attendance.
“We simply don’t know what errors or pitfalls might have happened had the governors not been ‘waiting in the wings,’ so to speak,” she wrote.
While recent governors no longer participate in Board affairs, Neukom emphasized the importance of the governor’s participation in ceremonial events, such as Commencement. Neukom added that the College’s reputation as a “prestigious university” and its status as a “large employer” in New Hampshire bring “attention and credit” to the state.
“Just pause and think about why the leader of the state government should care about how well-managed Dartmouth College is,” Neukom said.
